Lillian (Ford) Feickert (1877 - 1945)

Lillian Ford was born on July 20, 1877, in Brooklyn, New York.^[1] She was the daughter of Herbert Lord Ford and Emeline Margaretta Kirkland.^[1][2]

Marriage

On December 6, 1902, she married Edward Foster Feickert in Delaware, Pennsylvania.^[3][4] They had one child, who died in infancy. Following their wedding, they moved to Plainfield, New Jersey.^[5] They divorced in 1925.

Suffrage Movement

Feickert began expressing a passion for women's rights, along with an interest in the women's suffrage movement. She also took on a leadership role in her local congregation at Grace Episcopal Church of Plainfield. She taught mission study classes for the Episcopal Church at both the local and state levels. She also became a member of local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association.

In 1910, Feickert was appointed to serve as the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association enrollment chairman. She served in this capacity for two years and was elected President of the association in 1912. Feickert was chosen as the leader of the New Jersey suffrage movement and represented them in attempts to gain the right to vote. After failing to have a state suffrage amendment approved in 1915, she worked harder than ever before and was selected to lead several organizations in their attempt to have the federal suffrage amendment ratified. The state legislature officially ratified the amendment on February 10, 1920.

In 1920, the New Jersey State Republican Party recognized Feickert's achievements and named her vice-chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee. With this position, Feickert was assigned the job of organizing the Republican women in New Jersey. At the same time, she was also appointed treasurer of the New Jersey League of Women Voters, a position she left approximately a year later due to a difference of opinion regarding the direction the organization was headed. Lillian began focusing her attention on the New Jersey Women's Republican Club, of which she was President.

As a firm supporter of Prohibition and insistent women's rights activist, the Republican party cut off funding to the NJWRC and failed to re-elect Feickert as vice-chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee in 1925. ] The New Jersey Women's Republican Club slowly began to fall apart and was eventually replaced by the Women's State Republican Club of New Jersey in 1929. Feickert unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate in 1928 as a pro-Prohibition candidate. Upon her failed attempt at Senate and the defeat of Prohibition, she stepped away from politics.

Death

Lillian Ford Feickert died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Saint Vincent's Hospital in New York City on January 21, 1945.^[1] She was buried at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, Union County, New Jersey.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949, Lillian Feickert, 1945.
2. ↑ United States Census, 1880, Lilian Ford in household of H L Ford, Aiken, Aiken, South Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district ED 2, sheet 15C.
3. ↑ Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885-1950 [online database] FamilySearch. Edward Foster Fickert and Lillian Ford, 13 Dec 1902; citing Marriage, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States, multiple County Clerks, Pennsylvania.
4. ↑ United States Census, 1910, Lillian F Feickert in household of Edward T Feickert, North Plainfield, Somerset, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 121, sheet 8A, family 176.
5. ↑ United States Census, 1920 [online database] FamilySearch. Lilian Feickert in entry for Edward F Feickert, 1920; Somerset, New Jersey, United States.
6. ↑ Find A Grave, memorial page for Lillian Ford Feickert (20 Jul 1877–21 Jan 1945), Find a Grave Memorial ID 115110659, citing Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, Union County, New Jersey, USA.

See also:

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4YS-VD3 : 20 January 2020), Lillian Feickert, Green Brook Township, Somerset, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 18-28, sheet 3B, line 58, family 69, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940