First Annual Meeting of the NDRA

The first annual meeting of the National Dress Reform Association (NDRA) was called at the Homer Congregational Church located on South Main Street and Cayuga Street June 18–19, 1856. According to The Water Cure Journal (August 1856, page 41), the meeting at the church was well attended. Dr. James Caleb Jackson, a hydropathist and NDRA founder, presided over the meeting. Attendees came from eight different states, and there were many letters of support that were read at the meeting. Gerrit Smith did not attend this first meeting but did send in a letter of support.

There is some disagreement as to whether the meeting in Homer is the first “convention,” as it was called in the Homer Republican on March 6, 1856. However, the report in The Water Cure Journal from August 1856 called it the “first annual meeting.” We are calling the Homer meeting the “first convention” and the subsequent convention in Canastota in January 1857 the “first national convention.”

The First Religious Society of Homer gave the land for the church and the Village Green (adjacent to the church), and construction was completed in 1803. The church was replaced beginning in 1860, and the current building was dedicated in 1863. The current church is located where the former church stood.

With thanks to the Cortland County Historical Society, especially Sophie Clough, its Collections and Research Assistant.