Mrs. ANNIE SAVERY--_Dear Madam_: Your kind and very

flattering invitation to address the Woman's State Suffrage

Convention, in Des Moines, reached me just prior to my

departure for this city, and I avail myself of my first

leisure to respond. It would not only give me great

pleasure, but I should esteem it among my higher duties to

accept your invitation, and give my emphatic endorsement to

the great reform movement represented by the woman suffrage

convention, were it at all practicable. But I have just

reached my new charge, and can not dispose of immediate

pressing claims upon my time and effort here. Please accept

my apology for declining, and believe me, ever yours for

woman's enfranchisement.

C. R. POMEROY.

INDIANOLA, Sept. 30, 1871.

Mrs. ANNIE SAVERY--_Madam_: I am in receipt of your letter,

asking me to take part in your annual convention. I thank

you for the honor, as I expect from such a convention

results the most salutary, not only to the condition of

woman, but also to the progress of our young and vigorous

commonwealth. I have read carefully the circular enclosed in

your letter, and consider the logic irrefutable, and its

suggestions well worthy the attention of all who desire the

complete enfranchisement of woman. I fear that I shall not

be able to attend, but if I am, I shall be with you, should

I do no more than say "Amen" to the words of my eloquent

countryman, O'Connor, whom I learn you have honored with the

presidency of your association. Wishing for your cause the

fullest success, I subscribe myself--one for the

enfranchisement of woman.

ALEXANDER BURNS.

A letter was also received from Bishop Matthew Simpson, of the

Methodist church, who was always ready to declare his adherence

to this great reform:

OWATOMA, Oct. 2, 1871.

Hon. J. HARLAN--_Dear Senator_: Yours, inclosing Mrs.

Savery's kind invitation, was received before I left

Mankota. I would be pleased to comply with her invitation,

joined as it is with your earnest solicitation. But I am

under bonds--if not to keep the peace, at least to keep

silence--so far as either sermons or public addresses are

concerned, until the full restoration of my health. I am

glad to say my health is improving. I have presided at five

conferences this fall--two still await me. But I have not

ventured any extra labor, nor dare I for some time to come.

Please convey to Mrs. Savery my thanks for her kind

invitation, and say to her that I sympathize fully with the

suffrage association in its desire to attain for women the

ballot.

A series of resolutions was discussed, other letters read, and a

large number of new converts joined the association. The _State

Register_ spoke in a very complimentary manner of the

deliberations of this convention:

It is but just, perhaps, that we should say, in general

terms, of the State woman suffrage convention, in session in

Des Moines the past week, that its proceedings were

characterized with good sense, dignity, and the best of

order. The world has had an impression for five or six

thousand years that women cannot talk without wrangling,

counsel without confusion. Again, many are so unjust as to

imagine that a convention composed of ladies, assembled to

discuss serious subjects, can be nothing more than a

quilting party or tattlers' club enlarged and let loose.

We have never seen a convention conducted with more decorum,

or a greater degree of intelligent accord exhibited in the

routine of proceedings, than was noticeable in this first

annual gathering of the friends of suffrage in Iowa. A

majority of the members were women. They opened the

convention and conducted the discussions with a spirit and

in a manner after which men might well pattern. In some

respects, the ladies who took the lead, showed themselves

better posted in general information, in all matters of

deliberation, than men.

We would not endorse all that was done at the convention,

but we would be fair enough to give to it the meed of having

been, in all respects, well conducted. The convention

strengthened those in whose name it met, not only among

themselves, but with the public. All who attended it were

impressed with the conviction that its members were earnest

and honest, and could see that they were intelligent and

well armed. Whatever it may have done directly, and that we

know was much, it accomplished more good for its cause by

impressing the public mind that its adherents in Iowa are

banded together in union, and bound to make every honorable

effort for success.

In January, 1872, I received a letter from a very prominent

member of the legislature, from which the following is an

extract:

After consultation I believe the House would resolve itself

into committee of the whole (when senators would be likely

also to come in), and hear you on the question of woman

suffrage. Should you desire to press it to vote this

session, I should advise that course. As to the time of your

hearing, it should be in the day, and appointed soon after

the recess. We meet again on February 13. I think it could

be arranged for Friday, the 16th, if agreeable to you. With

kind regards,

JOHN A. KASSON.

Notwithstanding this kind proposal of Mr. Kasson, I did not act

upon his suggestion. But Mrs. Harbert and Mrs. Savery, feeling

that something must be done, had the courage and the conscience,

on their individual responsibility, to call a mass-meeting at the

capitol on the evening previous to the day appointed for the vote

on the amendment in the House. Mrs. Harbert presided and opened

the meeting with an earnest appeal; Mrs. Savery, Mr. C.P. Holmes,

Senator Converse, and Governor Carpenter, made eloquent speeches.

The governor, in opening his address said he voted to strike

"black" from the constitution sixteen years ago, and would then,

as now, had the opportunity been presented, have voted to strike

out "male."

On the following day when the amendment came up in the House for

the final vote, it was carried by 58 to 39. In the Senate there

was a spirited discussion, Hon. Charles Beardsley making an

earnest speech in favor of the resolution. The vote on engrossing

the bill for the third reading stood 26 ayes to 20 nays. Hope

ran high with the friends; but alas! on a final vote, taken but a

few minutes later, the bill was lost by 24 nays to 22 ayes.[409]

The general sentiment was well stated by the Iowa _State

Register_:

The Senate disposed of the woman suffrage question yesterday

by voting it down. We think it made a mistake. Certainly

there was, at the lowest count, thirty out of every hundred

voters in the State who desired to have this legislature

ratify the action of the last Assembly, and submit the

question at the polls this fall. The Republican party has

its own record to meet here. The first time the negro

suffrage question was submitted to the people of Iowa, it

was submitted by a Republican legislature, and the

submission was made when not over one voter in a hundred

desired it done. This latter thing was a plain proposition,

a most justly preferred petition. The people who were

anxious to have the question submitted, are, it is

confidently claimed, in majority. We think their wishes

might well and fitly have been granted. Even those who were

opposed to them must see that the advocates of the reform

will now have a chance to claim that the opponents of it are

afraid to go with them to the people. This is not merely a

defeat for the present year, but practically for four years.

Our State constitution can be amended only after two

legislatures have acted upon the amendment, and the people

have voted upon it. The legislature of two years ago passed

the resolution voted down yesterday. Now, we presume, it

will have to take another start. Four years of waiting and

working before the friends of the reform can be given a

chance to get a verdict from the people, is a long and

painful ordeal. It will not be endured with patience. It

would be asking too much of human nature to expect that.

At the annual convention of 1874, at Des Moines, Bishop Gilbert

Haven of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a clear and liberal

thinker, made a very impressive speech on the power woman could

wield with the ballot in her own hand in making our towns and

cities safe for our sons and daughters to live in. This year, the

Des Moines annual conference of the M. E. Church passed

resolutions advocating woman suffrage as a great moral reform;

while the State convention of the Universalist Association in its

resolution said: "This convention recognizes that women are

entitled to all the social, religious, and political rights which

men enjoy."

At the Diocesan Convention held at Davenport May 1881, the

Episcopal Church took a step forward by striking the word male

out of a canon, thus enabling women to vote for vestrymen, a

right hitherto withheld. It is but a straw in the right

direction, but "straws show which way the wind blows," and we may

hope for more good things to follow.

The Republican party, in convention assembled, at Des Moines,

July 1, 1874, inserted the following, as the tenth plank of its

platform:

_Resolved_, That since the people may be entrusted with all

questions of governmental reform, we favor the final

submission to them of the question of amending the

constitution so as to extend the right of suffrage to women,

pursuant to the action of the fifteenth General Assembly.

The reading of the resolution called forth cheers of approval,

and was adopted without a dissenting vote, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton

Harbert is entitled to great credit for this "woman's plank," she

having gone before the committee on resolutions and made an

earnest appeal for woman's recognition by the Republican party.

The _State Record_ said:

When the Republicans, in national convention, recognized

woman, and gave her a plank in the platform of the party, it

reflected back a spirit of justice and progress which is

looked for in vain in the party opposing, of whatever name.

But when the Republicans of Iowa gave to a woman the

privilege of bringing in a plank of her own production, and

that plank was added to the State platform without a

dissenting voice, it placed Iowa, men and women alike, in

the vanguard of the world's onward march to a more rational

life, more even justice, and purer government.

In the Republican State platform of Iowa is the first real

and purely woman's plank that ever entered into any

political platform--because it originated in the brain of

woman. It was by a woman carried to the committee, and in

response to an able, dignified, and true womanly appeal, it

was accepted, and by the convention incorporated into the

platform of the party. It may seem to be a small plank, but

it has strength and durability. It is the live oak of a

living principle, that will remain sound while other planks

of greater bulk around it will have served their purpose and

wasted away.

It argues thus: if woman is competent to present a political

issue, clothed in her own language, with a dignity and

modesty that silence opposition, is she not competent to

exercise with prudence and intelligence the elective

franchise? and would she not, if entrusted with it, exercise

it for the elevation of a common humanity? The _Record_

tenders hearty congratulations not only to Mrs. Harbert, who

we know will bear the honors modestly, but also to those who

by their presence in the convention gave encouragement to

greater respect for woman's wishes, and by whose work is

demonstrated woman's fitness to be in truth a helpmeet for

man. We had a mother, and have sisters, wife, and daughter,

and that is why we would have woman enjoy every privilege

and opportunity to be useful to herself and her country that

we claim for ourself.

At the annual meeting of 1875, held at Oskaloosa, the following

letter from the governor of the State was received:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Des Moines, Iowa.

Mrs. R. G. ORWIG, _Cor. Sec. I. W. S. S.--Dear Madam_: I

have your letter inviting me to be present at your annual

meeting. Thanking you and the association for the

consideration implied, I have to express my regrets that

business of an official character will prevent me from

coming. I hope your proceedings may be characterized by such

wisdom, moderation, and sincerity as to advance the cause to

which your efforts are given. I have never been able to

discover any argument to sustain my own right to vote that

does not equally apply to woman. Whether my right is founded

upon the interest I have, in common with my fellows, in the

preservation of the free institutions of my country; or upon

the protection of my personal interests as a citizen; or

upon my right to a voice in the creation of laws to which I

am held amenable; or upon my right to influence by a vote

the direction given to revenues which I am taxed to help

supply; or upon any other right, personal, political or

moral, I have never been able to see why the reasons which

make the vote valuable to me do not apply with equal force

to woman. You doubtless think your efforts are comparatively

fruitless; but I need not tell you that while your agitation

has failed, so far, to bring you the ballot, it has

ameliorated the condition of woman in very many particulars.

Her property rights are better protected; her sphere of

activity has been enlarged, and her influence for good is

more widely recognized. So I wish you well. Yours truly,

C. C. CARPENTER.

This year women were members of a lay delegation in the Methodist

conference, and also lay delegates to the Presbyterian synod. And

in two or three instances women have been invited to address

these bodies, and have received a vote of thanks. Many of the

orthodox clergy are openly advocating our cause, and in some

instances women have been invited by them to occupy their desks

on Sunday to preach the Gospel to the people. This is a wonderful

advance in sentiment since 1852, when in New York the clergy

would not permit women to speak, even on temperance in a public

hall.

In 1876 the society secured the services of Matilda Hindman, of

Pittsburg, Pa., who traveled over the greater part of the State,

lecturing and organizing societies, and was everywhere spoken of

as an eloquent and logical speaker. She was followed by Margaret

W. Campbell, and those who know her feel that the State gained in

her a valuable friend in everything pertaining to the interests

of woman. What is said of Miss Hindman as a speaker may also be

said of Mrs. Campbell.

The first governor of Iowa to officially recognize woman's right

to the ballot was the Hon. C. C. Carpenter, who in his message to

the General Assembly of 1876, said:

The proposed amendment to the constitution, adopted by your

predecessors, and which requires your sanction before being

submitted to the voters of the State, will come before you.

I venture to suggest, that the uniform expression in Wyoming

Territory, where woman suffrage is a fact, is favorable to

its continuance, and that wherever in Europe and America

women have voted for school or minor officers the influence

of their suffrage has been beneficent; and in view of the

peculiar appropriateness of submitting this question in this

year, 1876, when all America is celebrating achievements

which were inspired by the doctrine that taxation and

representation are of right inseparable, it is recommended

that you give the people of Iowa an opportunity to express

their judgment upon the proposed amendment at the

ballot-box.

At the request of the State Association, Miss Matilda Hindman was

granted a hearing before the legislature, and most respectful

attention was accorded to her able address. Miss Anthony was also

invited, and, at the suggestion of Mrs. Savery, she engaged the

opera-house. The seats reserved for the members were all filled,

and every part of the house occupied. The day following, the vote

in the House was taken, and carried by 54 to 40. After a careful

canvass of the Senate, it was found that there were ten votes to

spare; but alas! when the day for final action came the amendment

was lost by one vote.[410]

In 1880 Senator Gaylord of Floyd county made a speech, giving

twenty-one reasons why he voted against the submission of the

proposition for the enfranchisement of women, which was published

in full in the Des Moines _Register_, and thus sent broadcast

over the State. Mrs. Bloomer replied to Mr. Floyd through the

same paper, meeting and refuting every objection, thus in a

measure antidoting the poisonous influence of the senator's

pronunciamento.

