Cyrus Heizer, 1849-1914

Rev. Cyrus W. Heizer was Minister of the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca from 1901 until his death in 1914. The Unitarian Society was the site of many suffrage meetings, including the 1894 New York State Woman Suffrage Association conference, and significant community meetings thereafter. In 1912, Rev. Heizer preached a series entitled “Let Woman Live Out her Own Life,” voicing impassioned support for women’s equality. “I do not see why we should talk of manhood suffrage or womanhood suffrage. It is human suffrage,” he said. “...Woman’s cause is man’s; they rise and sink together.” Let her make herself her own, he wrote “to give or keep, to live and learn.” His sermon was published in 1913 as a pamphlet for the Equal Suffrage Club.

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IMAGE NYSWSA Convention in Tompkins County, 1914, Ithaca Journal Archives

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