Still Pond and Maryland's First Women Voters

Article 3 from the Still Pond town charter, which delcares universal suffrage in municpal elections.

The small town of Still Pond in Kent County is credited with being home of Maryland’s first women voters. The town charter of 1908 allowed for women to vote in municipal elections. Fourteen women registered to vote, but only three voted in the first election; Mary Jane Howard, Anna Baker Maxwell, and Eliza “Lillie” Deringer Kelley. As they waited to cast their ballots, the women were repeatedly approached by men who believed they lacked the understanding required to vote, but the women refused to allow any man to write a ticket on their behalf. According to the Kent News, “they refused to be influenced.”