In the spring of this year Dr. Harriette Bottsford and Mrs. Jane

C. McKinney were appointed by a caucus of Republican women, to

the Powesheik county convention, to choose delegates to the State

convention. They presented their credentials to the committee,

and the chairman reported them as delegates. On motion, they were

accepted--but some men soon bethought them that this was

establishing a bad precedent, and began maneuvering to get rid of

them. This was finally done by declaring the delegation full

without them--two men having been quietly appointed to fill

vacancies after the ladies had presented their credentials. Mrs.

McKinney made a spicy speech, saying they did not expect to be

received as delegates, but wished to remind the men that women

were citizens, tax-payers and Republicans, but unrepresented.

At the Greenback State convention of 1881, Mrs. Mary E. Nash was

nominated as the candidate of that party for State superintendent

of schools. Mrs. Nash declined the honor intended, and said that

her political flag, if it were to float at all, would be found in

another camp. She would not desert her colors for office. In 1884

Mrs. H. J. Bellangee and Mrs. A. M. Swain were regularly

accredited delegates to the National Greenback convention, held

at Indianapolis, Ind., to nominate a candidate for the

presidency, where they were received with the greatest courtesy.

The annual meeting of 1882, at Des Moines, was remarkable for the

number of clergymen, representing nearly all the different

denominations, who took part in its proceedings, each of the nine

seeming to vie with the others in expressing his belief that the

ballot for woman, as for man, was a right, not a privilege.

Bishop Hurst of the M. E. Church, made an able speech. The

executive committee sent a memorial to the Republican convention,

held in June for the nomination of State officers, asking a plank

in their platform favoring the submission of the woman suffrage

amendment. The request was not granted. Leading politicians who

professed to believe in equality of rights for women feared that

to do so would make too heavy a weight for the party to carry, it

having already incorporated a prohibition plank in its platform.

The committee also interviewed 500 editors, asking them to open

the columns of their papers to the advocacy of woman suffrage.

One hundred and twenty replied favorably, while many were

courteous and others brusque in their refusals.

A committee on legislation (Mrs. Narcissa T. Bemis, chairman) did

good work during this session of the legislature, and also

published a tract composed of contributions from twelve leading

ministers of the State, called "The Clergymen's Tract." This was

sent broadcast. Nine hundred of the clergy were favored with a

copy. The Ministerial Association, held in Des Moines, passed the

following:

_Resolved_, That we are heartily in favor of woman suffrage

as advocated by your association, and regard the same as a

proper subject for pulpit-teaching, and, as opportunity

offers of furthering said cause in our pulpit ministry, we

will avail ourselves of the same.

During this year the State Society contributed liberally to the

Nebraska campaign. Mrs. Nancy R. Allen and Mrs. Mary B. Lee each

left a small legacy to the association.

Of the annual meeting of 1883,[411] held at Ottumwa, the local

papers gave full and fair reports; while 200 papers of the State

published a condensed statement prepared by the secretary. Miss

Hindman and Mrs. Campbell were again invited to the State. No

grander work than theirs was ever done in Iowa. There is scarcely

a county which they have not canvassed; holding meetings, forming

associations, circulating petitions, distributing tracts,

preaching on Sundays in the churches, traveling, often for months

at a time, without a pledge of pecuniary aid, depending for their

expenses wholly on funds contributed at their meetings.

The State convention of 1884 met at the Christian Church at Des

Moines; Mrs. Nacissa T. Bemis presided. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of

Indiana was one of the speakers. A committee, of which Mrs.

Martha C. Callanan was chairman, interviewed the governor, asking

a recognition of woman's right of suffrage, and were told it

should receive consideration. Accordingly, in his message to the

legislature, Governor Sherman said:

Your attention is respectfully directed to the question of

impartial suffrage, in respect to which the nineteenth

General Assembly proposed an amendment to the constitution.

Should this meet your approval, as preliminary to taking the

judgment of the voters, I recommend that it be submitted at

a special election, in order that it may be freed from the

influence of partisan politics, and thus receive an

unprejudiced vote of our citizens. Not caring to here

express an opinion upon the question itself, it is

sufficient to say that now, as heretofore, I am in favor of

the submission of any question which is of importance and

general interest.

Governor Sherman also gave it as his opinion that a good woman

should be placed on the board of trustees of every public

institution. This was the second time that an Iowa governor had

referred to this great political question in his message to the

General Assembly, Governor Carpenter having heartily indorsed the

measure in 1876. It is said, however, that Governor Newbold had

written a clause on the subject in his message in 1878, but that

it was suppressed by the careful counsel of some guardian angel

of his party.

Previous to the assembling of this legislature, petitions had

been widely circulated,[412] praying for the submission of the

amendment. Over 6,000 signatures were obtained. Each petition was

placed in the hands of a senator or member from the county in

which the names were gathered, for presentation in the respective

Houses.

For fifteen consecutive years the State Society has met annually,

made reports, passed resolutions, elected officers, listened to

speeches and transacted what other business has come before it.

Though its anniversaries have usually been held at Des Moines,

its influence through the press has pervaded the whole State.

Since 1875, the annual meetings have been held in different

cities[413] outside the capital, thus giving the people of all

sections of the State an opportunity to participate in the

deliberations. Petitions to the legislature and to congress have

been circulated by the society, delegates sent to the conventions

of the National and American Suffrage Associations,[414] and

letters addressed to the delegates of the State and National

nominating conventions of the political parties, asking for a

recognition of woman's right to the ballot in their platforms.

A brief recital of the proceedings of the Iowa legislature will

show that a large majority of the Representatives have been in

favor of submitting the question of woman suffrage to a direct

vote of the men of the State. The proposition was first presented

in the House by Hon. John P. Irish, in 1870. The resolution

passed both Houses with very little debate, was approved by the

governor, and submitted to the next General Assembly. In the

session of 1872 it was discussed in both Houses at considerable

length, and again passed in the Lower House by the strong vote of

58 ayes to 39 nays; while in the Senate it was lost by only two

majority. The House has never failed at any session since that

time, until 1884, to give a majority in its favor; but the Senate

has not made for itself so good a record. In 1872 the vote in the

Senate stood: ayes, 22; nays, 24. In 1876 it was lost by one

vote; and in 1880 lost on engrossment. In 1884 the tables were

turned; when the amendment came up in the twentieth General

Assembly for ratification, the Senate passed the bill, while the

House, for the first time, defeated it by a small majority.

By the constitution of Iowa an amendment must be approved by two

consecutive legislatures, convened in regular session. When so

approved it is then submitted to the popular vote of the

electors. As in this State the legislature meets but once in two

years, the reader can see how easily a bill passed at one session

may, two years later, be defeated by the election of new members

who are opposed to it. And thus through all these years those who

claim the ballot for woman in this State have been elated or

depressed by the action of each succeeding legislature.

The thirteenth General Assembly not only earned a good name for

enlightened statesmanship by passing the constitutional amendment

in favor of woman suffrage, but it also, by chapter 21, approved

March 8, 1870, passed an act admitting women to the practice of

law. It was under this that Judith Ellen Foster--so widely known

as an eloquent lecturer and able lawyer--Annie C. Savery, Mrs.

Emma Haddock, Louisa H. Albert, Jessie M. Johnson, and several

others have passed the necessary examination and been admitted to

practice as attorneys and counselors in all the courts of the

State. Mrs. Arabella Mansfield was admitted to the bar in 1869,

just a year previous to the enactment of the law.

Miss Linda M. Ramsey, now Mrs. Hartzell, was employed as a clerk

by Adjutant-General Baker in 1864, and held the office for some

time after the war closed. The _Record_ says she was the first

woman regularly employed and paid by the State for clerical

services. Miss Augusta Matthews served as military secretary for

Governor Stone during the war under pay of the State.

It was the thirteenth General Assembly, 1870, that first elected

a woman, Miss Mary E. Spencer, to the office of engrossing clerk;

and upon her it devolved to convey the message from the House to

the Senate, announcing the passage of the woman suffrage

amendment. In 1872 each House elected one woman among its

officers; and each succeeding General Assembly since that time

has elected from three to six women. The office of postmaster has

been filled by women for the last ten years, and is now held by

the venerable widow of General N. A. Baker, for many years the

popular adjutant-general of the State. The office of State

librarian was filled by Mrs. Ada North for seven years, and is

now held by Mrs. S. B. Maxwell. Mrs. North is (1885) librarian of

the State University at Iowa City.

The State insane hospitals are inspected by a visiting

commission, one of whom is a woman. Several of the city hospitals

are managed by women of the Catholic orders. The reform schools

have a woman on their board of trustees, of whom Governor Sherman

was graciously pleased to say that "she discovered more of the

true inwardness of the institution in three days than her

honorable colleague had done in three years."

In 1876 Governor Kirkwood appointed Mrs. Nancy R. Allen notary

public. He also appointed Mrs. Merrill as teacher and chaplain at

the State penitentiary, Miss McCowen as physician of the State

insane asylum, and Dr. Sara A. Pangborn, one of the staff of

physicians of the insane hospital at Independence.

In 1874 Governor Carpenter appointed Mrs. Deborah Cattell a

commissioner to investigate the alleged cruelty in the State

Reform School at Eldora; and for this service she was paid the

same as men who served on the same commission. Governor Gear

appointed Dr. Abbie M. Cleaves delegate from Iowa to the National

Conference of Charities and Correction, and to the National

Association for the Protection of the Insane and the Prevention

of Insanity, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio, July, 1880. Mrs.

Mary Wright and Dr. Abbie Cleaves were commissioned to the

conference of the same associations at Louisville, Ky., in 1883.

The legislature of 1880 appointed Jane C. McKinney one of the

trustees of the Hospital for the Insane, at Independence.

The eighteenth General Assembly, 1880, passed an act to extend to

women the right to hold the office of county recorder. A bill

giving them the right to hold the office of county auditor passed

the House, but was lost in the Senate. Under the above law Miss

Addie Hayden was elected recorder of Warren county by a majority

of 397 votes. She ran on an independent ticket. Mrs. C. J. Hill

was chosen recorder of Osceola county at the same election.

The instruction of the youth of Iowa has fallen largely into the

hands of women. During the year 1879 the number of women employed

as teachers was 13,579, while the number of men was 7,573. In the

larger towns and cities women are almost exclusively engaged as

teachers. Miss Phebe Ludlow, after having for several years

acceptably discharged the duties of city superintendent of

schools at Davenport, was elected professor of English language

and literature in the State University at Iowa City. The chair is

still occupied by a woman, as is that of instructor of

mathematics and several other branches in that institution,

which, to the honor of Iowa be it said, always opened its doors

to both sexes alike.

The question of the eligibility of women to the office of county

superintendent of public schools having arisen by the election of

Miss Julia C. Addington in the autumn of 1869, the matter was

referred to the attorney-general by the State superintendent of

public instruction, and the following was his reply:

_Hon. A. S. Kissell, Superintendent of Public Instruction:_

DEAR SIR: Rights and privileges of persons (citizens) are

frequently extended but never abridged by implication. The

soundness and wisdom of this rule of construction is, I

believe, universally conceded. Two clauses of the

constitution, only, contain express provisions excluding

women from the rights and privileges in said provisions.

Section 1, of Article I., as to the right of suffrage, and

Section 4, of Article III., which provides that members of

the legislature must be free white male citizens. "Free" and

"white" have lost their meaning (if the words in that use

ever had any suitable or good meaning), but the word "male"

still retains its full force and effect. If this express

restriction exists in the constitution as to any other

office, it has escaped my notice. It is true that the words

"person" and "citizen" frequently occur in other parts of

the constitution in connection with eligibility and

qualification for office, and I fully admit that by

usage--"time-honored usage," if you will--these phrases have

in common acceptation been taken to mean man in the

masculine gender only, and to exclude woman. But a recent

decision in the Court Exchequer, England, holding that the

generic term "man" includes woman also, indicates our

progress from a crude barbarism to a better civilization.

The office of county superintendent was created by chapter

52 of the acts of the seventh General Assembly, laws of

1868, pages 52-72. Neither in that act, nor in any

subsequent legislation on the subject, have I been able to

find any express provisions making male citizenship a test

of eligibility for the place, or excluding women; and when I

look over the duties to be performed by that officer--as I

have with some care, and, I trust, not without interest--I

deem it exceedingly fortunate for the cause of education in

Iowa that there is no provision in the law preventing women

from holding the office of county superintendent of common

schools. I know that the pronoun "he" is frequently used in

different sections of the act, and referring to the officer;

but, as stated above, this privilege of the citizen cannot

be taken away or denied by intendment or implication; and

women are citizens as well and as much as men.

