Jane Bolin
Born: April 11, 1908 (Poughkeepsie)
Died: January 8, 2007 (Long Island City)
Jane Bolin was a woman of many firsts. She was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association, and the first black woman to serve as a judge in the United States. But before she made history, Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie in 1908.
Her father, Gaius C. Bolin, was the first black president of the Dutchess County Bar Association. In 1939, Bolin was appointed as judge of the Domestic Relations court and remained the only black female judge in the country for 20 years. She was the driving force behind many court rulings that shaped the criminal justice system in the U.S., such as the assignment of probation officers to cases without regard for race or religion.
Bolin also worked with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to support the Wiltwyck school, a program to fight juvenile crime among boys. Poughkeepsie native Jane Bolin fought to defend the voiceless — allowing true change to occur in the United States.
Jane Colden
Born: March 27, 1724 (New York City)
Died: March 10, 1766 (New York City)
The first documented woman botanist in America grew up at Coldengham (modern-day Montgomery), a 3,000-acre estate granted to governor, physician, and amateur botanist Cadwallader Colden. He introduced his daughter Jane to the world of botany (and the Linnaeus system, which classifies plants based on arrangement of stamens) in the Hudson Valley. Women were not taught Latin at this time, so Colden translated Linnaeus’ Genera Plantarum into English for his daughter. At 10 years old, she began collecting plant specimens and took up Latin. From 1753 to 1758, she catalogued 341 plants found in the Hudson Highlands, specifically in Newburgh, including Marsh St. John’s Wort. Colden died during childbirth in 1766 at 41; her botanical discoveries did not enter public knowledge until 1895, when James Britten published Jane Colden and the Flora of New York. Her original manuscript of 284 original entries can be found in the Natural History Museum of London. The memorial garden at Knox’s Headquarters in Newburgh—which reopens in the spring—is named after her.
Over the course of five years, Jane Colden documented 341 regional plants by hand.
Ann Lee
Born: February 29, 1736 (Manchester, UK)
Died: September 8, 1784 (Colonie)
In 1776, Mother Ann Lee established the first United Society of Believers settlement—now known as the Shakers— outside of England in Watervliet. She and a band of followers fled to Albany County to avoid persecution in Great Britain, where Lee was jailed multiple times for breaking sabbath and blasphemy. Called Shakers for their ecstatic form of worship, the community practiced celibacy, followed egalitarian and utopian beliefs, and believed in gender and racial equality; Lee was one of the few female preachers at the time. She journeyed throughout New England and spoke out against the American Revolution (the Shakers didn’t take sides), which, no surprise, caused some contention. After Lee’s death, the Shakers built the 1848 Meeting House; it still stands in the Watervliet Shaker Historic District, near the Albany International Airport. There, you can take a self-guided tour of the museum, eight Shaker buildings, an herb garden, Lee’s grave at the Shaker Cemetery, and the Ann Lee Pond Nature Reserve.
Sybil Ludington
Born: April 5, 1761 (Ludingtonville)
Died: February 26, 1839 (Catskill)
Historians argue over the details of Sybil Ludington’s life, but it’s possible she might have been the Hudson Valley’s very own Paul Revere. On the evening of April 26, 1777, 16-year-old Ludington was tending to her siblings (she was the oldest of 12) when she learned that 2,000 British troops were burning down Danbury, Connecticut. Would her town Fredericksburg—now Ludingtonville, renamed to honor her family—face the same fate? Ludington’s father, Henry, was a colonel of the local militia, but his men were scattered throughout modern-day Putnam County. Ludington took up the reins to alert the Patriots: She rode Star, her trusty steed, throughout Carmel, Mahopac, Kent Cliffs, and Farmers Mill to spread the news. By the time she made it home, she’d traversed over 40 miles—almost three times the amount Revere did in Massachusetts. While the Continental Army’s depot in Danbury was destroyed, the militia was able to make the Red Coats retreat to their ships on the Long Island Sound. Ludington has been honored with a U.S. postage stamp, many museum exhibitions, and a grand statue at the shore of Lake Gleneida in Carmel. Her midnight ride is also traced via historical markers along Route 52. You can visit her grave at Patterson’s Maple Avenue Cemetery.
Catherine Murdock Perkins
Born: 1827 (Esopus)
Died: 1909 (Ponckhockie)
The Legend of Widow’s Watch describes an apparition of a young bride who searches Kingston’s Rondout Lighthouse for her husband, the lighthouse keeper, who died on their wedding night. Believe what you will, it’s probably not the ghost of Catherine Parsell Murdock Perkins, a heroic and steadfast lighthouse keeper in her own right. Her husband, George Murdock, was hired as the Rondout Lighthouse keeper in 1856—but he drowned within a year of his appointment. Despite a handful of applicants for her late husband’s position, the United States Lighthouse Service appointed her as head keeper on July 11, 1857. For over 50 years, she maintained the lighthouse, lived through the Civil War, cared for her three children, protected the building (and boaters) during severe storms, and witnessed the sinking and burning of multiple steamboats. In 1880, her son James was appointed assistant keeper, becoming the first head keeper of the new Rondout Lighthouse built in 1915. Murdock Perkins retired and moved ashore in 1907; at the time, her 51 years of work made her the oldest keeper in continuous service. She is buried at the Parsell family plot in the Port Ewen Cemetery.
