Introduction
In April 1918, Florence and Richard Kitchelt moved to Connecticut. As this article indicates, Kitchelt did "organizing work in Tolland, Windham, and New London counties." She obviously made a good impression on her associates in the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA), as she was soon appointed Legislative Secretary of the CWSA, a position that required lobbying for woman suffrage in the state legislature in Hartford. It also enabled her to begin to build a network among Connecticut feminists that she would draw upon for more than three decades.
The Republican Party in Connecticut resisted woman suffrage until the bitter end, with the governor refusing to call a special session of the General Assembly to consider ratification of the nineteenth amendment. Only after Tennessee became the decisive 36th state approving the amendment, thus assuring its passage, did Connecticut politicians hustle to add their state to the list.[29]
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BEGINS WORK AS
LEGISLATIVE SECRETARY
Mrs. Florence Ledyard Kitchelt of Rochester. N. Y., who has been doing organizing work in Tolland, Windham and New London counties since she came to Connecticut last April, has recently been made Legislative Secretary for the Association.
Her new work will be in connection with Suffrage legislation at the state legislature in Hartford this winter. Her present office is located at State Suffrage Headquarters in Hartford from where she directs the general field work necessary to insure favorable sentiment in the legislature for whatever suffrage bill may come up.
The position of Legislative Secretary was created by the vote of the Convention to divide the work of the state organizer into two parts, executive and legislative branches. The executive secretaryship will be filled by Miss Mary Elizabeth Hutt of New York City who comes to the Association next winter. We shall be able to tell you more about Miss Hutt's work in the next Bulletin.
To the women of New London, Windham, or Tolland counties it is scarcely necessary to mention Mrs. Kitchelt's admirable qualifications for her present position. She is a graduate of Well's College and before her entrance into suffrage work, was a prominent social worker among the Italians in New York City and Rochester.
Mrs. Kitchelt's record in the "Woman's Who's Who in America"
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mentions her various poetical contributions to The World's Work, The Public, The Twentieth Century, and the Boston Common. Besides this literary work Mrs. Kitchelt wrote a "Promethean Song" which was published in the February 1918 Woman Citizen and--what do you think inspired the poem? Mrs. Kitchelt's experiences in securing 5,000 women's signatures in the New York State Suffrage campaign! If Mrs. Kitchelt cannot only secure 5,000 signatures but even write poetry about it, we think she is fitted for almost any suffrage position the Association can offer.