The History of Woman Suffrage Volume III Part 96

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 Sh.e.l.ly and recounted her heroic deed of that fearful night, after which Mr. Given made the presentation speech. The response on behalf of Miss Sh.e.l.ly was made by Professor J. D. Curran, an old friend and teacher.

All very well, but how much better to have placed Kate Sh.e.l.ly (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 Sh.e.l.ly, 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 members.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sed 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 enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of their s.e.x, and objected to mixing the two questions, are coming to see that a powerless, disfranchised cla.s.s 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 pet.i.tioned 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, on Senator Logan's proposition to const.i.tute the revenue on alcoholic liquors a national educational fund. At a meeting of the State Union held in 1883, resolutions were pa.s.sed, 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 ent.i.tled 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 ent.i.tled 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 acc.u.mulated 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 acc.u.mulate 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 a.s.sumed 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 a.s.sociate editor of the _Western Home Visitor_. Mrs. Bloomer lectured in the princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sisted 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 d.i.c.kinson, 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] a.s.sistant 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 a.s.sociation. 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, Das.h.i.+ell, Dysart, Howland, Hurley, Kephart, Maxwell, McCold, McKean, Mc.n.u.tt, 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 Winnes.h.i.+ek, 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, Das.h.i.+ell, Dwelle, Gallup, Gilmore, Graham, Harmon, Hersey, Jessup, McCoid, Miller of Appanoose, Miller of Blackhawk, Mitch.e.l.l, 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--Hitchc.o.c.k (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 a.s.sociation.

[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 pet.i.tions 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 a.s.sociation. 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 pet.i.tion 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 p.r.o.nunciation," 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, ent.i.tled "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.