From its founding in 1902 until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, the Old Barracks Association had three presidents heavily involved in the anti-suffrage movement. Many other trustees and members also supported the anti cause in a very public way.
Eliza Warren Hook: 1903-1906 & 1911-1914
Emma Josephine Forst: 1907-1911
Helen Boudinot Stryker: 1914-1917
Eliza Warren Hook
Image take from “Notes on the Warren Family” in The Journal of the Reverend Silas Constant
Eliza Warren Hook
December 21, 1837 – December 27, 1920
Hook was an original trustee of the Old Barracks Association and served as its president from 1903-1906 as well as 1911-1914.
Born into a big family in Cold Spring, NY, she was married in 1863 to Captain Cornelius S. Hook, Jr. who served under her brother General Gouverneur K. Warren. Unfortunately, after less than a year of marriage, Hook was left widowed when her husband died of Yellow Fever.
By 1880 she was living in Brooklyn, NY with her sister, Emily Warren Roebling, who at the time was assisting her husband with the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
When the Roebling family relocated to Trenton, Hook followed and took up residence with Charles G. Roebling, her brother-in-law by marriage, in order to act as foster-mother to his young children after his wife passed away.
Hook was heavily involved with the NJAOWS from its initial formation. She served as its first vice president and remained active through the years.
Emma Josephine Forst
1862 – 1915
President of the Old Barracks Association 1907-1911
Born in Ohio, Forst moved to Trenton after her marriage to her second husband, Joseph Murray Forst (1851-1919) in 1898. According to her obituary in the Asbury Park Press, “…after going to Trenton she was prominent in social and church work” and goes on to describe her as an “ardent anti-suffragist.”
Forst served as the treasurer of the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
Asbury Park Press, September 30, 1915
Helen Boudinot Atterbury Stryker
Helen Boudinot Atterbury Stryker
January 26, 1848 – March 5, 1936
Stryker was an original trustee of the Old Barracks Association and eventually served as the Association’s president between 1914-1917.
In 1870, Helen married General William Scudder Stryker, praised Civil War Major, Adjutant General of the State of New Jersey, president of the New Jersey Historical Society, historian, and author of The Battles of Trenton and Princeton published in 1898. Helen and William had three children together, Helen Bradford Stryker, Kathryn Barrien Stryker, and William Bradford Stryker.
Stryker was a vice president of the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
