In November 1889, an amendment to the state constitution was put on the 1890 ballot, South Dakota’s first election as a state, to remove “male” from the eligibility requirements of voters. This had been directed by the last state constitutional convention in Sioux Falls earlier that year. In October 1889, suffragists in South Dakota had met in Huron to organize an Equal Suffrage Association that would work to build support for the upcoming amendment. Sixty delegates from sixteen counties were reported to have attended. At that first meeting, in addition to electing officers and setting its documents in order, they also set up committees to solicit support from the Farmers’ Alliance, the Knights of Labor, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, “and similar organizations.” News reports of the new organization noted that its leadership came from across the political spectrum — that S.A. Ramsey was Democrat, Alonzo Wardall was Republican and Farmers’ Alliance, M. Barker temperance, and that treasurer Sarah Richards “is not yet considered to have apolitical opinion but when she has the right to express her ideas by a vote she will be found on the side of ‘progress and purity’ every time” [1].
Reportedly, the S.D. Farmers’ Alliance had been made the initial invitation that occasioned Susan B. Anthony’s first visit to South Dakota in the fall of 1889. In late November, Anthony concluded that trip with a speech on suffrage to the Farmers’ Alliance convention in Aberdeen. S.D.E.S.A. officers Helen Barker and S.A. Ramsey gave response speeches after Anthony [2]. The Farmer’s Alliance was a political organization, though not a formal party, that advocated for the interest of farmers against “big business” that had more power in politics and the economics of transportation and markets. Suffragists were elated to have an early boost to their campaign when the Alliance adopted a supportive resolution at that convention, which read:
“Whereas the interests of man and woman are identical, and woman is as well informed politically as newly enfranchised classes generally are, and as taxation without representation is just as tyrannical when practised upon woman as upon man; and Whereas, woman should take part in government for her own protection and the elevating of the whole human race; therefore be it Resolved, That we will do all in our power to aid in her enfranchisement in South Dakota at the next general election by bringing it before the local alliance for agitation and discussion, thereby educating the masses upon the subject”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), December 14, 1889, p.394, Schlesinger Library, Harvard].
At that same convention, suffrage supporter Sophia Harden was elected the SD Farmers’ Alliance secretary. Her local newspaper, the Wessington Springs Herald, said her election was “a just recognition of her business ability… We are pleased to note that the Alliance practices what it preaches and we look to its members for a very substantial support during the coming campaign.” Harden and Libbie Wardall also did editorial work for the Alliance newspaper, The Dakota Ruralist, which reported on the progress of the suffrage campaign over the following year. Alonzo Wardall requested funds from the National American Woman Suffrage Association to distribute the Ruralist‘s suffrage columns to newspapers around the state. Later in September 1890, the S.D.E.S.A. decided to organize a Press department and made Libbie Wardall its chair [3]. When anti-suffragists in Boston printed the first Remonstrance newsletter, they sent it specifically to leaders of the Farmers’ Alliance to sway them away from suffrage. One, John Goodspeed in Brookings County, sent his copy to the Ruralist to alert them of the mailing [4].
In December 1889, the national Farmers’ Alliance met in St. Louis MO. According to a Wessington Springs Herald article, the suffrage resolution that the national convention adopted was introduced by Libbie Wardall, one of the state delegates to St. Louis. One of the two dissenting delegates made a speech, and Wardall “replied briefly and brought down the house in prolonged applause” [5].
In February 1890, politician John Pickler of Faulkton proclaimed in the Deadwood Pioneer that the chances were “excellent” to pass suffrage… “It is estimated that one fifth of the land belongs to women. The state is largely agricultural, and the Farmers’ alliance, which is a very strong organization, has declared with very few dissenting votes for equal sufferage, and many of its leaders will engage actively in the work… The prominent men of the state are generally outspoken for equal sufferage, and no prominent politician openly opposes it…” [6].
Also in February 1890, the Knights of Labor passed resolutions “on matters of public interest… chief among which was one pledging support to the cause of the woman’s suffrage as an amendment to the state constitution” [7]. The third targeted ally of the S.D.E.S.A., the state W.C.T.U. held its convention in Madison, and one of its proposed resolutions stated: “Therefore, Resolved; that we, members of the W.C.T.U. and women of South Dakota will never cease to petition, to work for, and to demand the ballot for women, till we are granted a fair share in the government of our commonwealth” [8]. Over the course of the spring, Emma DeVoe, Matilda Hindman, and other suffrage campaigners read the endorsements they had received at their speeches, and made speaking appearances at Alliance events [9].
