{{Short description|American politician (1865–1943)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Ida Sammis | image = IdaSammis1918.tif | alt = | caption = Ida Sammis, from a 1918 publication. | birth_name = Ida Bunce | birth_date = {{birth date|1865|10|8|mf=y}} | birth_place = Cold Spring Harbor, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|6|3|1865|10|8|mf=y}} | death_place = Ogdensburg, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = | other_names = | occupation = Politician | years_active = | known_for = One of the first two women elected to the New York State Assembly | notable_works = | spouse = }}
'''Ida Sammis Woodruff Satchwell''' (née '''Bunce''') (October 8, 1865 – June 3, 1943) was a prominent early female Republican party suffragist and politician from Suffolk County, New York.<ref name="Newsday">{{cite news|url=http://www.wikiwak.com/texis/wcolz/viewcache.html?q=ida+sammis&h=5bd81dc18a34b9b923a8c7d8e644a41e|title=LI's Rebels With a Cause: For Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont and other suffragettes, 'Failure is impossible'|last=Larkin|first=Kathy|author2=Joyce Gabriel|date=12 July 2009|work=Newsday|publisher=Newsday, Inc.|accessdate=1 March 2010|location=Long Island, NY}}</ref> Sammis was one of the first two women elected to the New York State Legislature.<ref name="Women in Politics: Early Women Elected to the NYS Legislature">{{cite web|url=http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/nysleg.htm|title=Women in Politics: Early Women Elected to the NYS Legislature|year=1989|work=Women of Courage|publisher=St. Lawrence County, NY Branch of the American Association of University Women|access-date=21 February 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128075833/http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/nysleg.htm|archive-date=28 January 2010|df=}}</ref><ref name="Four New Women Join Essex County Board">{{cite web|url=http://www.wnbz.com/January%202010/010610/FourNewWomen.htm|title=Four New Women Join Essex County Board, Gender Barriers Falling|last=Alexander|first=Jon|date=January 6, 2010|work=WNBZ: Local News|publisher=Mountain Communications|access-date=22 February 2010|location=Saranac Lake, NY|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718073751/http://www.wnbz.com/January%202010/010610/FourNewWomen.htm|archive-date=18 July 2011|df=}}</ref>
==Family and early life== Ida Sammis was born to Eliphalet and Margaret (Rogers) Bunce on October 8, 1865 in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
She married a merchant, Edgar A. Sammis, who died in a car accident in 1917. Ida and Edgar had one son together.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
==Political career== In 1911, Sammis organized the first women's suffrage club in Suffolk County.<ref name="Women in Politics: Early Women Elected to the NYS Legislature"/>
After women gained the right to vote in New York in 1917, Sammis ran at the New York state election, 1918 for the New York State Assembly (Suffolk Co., 2nd D.). Along with Mary Lilly, Sammis was one of the first two New York assemblywomen, sitting in the 142nd New York State Legislature in 1919.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
According to contemporary news accounts, including in the ''New York World'', Sammis' first act as a legislator was to remove the brass spittoon assigned to her, polish it to a brilliant shine, and place it on her desk as a vase filled with flowers.<ref name="After suffrage">{{cite book|last=Andersen|first=Kristi|author-link1=Kristi Andersen|title=After suffrage: women in partisan and electoral politics before the New Deal|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1996|pages=[https://archive.org/details/aftersuffragewom00ande/page/145 145]|chapter=Six|isbn=0-226-01957-8|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DYYn5Ww7Ik4C&q=Ida+Sammis&pg=PA145|accessdate=February 21, 2010|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/aftersuffragewom00ande/page/145}}</ref>
Sammis primarily concerned herself with legislation affecting her Assembly district. During Sammis' first year in the Assembly, ten of fourteen bills that she introduced were passed.<ref name="State service">{{cite book|last=Sammis|first=Ida|title=State Service: an illustrated monthly magazine devoted to the government of the State of New York and its affairs|editor=James Malcolm|publisher=State Service Magazine Co., Inc.|location=New York|date=January 1920|volume=4|pages=203–206 |chapter=Women Members of the State Assembly |issue=3|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ig4UAAAAIAAJ&q=Ida+Sammis&pg=PA203|accessdate=February 21, 2010}}</ref> Sammis introduced a bill "prohibiting the employment of women under 21 as elevator conductors; and forbidding adult women to be employed as elevator conductors more than 54 hours a week, or before 7 A. M., or after 10 P. M. The bill also required that seats must be provided for all women conductors in elevators."<ref name="Safety">{{cite book|title=Safety|publisher=New York Museum of Safety and Sanitation|year=1918|volume=6-8|pages=133|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pqlLAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Ida+Sammis%22&pg=RA1-PA133|accessdate=28 February 2010}}</ref>
Sammis continued to be active in community organizations following her single term.<ref name="Women in Politics: Early Women Elected to the NYS Legislature"/><ref name="Four New Women Join Essex County Board"/>
==Later life and death== Her second husband was Alden J. Woodruff, a retired doctor from Babylon, New York whom she married in January 1923. After the death of Woodruff she married a third time, to George E. Satchwell.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
Ida Satchwell died June 3, 1943.<ref name="The New York Times Obit">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/06/05/archives/mrs-ida-satchwell-first-republican-woman-state-assembly-member-was.html|title=MRS. IDA SATCHWELL; First 'Republican Woman State Assembly Member Was 74|date=5 June 1943|work=The New York Times|pages=15|accessdate=14 March 2010|location=New York, New York}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Find a Grave|62647451}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-ny-hs}} {{succession box | title = New York State Assembly <br/>Suffolk County, 2nd District | before = Henry A. Murphy | years = 1919 | after = William G. Carroll }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sammis, Ida}} Category:Suffragists from New York (state) Category:Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly Category:1865 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Women state legislators in New York (state) Category:People from Huntington, New York Category:Burials in Suffolk County, New York