Alison Turnbull Hopkins

Alison Turnbull Hopkins (May 20, 1880 – March 18, 1951) was an American suffrage activist, known as one of the Silent Sentinels for her protests at the White House. Personal life Alison Low Turnbull was born in 1880 in Morristown, New Jersey, to Lt Commander Frank Turnbull, a retired naval officer, and his wife, the former Marion Louise Bates, descendant of William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony in the 17th century. The couple had three children, Alison the oldest. She was raised on the family estate, "Feather Leigh Farms", where she was educated by private tutors. She left Morristown following her marriage to John Appleton Haven Hopkins a New York insurance executive, in 1901, returning in 1908, with her husband and three children, to make the estate their family home. The couple had three children, all born in New York City—John Milton (born 1903), Marion Louise (born 1904), and Douglas (born 1908). During her marriage she was active in a number of civic and charitable organizations. She served as president of the Summer Shelter of Morristown, an organization that brought poor children out of the heat of New York City to Morristown, for a few weeks at a time, during the summer months. She was a member of the executive committee of the Morris County branch of the State Charities Aid Society and on the board of managers of the Speedwell Society, which placed convalescent children in foster homes for care and recuperation. Locally, she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Women's Town Improvement Committee, chair of the Ladies House Committee of the Morristown Field Club, a member of the Whipping River and Morristown Garden Clubs, and a member of the Morris County Corn Growing and Industrial Contests, which established educational initiatives in schools to promote industrial work in schools, as a way to help encourage children to stay in school. These initiatives developed school gardens and corn growing contests, later expanding to flower and vegetable gardens. Activism Alison Turnbull Hopkins was a member of Heterodoxy, a women's debating club based in New York City. In 1914, she became active in the suffrage movement, stating that, due to her civic and charitable work, she had realized that women would need political power in order to achieve reform. She was elected to the executive committee of the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage and later became the New Jersey state chair for the National Woman's Party.