Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Ailsie Kyle Riley (Mrs. Joseph T.) Alderson, 1883-1969
By Dora C.W. Owens, graduate student, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
Ailsie Kyle Riley was born in Rogersville, Tennessee on May 18, 1883, the oldest of five children. Her parents were Absalom Kyle Riley, an employee of a livery stable, and Mary Elizabeth Hale. She had two brothers Robert and Riley Philip, and one sister, Somerville. In 1909, she married Joseph Thompson Alderson (1890-1933), a Kentucky businessman, at the Rogersville Presbyterian Church in Rogersville, Tennessee. Ailsie and Joseph had no children.
Rogersville Presbyterian, founded in 1805, has a long history of progressive activities and strong northern sentiment among its congregants before, during, and following the Civil War. The women of the church were active participants in a number of missionary and aid societies. The church encouraged the education of women as evidenced by their control of the female institute known as Rogers Synodical College. They also saw the value of education for newly emancipated black citizens supporting the founding and maintenance of Marysville College, now known as Swift Memorial College. With such a background, it is little wonder Ailsie became active in the causes of education and suffrage.
After the Aldersons settled in Middlesboro, Kentucky, they operated multiple businesses, including a dry goods store and a boarding house. As a businessman's wife, Ailsie served an active role in Middlesboro women's groups which were at the forefront of many progressive policy campaigns, including woman's suffrage. In 1915, she campaigned for a change in the local school board to improve conditions for all schoolchildren, including black children. As a leader of the Bell County Suffrage League, Mrs. Alderson led door-to-door canvassing, produced leaflets containing candidate information, and provided speakers to local clubs. She served as president of the Bell County League as early as 1913, later serving as second vice president (1915), first vice president (1916) and treasurer (1916).
Concurrently, she worked with the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA). During her time with KERA beginning in 1913, Ailsie was increasingly active, serving on the College Prizes Committee (1915, 1916), the Resolutions Committee (1915), and the Courtesies Committee (1917). She served as state representative for the 11th Congressional district from 1915-1917 during which time she helped establish the Harlan County League for Woman Suffrage. From 1917-1920, Ailsie served KERA as auditor. She was selected as an alternate delegate to the national convention in 1917 and became a full delegate in 1919. A highlight of her time with the KERA, as reported in the January 6, 1917 edition of The Woman's Journal, was her work as a "congressional aide," supporting women of the Front Door Lobby (under the direction of the National American Woman Suffrage Association) who personally lobbied members of Congress in Washington.
Mrs. Alderson did not always agree with KERA leadership. Prominent Kentucky suffragist Laura Clay broke with KERA over support of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment (later the 19th Amendment). Mrs. Clay believed that pursuing a national amendment would alienate southern states who feared granting African American women the vote. Clay elected to pursue a state-by-state approach. Mrs. Alderson continued to pursue the national amendment and regretted Mrs. Clay's retreat from that goal; she wrote to Laura, "You've always seemed the biggest part of the Kentucky ERA to me...Couldn't you reconsider?"
After the 19th amendment passed in 1920, Ailsie retreated from her activism. She enjoyed music and worked as a piano teacher for many years, especially after the death of her husband in 1939. During World War II, Ailsie Riley Alderson spent time with family, visiting her Tennessee relatives and entertaining them in her Middlesboro home. She was most active in the music society, hosting musical events and promoting promising musicians. She died on August 3, 1969 at the age of 86. She is buried in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Rogersville, Tennessee.
Sources
Baldwin-Apperson's & Daily News' Middlesboro Kentucky City Directory 1934-1935, compiled and published by Baldwin-Apperson Directory Company and The Middlesboro Daily News, 2126 Cumberland Avenue, Copyright 1934 by Robert Morton Baldwin. Retrieved from Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2469&h=779602980&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qef5&_phstart=successSource. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Baldwin Brothers' Middlesboro Kentucky City Directory 1926 Volume 1, compiled and published by Baldwin Brothers Directory Co. and the Middlesboro Daily News, Middlesboro, KY; copyright 1926. Retrieved from Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2469&h=843511552&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=oqZ2&_phstart=successSource. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Church History. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2019, from Rogersville Presbyterian Church: http://www.rogersvillepresbyterian.com/history.html
Commonwealth of Kentucky, Health Data Branch, Division of Epidemiology and Health Planning. Kentucky Death Index, 1911-present. Frankfort, KY, USA: Kentucky Department of Information Systems. Retrieved from Ancestry.com. Kentucky, Death Index, 1911-2000: https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3077&h=25273&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=TDm1&_phstart=successSource. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. .