I need scarcely add that, in my opinion, Miss Addington is

eligible to the office to which she has been elected; that

she will be entitled to her pay when she qualifies and

discharges the duties of the office, and that her decisions

on appeal, as well as all her official acts, will be legal

and binding. It is perhaps proper to state that an opinion

on this question, substantially in agreement with the

present one, was sent from this office to a gentleman

writing from Osage, in Mitchell county, several weeks ago,

which for some reason unknown to me, seems not to have been

made public in the county. I have the honor to be, etc.,

HENRY O'CONNOR, _Attorney-General_.

Miss Addington, in her short letter of inquiry to the

superintendent, has the following modest conclusion: "The

position is not one I should have chosen for myself, but since my

friends have shown so much confidence in me, and many of them are

desirous that I should accept the office, I feel inclined to

gratify them, if it be found there is nothing incompatible in my

doing so."

The question of the eligibility of women to hold school offices

was again raised at the October election of 1875. Miss Elizabeth

S. Cooke was elected to the office of superintendent of common

schools in Warren county. The question of her right to hold the

office was carried by her opponent, Mr. Huff, to the District

Court of that county, by appeal; and that court decided that the

defendant, Miss Cooke, "being a woman, was ineligible to the

office." It was then carried to the Supreme Court of the State,

which held that "there is no constitutional inhibition upon the

rights of women to hold the office of county superintendent." In

the meantime, however, and immediately following the decision of

the Warren county judge, the General Assembly, March 2, 1876,

promptly came to the rescue and passed the following act, almost

unanimously:

SECTION 1. No person shall be deemed ineligible, by reason

of sex, to any school office in the State of Iowa.

SEC. 2. No person who may have been, or shall be, elected or

appointed to the office of county superintendent of common

schools, or director, in the State of Iowa, shall be

deprived of office by reason of sex.

Under the provisions of this law, and the above-cited decision of

the Supreme Court, Miss Cooke was allowed to serve out her term

of office without hindrance. Since that time women have been

elected, and discharged the duties of county superintendent with

great credit to themselves and advantage to the public. Women

have also been elected to other school offices in different parts

of the State. Mrs. Mary A. Work was unanimously elected

sub-director in district No. 6, Delaware township, Polk county,

in the spring of 1880; and soon after was made president of the

board--the first woman, so far as known, to fill the position of

president of a school board.

In 1877, in Frederica, Bremer county, Mrs. Mary Fisher attended

the school meeting, and was elected as one of the three

directors. The two others were men, one of whom immediately

resigned, saying he would not hold office with a woman. His

resignation was at once accepted. He further remarked that

"woman's place was _to hum_; she was out of her _spear_ to school

_meetin's_, _holdin'_ office," etc. Mrs. Fisher had been a

teacher for six years. Mrs. Shirley, another successful teacher,

accompanied Mrs. Fisher to the next school meeting, and both

ladies voted on all questions that came up for action, and

nothing was said against their doing so.

This year (1885) the school board of Des Moines elected Mrs. Lou.

M. Wilson to the office of city superintendent of public schools,

with a salary of $1,800 a year. She has in charge eighty

teachers, among whom are two men in the position of principals.

At the woman's congress, held at Des Moines in October, 1885, Dr.

Jennie McCowen, in her report for this State, said:

An increasing number of women have been elected on

school-boards, and are serving as officers and county

superintendents of schools. Last year six women served as

presidents, thirty-five as secretaries, and fifty as

treasurers of school-boards. Of the superintendents and

principals of graded schools about one in five is a woman;

of county superintendents, one in nine; of teachers in

normal institutes, one in three; of principals of secondary

institutions of learning, one in three; of tutors and

instructors in colleges, one in two; and in the twenty-three

higher institutions of learning, thirteen young women are

officiating as professors, and in three of these colleges

the secretary of the faculty is a woman. The State board of

examiners has one woman--Miss Ella A. Hamilton of Des

Moines--and the State superintendent of public instruction

has for a number of years availed himself of the valued

services of a woman for private secretary. The _Northwestern

Educational Journal_ is edited by a woman. At the last

meeting of the State Teachers' Association a committee was

appointed to prepare a regular course of reading for

teachers. This course is mainly professional and literary,

with a leaning toward the latter. A large number of these

reading circles have already been organized, and much

interest, and even enthusiasm, is being manifested by

teachers in all parts of the State. The school of Domestic

Economy, in connection with the Agricultural College, is in

charge of a woman as dean, and, although but a year old, has

made an auspicious beginning. A number of young ladies,

graduates of the State University and other literary

schools, have gone to the School of Domestic Economy to

finish their education.

Iowa has many women engaged as journalists. Prominent among these

is Miss Maggie VanPelt, city editor of the Dubuque _Times_. She

conducts her department very ably, and acceptably to her readers.

Whether an advocate for suffrage or not, she is certainly a

practical woman's rights woman. Independent and fearless, she

goes about day and night where she pleases, and wherever her

business calls her. A revolver, which she is known to carry,

makes it safe for her to walk the street at all hours. Mrs. Will

Hollingsworth, of the Sigourney _Review_, does a large part of

the writing for that paper, and assists in the management of the

establishment. _Woman's Hour_, edited by Mary J. Coggeshall, was

published by women at Des Moines two seasons, during the

exposition. Ten thousand copies were printed for free

distribution, and a handsomely decorated department granted the

society in the exposition for their work. Mrs. E. H. Hunter and

Mrs. Woods represented the society. Mrs. Pauline Swaim is noted

for her journalistic ability. Besides working on her husband's

paper, the Oskaloosa _Herald_, she has done much for the _State

Register_, reporting for it the proceedings of the Senate. In

October, 1875, Nettie Sanford started a paper at Marshalltown,

called _The Woman's Bureau_, which she published for two years.

During 1878 she published the _San Gabriel Valley News_, in

California. Mrs. L. M. Latham for many years conducted a suffrage

column in the Cedar Rapids _Times_; since 1884 she has been

associated with Mrs. J. L. Wilson on the _Transcript_, an eight

column paper devoted to general news, temperance and woman

suffrage. The paper is owned by Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Nettie P. Fox

edits the _Spiritual Offering_ at Ottumwa; Mrs. Hattie Campbell,

a suffrage department in _The Advance_, at Des Moines; Mary

Osborne edits the _Osceola Sentinel_, and is superintendent of

the public schools of Clark county; Mrs. Lafayette Young is

engaged on the _Atlantic Telegraph_. Very many papers in the

State have women in charge of one or more columns.

In the humbler walks of literature Iowa can boast quite a number

of women who have made successful attempts at authorship.[415] In

sculpture Mrs. Harriet A. Ketcham, of Mt. Pleasant, deserves

mention. She has the exclusive contract to model the prominent

men of Iowa for the new capitol. Mrs. Estelle E. Vore, Mrs. Cora

R. Fracker, and Miss Emma G. Holt, are known as musical

composers.

Among the lecturers of Iowa, Mrs. Matilda Fletcher is worthy of

mention. Though she has never made woman suffrage a specialty,

she is sound on that question, and frequently introduces it

incidentally in her lectures. In 1869 she was living in obscurity

in Council Bluffs, her husband being employed as a teacher in one

of the suburban schools. Young, girlish-looking, no one seeing

her would have dreamed of her possessing the capabilities she has

since displayed. She started out under many discouragements, but

has shown a perseverance, a self-reliance, and an indomitable

will that few women manifest in the same direction. Mrs. Fletcher

has been employed by the Republican party during some of the most

important and exciting campaigns, speaking throughout the State,

in halls, tents, and in the open air. Every such effort on the

part of woman is an advantage to the cause we advocate, bringing

it nearer to final success. But it is to Mrs. Stanton, Miss

Anthony, Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Livermore, and other lyceum

lecturers[416] that our State is especially indebted for a

knowledge of the true principles upon which woman founds her

claim to equal civil and political rights with man. In all

sections of our land their voices have been heard by interested

and delighted audiences.

There are about one hundred and fifty women in the medical

profession in the different cities of the State. Mrs. Yeomans, of

Clinton, is a successful practitioner. Mrs. King, allopathist,

and Mrs. Hortz, homeopathist, are regular graduates in good

practice at Des Moines. Dr. Harding, electrician, and Dr. Hilton,

allopathist, also graduates, have all the practice they can

attend to in Council Bluffs. In 1883, Dr. Jennie McCowen was

elected president of the Scott County Medical Society. This was

the first time a woman was ever elected to that office in this

State, if not in the United States.

It is quite sure that Iowa may justly claim the first woman in

the profession of dentistry--Mrs. Lucy B. Hobbs, as early as

1863.[417] At Cresco there is the firm of Dr. L. F. & Mrs. M. E.

Abbott, dental surgeons. At Mt. Pleasant, Mrs. M. E. Hildreth is

a licensed dentist in successful practice.

Rev. Augusta Chapin was, I think, the first woman to enter the

sacred office in this State. Miss Safford, Algona; Mrs. Gillette,

Knoxville; Mrs. M. A. Folsom, Marshalltown; Florence E. Kollock,

Waverly; Mrs. M. J. Janes, Spencer; Mrs. Hartsough, Ft. Dodge,

are regularly ordained preachers of the Universalist and

Unitarian faiths. There are several licensed preachers of the M.

E. Church, but none have received regular ordination.

Iowa furnished the following women who went to the front as

nurses during the war: Mrs. Harlan, wife of Senator Harlan; Mrs.

Almira Fales, Mrs. Anne Wittenmeyer, Miss Phebe Allen, Mrs.

Jerusha R. Small, Miss Melcena Elliott, Mrs. Arabella Tannehill.

These all did good service in hospital and on the field, and some

of them laid down their lives as a sacrifice. We copy the

following as one of the many facts of the war:

Some years ago Adjutant-General Baker of Des Moines received

a letter of inquiry asking about a certain soldier in the

Twenty-fourth Iowa infantry. The tone of the letter was so

peculiar as to attract considerable attention and create

much comment in the office. In reply the general stated that

the records of the regiment and the record of the soldier

(whom, for the sake of convenience, we will call Smith,

although that is far from the real name) were in his office.

A few days afterwards a gentleman from Northern Iowa

appeared, inquired for General Baker, and was closeted with

him long enough to divulge the following singular tale:

When the war broke out Miss Mary Smith, daughter of the

general's visitor, was residing in Ohio, working for a

farmer. Her father's family had moved to Iowa the fall

preceding the attack on Sumter, leaving Mary behind to

follow in the spring. Various causes conspired to delay her

departure for her Iowa home until autumn, and it was

September before she landed at Muscatine, from which place

she expected to travel by land to her father's house. She

was a large-sized, hearty-looking girl, eighteen years of

age. Arriving at Muscatine, some strange freak induced her

to assume man's apparel and enlist in the Twenty-fourth

infantry, then in rendezvous at that city. She did this

without exciting any suspicion, burned all her feminine

garments and papers, neglected to inform her friends of her

arrival, and became a soldier. Some comment was elicited by

her beardless face and girlish appearance, but as she did

her duty promptly and was particularly handy in cooking and

taking care of the sick, the young warrior speedily became a

general favorite alike with officers and men.

She passed through all the campaigns in which the regiment

was engaged without a scratch, except a close call from a

minie ball at Sabine's Cross Roads, which took the skin off

the back of her left hand, voted with the other members of

the regiment for president in 1864, and was finally mustered

out with her comrades at the close of the war. When she was

discharged she procured female apparel--although in doing so

she was obliged to make a confidant of one of her own

sex--and procured work in Illinois, not far from Rock

Island. Six months elapsed before the tan of five summers

wore off, and when she had again become "white," and had

re-learned the almost forgotten customs of womanhood, she

presented herself at her father's house, where she was

received with open arms.

To all the questions which were asked by the various members

of the family she replied that she had been honestly

employed, and had never forsaken the right way. She had been

economical in the army, and invested several hundred dollars

in land in Northern Iowa, which rapidly appreciated in

value, and to-day she is well off. With the remainder of her

money she attended school. Last January a worthy man, who

had been in the same regiment, but in a different company,

made her an offer of marriage. Like a true woman she was

unwilling to bestow her hand when any part of her former

life was unknown, and before accepting the offer she made to

him a full revelation of her soldier-days. At first he could

not believe it, but when she proceeded to narrate events and

incidents which could be known only to active participants

in them, told of marches, camps, skirmishes, battles, and

the thousand and one things which never appear in print, but

which ever remain living pictures with "old soldiers," he

was obliged to accept the strange tale as true. The story,

however, did not lessen his regard for her, and about the

first of February they were married.

The lady's father, after hearing the tale of her life, was

still incredulous, and only satisfied himself of its truth

by a visit to the adjutant-general's office and an

inspection of the records. By comparing dates furnished him

by his daughter with the original rolls there on file he

became fully convinced that it was all true.