In a discussion on suffrage at an Alliance meeting in Sturgis in April 1890, E.B. Cummings commented: “The alliance is not carrying woman’s suffrage, but there is a very good show for the women carrying the farmers’ alliance.”
Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), April 11, 1890
Though welcoming endorsements from political groups and the W.C.T.U., Susan B. Anthony drew a financial line-in-the-sand to keep the suffragists non-partisan:
“Our national money will not go to aid Prohibition leagues, Grand Army encampments, Women’s Relief Corps, W. C. T. U. societies, or any others; though all, we hope, will declare and work for the suffrage amendment. We cannot ally ourselves with the Prohibition or Anti-Prohibition party — the Democrats or the Republicans. Each may do splendid work for suffrage within its own organization, and we shall rejoice in all that do so ; but the South Dakota and the National-American Association must stand on their own ground.”
Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 114.
In the spring of 1890, political winds seemed to be pushing South Dakota suffragists to their goal. But in November 1890, the amendment failed. A number of factors likely contributed: general hesitancy or opposition to the idea of women voting, confusion about the wording of the ballot measures for women voting and for native men voting, economic worries about the severe drought that summer, leadership in-fighting among state and national suffrage workers in the state (partly about whether to remain non-partisan)… but the failure of any organized political party to adopt a platform in support of equal suffrage, and that being circulated in the press, likely did its part for the amendment’s failure.
The Democrats
In June 1890, the Democratic party in South Dakota held its convention at the opera house in Aberdeen. Sophia Harden, Mary Cummings Bonham (wife of the Deadwood Pioneer‘s editor and daughter of the Ruralist‘s editor, E.B. Cummings), and Judge A.W. Bangs attended and made the S.D.E.S.A.’s appeal for a suffrage platform. A biographer of Susan B. Anthony wrote that “Judge Bangs, a friend of suffrage, brought in a minority report in favor of a suffrage plank and supported it by a dignified speech, but it was voted down in the midst of great disorder.” Newspapers reported that Judge Bangs in his appeal for suffrage “was choked in his debate by Chairman Taylor. When finally permitted to speak, Bangs denounced the action of the chairman as undemocratic and ungentlemanly” [10].
They also reported that the anti-suffrage response from Ezra W. Miller, who was running for a congressional nomination, was “grossly abusive” and “a vulgar and outrageously filthy speech…. an insult to every woman and was finally drowned by loud hisses and cries of ‘Shame!’” “[Bang’s] speech was eloquent but fell on barren soil, for E.W. Miller, who came near securing the nomination for congress, replied in an ungentlemanly speech that was conspicuous for coarseness and bigotry, insulting Mrs. Harden and the other ladies on the platform.” According to one news report, a small group made apologies to the ‘ladies’ for the incident, but most of “the party stands branded with the outrage.” A press item in a suffrage-supporting newspaper after the convention remarked that Russians* at the convention came with anti-suffrage placards and a 1923 suffrage history claimed that “a delegation of illiterate Russians wearing large badges ‘Against Woman Suffrage and Susan B Anthony’ were carefully seated where their presence announced the party attitude” [11].
* “Russians” probably refers to Germans from Russia immigrants who had settled in large colonies in north- and south-central South Dakota.
The party adopted a resolution opposing equal suffrage [12].
There were also reports that people were posted outside the convention, passing out issues of The Remonstrance, the publication of the Boston-based anti-suffrage national association [13].
The Independents
Suffragists made a point to get on speaker schedules for big Fourth of July events and picnics held that year. Emma Smith DeVoe spoke at Scatterwood Lake in Faulk County at a July 4th picnic held by the Farmers’ Alliance. James Kyle of Aberdeen spoke at a celebration in Brown County “in which he attacked corporate wealth and advocated compulsory education, universal suffrage, and freedom of the press” — a speech after which the Populists in the county selected him to be their state senate candidate, launching his political career [14].
County conventions to elect delegates to the state Independent convention boded ill for suffrage’s chances. At the Meade County convention at city hall in Sturgis, one delegate made remarks that “he didn’t think it best to burden the movement with a prohibition or woman suffrage clause to the platform.” The independent and democratic joint convention held in Armour directed their delegates to vote against suffrage and prohibition planks [15].
On July 7-8th, the S.D.E.S.A. held a convention in Huron (at which they threw-over their state officers) that was scheduled to align with the convention called to organize a state Independent party. Reportedly “many ladies, wives of prominent members of the party, and leading lights of the Equal Suffrage Association” were seated on the stage of the Independent convention [16]. There were, in fact, newspapers that had criticized the S.D.E.S.A. for having so many leaders with “third-party” political affiliations [17].