Jean Murphy
Born: June 2, 1923 (Brooklyn)
Died: December 9, 2013 (Poughkeepsie)
At first, Jean Murphy was just another 1950s mother and housewife living in Poughkeepsie. Then she decided to do something for herself and joined The Hudson Valley Philharmonic, The League of Women Voters, and the Dutchess County Women’s Republican Club.
The latter club sparked her interest in politics, which led her to run in, and eventually win, the election for Republican Committeewoman. In 1967, she became the first woman elected to Dutchess County government and participated in Dutchess County Legislature for six terms. She spearheaded many projects, including a prison initiative reform and funding for daycare budgets to assist working mothers.
Murphy caused a stir in 1976 when she made the front page of the New York Times because of her switch to the Democratic Party. She continued public service for the rest of her days, acting as head of the Town of Poughkeepsie Historic Commission and Town Historian.
Margaret “Daisy” Suckley
Born: December 20, 1891 (Rhinebeck)
Died: June 29, 1991 (Rhinebeck)
Margaret “Daisy” Suckley was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s friend and confidante and went on to become one of his most trusted advisors throughout his presidency. Born in Rhinebeck in 1891, Suckley enjoyed the lifestyle of a wealthy Hudson River family.
She kept FDR company in Hyde Park, where he struggled to regain control of his legs. Suckley even gifted the president his beloved dog, Fala. She was invited to Roosevelt’s 1933 inauguration and stuck by the president’s side ever since. In 1941, Suckley became the archivist at the FDR library in Hyde Park, where she remained for 22 years. But she held her own archives secret, keeping her journals chronicling the time spent with FDR in a suitcase under her bed.
Her perspective on some of the most significant moments in history was revealed when those journals were discovered after she died in 1991 — six months before her 100th birthday.
Frances “Franny” Reese
Born: November 16, 1917 (New York City)
Died: July 2, 2003 (Hughsonville)
The world’s largest hydroelectric power plant was almost built on Storm King Mountain, but Frances “Franny” Reese stopped production in its tracks when she and the Scenic Hudson Preservation Committee challenged Consolidated Edison in court.
The legal battle was the first of its kind; citizens were allowed to intervene even though the environmental effects would not directly damage their properties. It was also the first court case in which citizens took part in a site-licensing decision, and the first of many preservation successes from Scenic Hudson.
Reese served as chairwoman from 1966 to 1984 and, under her leadership, Scenic Hudson stopped a massive coal plant from settling in Hudson. Without Frances Reese, who knows what the Hudson Valley would like today.
Margaret Sanger
Born: September 14, 1879 (Corning)
Died: September 6, 1966 (Tuscon, Arizona)
Margaret Sanger was a liberal feminist before it was cool. Known as the founder of Planned Parenthood, she advocated for women’s reproductive rights in New York for most of her life. Yet before becoming a birth control proponent, she served as a nurse in White Plains and studied at Claverack College and the Hudson River Institute. Eventually, she switched her nursing career for a writing one and began a column for New York Call entitled, “What Every Girl Should Know.” It was through writing that her passion for sex education and women’s health ignited and her uphill battle for birth control rights began.
From the start, it wasn’t easy. Sanger was indicted in 1914 for violating the Federal Comstock Law, which prohibited the distribution of any contraceptives. The nine charges against her — which were eventually dropped — didn’t slow Sanger down and, in October of 1916, she and her sister opened the first birth control clinic in the United States.
The clinic was short-lived; it was closed by police nine days later, and Sanger spent 30 days in jail. Her arrest brought the public’s attention to the birth control controversy, and Sanger found herself a new set of supporters. In 1921, she initiated the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Sanger served as president of the group for seven years and, in 1923, her dream came true.
The first legal birth control clinic opened its doors, finally allowing women access to contraceptives and reproductive medical practices.
Sojourner Truth
Born: 1797 (Rifton)
Died: November 26, 1883 (Battle Creek, Michigan)
One of the country’s most notable freedom fighters and early women’s rights activists was Ulster County-born Isabella Baumfree, who spent the first decade of her life working on Dutch native Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh’s estate in Swartekill (now Rifton) with her parents and 12 siblings. Baumfree, along with a herd of sheep, was sold to John Neely for $100 in 1806. There she learned English (after severe abuse from lack of communication) and was sold twice more, ultimately remaining with the New Paltz-based Dumont family until escaping in 1827 with one of her daughters. They found refuge at nearby Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen’s home until New York’s emancipation took effect. Baumfree tracked down her five-year-old son Peter to Alabama, where he was sold illegally; at the Kingston Courthouse, she sued the owner and won, becoming the first Black woman to go to court against a White man and win. You can visit 285 Wall Street and view a commemorative plaque honoring her triumph. In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and told friends and family “the Spirit calls me, and I must go.” Truth spread her Methodist, abolitionist, and feminist views throughout the country, and is famously known for her “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech from the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The HV has celebrated her life with the Sojourner Truth Trail at Shaupeneak Ridge in Esopus, statues in Port Ewen and at the Highland entrance of the Walkway Over the Hudson, plus SUNY New Paltz’s eponymous library.
In 1843, Isabella Baumfree believed that God wanted her to travel the nation and preach, and changed her name to Sojourner Truth.
Related: Cadwallader Colden Was an Important Figure in Hudson Valley History