A few of the inventions patented by women of Iowa are the

following:

Fly-screen door-attachment, by Phoebe R. Lamborne, West

Liberty; photograph-album, Viola J. Angie, Spencer;

step-ladder, Mrs. Mary J. Gartrell, Des Moines;

baking-powder can with measure combined, Mrs. Lillie

Raymond, Osceola; egg-stand, Mrs. M. E. Tisdale, Cedar

Rapids; egg-beater, and self-feeding griddle-greaser, Mrs.

Eugenia Kilborn, Cedar Rapids; tooth-pick holder, Mrs.

Ayers, Clinton; thermometer to regulate oven heat, Mrs. F.

Grace, Perry; the excelsior ironing-table, Mrs. S. L. Avery,

Marion; neck-yoke and pole-attachment, by which horses can

be instantly detached from the vehicle, Maria Dunham,

Dunlap; invalid bed, Mrs. Anna P. Forbes, Dubuque.

In the various business avocations I find the following:

Mrs. T. Nodles is the largest fancy grocer in the State,

doing a yearly business of $80,000. Mrs. C. F. Barron, Cedar

Rapids, designs and manufactures perforated embroidery

patterns. Statistics show there are nine hundred and

fifty-five Iowa women who own and direct farms; eighteen

manage farms; six own and direct stock-farms; twenty manage

dairy-farms; five own green-houses; nine manage

market-gardens; thirty-seven manage high institutions of

learning; one hundred and twenty-five are physicians; five

attorneys-at-law; ten ministers; three dentists; one hundred

and ten professional nurses, and one civil engineer.

In the summer of 1884, the Fort Dodge _Messenger_ had this

paragraph about a Des Moines family:

Miss Kate Tupper, of Des Moines, has been in town, visiting

at Mr. Bassett's for a few days. Kate comes of a family

which is remarkable for intelligent womanly effort and

success. Her mother is Mrs. Ellen S. Tupper, the Bee-queen

of Iowa, whose work on bee-culture is a recognized

authority everywhere; her eldest sister is a very eloquent

preacher at Colorado Springs; Miss Kate is studying

medicine, having taken herself through a full course at the

Agricultural College by her own work; and Miss Madge, who is

only sixteen, is a famous poultry raiser, and an officer of

the State Poultry Association, who has made money enough in

this business to defray her entire expenses through a full

collegiate course. Mrs. Tupper's family is a sufficient

answer to the question of woman's work, if there were no

other. Let any mother in Iowa show three boys who can beat

this.

In this year Mrs. Louisa B. Stevens was elected president of the

First National Bank at Marion, Linn county. The important

position women are taking in the business world is illustrated by

the presence of two delegates at the meeting of the American

Street Railway Association held in St. Louis in the autumn of

1885--Mrs. L. V. Gredenburg, proprietor and treasurer of the New

Albany Street Railway of New Albany, Ind., and Mrs. M. A. Turner,

secretary and treasurer of the Des Moines Railway, Des Moines,

Ia. One of the gentlemen expressed the belief that fully

$25,000,000 of street-railway stock in this country is owned by

women.

As to the distribution of the cardinal virtues between men and

women it is generally claimed that the former possess courage,

the latter fortitude. Although the pages of history are gilded

with innumerable instances of the remarkable courage of women of

all ages and conditions, and oftimes dimmed with the records of

cowardice in men of all classes, yet what has been said for

generations will probably be repeated, even in the face of so

remarkable a fact as the following:

On March 1, 1882, the Iowa House of Representatives, on

motion of Hon. A. J. Holmes, suspended the rules and passed

a bill introduced by that gentleman providing for the

presentation of a gold medal and the thanks of the General

Assembly of the State of Iowa to Miss Kate Shelly, to which

was added a money appropriation of two hundred dollars,

which passed both Houses and became a law.

In support of the bill, Mr. Holmes spoke as follows:

Mr. Speaker: No apology is required for the introduction of

this bill, and I shall make no explanation in regard to it,

save a brief _resume_ of the facts upon which the bill is

based. Miss Kate Shelly, with her widowed mother and little

sisters and brother, lives in a humble home on the

hill-side, in a rugged country skirting the Des Moines

River. Her father had died years ago in the service of the

great railway company whose line for some distance is

overlooked by her home, while her mother, by economy, severe

toil, and the assistance of Kate, was able to support her

little family.

On the night of July 6, 1881, about 8 o'clock, there

commenced one of the most memorable storms that ever visited

Central Iowa; nothing like it had ever been witnessed by the

oldest inhabitants. The Des Moines river rose over six feet

in one hour--little rills that were dry almost the year

round, suddenly developed into miniature rivers--massive

railway bridges and lines of track were swept away as if

they had been cobwebs. It was while looking out of her

window toward the high railroad bridge over Honey Creek,

that Kate Shelley saw the advancing head-light of a

locomotive descend into an abyss and become extinguished,

carrying with it the light of two lives. It was then she

realized in all its force that a terrible catastrophe had

occurred, and another more terrible, if not averted, would

soon follow to the east-bound express train, heavily laden

with passengers from the Pacific. She announced to her

mother, sisters and brother, that she must go to the scene

of the accident, and render assistance if possible, and also

warn the oncoming passenger train.

It was in vain they tried to dissuade her. Although she was

obliged to almost improvise a lantern in many of its parts,

it was but a few minutes before she was ready to set out.

Realizing then that her mission was one of peril, and that

she might not again look upon those dear faces, she kissed

each of them affectionately, and amid their sobs, hurried

out into the gloom, into the descending floods, toward the

rushing torrents--drenched to the skin, on she passed toward

the railroad to the well remembered foot-log, only to find

the waters rushing along high above and beyond the place

where it had been. Then she thought of the great bluff

rising to the west of her home and extending southward

toward the railroad track, and she determined to ascend it

and reach the bridge over this barrier to the waters. Need I

recount how she struggled on and up through the thick oak

undergrowth, that, being storm-laden drooped and made more

difficult her passage; how with clothing torn, and hands and

face bleeding she arrived at the end of the bridge, and

standing out upon the last tie she peered down into the

abyss of waters with her dim light, and called to know if

any one was there alive. In answer to her repeated calls

came the answer of the engineer, who had caught hold of and

made a lodgment in a tree-top, and around whom the waters

were still rapidly rising, sending floating logs, trees, and

driftwood against his frail support, and threatening

momentarily to dislodge and engulf him.

It took but a moment to be assured that he was the survivor

of four men who went down with the engine, and after a

moment's hurried consultation, she started for Moingona, a

mile distant, to secure assistance and to warn the

eastward-bound passenger train then nearly due. As she

passed along the high grade it seemed as if she must be

blown over the embankment, and still the heavens seemed to

give not rain but a deluge. As she approached the railway

bridge over the Des Moines river the light in her lantern,

her only guide and protection, went out. It was then that

the heroic soul of this child of only sixteen years became

most fully apparent; facing the storm which almost took away

her breath, and enveloped in darkness that rendered every

object in nature invisible, she felt her way to the railroad

bridge. Here she must pass for a distance of four or five

hundred feet over the rushing river beneath on the naked

ties. As the wind swept the bridge she felt how unsafe it

would be to attempt walking over it, and getting down upon

her hands and knees, clutching the timbers with an almost

despairing energy, she painfully and at length successfully

made the passage. She reached the station, and having told

of the catastrophe at the bridge, and requested the stoppage

of the passenger train then about due, she fainted and fell

upon the platform. This very briefly, wanting in much that

is meritorious in it, is the story of Kate Shelly and the

6th of July. Her parents were countrymen of Sarsfield, of

Emmett, and O'Connell--of the land that has given heroes to

every other and dishonored none. It was an act well worthy

to rank her with that other heroine, who, launching her

frail craft from the long stone pier, braved the terrible

seas on that Northumberland coast to save the lives of

others at the risk of her own.

Mr. Holmes then produced a copy of the _State Register_, and

requested the clerk to read the article therein contained,

giving the details of the heroic girl's action, written at

the time of its occurrence, and after the clerk had read the

article, concluded by saying: "I hope, Mr. Speaker, that

this bill may pass, believing that it is right, and further

believing that the State of Iowa will do itself as much

honor as the young lady named in the bill, in thus

recognizing the greatest debt in our power to pay--that to

humanity." Mr. Pickler moved to amend by instructing the

gentleman from Boone (Mr. Holmes) to make the presentation.

Carried, and the bill was amended accordingly, as above. On

motion of Mr. Holmes, the rules were suspended, and the bill

passed by a vote of 90 to 1. The governor of the State, Hon.

A. J. Holmes, and Hon. J. D. Gillett were authorized to

procure a medal of design and inscription to be approved by

them, and present the same to the donee with the thanks of

the General Assembly of the State of Iowa.

The medal, which is of elegant design and workmanship, was

executed by Messrs Tiffany & Co., of New York, and was

presented to Miss Shelly during the holidays of 1883. It is

round in form, about three inches in diameter and weighs

four ounces five and a half pennyweights. On both sides it

is sunken below the circular edges and the figures and

decorations are then displayed in bold relief. On the face

is a figure emblematic of Kate Shelly's daring exploit. It

represents a young girl with a lantern in her left hand and

her right thrown far out in warning, her hair streaming in

the wind and her wet drapery clinging to her form, making

her way over the ties of a high railroad bridge, in storm

and tempest, with the lightning playing about her. In a

semi-circle over the figure are the words: "Heroism, Youth,

Humanity." On the reverse is the following inscription:

"Presented by the State of Iowa to Kate Shelly, with the

thanks of the General Assembly, in recognition of the

courage and devotion of a child of fifteen years, whom

neither the terror of the elements nor the fear of death

could appal in her efforts to save human life during the

terrible storm and flood in the Des Moines valley on the

night of July 6, 1881."

Surrounding the inscription is a wreath of leaves and

beneath it the great seal of Iowa.

The presentation was made at Ogden in the presence of 3,000

people. It was given in the name of the State of Iowa by Mr.

Welker Given, secretary to Governor Sherman, July 4, 1884,

who represented the governor in his necessary absence. Hon.

J. A. T. Hull, Secretary of State, introduced Miss Shelly

and recounted her heroic deed of that fearful night, after

which Mr. Given made the presentation speech. The response

on behalf of Miss Shelly was made by Professor J. D. Curran,

an old friend and teacher.

All very well, but how much better to have placed Kate Shelly

(bearing the name of one of England's great poets) in the

University at Des Moines, and given her a thorough education,

from the primary through the whole collegiate course, and the

school for law, medicine, or theology. A girl capable of such

heroism and self-sacrifice must possess capacities and powers

worthy the highest opportunities for development. Kate Shelly,

with the scientific training of a civil engineer, might shed far

more honor on her native State than sitting in ignorance and

poverty on the banks of the Des Moines river with a gold medal

round her neck.

The Patrons of Husbandry, having at one time as many as 1,998

Granges in the State, admit women to equal membership and equal

rights. They have the same privileges in debate as men, and an

equal vote in all matters concerning the Grange. The Grangers do

not seem to fear that the children will suffer, or home interests

be neglected, on account of this liberty given to women. Miss

Garretson is State agent and lecturer for this order, and has

accomplished much good by her labors among the people of the

rural districts. She claims equal rights for woman even to the

ballot. The Independent Order of Good Templars passed resolutions

unqualifiedly committing the grand lodge of the State in favor of

granting suffrage to woman, and pledging themselves to labor for

the furtherance of that object. Temperance women who have

heretofore opposed the enfranchisement of their sex, and objected

to mixing the two questions, are coming to see that a powerless,

disfranchised class can do little toward removing the great evil

that is filling the land with pauperism and crime, and sending

sixty thousand victims annually to a drunkard's grave. They have

prayed and plead with the liquor-seller; they have petitioned

electors and law-makers, but all in vain; and now they begin to

see that work must accompany prayer, and that if they would save

their sons from destruction they must strike a blow in their

defense that will be felt by the enemy. Hence the Christian

Temperance Union, which at the outset declared itself opposed to

woman suffrage, has now resolved in favor of that measure as a

necessity for the furtherance of their cause.

On March 31, 1880, Judith Ellen Foster, of Clinton, made an able

and eloquent argument before the Senate Committee on Education

and Labor, at Washington, on Senator Logan's proposition to

constitute the revenue on alcoholic liquors a national

educational fund. At a meeting of the State Union held in 1883,

resolutions were passed, declaring woman's efforts in temperance

of no avail, until with ballots in their own hands, they could

coin their ideas and sympathies into law, and that henceforward

they would labor to secure that power, that would speedily make

their prayers and tears of some avail. This action gave a new

impetus to the suffrage movement. At the State convention, Mrs.

Jane Amy M'Kinney was appointed Superintendent of Franchise.

Circulars were issued advising the Unions to make suffrage a part

of their local work, and the advice was promptly followed in many

sections of the State. At the election on the prohibitory

amendment, June 29, 1882, women rallied at the polls, and

furnished tickets to all whom they could persuade to take them,

and this helped to roll up a large vote in favor of the

amendment.

