The first annual meeting of the State Society was held at Des Moines, October 19, 1871. Mrs. Bloomer presided[408] in the absence of the president, Gen. O'Connor. Speakers had been engaged for this convention, a good representation secured, and every arrangement made for a successful meeting. And such it was, barring a difference of opinion among the friends of the movement as to what questions should properly come before a society whose only object, as declared in its constitution, was to secure suffrage for women. The following letters were received:

IOWA CITY, October 11, 1871.

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.