Keighley, Martha B.

Martha Keighley ran for a school board position in Vineland, New Jersey in 1891.  She did not win the race, but had received a lot of support from activist women in the town.  Woman suffrage and voting by women, even illegally, had long been a tradition in Vineland.  Keighley, born in England, was not a naturalized citizen, although her husband was.  She claimed that the New Jersey attorney general had ruled that she was eligible for election under her husband's citizenship.  This may have led somewhat to her defeat at the polls.  Keighley was involved in temperance, church work, and was a trustee of the local antiquarian society.  She served as the presicent of the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union for over twenty years.