The laws of Iowa have been comparatively liberal to woman, and

with each successive codification have been somewhat improved. By

the code of 1857, the old right of dower, or life interest in

one-third of the real estate of a deceased husband, was made an

absolute interest; and this is the law at the present time. Of

the personal property, the wife takes one-third if there are

children, and one-half if there are no children to inherit. The

same rule applies to the husband of a deceased wife. The codes of

1857 and 1860 each provided that the husband could not remove the

wife, nor their children, from their homestead without the

consent of the wife; and the code of 1875, now in force, changed

this only so as to provide that neither shall the wife remove the

husband without his consent. Deeds of real estate must be signed

by both husband and wife, but no private examination of either

has ever been required in Iowa. A husband and wife may deed

property directly to each other.

By the code of 1851 the personal property of the wife did not

vest at once in the husband, but if left within his control it

became liable for his debts, unless she filed a notice with the

recorder of deeds, setting forth her claim to the property, with

an exact description. And the same rule applied to specific

articles of personal property. Married women abandoned by their

husbands could be authorized, on proper application to the

District Court, to transact business in their own name. The same

provisions were substantially reenacted in the code of 1860.

Under both codes the husband was entitled to the wages and

earnings of his wife, and could sue for them in the courts.

But the code of 1873 made a great advance in recognizing the

rights of married women; and it is said the revisers sought, as

far as possible, to place the husband and wife on an entire

equality as to property rights. By its provisions, a married

woman may own, in her own right, real and personal property

acquired by descent, gift or purchase; and she may manage, sell,

convey, and devise the same by will to the same extent, and in

the same manner, that the husband can property belonging to him.

And this provision is followed by others which fully confer on

the married woman the control of her own property. Among other

things it is enacted, that a wife may receive the wages of her

personal labor, and maintain an action therefor in her own name,

and hold the same in her own right; and she may prosecute and

defend all actions at law, or in equity, for the preservation and

protection of her rights and property. Contracts may be made by a

wife, and liabilities incurred, and the same may be enforced by,

or against her, to the same extent as though she were unmarried.

The property of both husband and wife is equally liable for the

expenses of the family and the education of their children, and

neither is liable for the debts of the other contracted before

marriage. By the code of 1873, now in force, it is declared that

the parents are the natural guardians of their children, and are

equally entitled to their care and custody; and either parent

dying before the other, the survivor becomes the guardian.

But notwithstanding the seemingly equal provisions of our code,

there is still a great disparity in the laws relating to the

joint property of husband and wife--or property accumulated

during marriage by their joint earnings and savings. Such

property, whether real or personal, is generally held in the name

of the husband--no matter how much his wife may have helped to

accumulate it. If the wife dies, the husband still holds it all,

and neither law nor lawyers can molest him, or question his right

to it. But if the husband dies, the case is very different.

Instead of being left in quiet possession of what is rightfully

her own, to use and guard with all a mother's care and

watchfulness for the benefit of her children, the law comes in

and claims the right to appoint administrators and guardians--to

require bonds and a strict accountability from her, and to set

off to her a certain share of what should be as wholly hers as it

is the husband's when the wife dies.

This is the old common law, that has come down to us from

barbarous times, and the light of the nineteenth century has not

yet been sufficient to so illumine the minds of Iowa legislators

as to enable them to render exact justice to woman.

FOOTNOTES:

[395] In 1849 her husband was, appointed post-master, she became

his deputy, was duly sworn in, and during the administration of

Taylor and Fillmore served in that capacity. When she assumed her

duties the improvement in the appearance and conduct of the office

was generally acknowledged. A neat little room adjoining became a

kind of ladies' exchange where those coming from different parts of

the town could meet to talk over the contents of the last _Lily_

and the progress of the woman suffrage movement in general. Those

who enjoyed the brief interregnum of a woman in the post-office,

can readily testify to the loss to the ladies of the village and

the void felt by all when Mrs. Bloomer and the _Lily_ left for the

West and men again reigned supreme.

Mr. and Mrs. Bloomer removed to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in 1853, and the

publication of the _Lily_ was continued; she was also the associate

editor of the _Western Home Visitor_. Mrs. Bloomer lectured in the

principal cities of Ohio and throughout the north-west, and was one

of a committee of five appointed to memorialize the legislature of

Ohio for a prohibitory law, and assisted in the formation of

several lodges of Good Templars.

[396] The officers were: _President_, Mrs. D. S. Wilson;

_Vice-President_, Mrs. W. P. Sage; _Secretary_, Mrs. J. S.

McCreery; _Corresponding Secretary_, Mrs. Mary N. Adams.

[397] Frank Allen.

[398] Lucy Stone, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Cutler, Mrs.

Livermore, Anna Dickinson, Phoebe Couzins, Mrs. Swisshelm, Miss

Hindman and Mrs. Campbell, from abroad; Mesdames Savery, Callanan,

Gray, Pittman, Boynton, Harbert, Brown, and Messrs. Fuller,

Pomeroy, Rutkay, Cole, and Maxwell, of the city, have each in turn

come to the aid and encouragement of the society's work.

[399] For information regarding Des Moines I am indebted to Mary A.

Work, one of the most able advocates of woman suffrage in the

State.

[400] _President_, Porte Welch; _Secretary_, Mattie Griffith

Davenport.

[401] _President_, Amelia Bloomer; _Vice-Presidents_, C. Munger

and Mary McPherson; _Recording Secretary_, Ada McPherson;

_Corresponding Secretary_, Will Shoemaker; _Treasurer_, E. S.

Barnett.

[402] Its officers were: _President_, Nettie Sanford; _Secretary_,

Mrs. Fred. Baum; _Treasurer_, Mrs. Dr. Whealen.

[403] _President_, M. W. Stough; _Secretary_, Lizzie B. Read. Mrs.

Read was president of the State society in 1873, and Mrs. C. A.

Ingham in 1881.

[404] _President_, Hon. John E. Goodenow; _Vice-Presidents_, Nancy

R. Allen, Mrs. M. J. Stephens, Mrs. A. B. Wilbur; _Secretary_, Mrs.

E. D. Stewart; _Corresponding Secretary_, Mrs. Julia Dunham;

_Treasurer_, Mrs. T. P. Connell; _Executive Committee_, Mrs. S.

Stephens, Mrs. Julia Doe, Mrs. Polly Hamley, Dr. J. H. Allen, W. S.

Belden.

[405] _President_, Henry O'Connor; _Vice-Presidents_, Amelia

Bloomer, Nettie Sanford, Mrs. Frank Palmer, Joseph Dugdale, John P.

Irish; _Secretary_, Belle Mansfield; _Corresponding Secretary_,

Annie C. Savery; _Executive Committee_, Mary A. P. Darwin, Mattie

Griffith Davenport, Mrs. J.L. McCreery, Rev. Augusta Chapin, Hon.

Charles Beardsley.

[406] Assistant postmaster-general under President Arthur.

[407] Mary A.P. Darwin, professor of the college, and Hon. Charles

Beardsley, editor of the _Hawkeye_, Burlington; Hon. Henry

O'Connor, Muscatine; Mary N. Adams, Dubuque; Annie C. Savery, Des

Moines; Amelia Bloomer, Council Bluffs; A.P. Lowrie, Marshalltown;

Mrs. Beavers, Valisca. Hannah Tracy Cutler of Illinois, was the

leading speaker; Edwin A. Studwell of New York representing _The

Revolution_, Col. George Corkhill, Joseph Dugdale, Rev. Mr. Cooper,

Mt. Pleasant, were also in attendance.

[408] The speakers were Mr. Rutkay, Mrs. Sanford, Mrs. Bloomer,

Mrs. Spaulding, Mrs. Savery. Encouraging letters were read from

Joseph A. Dugdale, and Hon. Henry O'Connor, president of the

association. The officers for 1871 were: _President_, Mrs.

Amelia Bloomer; _Recording Secretary_, Mrs. Belle Mansfield;

_Corresponding Secretary_, Mrs. Annie Savery; _Treasurer_, Mrs. M.

Callanan.

[409] _Yeas_, Senators Beardsley, Bemis, Burke, Campbell, Chambers,

Converse, Dague, Dashiell, Dysart, Howland, Hurley, Kephart,

Maxwell, McCold, McKean, McNutt, Read, Shane, Smith, Vale, West,

Young--22. _Nays_, Senators Allen, Boomer, Claussen, Crary,

Fairall, Fitch, Gault, Havens, Ireland, Ketcham, Kinne, Larrabee,

Leavitt, Lowry, McCollough, Merrill, Miles, Murray, Russell, Stone,

Stewart, Taylor, Willett, Wonn--24. Senator Murray had voted in the

affirmative in the first instance, but changed his vote in order to

be able to move a reconsideration of the vote, by which the

resolution was lost.

[410] The names of the representatives voting on the Woman Suffrage

amendment are as follows (Republicans in Roman, Democrats in

Italics): YEAS--Allen, _Baker_, _Bolter_, Brooks, Brush, Calvin,

Campbell, Case, Chapman, Clark of Johnson, Cleveland, Colvin,

Craver, Deweese, Giltner, Given, Glendenning, Glover, Hall, Hoag,

Homer, Horton, _Hotchkiss_, _Hunt_, Irwin of Warren, Jaqua, Jordan,

Johnson of Benton, Kauffman, Lane, Lathrop, _Lynch_, McCartney,

McHugh, McNeill, Madden of Polk, _Madison_, Maris, Mills, Moffit,

Morse of Wright, Norris, Palmer, Proudfoot, Rae, Reed of Howard,

Robinson, Said, Scott, Smith, Tice, Underwood, Ure, Wilson--54.

NAYS--Auld, Benton, _Birchard_, _Brown_, Bush, _Christy_, _Clark_

of Marion, _Crawford_ of Dubuque, Danforth, _Dixon_, _Elliot_,

Evans, Fuller, _Gibbons_, Gilliland, _Gray_, _Harned_, Hemenway,

_Hobbs_, _Horstman_, _Johnston_ of Dubuque, Johnson of Winneshiek,

McCune, _Madden_ of Taylor, Manning, _Mentzel_, Morse of Adams,

_Mueller_, Reed of Jackson, Rees, Shaw, Simmons, Stone, Stuart,

_Stuckey_, _Thayer_, _White_, Williams, _Young_, Mr. Speaker (John

W. Gear)--40. Absent--Shepardson, Graves, Irwin of Lee, Seevers,

McElderry, _Crawford_ of Scott.

The vote in the Senate was: YEAS--Arnold, Bailey, Campbell,

Conaway, Dashiell, Dwelle, Gallup, Gilmore, Graham, Harmon, Hersey,

Jessup, McCoid, Miller of Appanoose, Miller of Blackhawk, Mitchell,

Newton, Nichols, Perkins, Thornburg, Wood, Woolson--22.

NAYS--Bestow, Carr, Clark, Cooley, Dows, Hartshorn, Hebard,

_Kinne_, Larrabee, Lovell, _McCormack_, _Maginnis_, _Merrell_ of

Clinton, Merrill of Wapello, _Pease_, Rothert, Rumple, Teale,

Willett, Williams, _Wilson_, _Wonn_, Wright--23. ABSENT--Hitchcock

(who was sick and died in a few days), yea; _Murphy_, nay; Shane

(resigned on account of being appointed district judge), yea;

_Stoneham_, nay; Young, nay.

[411] Narcissa T. Bemis of Independence was reelected president,

and Mary A. Work chairman of the executive committee, with

headquarters at Des Moines; Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell was made

State lecturer and organizer, and Mariana T. Folsom financial

secretary of the association.

[412] Mrs. M. A. Darwin, Mrs. Martha Callanan, Mrs. Judith Ellen

Foster, superintendents of the franchise department of the W. C. T.

U. of the State, rolled up petitions in their respective districts;

and Mrs. Campbell and Miss Hindman aided largely in gathering the

signatures.

[413] In August, 1875, at Oskaloosa; October, 1880, Fort Dodge;

1881, Marshalltown; 1883, Ottumwa; 1885, Cedar Rapids; all of the

intervening anniversaries have been held at Des Moines. The

presidents of the State society since its organization have been

Attorney-General Henry O'Connor, Amelia Bloomer, Lizzie B. Read,

Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Mrs. Dr. Porter, James Callanan, Martha

C. Callanan, Mrs. Caroline A. Ingham, Narcissa T. Bemis, Margaret

W. Campbell. When the society was organized, in 1870, it declared

itself independent and remained thus until 1879, when, by a small

vote, it was made auxiliary to the American Association. The

officers for 1885 are: _President_, Mrs. M. W. Campbell, Des

Moines; _Treasurer_, Mrs. Eliza H. Hunter, Des Moines; _Recording

Secretary_, Mrs. Jennie Wilson, Cedar Rapids; _Corresponding

Secretary_, Mrs. Martha C. Callanan, Des Moines; _Executive

Committee_, Mary J. Coggeshall, _Chairman_; R. Amanda Stewart,

Harriet G. Bellanger, Des Moines; Orilla M. James, Knoxville;

Florence English, Grinnell; Ellen Armstrong, Ottumwa; Narcissa T.