"Dr. Baldwin in Organ Recital Here," Middlesboro, KY Daily News, December 13, 1943, 8.
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 30 December 2019), memorial page for Ailsie Alderson (18 May 1883-3 Aug 1969), Find A Grave Memorial no. 101379910, citing Old Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tennessee, USA ; Maintained by Lisa (contributor 47368714). Added: 27 Nov 2012.
Fuller, Paul E. "Suffrage Vanquished: Laura Clay and the Nineteenth Amendment." The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 93:1 (winter 1995), 17. Retrieved November 12, 2019, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/23383161
The History of Woman Suffrage, Vol IV, 1883-1900, ed. Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press, 1902). [LINK]
Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Report of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Held at Louisville, Kentucky, November 20, 21 and 22, 1913 (Louisville: Westerfield-Bonte Co., [1914]), University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center (UKSCRC, https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7d251fn229?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Kentucky+Equal+Rights+Association+minutes+and+reports&offset=20&per_page=20#page/1/mode/1up, accessed October 28, 2019.
Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Report of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Held at Owensboro, Kentucky, November 6, 7 and 8, 1914 (Louisville: C. T. Dearing Co., [1915]), UKSCRC, https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt78cz325071?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Kentucky+Equal+Rights+Association+minutes+and+reports&offset=20&per_page=20#page/1/mode/1up, accessed October 28, 2019.
Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Minutes of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Held at Lexington, Kentucky, November 8, 9 and 10, 1915, (n. p.), UKSCRC, https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt74mw28cr50?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Kentucky+Equal+Rights+Association+minutes+and+reports&offset=20&per_page=20#page/1/mode/1up,, accessed October 28, 2019.
Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Report of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Convention of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Held at Louisville, Kentucky, November 15 and 16, 1916 (n. p.), UKSCRC, https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt70vt1gmg8v?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Kentucky+Equal+Rights+Association+minutes+and+reports&offset=20&per_page=20#page/1/mode/1up, accessed October 28, 2019.
Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Report of the Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Ninth Annual Conventions of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Held at Lexington, Kentucky, November 30 and December 1, 1917, and Louisville, Kentucky, March 11th and 12th, 1919(n. p.), UKSCRC, https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7w3r0pvw3d?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Kentucky+Equal+Rights+Association+minutes+and+reports&per_page=20#page/1/mode/1up, accessed October 28, 2019.
Rogersville Historical Association, The Incredible Story of an Early African-American College, https://www.rogersvilleheritage.org/historic-rogersville/swift-museum, accessed November 18, 2019.
Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File. Retrieved from Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3693&h=560551&ssrc=pt&tid=165210420&pid=102153241577&usePUB=true. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014.
"Suffrage Before Both Branches: House Committee Reports Anthony Bill Without Recommendation - National Association Has Four Sections Working at Washington," (1917, January 6). The Woman's Journal (January 6, 1917), 2, https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:53700399$6i, accessed November 1, 2019.
Tennessee Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Retrieved October 17, 2019 from Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909: https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2282&h=258577&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=yGt1&_phstart=successSource. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm. Retrieved October 12, 2019 from Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Marriage Records, 1780-2002: https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1169&h=5946323&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ZFY2&_phstart=successSource. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
The Middlesboro Kentucky City Directory 1912-1913 Volume 1, H.C. Chappell, Sales Agent, Middlesboro, KY; Piedmont Directory Company, Incorporated, Publisher, Asheville, NC; copyright 1913. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=2469&h=871754116&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qef5&_phstart=successSource. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls. Year: 1900; Census Place: Rogersville, Hawkins, Tennessee; Page: 12; Enumeration District: 0094; FHL microfilm: 1241577. Retrieved October 14, 2019 from Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=7602&h=60537677&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qef3&_phstart=successSource. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1920. T625, 2076 rolls. Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Year: 1920; Census Place: Middlesborough, Bell, Kentucky; Roll: T625_559; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 25. Retrieved October 14, 2019 from Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=6061&h=67849257&ssrc=pt&tid=2097593&pid=412037196048&usePUB=true . Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls. Year: 1930; Census Place: Middlesborough, Bell, Kentucky; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0015; FHL microfilm: 2340468. Retrieved October 14, 2019 from Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=6224&h=82730462&ssrc=pt&tid=2097593&pid=412037196048&usePUB=true. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.