Biographical Sketch of Harriet "Hattie" Dugan Peters

Biographical Database of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913-1920

Biography of Harriet "Hattie" Dugan Peters, 1884-1978

By Chelsea Gibson, Visiting Assistant Professor, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY

National Woman Party Lobbyist, 1916 Campaign

Harriet Dugan White was born on March 26, 1884 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her first marriage to James Girvin Peters (1876-1929), a U.S. Forestry Service employee, kept her in Washington, D.C., which likely helped contribute to her political interests. The couple had three sons.

Very little is known about her entrance into suffrage organizing nor what she did to support it. An obituary noted that Peters supported the suffrage movement but wasn't "formally associated with any organizations." Peters contributed at least twice to the National Woman's Party in 1916. First, she paid $5 to the $150,000 Fund for Securing the Passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment sometime that year. Second, she participated in the NWP's drive on the 65th Congress. Women gathered in Washington in March 1917 to interview the 89 new members about their stance on the federal suffrage amendment. Peters and Mary Gertrude Fendall both represented Maryland in the effort. That October, Peters also presented to the semi-annual convention of the Just Government League of Maryland on the results of suffrage organizing.

James Peters passed away in 1928 and Harriet married Colonel Joseph Hyde Pratt. Mr. Pratt died in 1942. Harriet Pratt died in a Baltimore nursing home in 1978 and services were held at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Garrison, Maryland.

Sources

"Mrs. Harriet Pratt, 93, Services Set Tomorrow." The Evening Sun (Baltimore). 7 March 1978, 19.

"Women's Clubs--Suffragists to Convene." The Evening Sun (Baltimore). 16 Oct. 1916, 4.

"The First Drive on the Sixty-fifth Congress." The Suffragist, 7 April 1917, 8.

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