Bemis, Independence; Angeline Allison, Cedar Rapids; Elizabeth P.

Gue, Des Moines.

[414] At the State Fair held September, 1885, at Des Moines, the

women had a very handsomely decorated booth where they received

many hundred calls, distributed an immense amount of suffrage

literature, obtained a thousand signatures to a petition to the

legislature and wrote notes of the fair for various newspapers, in

all of which woman suffrage was freely discussed.

[415] In literature there is "Europe through a Woman's Eye," by

Mrs. Cutler of Burlington; "The Waverly Dictionary," by Miss May

Rogers, Dubuque; "Common-School Compendium," by Mrs. Lamphere, Des

Moines; "Hospital Life," by Mrs. Sarah Young, Des Moines; "Wee

Folks of No Man's Land," by Mrs. Wetmore, Dubuque; "Two of Us," by

Calista Patchin, Des Moines; "For Girls," by Mrs. E. R. Shepherd,

Marshalltown; "Autumn Leaves," by Mrs. Scott, Greencastle;

"Phonetic Pronunciation," by Mrs. Henderson, Salem; "Her Lovers,"

by Miss Claggett, Keokuk; "Practical Ethics," by Matilda Fletcher.

There are several writers of cook-books, of medical and sanitary

papers, of poems, of legal papers and of musical compositions. Miss

Adeline M. Payne of Nevada has compiled catalogues of stock.

[416] Miss Anthony has given her lecture, entitled "Woman Wants

Bread, not the Ballot," in over one hundred of the cities and

villages of the State; and Mrs. Stanton and the others have

doubtless lectured in fully as many places.

[417] See New York chapter, page 401.

CHAPTER XLVI.

WISCONSIN.

Progressive Legislation--The Rights of Married Women--The

Constitution Shows Four Classes Having the Right to Vote--Woman

Suffrage Agitation--C. L. Sholes' Minority Report, 1856--Judge

David Noggle and J. T. Mills' Minority Report, 1859--State

Association Formed, 1869--Milwaukee Convention--Dr. Laura

Ross--Hearing Before the Legislature--Convention in Janesville,

1870--State University--Elizabeth R. Wentworth--Suffrage

Amendment, 1880, '81, '82--Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine,

1877--Madame Anneke--Judge Ryan--Three Days' Convention at

Racine, 1883--Eveleen L. Mason--Dr. Sarah Munro--Rev. Dr.

Corwin--Lavinia Goodell, Lawyer--Angie King--Kate Kane.

For this digest of facts in regard to the progress of woman in

Wisconsin we are indebted to Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott,[418] who was

probably the first woman to practice medicine in a Western State.

She was in Philadelphia during all the contest about the admission

of women to hospitals and mixed classes, maintained her dignity and

self-respect in the midst of most aggravating persecutions, and was

graduated with high honors in 1856 from the Woman's Medical College

of Pennsylvania, of which Ann Preston,[419] M. D., was professor

for nineteen years, six years dean of the faculty, and four years

member of the board of incorporators. After graduation Laura Ross

spent two years in study abroad, and, returning, commenced practice

in Milwaukee, where she has been ever since.

By an act of Congress approved May 29, 1848, Wisconsin was

admitted to the Union. Its diversity of soil and timber, the

healthfulness of its climate and the purity of its waters,

attracted people from the New England and Middle States, who

brought with them fixed notions as to moral conduct and political

action, and no little repugnance to many of the features of the

old common law. Hence in Wisconsin's territorial conventions and

legislative assemblies many of the progressive ideas of the East

were incorporated into her statutes. Failing to lift married

women into any solid position of independence, the laws yet gave

them certain protective rights concerning the redemption of lands

sold for taxes, and the right to dispose of any estate less than

a fee without the husband's consent. In case of divorce the wife

was entitled to her personal estate, dower and alimony, and with

the consent of her husband she could devise her real estate. She

was entitled to dower in any lands of which the husband was

seized during marriage. Gen. A. W. Randall was active in making

the first digest and compilation of the laws of Wisconsin.

The legislature of 1850 was composed of notably intelligent men.

Nelson Dewey was governor, Moses M. Strong, a leading lawyer,

speaker of the Assembly, and the late Col. Samuel W. Beal,

lieutenant-governor. Early in the session a bill was introduced,

entitled "An act to provide for the protection of married women

in the enjoyment of their own property," which provoked a stormy

debate. Some saw the dissolution of marriage ties in the

destruction of the old common-law doctrine that "husband and wife

are one, and that one the husband"; while arguments were made in

its favor by Hon. David Noggle, George Crasey, and others.

Conservative judges held that the right to own property did not

entitle married women to convey it; therefore in 1858 the law was

amended, giving further security to the wife to transact business

in her own name, if her husband was profligate and failed to

support her; but not until 1872 did the law protect a married

woman in her right to transact business, make contracts, possess

her separate earnings, and sue and be sued in her own name. The

legislature of 1878 reenacted all the former laws; and married

women may now hold, convey and devise real estate; make contracts

and transact business in their own names; and join with their

husbands in a deed, without being personally liable in the

covenants. In the matter of homesteads, the husband cannot convey

or encumber without the signature of the wife, and thus a liberal

provision is always secure for her and the children.

By the law of 1878, if the husband dies leaving no children and

no will, his entire estate descends to his widow.[420] If the

owner of a homestead dies intestate and without children, the

homestead descends, free of judgments and claims--except

mortgages and mechanics' liens--to his widow; if he leaves

children, the widow retains a life interest in the homestead,

continuing until her marriage or death.

Thus from the organization of the State, Wisconsin has steadily

advanced in relieving married women from the disabilities of the

old common law. The same liberal spirit which has animated her

legislators has admitted women to equality of opportunities in

the State University at Madison; elected them as county

superintendents of public schools; appointed them on the State

board of charities, and as State commissioners to a foreign

exposition;[421] and welcomed them to the professions of

medicine, law and the ministry.

By the constitution of Wisconsin the right of suffrage was

awarded to four classes of citizens, twenty-one years and over,

who have resided in the State for one year next preceding an

election.

_First_--Citizens of the United States.

_Second_--Persons of foreign birth who have declared their

intention to become citizens of the United States.

_Third_--Persons of Indian blood who have already been declared

by act of congress citizens of the United States.

_Fourth_--Civilized persons of Indian descent who are not members

of any tribe.

While thus careful to provide for all males, savage and

civilized, down to one thousand Indians outside their tribe, the

constitution in no way recognizes the women of the State,

one-half its civilized citizens. However, the question of woman

suffrage was early agitated in this State, and its advocates were

able men. In 1856 there was an able minority report published,

from C. L. Sholes, of the Committee on Expiration and Reenactment

of Laws, to whom were referred sundry petitions praying that

steps might be taken to confer upon women the right of suffrage.

In 1857, there was another favorable minority report by Judge

David Noggle, and J. T. Mills. It has been twice considered by

the legislatures of 1868-69, and 1880-81, failing each time by a

small majority. A constitutional amendment is supposed by some to

be necessary to effect this needed reform, but the legislature is

competent to pass a bill declaring women possessed of the right

to vote, without any constitutional amendment. The legislature of

New York all through the century has extended the right of

suffrage to certain classes and deprived others of its exercise,

without changing the constitution. The power of the legislature

which represents the people is anterior to the constitution, as

the people through their representatives make the constitution.

The women, both German and American, awoke to action and

organized a local suffrage society at Janesville in 1868. _The

Revolution_ said:

From the report of a recent convention held in Janesville,

we find the leading men and women of that city have formed

an Impartial Suffrage organization, and are resolved to make

all their citizens equal before the law. Able addresses were

made by the Rev. S. Farrington, Rev. Sumner Ellis, and a

stirring appeal issued to the people of the State, signed by

Hon. J. T. Dow, G. B. Hickox, Mrs. J. H. Stillman, Joseph

Baker and Mrs. F. Harris Reed. Mrs. Paulina J. Roberts of

Racine, a practical farmer in a very large sense, delivered

an address which was justly complimented.

The first popular convention held in Wisconsin, with national

speakers, convened in Milwaukee February 15, 16, 1869.[422] The

bill then pending in the legislature to submit the question of

woman suffrage to the electors of the State added interest to

this occasion. Parker Pillsbury, in _The Revolution_, said:

The Wisconsin convention seems to have been quite equal in

all respects to its predecessors at Chicago and other

places. Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony were accompanied to

Milwaukee by Mrs. Livermore, a new Western star of "bright

particular effulgence," and the proceedings throughout were

characterized by argument, eloquence and interest beyond

anything of the kind ever witnessed there before. The

Milwaukee papers teem with accounts of it, most of them of

very friendly tone and spirit, even if opposed to the

objects under consideration. The _Evening Wisconsin_ said,

if any one supposed for an instant that the call for a

Woman's Suffrage convention would draw out only that class

known as strong-minded, such a one was never more deceived

in his or her life. At the opening of the convention[423]

yesterday, the City Hall was crowded with as highly

intelligent an audience of ladies and gentlemen as ever

gathered there before.

Mrs. Stanton spoke at the evening session to an immense audience

on the following resolutions:

_Resolved_, That a man's government is worse than a white

man's government, because in proportion as you increase the

rulers you make the condition of the ostracised more

hopeless and degraded.

_Resolved_, That, as the cry of a "white man's government"

created an antagonism between the Irish and the negro,

culminating in the New York riots of '63, so the Republican

cry of "Manhood Suffrage" creates an antagonism between the

black man and all women, and will culminate in fearful

outrages on womanhood, especially in the Southern States.

_Resolved_, That by the establishment of an aristocracy of

sex in the District of Columbia, by the introduction of the

word "male" into the Federal Constitution in Article 14,

Section 2, and by the proposition now pending to enforce

manhood suffrage in all the States of the Union, the

Republican party has been guilty of three excessively

arbitrary acts, three retrogressive steps in legislation,

alike invidious and insulting to woman, and suicidal to the

nation.

Miss Anthony followed showing that every advance step in manhood

suffrage added to woman's degradation. Quite a number of ladies

and gentlemen[424] of Wisconsin spoke well of the various

sessions of the convention. Altogether it was a most enthusiastic

meeting, and the press and the pulpit did their part to keep up

the discussion for many weeks after.

These resolutions, readily passed in the Milwaukee convention,

had been rejected at all others held in the West during this

campaign, although Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony had earnestly

advocated them everywhere. They early foresaw exactly what has

come to pass, and did their uttermost to rouse women to the

danger of having their enfranchisement indefinitely postponed.

They warned them that the debate once closed on negro suffrage,

and the amendments passed, the question would not be opened again

for a generation. But their warnings were unheeded. The fair

promises of Republicans and Abolitionists that, the negro

question settled, they would devote themselves to woman's

enfranchisement, deceived and silenced the majority. How well

they have kept their promises is fully shown in the fact that

although twenty years have passed, the political status of woman

remains unchanged. The Abolitionists have drifted into other

reforms, and the Republicans devote themselves to more

conservative measures. The Milwaukee convention was adjourned to

Madison, where Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony

addressed the legislature, Gov. Fairchild presiding.

In 1870, March 16, 17, a large and enthusiastic convention was

held at Janesville, in Lappin's Hall. Rev. Dr. Maxon, Lilia

Peckham and Mrs. Stanton were among the speakers. After this, the

latter being on a lyceum trip, spoke in many of the chief cities

of the State and drew general attention to the question.

The following clear statement of the petty ways in which girls

can be defrauded of their rights to a thorough education by

narrow, bigoted men entrusted with a little brief authority, is

from the pen of Lilia Peckham, a young girl of great promise, who

devoted her rare talents to the suffrage movement. Her early

death was an irreparable loss to the women of Wisconsin:[425]

ED. NEWS:--We find proofs at every step that one class

cannot legislate for another, the rich for the poor, nor men

for women.

The State University, supported by the taxes of the people

and for the benefit of the people, should offer equal

advantages to men and women. By amendment of the

Constitution in 1867, it was declared that the University

shall be open to female as well as male students, under such

regulations and restrictions as the board of regents may

deem proper. At first the students recited together, but Mr.

