Biographical Sketch of Florence Brown (Mrs. T.T.) Cotnam

Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Florence Brown (Mrs. T.T.) Cotnam, 1865-1932

By Leah Buhagiar. undergraduate student, Wayne State University

Mrs. T.T. Cotnam was born as Florence Lee Brown on April 16, 1865. She married Thomas Taylor Cotnam in 1885, and the couple had three children. The family relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas from Texas in the 1890s, where Cotnam quickly became involved in public life. She was involved in suffrage activism by 1914, when she served as treasurer of the Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association. Known as a talented orator, Cotnam often traveled to speak on behalf of suffrage.

While Cotnam's suffrage work was most prominent in Arkansas, there is a mention of a Mrs. T.T. Cotnam on page 311 of the Michigan chapter of History of Woman Suffrage, Volume 6: “Following the plan made by the National Association, suffrage schools were held in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Detroit in March, 1917, with Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, Mrs. T. T. Cotnam and Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler as instructors.” This is the only mention of Cotnam in the Michigan chapter. As Cotnam was known to travel as part of her suffrage activism, it seems as though this mention in the Michigan chapter refers to the Mrs. T.T. Cotnam of Arkansas. Photographs and further information about the life and work of Florence Lee Brown Cotnam of Arkansas can be found at the following links:

https://ualrexhibits.org/suffrage/florence-lee-brown-cotnam-1865-1932/

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=536

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