Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck (December 20, 1827 – August 24, 1910) was an American

hydrotherapist Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and Physical therapy, physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and tr ...

, an advocate for women's

dress reform Victorian dress reform was an objective of the Victorian dress reform movement (also known as the rational dress movement) of the middle and late Victorian era, led by various reformers who proposed, designed, and wore clothing considered more ...

, and the founder and editor of ''The Sibyl'', a periodical devoted to that attire reform topic. Elected to the Middletown, New York, Board of Education in 1880, she was one of the first women to hold elected office in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life and education

Born Lydia Sayer near the hamlet of

Bellvale, New York Bellvale is a wooded hamlet in the town of Warwick in Orange County, New York, United States. Situated in the morning shadow of Bellvale Mountain along New York State Route 17A, Bellvale was the site of an iron forge destroyed by British Army soldi ...

, she was the daughter of Rebecca (Forshee) Sayer and Benjamin Sayer, a farmer and distiller. In 1849, she adopted the then-radical style of clothing known as the bloomer or reform dress — an adaptation of Turkish pantaloons with a knee-length overskirt. When she applied to the Seward Seminary in Florida, she was told that she could not be admitted unless she stopped wearing the reform dress. She refused and had to finish her education elsewhere. She later recounted that this experience "anchored me in the ranks of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

advocates", and she resolved to fight for women's "physical, political, and educational freedom and equality". She wore the reform dress throughout her life, including at her wedding. She continued her education at Elmira Academy and then studied

hydropathy Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...

at the Hygeio-Therapeutic College in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from which she was graduated.Ruttenber, Edward Manning; Clark, L. H. (1881)
''History of Orange County, New York''
Philadelphia: Everts & Peck. p. 197 Because of their interest in alternative paths to health, hydropaths were among the most active champions of dress reform in the United States. Lydia then moved to Washington, D.C. where she practiced hydropathy and became a newspaper correspondent, writing for the ''

Washington Star ''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the Washington ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday Star ...

'' among other periodicals.

''The Sibyl''

In 1856, John Whitbeck Hasbrouck (1826–1906), founder and editor of the reformist ''Middletown Whig Press'' in New York's Hudson Valley, invited her to take part in a lecture tour about

. They married a few months later and settled in Middletown, where they built an unusual octagonal house inspired by the ideas of phrenologist

Orson Squire Fowler Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was an American phrenologist and lecturer. He also popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century. Early life The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he w ...

. Lydia and John had three children, Daisy (who died as a child), Sayer, and Burt. That same year, Hasbrouck founded her own periodical, ''The

Sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditi ...

'', with John as its publisher. Subtitled "A Review of the Tastes, Errors and Fashions of Society", ''The Sibyl'' advocated for women's dress reform because Hasbrouck believed that women would not be able to compete on equal terms with men so long as they were hampered by the cumbersome and impractical clothing of the day. It served as the organ of the

National Dress Reform Association National Dress Reform Association (NDRA) was an American association in support of the Victorian dress reform, founded in 1856 and dissolved in 1865. It was founded in February 1856 by the hydropathist James Caleb Jackson. Many of its members were ...

, of which Hasbrouck was a member and later, (1863–65), was the president. Its contributors included suffragist

Lucy Stone Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was an American orator, abolitionist and suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a colle ...

. Among other things, it published the names of almost a thousand women nationwide who had adopted the reform dress. ''The

'' also advocated more generally for women's rights,

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...

, and the immediate

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

. Hasbrouck also argued in ''The

'' that women should not pay taxes so long as they were treated as inferior citizens, and she refused to pay taxes for a number of years. In 1863, she was made to work on a highway repair project in lieu of paying a road tax. ''The Sibyl'' began as a biweekly and became a monthly in 1861. However, as the reform dress attracted criticism and mockery from those threatened by the prospect of women in 'men's' clothes, leaders of the women's rights movement distanced themselves from the dress reform movement. This shift, together with the advent of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, lost the paper its support, and it closed in 1864.

Other activities

After ''The Sibyl'' went defunct, Hasbrouck worked as an editor for John's paper until it closed in 1868. Both Lydia and John then worked for a time on a reform-oriented periodical called the ''Liberal Sentinel''. In 1880, after New York passed a law allowing women to hold school-related offices, Hasbrouck was elected to the Middletown Board of Education. She is thought to be the first American woman to hold an elected office of any kind. By the mid-1880s, she had moved into real estate and was partly responsible for developing a block of downtown Middletown. She died of

paresis In medicine, paresis () is a condition typified by a weakness of voluntary movement, or by partial loss of voluntary movement or by impaired movement. When used without qualifiers, it usually refers to the limbs, but it can also be used to desc ...

at the age of 83.

Legacy

Hasbrouck Street in Middletown was named after Lydia and John in the 1860s because it ran through their property. Their octagonal house, the only one ever built in Middletown, was demolished in 1919 in order to build Memorial School.

References

External links

Issues of ''The Sibyl''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasbrouck, Lydia Sayer 1827 births 1910 deaths 19th-century American newspaper founders 19th-century American women writers Activists from New York (state) American suffragists American women journalists Hydrotherapists Journalists from New York (state) People from Warwick, New York 19th-century American businesswomen 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American women politicians 19th-century American politicians