Chadbourne made it a condition of accepting the presidency

that they should be separated. I do not speak of the

separation of the sexes to find fault. I conceive that if

equal advantages be given women by the State, whether in

connection with or apart from men, they have no ground for

complaint. My object is to compare the advantages given to

the sexes and see the practical effect of legislation by men

alone in this department. From all the facts that are now

pressed upon us, confused, contradictory and obscure, we

begin to obtain a glimpse of the general law that informs

them. The University has a college of arts (including the

department of agriculture, of engraving and military

tactics), a college of letters, preparatory department, law

department, post-graduate course, last and certainly least,

a female college. The faculty and board of instructors

number twenty-one. The college of arts has nine professors,

one of natural philosophy, one each of mental philosophy,

modern languages, rhetoric, chemistry, mathematics,

agriculture, and comparative anatomy, and a tutor. In the

department of engineering is an officer of the United States

Army. In the college of letters is the same faculty, with

the addition of William F. Allen, professor of ancient

languages and history, one coming from a family of scholarly

teachers and thoroughly fitted for his post. In the law

department are such names as L. S. Dixon and Byron Paine.

Read now the names composing the faculty of the female

college, Paul A. Chadbourne, M. D., president; T. N.

Haskell, professor of rhetoric and English literature; Miss

Elizabeth Earle, preceptress; Miss Brown, teacher of music;

Miss Eliza Brewster, teacher of drawing and painting.

Compare these faculties and note what provision is made here

for the sciences and languages. Look at the course of

instruction in the college of arts. During the first year

the men study higher algebra, conic sections, plane

trigonometry, German (Otto's) botany, Gibbon's Rome. In the

college of letters the course is similar, but more attention

is given to classical studies; to Livy, Xenophon and Horace.

During the same years in the female college, they are

studying higher arithmetic, elementary algebra, United

States history, grammar, geography and map drawing. Truly a

high standard! The studies in the first term of the

preparatory department (to which none can be admitted under

twelve years of age) are identical with those in the female

college at the same time, except the Latin. Indeed, I cannot

see why it would not be an advantage to the students of the

female college to go into the preparatory department during

their first college year, since they can get their own

course with geometry added, and if they stay three years a

proportional amount of Latin and Greek. I could compare the

whole course in the same way, but my time and the reader's

patience would fail. There is no hint either of any thorough

prescribed course in any of the languages. In the first and

fourth year no foreign language is put down. In each term of

the second year French and Latin are written as elective,

the same for Latin or German in the third. This is a

wretched course at the best. I have no faith in a course set

down so loosely as "Latin" instead of being defined as to

what course of Latin, and what authors are read. In that

case we know exactly how much is required and expected, and

what the standard of scholarship. In the college of letters

we know that they go from Livy to Cicero on Old Age, then to

Horace and Tacitus. Similar definiteness would be

encouraging in the female catalogue. Its absence gives us

every reason to believe that the course does not amount to

enough to add any reputation to the college by being known.

Under the head of special information we are told that in

addition to this prescribed course of "thorough education

young ladies will be instructed in any optional study taught

in the college of letters or arts, for which they are

prepared." By optional I understand any of the studies

marked elective, since they are the only optional studies.

In the college of letters there is but one, and that is the

calculus. In the college of arts the optional studies are

generally, not always, those that they could not be prepared

for in the course prescribed by their own college. Under the

head of degrees we find a long account of the A. B., A. M.,

P. B., S. B., S. M., L. B., Ph. D., to which the fortunate

gentlemen are entitled after so much study. Lastly, the

students of the female college may receive "such appropriate

degrees as the regents may determine." I wonder how often

that solemn body deliberates as to whether a girl shall be

A. B., P. B., or A. M., or whether they ever give them any

degree at all. It makes little difference. With such a

college course a degree means nothing, and only serves to

cheapen what may be well earned by the young men of the

college.

In 1870, the stockholders of the Milwaukee Female College elected

three women on their board of trustees: Mrs. Wm. P. Lynde, Mrs.

Wm. Delos Love and Mrs. John Nazro. This is the first time in the

history of the institution that women have been represented in

the board of trustees.

Elizabeth R. Wentworth was an earnest and excellent writer and

kept up a healthy agitation through the columns of her husband's

paper at Racine.

RACINE, August 4, 1875.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY: Would it not be well for us women to

accept the hint afforded by these Englishmen, and bind

ourselves together by a constitution and by-laws. By so

doing we might sooner be enabled to secure the rights which

men seem so persistently determined to withhold from us.

Very respectfully yours,

E. R. WENTWORTH.

The growing strength of woman suffrage in England has caused

considerable commotion in that country, among officials and

others. Its growth has led the men to form a club in opposition

to it, composed of such men as Mr. Bouverie, a noted member of

Parliament; Sir Henry James, late attorney-general; Mr. Childers,

late first lord of the admiralty.

The formation of this club calls out a few words from Mrs.

Stanton, who sarcastically says:

Is not this the first organized resistance in the history of

the race, against the encroachment of women; the first manly

confession by those high in authority--by lords,

attorney-generals, sirs, and gentlemen--of fear at the

progressive steps of the daughters of men? These

conservative gentlemen had no doubt found Lady Amberly,

Lydia Becker, and Mrs. Fawcett too much for them in debate;

they had probably winced under the satire of Frances Power

Cobbe, and trembled before the annually swelling lists of

suffrage petitions. Single-handed they saw they were

helpless against this incoming tide of feminine

persuasiveness, and so it seems they called a meeting of

faint-hearted men, and bound themselves together by a

constitution and by-laws to protect the franchise from the

encroachment of women.

In the legislature of 1880, the proposition to submit an

amendment for woman suffrage to a vote of the people, passed both

Houses. In 1881 it passed one branch and was lost in the other.

Senator Simpson introduced another bill in 1882[426] which was

lost. These successive defeats discouraged the women and they

instructed their friends in the legislature to make no further

attempts for a constitutional amendment, because they had not the

slightest hope of its passage.

The growing interest in the temperance question at this time

produced some divisions in the suffrage ranks. Some thought it

had been one of the greatest obstacles to the success of the

suffrage cause, rousing the opposition of a very large and

influential class. Millions of dollars are invested in this State

in breweries and distilleries, and members are elected to the

legislature to watch these interests. Knowing the terrible

sufferings of women and children through intemperance, they

naturally infer that the ballot in the hands of women would be

inimical to their interests, hence the opposition of this wealthy

and powerful class to the suffrage movement. Others thought the

agitation was an advantage, especially in bringing the women in

the temperance movement to a sense of their helplessness to

effect any reform without a voice in the laws. They thought, too,

that the power behind the liquor interests was readily outweighed

by the moral influence of the best men and women in the State,

especially as the church began to feel some responsibility in the

question. The Milwaukee _Wisconsin_ of June 4, 1883, gives this

interesting item:

The Rev. Father Mahoney, of St. John's Cathedral, preached a

temperance sermon to a large concourse of people yesterday

morning, in which he heartily indorsed the action of Mayor

Stowell in his war against the ordinary saloon, and declared

that he should be reelected. He also said that the men who

opposed him were covering themselves with infamy, and that

he could not conscientiously administer the sacraments to

any saloon-keeper who refused to obey the commands of the

Church or the laws of the State concerning the good order

and welfare of the city. The sermon caused quite a stir, and

was much discussed in secular as well as religious circles.

The State Association[427] has maintained an unswerving course,

between fanatacism and ultra-conservatism. Since 1869 it has

stood as on the watch-tower, quick to see opportunities, and ever

ready to cooeperate with the legislative bodies in the State, and

well may we be proud of our achievements when we remember that by

the census of 1870 Wisconsin is the first foreign and the second

Roman Catholic State in the Union, and that at our centennial

exposition in 1876 our public schools stood number one.

Rev. Olympia Brown Willis moved into the State of Wisconsin in

1877, and became pastor of the church of the Good Shepherd, in

Racine, and exerted a wide influence, not only as a liberal

theologian, but as an earnest advocate of suffrage for woman. As

a result of her efforts a most successful Woman's Council was

held in Racine, March 26, 1883, alternating in the church of the

Good Shepherd and Blake's Opera House. One of the chief

speakers[428] was Dr. Corwin, pastor of the First Presbyterian

Church, who was also on the managing committee. The cordiality of

many of the western clergy, in strong contrast with those in the

east, makes their favorable action worthy of comment, though the

liberality of the few is of little avail until in their

ecclesiastical assemblies, as organizations, they declare the

equality of woman not only before the law, but in all the offices

of the church. Mrs. Katharine R. Doud was chosen president of the

convention; Mrs. Olin gave the address of welcome, to which Mrs.

Sewall responded. Mrs. Doud, in the _Advocate_, thus sums up the

three days' meetings:

During the past week a woman's council has been held in

Racine, the success of which has been most noticeable. The

different sessions have been attended by large audiences of

intelligent men and women, who have very thoughtfully and

carefully weighed and discussed the various questions under

consideration.

From the beginning to the end there has never been a hitch

or jar; the myriad wheels of the machinery required to make

smooth the workings of such large assemblies have moved so

quietly, and have been so well oiled and in such perfect

order as to be absolutely unnoticed; really, one might have

been tempted to feel that the machine had no master, no

controlling hand.

But now that the council is over; now that we can pause and

begin to estimate the good that has been done; now that the

seed is sown, from which, please God, a grand harvest shall

be reaped--now we can look back and see how one brain has

planned it all. One clear-eyed, far-seeing will gathered

together these women of genius, who have been with us; one

practical, mathematical brain made all estimates of expense,

and accepted all risks of failure; one hospitable heart

received a house full of guests, and induced others to be

hospitable likewise; and one earnest, prayerful soul--and

this the best of all--besought and entreated God's blessing

upon the work. Need we tell you where to find this

master-hand which has planned so wisely? the strong will,

the clear brain, the warm heart, the pure soul? We all know

her; she is indeed a noble woman, and her name--let us

whisper lest she hear--is Olympia Brown Willis.

The following sketch of the leading events of her life, shows how

active and useful she has been in all her public and private

relations:

Olympia Brown was born in Kalamazoo county, Michigan,

January 5, 1835. At the age of fifteen she began to teach

school during the winter months, attending school herself in

the summer. At eighteen she entered Holyoke seminary, but

finding the advantages there inadequate for a thorough

education, her parents removed, for her benefit, to Yellow

Springs, Ohio, where she entered Antioch college, Horace

Mann, one of the best educators of his day, being president.

There her ambition was thoroughly satisfied, and she was

graduated with honor in 1860. She then entered Canton

Theological school, was graduated in 1863, and, duly

ordained as a Universalist minister, commenced preaching in

Marshfield and Montpelier, Vermont, often walking fifteen

miles to fill her appointments. In 1864 she was regularly

installed over her first parish at Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Her energy and fidelity soon raised that feeble society into

one of numbers and influence.

In 1869, she accepted a call to Bridgeport, Connecticut,

where she remained seven years. In 1878, with her husband,

John Henry Willis, and two children she removed to Racine,

Wisconsin, where she became pastor of the church of the Good

Shepherd, without the promise of a dollar. The church had

been given up as hopeless by several men in succession,

because of the influence of the Orthodox theological

seminary. But she soon gathered large audiences and earnest

members about her; established a Sunday school, had courses

of lectures in her church during the winter, which she made

quite profitable financially for the church, beside

educating the people. Outside her profession she has also

done a grand work, in temperance and woman suffrage.[429]

She is rarely out of her own pulpit; has generally been

superintendent of her own Sunday school, and head of the

young ladies' club, doing at all times more varied duties

than any man would deem possible, and with all this she is a

pattern wife, mother and housekeeper, and her noble husband,

while carrying on a successful business of his own, stands

ever ready to second her endeavors with generous aid and

wise counsel, another instance of the happy homes among the

"strong minded."

Among the estimable women who have been identified with the cause

of woman suffrage in this country, Mathilde Franziska Anneke, a

German lady, is worthy of mention:

She was born in Westphalia, April 3, 1817. Her childhood was

passed in happy conditions in a home of luxury, where she

received a liberal education, yet her married life was

encompassed with trials and disappointments. From her own

experiences she learned the injustice of the laws for

married women and early devoted her pen to the redress of

their wrongs. Her articles appeared in leading journals of

Germany and awoke many minds to the consideration of the

social and civil condition of woman.

She was identified with the liberal movement of '48, her

home being the resort for many of the leaders of the

revolution. She published a liberal paper which freely

discussed all the abuses of the government, a whole edition

of which was destroyed. At length denounced by the

government, she secretly made here escape from Cologne, and

joined her husband at the head of his command in active

preparation for a struggle against the Prussians.

She immediately declared her determination to share the

toils of the expedition. Accordingly Col. Anneke appointed

her _Tolpfofsort_, the duties of which she continued to

discharge to the end of the campaign. In one of her works

published in 1853, she has given a graphic description of

the disastrous termination of the revolution, of their

flight into France, of their expulsion from France and

Switzerland, and of their final determination to come to the

United States.

They reached New York in the fall of 1849. Madame Anneke

lectured in most of the Eastern cities on the social and

civil condition of women, claiming for them the right of

suffrage and more liberal education. She also published a

woman's journal in New York, and was soon recognized as one

of the earnest representative women in America. For many

years she made her home in Milwaukee, where she taught a

successful school for young ladies. Madame Anneke, a widow

with one son and two daughters, lived quietly the closing

years of her life, and in death found the peace and rest she

had never known in her busy life on earth.

