Sarah Helen Bond Hanley (January 1865[1] – April 15, 1959) was an American politician most notable for being one of the first two Democratic women to serve in the Illinois General Assembly.

Sarah Bond Hanley
Member of the
Illinois House of Representatives
from the 32nd district
In office
1927–1931
Personal details
Born
Sarah Helen Bond

January 1865
Leon, Iowa
DiedApril 15, 1959
Springfield, Illinois
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseJohn Hanley (m. 1899)
ChildrenHelen
Alma materMonmouth College

Biography

edit

Sarah Helen Bond Hanley[2] was born in Leon, Iowa, in 1865. She attended Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. In 1889, she married attorney John H. Hanley with whom she would have one daughter, Helen. Her husband, a fellow Democratic activist, served as the Mayor of Monmouth from 1917 to 1921.[3] Hanley was a member of the first Democratic Women's Club in the country, organized in 1888. During the 1892 election, Hanley, as an officer of the club, made the first monetary campaign contribution from a women's club to a political campaign. She served on the woman's auxiliary of the Democratic Party of Illinois. She campaigned for both Woodrow Wilson and James M. Cox. In 1921, she became the first woman to participate in a judicial convention. She was a member of the Illinois delegation to the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

In 1926, she and Mary C. McAdams of Quincy, Illinois, became the first two Democratic women elected to the Illinois General Assembly. Hanley was elected, unopposed, to represent the 32nd district alongside Republicans James H. Porter and Rollo R. Robbins.[4] She took office on January 5, 1927.[5][6] She served two terms, leaving the House in 1931.

In addition to her involvement in the Democratic Party, she was also active as a high-ranking member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.[7][8] She died April 15, 1959, in Springfield, Illinois, at age 94.[9]

References

edit
  1. ^ 1900 United States Federal Census
  2. ^ Bond Hanley, Sarah (1922). "Major John Crain Bond". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 15 (3): 614–615. Retrieved June 28, 2024 – via Internet Archive. The second son of Major John C. Bond was my father, Jesse Walton Bond, who was born in Alabama Sept. 7, 1825. On October 25, 1863, he married Anna C. Harrah, born in Belmont County, Ohio, February 25, 1835, by whom he had three children, Sarah Helen, Jesse Walton and Anna Josephine.
  3. ^ Miller, Jess (2006). "John H. Hanley". Monmouth College. Archived from the original on June 25, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
  4. ^ Illinois blue book, 1927-1928. p. 922.
  5. ^ Illinois Blue Book 1927-1928. p. 274. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
  6. ^ Illinois Blue Book 1927-1928. p. 74. Retrieved June 28, 2024. The sessions of the General Assembly shall commence at 12:00 o'clock noon, on the Wednesday next after the first Monday in January, in the year next ensuing the election of members thereof
  7. ^ Musser, Ashley; Dutton, Julie (February 11, 2016). "Illinois Women in Congress and General Assembly" (PDF). Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Legislative Research Unit. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  8. ^ Bone, Jan, ed. (June 1974). "Commission on the Status of Women. Report and Recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly" (PDF). Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Commission on the Status of Women. p. 26. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  9. ^ "Mrs. S. H. Hanley Dies; Served in Assembly". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. April 16, 1959. p. C1.