Ida Sammis Explained

Ida Sammis
Birth Name:	Ida Bunce
Birth Date:	October 8, 1865
Birth Place:	Cold Spring Harbor, New York
Death Place:	Ogdensburg, New York
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Politician
Known For:	the first women elected to the New York State Assembly

Ida Sammis Woodruff Satchwell (née Bunce) (October 8, 1865  - June 3, 1943) was a prominent early female Republican party suffragist and politician from Suffolk County, New York.^[1] Sammis was one of the first two women elected to the New York State Legislature.^{[2] [3]}

Family and early life

Ida Sammis was born to Eliphalet and Margaret (Rogers) Bunce on October 8, 1865 in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York.

She married a merchant, Edgar A. Sammis, who died in a car accident in 1917. Ida and Edgar had one son together.

Political career

In 1911, Sammis organized the first women's suffrage club in Suffolk County.^[2]

After women gained the right to vote in New York in 1917, Sammis ran at the New York state election, 1918 for the New York State Assembly (Suffolk Co., 2nd D.). Along with Mary Lilly, Sammis was one of the first two New York assemblywomen, sitting in the 142nd New York State Legislature in 1919.

According to contemporary news accounts, including in The New York World, Sammis' first act as a legislator was to remove the brass spittoon assigned to her, polish it to a brilliant shine, and place it on her desk as a vase filled with flowers.^[4]

Sammis primarily concerned herself with legislation affecting her Assembly district. During Sammis' first year in the Assembly, ten of fourteen bills that she introduced were passed.^[5] Sammis introduced a bill "prohibiting the employment of women under 21 as elevator conductors; and forbidding adult women to be employed as elevator conductors more than 54 hours a week, or before 7 A. M., or after 10 P. M. The bill also required that seats must be provided for all women conductors in elevators."^[6]

Sammis continued to be active in community organizations following her single term.^{[2] [3]}

Later life and death

Her second husband was Alden J. Woodruff, a retired doctor from Babylon NY whom she married in January 1923. After the death of Woodruff she married a third time, to George E. Satchwell.

Ida Satchwell died June 3, 1943.^[7]

Notes and References

1. News: LI's Rebels With a Cause: For Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont and other suffragettes, 'Failure is impossible'. Larkin. Kathy. Joyce Gabriel. 12 July 2009. Newsday. Newsday, Inc.. 1 March 2010. Long Island, NY.
2. Web site: Women in Politics: Early Women Elected to the NYS Legislature. 1989. Women of Courage. St. Lawrence County, NY Branch of the American Association of University Women. 21 February 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100128075833/http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/nysleg.htm. 28 January 2010.
3. Web site: Four New Women Join Essex County Board, Gender Barriers Falling. Alexander. Jon. January 6, 2010. WNBZ: Local News. Mountain Communications. 22 February 2010. Saranac Lake, NY. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110718073751/http://www.wnbz.com/January%202010/010610/FourNewWomen.htm. 18 July 2011.
4. Book: Andersen, Kristi. Kristi Andersen. After suffrage: women in partisan and electoral politics before the New Deal. University of Chicago Press. 1996. 145. Six. 0-226-01957-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=DYYn5Ww7Ik4C&q=Ida+Sammis&pg=PA145. February 21, 2010. registration.
5. Book: Sammis, Ida. State Service: an illustrated monthly magazine devoted to the government of the State of New York and its affairs. James Malcolm. State Service Magazine Co., Inc.. New York. January 1920. 4. 203–206 . Women Members of the State Assembly . 3. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ig4UAAAAIAAJ&q=Ida+Sammis&pg=PA203. February 21, 2010.
6. Book: Safety. New York Museum of Safety and Sanitation. 1918. 6-8. 133. 28 February 2010.
7. News: MRS. IDA SATCHWELL; First 'Republican Woman State Assembly Member Was 74. 5 June 1943. The New York Times. 15. 14 March 2010. New York, New York.