1871-1968
A leader in the women’s suffrage movement and NJ’s first Assemblywoman, elected with Jennie C. Van Ness.
Born in Newark and lived there most of her life. She attended Newark schools and graduated the Newark City Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1895 and lived in Newark until the late 1940s. She lived at 211 Clinton Ave (at least 1935-1941), 34 Goldsmith Ave (at least 1920-1930), 48 Stratford Pl (at least 1904-1920), and 193 Clinton Ave (1900), among other addresses.
Laird was vice president of the Women’s Political Union, chair of the National Woman Suffrage Association at its Newark chapter, and state treasurer of the National Women’s Party. She recalled being heckled and attacked during suffrage protests. Obituaries in the Newark News mention her mother and grandfather also being active in women’s rights.
Laird served in the Assembly for two terms, after being elected in Nov 1920, introducing bills allowing minors to be tried in juvenile courts and granting equal salaries for women working for the NJ state government. The Newark News called these bills, “milestones in the history of liberal legislation in New Jersey”.
She was president of the Newark Women’s Republican Club from 1926-1932.
Also the center of a controversy in 1915 when she was rejected from the Board of Health with Dr. Sarah Smalley, because of her gender.
Bibliography
NJ Women’s History (wrong dates)
“Mrs. Laird’s Rites” Newark News Dec 1, 1968
“Mrs. R. Laird, 97, First Assemblywoman” Newark News Nov 30, 1968
Mrs. Laird, 97, First Woman In Jersey Legislature, Dead”, The New York Times, December 1, 1968.
Women’s project of NJ. Past and Promise: Lives of NJ Women.
NJ Suffragists – Margaret Brydon Laird (1871-1968)