BY LESLIE CHANG, TRUSTEE, SCARSDALE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

How much do you know about your great-grandmother? What if you found out she was a courageous suffragist, as evidenced by countless newspaper articles and priceless notes she left behind in Scarsdale, N.Y.? This is what happened to several families across the country when they heard from me during research for our documentary Women Rising: The Scarsdale Suffragists.

This is the second part of a blog series sharing the stories behind my investigations of the suffragists. 

Finding Josephine Valentine Winslow (1871-1926)

As with all of our Scarsdale suffragists, we found countless news clippings about Josephine Winslow and her tireless volunteer work - but otherwise we could only imagine what she looked like. I kicked off a deep dive, and the research process was a historian’s dream. Once I figured out the names of her living relatives, one of them happened to be a professor with a published email address. Within 3 hours of emailing Robert W. Newsom at University of California, Irvine, I received an album of jaw-dropping photos.

Josephine, aka Mrs. Willard Winslow (and also nicknamed “Doodles” according to Robert) was the son of a New York City merchant and woolen manufacturer.  She moved to Scarsdale in 1903 with Willard, a lumber importer and wholesaler. In 1905, they had their daughter Julia Valentine Winslow (Newsom). Robert and his brother Jon are her sons. 

In comparison to her dear friend Florence who thrived in the spotlight, Josephine was the business backbone of many of Scarsdale’s early enterprises. For example, most of the actual handwritten notes in the Scarsdale Equal Suffrage Club minutes book are in Josephine’s meticulous script (see below). Some was also a charter member of the Scarsdale Woman’s Club, one of first female commissioners of the Westchester County Park Commission, the purchasing agent of supplies for Westchester County Government during WWI, office manager of the Scarsdale Community Farm during WWI, a trustee of the Scarsdale School District (1919-1922) and the Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Girl Scouts of Westchester County.

The Photo Collection

After reading about her tireless civic work in early Scarsdale, it was a thrill to see Josphine’s face for the first time. The younger photos pre-date her time in Scarsdale, but they are a stunning visual record of her life.

The House: 16 School Lane

It’s always fun to receive an old picture of a Scarsdale house and figure out if it still stands. Robert had shared this photo of a house (above), and he wasn’t sure where it had been located. Their address in the Scarsdale Inquirer was always listed as “16 School Lane,” but that doesn’t exist now. Thus, I had to do a little extra investigating. 

If you look at the map, in the spot where 16 School Lane would be, there’s a tiny little street called “Winslow Place.” It isn’t a coincidence, as confirmed by the 1952 article on the street names of Scarsdale (below). 

“Winslow Place The Planning Commission named this tiny street, originally considered part of School Lane, in 1932 for the neighboring owner, Willard Winslow, whose wife Josephine V. served on the school board from 1919 to 1922.”

There’s several houses on Winslow Place, so I wasn’t sure which house it would be. I checked the 1911 map, which makes it very clear which house it was (it was almost the only one!). That house is today’s 3 Winslow Place, and it still looks almost the same minus some updates.

The Winslows were near the Lockwood Collegiate School, which is the home of today’s Hoff-Barthelson Music School (thus, the name of School Lane). The school property of 9 acres was purchased in 1906. I compared dates in the newspaper, and the Winslows built their house in 1904, 2 years before the Lockwood School campus. Thus, when they purchased their house, “School Lane” wouldn’t have been named yet.

Today, there are three total houses on Winslow Place (two across from the Winslows). The map shows that Winslow Place was originally the Winslow household’s driveway! If you’ve ever driven down tiny Winslow Place with its one lane, this makes perfect sense.

There was one other photo in the album that shows what this once looked like (see below). The house faced sideways (on School Lane), and to the house’s left was all fields (before it became the Crane-Berkeley neighborhood).

Crabapple Trees

Sadly, Josephine passed away suddenly of pneumonia at 55. Florence Bethell was quoted in the newspaper as saying, “Much of all the glory that is ours in Scarsdale is due to her quiet, modest, self-effacing work.” Thirty-one crabapple trees at the Scarsdale Woman’s Club were planted in memory of her untimely death. We hear that some are still thriving on the club grounds by Drake Road, and will watch for them to blossom this spring.

Our new documentary “Women Rising: The Scarsdale Suffragists” can be viewed here. For other details and resources related to the Scarsdale’s suffrage leaders, click here.