Profile: Hester Poole (1833–1932)
Hester Martha Poole was a poet, artist, world-traveler and feminist. Born in Vermont,
she lived in New York City and moved to Metuchen in 1865 with her husband, attorney
Cyrus O. Poole. Metuchen was an early railroad suburb, where many of the inhabitants
worked in New York City. Poole became active in the women’s club movement: she
was a member of Sorosis, the New York Woman’s Press Club, and was one of the
founders of the Association for the Advancement of Women in New York in 1873.
Poole worked as a journalist, publishing on temperance, women’s employment, and
home economics, writing a newspaper column entitled “Woman and the Household.”
In 1891, she published Fruits and How to Use Them, which focused on alcohol-free
cooking. Poole was a committed suffragist who worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony in the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1880, NWSA
made an effort to influence the political party conventions of that year. At the NWSA
annual meeting, they urged women to send a show of support. Poole wrote “50,000
women who cannot attend, send you greetings and Godspeed in your work.” As a
leader in NWSA, Poole became a founder of the National Council of Women in 1888.
In 1895, Poole founded the Quiet Hour Club “to bring together the women
in Metuchen, N.J. for mental culture, social intercourse, and a sympathetic
understanding of whatever women are doing along the best line of progress.”
Although the club was non-partisan, women’s suffrage was discussed at several
meetings. Upon the re-founding of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association
in 1890, Poole put together reports for the group on suffrage around the world,
and served on its Membership Committee. In 1925, Poole was one of ten women
honored by the Susan B. Anthony Foundation for all her efforts.
Hester Poole, Bachrach Studios, 1925
Courtesy of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society
Hester Poole house, 1932
Courtesy of the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society
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