[From the Fall 2023 Showcase of Homes Magazine]
Written By ROBERT C. LAWRENCE
Part of the "WHAT'S WITH THOSE ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN NAMES?" Series.
While kayaking on beautiful Lake Durant near Blue Mountain Lake, New York, one June day, my wife Carol Ann asked, "Where does Blue Mountain get its name?" So we visited the nearby Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake to buy a place names book. But there was no such publication. So… I wrote What's With Those Adirondack Mountain Names?
The book alphabetically lists over a hundred Adirondack Mountain place names or oronyms, but I only found four mountains with women's names in my research. Mount Inez, a 1552-foot mountain, is third in the Simply Saratoga series; What's With Those Adirondack Women Mountain Names?
(left) Proposed Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to give women the right to vote
On December 12, 2019, Mount Discovery was officially renamed Mount Inez for Inez Milholland (Boissevain) by the United States Board on Geographic Names. It had taken over a century for Lewis residents, government officials, and eventually two United States Senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer from New York, to accomplish this feat. Senator Gillibrand said, "I am thrilled that one of our nation's heroic suffragists, Inez Milholland, will be honored in her home state of New York. She is an inspiration to all of us on how to stand up for what is right and is an example of the tenacity needed to do so." Senator Schumer also stated, "This dedication will ensure that New York State never forgets the transformative contributions of Inez Milholland, an extraordinary American and New Yorker whose life and legacy should be preserved for generations to come."
Inez Milholland (1886-1916) was born into a wealthy family in Brooklyn, New York but spent summers on her family land at Meadowmount, which included Mount Discovery in Lewis, Essex County. She graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and received a law degree from the New York University School of Law.
Aside from being a lawyer, Inez is best known for her civil causes. She promoted world peace, prison and labor reforms, African Americans' rights, and a woman's right to vote. She was famous for leading a women's suffrage parade, wearing a white cape and a crown on a large white horse on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913, and became known as the "Suffrage Joan of Arc." She led an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 women who marched from the United States Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
By marrying Hollander Eugen Boissevain on July 14, 1913, she became a citizen of Holland, forfeiting her American citizenship by law. However, by filing naturalization papers, she regained her citizenship.
In 1916, she toured the western United States, speaking on behalf of women's rights, despite being plagued by an illness known as pernicious anemia or B-12 deficiency. During a November 25th speech on women's rights in Los Angeles, California, she collapsed. She died that same day at age thirty, before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, giving women the right to vote. Her last spoken public words were, "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?"
Inez Milholland, Suffrage's Joan of Arc.
What's With Those Adirondack Mountain Names? (The Troy Book Makers) is available at the following retail locations: Market Block Books (Troy), The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza (Albany), Open Door Bookstore (Schenectady), Northshire Bookstore, Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company (Saratoga), Adirondack Country Store (Northville), St. Andrews Ace Hardware (Queensbury) in many retail establishments in the Adirondack Park and on Amazon.com.