Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Frances Bogert Eaton, 1868-1961
By Jessica Edwards, Graduate Student at Rutgers University
Educator, Recording Secretary of New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association
Frances G. Bogert was born on October 1, 1868 to Albert Zabriskie Bogert and Catherine Van Reypen in Bogota, New Jersey. She was the eldest of seven children and lived in New Jersey, New York, and Florida. Her father was a farmer and her mother worked at home, in the church and was active in the community. Both sides of her family were quite significant in New Jersey state history as the Zabriskies and Bogerts were among the first Dutch settlers in both Hudson and Bergen counties in the 1660s. Her distant relative was Lieutenant Daniel Van Reypen of the Hudson County New Jersey Militia who fought in the American Revolution. Her grandfather, Cornelius C. Van Reypen was vice president of the Hudson County Democratic Society and treasurer of the Dutch Reformed Church.
After completing high school, Frances attended Wellesley College where she was heavily engaged in student organizations. She was a member of the Wellesley Chapter of the College Settlement Association and was Senior Class Treasurer of the Special Organizations Club. In 1893, she graduated and then completed her vocational training to become a school teacher working in New York. She became a part-time lecturer at Harvard University within their Education Department and later studied at New York University's School of Pedagogy. She worked primarily as a school teacher but had various roles in education for over 30 years.
While living in the New York City area, Frances participated in the “Brooklyn Chautauqua of 1904” which covered topics on women in higher education, political equality, and suffrage. She was both an attendee and acted as the recording secretary. It was there when Frances joined the Suffrage Movement. Throughout her life, Frances was surrounded by politically conscious women who engaged in their communities through the church and patriotic work. Her mother and her aunt, Anna D. Van Reypen Green, were independent, strong, educated women. Frances used education to not only empower herself, but also to help other girls and women she interacted with in seminars, volunteer work, and in the classroom. She firmly believed that in both education and work, women should have political rights like those of men. She married United States Navy Commander Charles Phillips Eaton in 1908 and moved back to New Jersey where she began volunteering with the New Jersey State Woman Suffrage Association.
As a volunteer with the New Jersey State Woman Suffrage Association, she assisted in lobbying, attended lectures, and gained support from others within her community. In 1912, she was elected recording secretary of the organization during its annual convention in Trenton, New Jersey. In that role, Frances kept account of files and records of the progress suffrage chapters made, recorded notes during meetings, and corresponded with members between branches. In 1915, after her hard work in education, suffrage, and in her community, Frances became the Bergen Chapter Regent of the Daughters of the America which her aunt, Anna founded in 1906. As the Bergen Regent, she often traveled to volunteer and speak on topics in education at schools, girl's homes, and nurseries. After 1917 and for the remainder of her life, Frances continued to engage in work dedicated to encouraging education for girls. After the death of her husband in 1922, Frances moved to St. Petersburg, Florida with her aunt where she lived until her death in December 1961. She is buried at Royal Palm South Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Sources:
US Federal Census 1885-1970 Ancestry.com
Wellesley College Digital Archives, 1891-1894
a href="https://repository.wellesley.edu/legenda/">https://repository.wellesley.edu/legenda/
New York Department of Education, New York Board of Education Superintendant's Report, 1908, (New York, 1909).
https://books.google.com/books?id=mCNRAAAAYAAJ
The Brooklyn Citizens Almanac, (New York, 1894), p. 41.
https://books.google.com/books?id=clU9AAAAYAAJ
The Harvard University Catalogue, 1903-1904, (Boston: Harvard University, 1903), p. 206.
https://books.google.com/books?id=E6tIAQAAMAAJ
New York University Bulletin, Catalogue 1904-1906 (New York: New York University Press, 1908).
https://books.google.com/books?id=9ZnOAAAAMAAJ
Ward, Grace Louise Cadmus, Jane E. Peer, State History of New Jersey: Daughters of the American Revolution, (Atlantic Printing and Publishing Co., 1929), p.75-79, accessed at Rutgers University – New Brunswick, Special Collections and University Archives
Coltrane, Jenn Winslow, Mary Ellis Augsbury, Index of the Rolls of Honor (Ancestor's Index) in the Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution: Volume LV: 54001-55000, (Daughters of the American Revolution ,1920), p. 362.
https://books.google.com/books?id=7NJKAAAAYAAJ
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper, History of Women's Suffrage: 1900-1920 , (Fowler & Wells,1922), p. 420
https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu06stanuoftpage/n5/mode/2up
Reiser, Andrew Chamberlin, Canopy of Culture: Chautauqua and the Renegotiation of Middle-Class Authority, 1874-1919, (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1999).
https://books.google.com/books?id=V0vSAAAAMAAJ
Special Thanks
John Maxymuk, Reference Librarian
Paul Robeson Library
Rutgers University – Camden
Silvana Notarmaso, Special Collections/University Archives Staff
Special Collections and University Archives
Rutgers University – New Brunswick