Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Flora B. Naylor, 1857 - 1927
By Beth Twomey, librarian, North Dakota State University
President of the State Women's Suffrage Association, member, W.C.T.U.
Flora B. Naylor (née Blackman) was born September 25, 1857 in Olmsted County, Minnesota to Zenas and Martha Blackman (who remarried after being widowed by the death of Zenas during the Civil War. Her second husband was George Ludington). Naylor was one of eight children including Lester, Ara, Clyde, Hattie, Sallie, Clifton, and Arthur. She married George M. Naylor in 1887 and they had two sons, Ralph and George, and a daughter, Mary, who only lived for one year.
Naylor was noted for believing that women should vote whether men wanted them to or not. She gave talks about suffrage at a number of Chautauqua assemblies in North Dakota around the turn of the century. She also gave an address at the W.C.T.U. state convention in 1900 titled "White Ribboners' Relation to Social Progress" – White Ribboners being how members of the W.C.T.U. referred to themselves and the white ribbon itself being a symbol of reform, including suffrage. She was considered a prominent member of the W.C.T.U. in North Dakota. She attended the Thirty-Second Annual Convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. where she declared North Dakota almost ready to extend suffrage to women. She was president of the State Women's Suffrage Association at least from 1899-1901.
Mrs. Naylor was also a member of the North Dakota Federation of Women's Clubs and served on the board as a director representing Larimore, N.D. She was also active in the Women's Missionary Society of Pembina Presbytery, the North Dakota Sunday School Association, and the North Dakota Education Association.
She died 1927 in Larimore, Grand Forks County, North Dakota
SOURCES:
Ancestry.com. U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Bismarck daily tribune. (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]), 13 Feb. 1900. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042242/1900-02-13/ed-1/seq-2/
Bismarck daily tribune. (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]), 28 Sept. 1900. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042242/1900-09-28/ed-1/seq-3/
Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]), 14 July 1900. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88076514/1900-07-14/ed-1/seq-1/
Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]), 21 Sept. 1900. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88076514/1900-09-21/ed-1/seq-2/
Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.), 02 Feb. 1916. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89074405/1916-02-02/ed-1/seq-3/
Grand Forks herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.), 15 May 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042414/1919-05-15/ed-1/seq-8/
Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. (1900). National American Woman Suffrage Association. Press of Alfred J. Ferris: Philadelphia.
Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Session of the North Dakota Education Association (1913). Journal Publishing Co.: Devil's lake, N.D.
The evening times. (Grand Forks, N.D.), 10 July 1906. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042373/1906-07-10/ed-1/seq-6/
Year: 1900; Census Place: Larimore, Grand Forks, North Dakota; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 0072; FHL microfilm: 1241228
Year: 1870; Census Place: Jordan, Fillmore, Minnesota; Roll: T132_4; Page: 344; Family History Library Film: 830424