Prof. G. S. Albee, president of the State Normal School at

Oshkosh, is a firm friend and outspoken advocate of equal right

of the sexes to all the privileges of education, not excepting

the education of the ballot-box. John Bascom, president of the

Wisconsin University, has been an advocate of suffrage for women

many years. While connected with Williams College he worked to

secure the admission of women thereto. As one of a committee of

five to whom the matter was referred, he, together with David

Dudley Field, presented a minority report favoring their

admission. Since he has been at the head of our State University

he has been in perfect sympathy with its liberal coeducational

policy, and has insured to the young women equal advantages in

every respect with the young men. To his wise management may be

attributed the success of higher coeducation in Wisconsin. He

gave an able and scholarly address before our convention at

Madison in '82, and is always found ready to speak for woman

suffrage, both in public and private. His influence has done much

for the advancement of the cause in our State. A cordial letter

was received from Mrs. Bascom at the last Washington convention,

which was listened to with interest and prized by the officers of

the National Association:

MADISON, Wis., January 16, 1885.

MY DEAR MISS ANTHONY: I am sorry I cannot be present and

meet the many wise and great women who will respond to your

call for the Seventeenth Annual Convention.

What a glorious record these words reveal of unwavering

faith in the right, and heroic persistency in its pursuit on

one side, and what blindness of prejudice and selfishness of

power on the other. The struggle has indeed been a long one,

and yet no other moral movement involving so many and so

great social changes ever made more rapid progress. You and

your fellow-laborers are truly to be congratulated on the

full and abundant harvest your faithful seed-sowing has

brought to humanity. The irrational sentiment, based upon

the methods and customs of barbarous times, is rapidly

yielding to reason. The world is learning--women are

learning--that character, even womanly character, does not

suffer from too much breadth of thought, or from too active

a sympathy in human interests and human affairs, but is ever

enriched by a larger circle of ideas, larger experience, and

more extended activities.

The advance of women in position and influence has been

especially great during the past year, and in directions

especially cheering and hopeful to the heart of every woman.

In national political conventions, as your call so justly

says, she has "actively participated in the discussion of

candidates, platforms and principles." The last mile-stone

before the goal has been reached and passed!

Your convention will offer the final opportunity to the

Republican party. Will it be wise enough to seize it for

self preservation, if not from principle? Will there be

found in this party enough of spiritual life to lay hold of

the help now proffered it, and once more renew its strength

thereby? Or will it, as so repeatedly in the past, turn a

deaf ear to reason, and still continue to deny the rights of

half the human family? If so, if it continue deaf, dumb and

blind, then the Republican party has no longer any function,

and the power of government will pass forever from its

hands. The sixteenth amendment to the national constitution

is coming, but it will be the crown of blessing and of fame

of another party that will inaugurate this era in social

life! I take the liberty to send loving greetings to you and

the convention in the name of our Wisconsin Equal Suffrage

society. I hope our bright, eloquent Rev. Olympia Brown will

be with you. Of Wisconsin's eleven representatives in

congress, I am happy to make honorable mention, as

broad-minded advocates of our cause, of three, Cameron,

Price and Stephenson. In earnest sympathy with the object

and method of the convention, and with high regard for

yourself, I remain yours truly,

EMMA C. BASCOM.

In this, as in many other States there was a prolonged struggle

over the equal rights of women in the courts. The first woman to

practice law in Wisconsin was Lavinia Goodell. She was admitted

in the First Judicial Circuit Court, June 17, 1874, Judge H. S.

Conger, presiding. She commenced practicing in Janesville. The

following year she had a case which was appealed to the Supreme

Court. When the appeal was made, Miss Goodell applied to the

Supreme Court for the right to go with her case. She argued her

own case and based her claim upon a statute which provides, "That

words of the masculine gender may be applied to females; unless

such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest

intention of the legislature." After she had shown clearly that

she had an equal right in the courts in an able and unanswerable

argument, Judge Ryan considered her application for two months

and rendered an adverse decision. As a result of the agitation

induced by this case, the legislature of 1877 passed a law that

"no person shall be refused admission to the bar of this State on

account of sex," thus showing the power of the legislative branch

of the government to over-ride all judicial decisions. Miss

Goodell immediately commenced practice in the Supreme Court. She

reviewed the judicial decision with keen satire,[430] and ably

illustrated the comparative capacity of an educated man and woman

to reason logically on American jurisprudence and constitutional

law.

In the early part of 1879 Kate Kane and Angie J. King were

admitted to the bar. Miss Kane studied in a law office and in the

law school of Michigan University. She practiced in Milwaukee

until 1883, when she located in Chicago. Miss King practices in

Janesville and was at first associated with Miss Goodell, under

the name of Goodell & King. Cora Hurtz, Oshkosh, was admitted and

began practice in 1882.

FOOTNOTES:

[418] Mrs. Wolcott is a remarkable woman, of rare intelligence,

keen moral perceptions and most imposing presence. Much of her

success in life is due no doubt to her gracious manners. Her

graceful figure, classic face, rich voice and choice language make

her attractive in the best social circles, as well as in the

laboratory and lecture-room. She is a perfect housekeeper and a

most hospitable hostess. Having enjoyed many visits at her

beautiful home I can speak alike of her public and domestic

virtues.--[E. C. S.

[419] See Vol. I., page 389.

[420] During a visit with my school-friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Ford

Proudfit, at Madison, in 1879, I heard a great deal said of the

injustice of this law as illustrated in two notable cases of widows

in the enjoyment of their husbands' entire estates, while the dead

men's relatives, many of them, were living in poverty. This was

most shocking! though widowers, from time immemorial, have

possessed the life-earnings and inheritance of their wives, while

the dead women's mothers and sisters were starving and freezing

within sight of the luxurious homes that rightfully belonged to

them! It makes a mighty odds whose ox is gored--the widower's or

the widow's!--[S. B. A.

[421] In 1867 the governor, General Lucius Fairchild, appointed

Laura J. Ross, M. D., as commissioner to the World's Exposition in

Paris. In 1871 Mrs. Mary E. Lynde was appointed on the State Board

of Charities and Corrections by Governor Fairchild.

[422] The committee on resolutions were: Dr. Laura J. Ross, N. S.

Murphey, Mrs. Livermore, Madame Annecke, Geo. W Peckham and Rev.

Mr. Gannett. The officers of the convention were: _President_, Rev.

Miss Augusta J. Chapin; _Vice-Presidents_, O. P. Wolcott, M. D.,

Laura J. Ross, M. D., and Madame Matilde F. Annecke; _Secretary_,

Miss Lilia Peckham.

[423] For a further description of this convention see Mrs.

Stanton's letters from _The Revolution_, Vol. I., page 873.

[424] Miss Lilia Peckham, G. W. Peckham, esq., Mrs. Mary A.

Livermore, Madam Matilde Annecke, Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, Rev. Mr.

Eddy, Rev. Mr. English, Rev. Mr. Fallows.

[425] Miss Lilia Peckham died in Milwaukee, the city of her

residence. She had been ill but a few weeks, her physicians

considering her recovery certain up to within an hour of her death;

but a sudden and unlooked-for change took place. One of the truest,

purest and best spirits we have ever met has thus passed from earth

to heaven. All who met her soon came to appreciate her gifted

nature, her rare talent and spiritual insight. But only those who

knew her well can bear witness to her wonderful unselfishness, her

remorseless honesty of speech and deed, the loftiness of her ideal

and the beauty of her womanly soul. The Milwaukee _Sentinel_ closes

a brief obituary notice of our friend and co-worker as follows:

"This talented young woman is well known throughout the country as

an earnest advocate of the woman's rights movement. Only a few

weeks since she made a successful tour through the West, speaking

in various city pulpits. Fearlessly she spoke all that she had come

to feel was truth, though it shook the very foundations of old

creeds and ideas. Many efforts from her scholarly pen attest to her

devotion to every onward movement of the hour. She was to have

entered the Cambridge Divinity School early in the present autumn,

having chosen the ministry for her life-work. That a life so full

of promise of usefulness should be so suddenly stopped is

irreconcilable with our finite judgment. It is hard to say, 'it is

well,' though God's fact may be that this young life, with its

beauty of character, its sisterly affection, its still larger

sisterly sympathy with a suffering humanity, its longings and

aspirations, its zealous strivings after the true and good, is full

and complete _now_; still we shall mourn her loss, her brief though

beautiful career."

[426] The members of the Wisconsin Senate who voted against the

woman suffrage amendment were: Ackley, Adams, Burrows, Chase,

Coleman, Delaney, Flinkelberg, Flint, Kusel, Palmetier, Pingel,

Rankin, Ryland, Smith and Van Schaick--15. No better work can be

done by Wisconsin suffragists than to try to defeat every one of

them at the next election. The following voted for the measure:

Bennett, Crosby, Ellis, Hamilton, Hill, Hudd, Kingston, Meffert,

Phillipps, Scott, Simpson, Wiley, Randall--13. Senators Wing and

McKeeby were paired, and Senators Erwin and Richardson were absent.

[427] The officers of the Wisconsin State society for 1885 were:

_President_, Harriet T. Griswold, Columbus; _Vice-Presidents_,

Laura Ross Wolcott, Milwaukee; Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine;

Emma C. Bascom, Madison; F. A. Delagise, Antigo; Laura James,

Richland Center; _Recording Secretary_, Helen R. Olin, Madison;

_Corresponding Secretary_, M. W. Bentley, Schofield; _Treasurer_,

Dr. Sarah R. Munro, Milwaukee; _Chairman Executive Committee_,

Amelia B. Gray, Schofield. Among others active in the movement are

Eliza T. Wilson, Menominee; Alura Collins, Muckwonago; Mrs. S. C.

Burnham, Bear Valley; Sarah H. Richards, Milwaukee; Mrs. W. Trippe,

Whitewater.

[428] Eveleen Mason, May Wright Sewall, Mary A. Livermore, Dr.

Sarah Munro, Mrs. Haggart, Mrs. K. R. Doud, Miss Comstock, the

Grand Worthy Vice-Templar from Milwaukee, Mrs. Le Page, and Mrs.

Amy Talbot Dunn, as Zekel's wife, made a deep impression.

[429] See vol. II. page 259.

[430] For her argument see _Woman's Journal_, April, 1876.

CHAPTER XLVII.

MINNESOTA.

Girls in State University--Sarah Burger Stearns--Harriet E.

Bishop the First Teacher in St. Paul--Mary J. Colburn Won the

Prize--Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm, St. Cloud--Fourth of July

Oration, 1866--First Legislative Hearing, 1867--Governor Austin's

Veto--First Society at Rochester--Kasson--Almira W. Anthony--Mary

P. Wheeler--Harriet M. White--The W. C. T. U.--Harriet A.

Hobart--Literary and Art Clubs--School Suffrage, 1876--Charlotte

O. Van Cleve and Mrs. C. S. Winchell Elected to School

Board--Mrs. Governor Pillsbury--Temperance Vote, 1877--Property

Rights of Married Women--Women as Officers, Teachers, Editors,

Ministers, Doctors, Lawyers.

Minnesota was formally admitted to the Union May 11, 1858. Owing to

its high situation and dry atmosphere the State is a great resort

for invalids, and nowhere in the world is the sun so bright, the

sky so blue, or the moon and stars so clearly defined. Its early

settlers were from New England; hence, the church and the

school-house--monuments of civilization--were the first objects in

the landscape to adorn those boundless prairies, as the red man was

pushed still westward, and the white man seized his hunting-ground.

This State is also remarkable for its admirable system of free

schools, in which it is said there is a larger proportion of pupils

to the population than in any other of the Western States. All

institutions of learning have from the beginning been open alike to

boys and girls.

Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, to whom we are indebted for this

chapter, was one of the first young women to apply for admission to

the Michigan University.[431] Being denied, she finished her

studies at the State Normal School, and in 1863 married Mr. O. P.

Stearns, a graduate of the institution that barred its doors to

her. Mr. Stearns, at the call of his country, went to the front,

while his no less patriotic bride remained at home, teaching in

the Young Ladies' Seminary at Monroe and lecturing for the benefit

of the Soldiers' Aid Societies.

The war over, they removed to Minnesota in 1866, where by lectures,

newspaper articles, petitions and appeals to the legislature, Mrs.

Stearns has done very much to stir the women of the State to

thought and action upon the question of woman's enfranchisement.

She has been the leading spirit of the State Suffrage Association,

as well as of the local societies of Rochester and Duluth, the two

cities in which she has resided, and also vice-president of the

National Association since 1876. As a member of the school-board,

she has wrought beneficent changes in the schools of Duluth. She is

now at the head of a movement for the establishment of a home for

women needing a place of rest and training for self-help and

self-protection. Mrs. Stearns has the full sympathy of her husband

and family, as she had that of her mother, Mrs. Susan C. Burger,

whose last years were passed in the home of her daughter at Duluth.

Mrs. Stearns writes: