JOHNSTOWN, N.Y. (NEWS10) — It took more than 10 years, but Johnstown finally has a statue honoring one of their own: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. and hometown hero.

Born in Johnstown in 1815, she decided early on she would fight for equal rights for women after watching woman after woman leave the Johnstown courthouse, powerless in their pursuits for justice.

“Her dad didn’t really like the fact she was doing this even though he had taught her how to do it,” said Sandy Maceyka, vice president of Elizabeth Cady Stanton Women’s Consortium.

It was a Johnstown judge that took her aside and said, “they’re going to print law books all the time, if you want to change the law, you need to go to Albany or you need to go to Washington.”

And that’s what kickstarted her into the women’s suffrage movement. She worked closely with Susan B. Anthony – fighting all her life to win the women’s right to vote. They would both die before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but the work they did to make it happen will always be remembered.

For more than a decade multiple groups worked tirelessly to get a statue built locally. After receiving funds from 150 donors from across the country, Johnstown finally got their statue of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in August.