The Justice Bell’s Visit to Lackawanna County: 1915 and Today

The Justice Bell in 1915

On September 4, the bell party entered Lackawanna County, a hub of iron production and the anthracite coal industry, for a weeklong visit. Kate Chapman (Mrs. Maxwell Chapman), chair of the Lackawanna County division of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association (PWSA), had meticulously planned an itinerary that brought the bell to towns across the county, beginning with its appearance as a main attraction in Scranton’s Labor Day parade. The Tribune reported on September 8, 1915:

“It was a most successful tour, Miss Elizabeth McShane, of Uniontown, PA, director general of the bell tour declaring that ‘the interest manifested by the people of Lackawanna County in our fight to secure the ballot, was highly encouraging.’ Probably the most interested in the Bell were the children along the route, and at the towns where meetings were held. At the conclusion of every street session, Miss McShane, who is a graduate of Vassar College, gathered the children around her and undertook to explain to them the story of the national relic, of which the suffrage bell is an exact replica. These meetings were the most interesting. Mrs. Fuller and several of the other speakers would expound at length upon the reasons why they should be given the ballot, and then the grownups would move back and the children would gather around the bell while Miss McShane in simple phrases told them the story of the bell. Little breaker boys [child coal miners], their faces black and grimy, linked hand in hand with school children, listened attentively while the story of the bell was unfolded to them. Their eyes sparkled with pleasure as Miss McShane smiled upon them and in her motherly and simple way told them of the hardships our forefathers went through in their struggle to gain independence. Wherever the bell truck halted, were it for a few minutes on the roadside or in one of the towns at which the party was scheduled to speak, the children were the most interested. They would climb up on the truck, and with a feeling of awe, touch the sides of the great bell. This done, Jimmy or Mary would shout “I touched it,” while mothers standing on the edge of the crowd looked on and smiled.”

Suffragist Spotlight
Kate Chapman

Kate Chapman appears numerous times in the newspapers for her suffrage advocacy under the name Mrs. Maxwell Chapman, following the custom at the time for married women to be referred to by their husband’s name. She was born Kate Amelia Ryon on August 10, 1865, in Elkland, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three children of Charles Ryon and Sylvina Gertrude Hoyt Ryon. On December 9, 1886, she married Maxwell Chapman, a civil engineer from Port Blanchard. The couple had one child. By 1900, they had moved to Dunmore, a suburb of Scranton, where Kate lived for the rest of her life. In 1913, as suffragists worked to secure the votes needed for the Pennsylvania legislature to pass the state suffrage amendment, Chapman was called upon by Jennie Bradley Roessing, president of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association (PWSA), to obtain a key endorsement from the Central Labor Union of Scranton. The following year, she played a leading role in the movement while serving in multiple positions: as chair of the Lackawanna County division, a vice president of the PWSA, and the founder and president of the Lackawanna County Equal Suffrage League. Among her many contributions, she oversaw the 46th Annual Convention of the PWSA, held at the Hotel Casey in Scranton in November 1914. She attended the sendoff of the Justice Bell in Sayre on June 23, 1915, delivered speeches in Bradford County, and was the primary organizer of Scranton’s 1915 Labor Day parade, where the Justice Bell was prominently featured.

In 1920, she was among those who traveled to Philadelphia to hear the Justice Bell ring for the first time. In 1921, Chapman made history as the first woman to run for elected office in Lackawanna County. She won the nomination for county treasurer on the Prohibition ticket but was narrowly defeated in the general election.

A Pomeroy historical marker honoring Kate Chapman is located in front of the Century Club in Scranton, now home to the Scranton Area Community Foundation.

Returning in 2026

More than a century after the Justice Bell Tour, I traveled to Lackawanna County on June 8, 2026, at the invitation of the Lackawanna County Historical Society and the Scranton Area Community Foundation (SACF). The program was held at the storied Century Club in Scranton, a historic women's club built in 1913–1914. Their hospitality extended to offering me a stay at The Colonnade, another historic building built in the 1870s that is now a boutique hotel owned by Paul Blackledge and Joshua Mast, who could not have been more gracious hosts.

The event featured a warm welcome, a fantastic food spread, and an appreciative audience that included members of the DAR dressed in period costumes, county residents, and members of the historical society and the SACF. A local news station attended and interviewed organization leaders and audience members. The discussion after the film was invigorating and included questions about the imprisonment of the suffragists (which included Pennsylvania suffragists Elizabeth McShane, Kate Heffelfinger, and others) in Washington, DC, for picketing in front of the White House; details about some of the speakers of the 1915 tour, including Scranton native Kate Chapman and Louise Hall; and questions about where the Justice Bell is presently located, as well as information about when it fell off the truck during transport to a 2020 event.

As the saying goes, “It takes a village,” and many women helped make the event possible, including Sarah Picini, Assistant Director of the Lackawanna Historical Society, and officials of the Scranton Area Community Foundation, including Laura Ducceschi, President and CEO; Amy Betts, Lead Community Impact Manager; and Jana Nelhybel, Sustainability and Impact Manager.

A special note: The Justice Bell: Tracing the Journey of a Forgotten Symbol now has full distribution and is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online retailers, and local bookstores.

I will continue to bring autographed copies to our events, but feel free to order a copy in advance and bring it with you. I would be happy to autograph it.

Continue the Journey

Our next stop is in Delaware County at the Radnor Memorial Library in Wayne on July 8, 2026.

Follow the 2026 Justice Bell Tour

Learn more about the tour on our website.

• View the Justice Bell Foundation tour page

• See the full schedule of events

• Learn more about the documentary Finding Justice: The Untold Story of Women’s Fight for the Vote

• Read the book The Justice Bell: Tracing the Journey of a Forgotten Symbol

Join us as we continue to follow the path of the Justice Bell and explore the remarkable history it represents in Pennsylvania’s fight for women’s suffrage.

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