Yet, although the Farmers’ Alliance and Knights of Labor had separately supported equal suffrage, they did not adopt a suffrage plank in the party platform when they joined to create the Independent party — “instead the statement that ‘no citizen should be disfranchised on account of sex’ was so successfully hidden in a long resolution that none of their speakers brought it to light during the whole progress of the campaign” [18]. When H.L. Loucks, at an address in Aberdeen, was asked by an audience member why Independents didn’t declare for prohibition and suffrage, Loucks reportedly “made an extremely lame reply” — “Woman suffrage was left out, he frankly admitted for the sole purpose of catching votes” [19].
Matilda Hindman — “The Farmers’ Alliance, at its nominating convention, refused to put a suffrage plank in the platform, but passed a resolution favoring the principle. This means, ‘We will do nothing to help carry the suffrage amendment unless we can be convinced it will help us.'”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), July 5, 1890, p.212, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.“That was a terrible campaign. Even the Knights of Labor and the farmers dumped the women’s cause in the ditch for a last-minute political expediency, after swearing by all their gods to support it.”
The Woman Citizen 3 (March 22, 1919), 901.
The Farmers’ Alliance nonetheless continued to demonstrate support for suffrage. Later in July, Emma DeVoe’s schedule included speaking at three Farmers’ Alliance picnics in Brown County, including a big one at Rondell. In Richland Township (Edmunds County), the suffrage club she organized planned to have their first meeting in the hour before the next Farmers’ Alliance meeting, indicating at least some shared membership. In October, DeVoe spoke at the Baptist church at Centerville, to which the G.A.R., Knights of Labor, Farmers’ Alliance members, and local businessmen were “specially invited” at attend. In September, Matilda Hindman planned to address the Jerauld County suffrage convention in Wessington Springs, which was scheduled at the same time as a county Alliance convention. The suffragists adjourned after their business meeting so Hindman could also speak at the Alliance meeting at the courthouse, and then Alliance attendees came over to the Methodist church to hear her evening address to the suffragists. Later in September at an Alliance meeting at Elk Point, a local orator “Uncle Billy Tillotson” spoke on both the issue of the capitol location* and on woman’s suffrage [20].
* The permanent location of the state capitol was another big public issue after statehood.
There was even at least a case or two of a suffragist participating in Independent party events. In October, Loucks and Emma DeVoe were primary speakers at a joint event in Madison and both key speakers for a Beadle County Independent rally in Huron—Loucks speaking for the Independent party and his campaign while DeVoe spoke for the suffrage amendment. DeVoe biographer Jennifer Ross-Nazzal wrote that DeVoe did the events to demonstrate to voters that “suffragists of the state — the home workers are not opposed to any party,” compared to national campaigners who were frustrated at all three major parties’ refusal to endorse suffrage [21].
The Republicans
Earlier in 1890, editors of Republican newspapers who supported the suffrage cause faced a conundrum, without an endorsement of the amendment from the party. Editor F.L. Mease in Madison walked a line between reporting on the suffrage campaign’s progress while not giving an actual endorsement initially, but eventually ran the statement: “The Sentinel can see no valid reason why in this enlightened age the mothers, wives and sisters are not justly entitled to vote and are not equally as competent to exercise this great privilege and duty as the average male proportion of the commonwealth. The use of the ballot would be perfectly safe in the discretion of South Dakota’s intelligent womanhood.” The Hot Springs Star also wrote editorials strongly for suffrage, saying: “The Star is a republican paper—it believes in the principles of the republican party but if that party does not place in nomination such men and endorse and execute such a policy as will meet the approval of the honest and right minded people it should not expect, or get support of the people… Let the women vote” [22].
On August 25-26, 1890, the S.D.E.S.A. held its convention in Mitchell, to coincide with the state Republican convention at which they hoped to be able to present their case. Sophia Harden spoke on the program as Alliance secretary. One of the convention’s resolutions read: “Resolved, That the Republican party, which gave suffrage to the negro men, and the Democratic party, which gave suffrage to the working men, and the Farmers’ Alliance, which opposes monopolies and class distinctions, are all under a moral obligation to support the Woman Suffrage Amendment…” The suffrage convention also organized a committee to approach the Republican state convention, scheduled for the following days in the same building–a large building constructed for a skating rink but recently converted into an opera house [23].
The suffragists who stayed in Mitchell and approached the state Republican convention were initially denied seats in the hall, but eventually ten were found at the back of the platform. The suffrage committee of Nettie Hall, Rev. S.D. Huntley, Mrs. Sheets of DeSmet, and Emma DeVoe made a request to be heard, but were also only given permission to speak during a recess after the general meeting had adjourned to await committee reports. Apparently about two-thirds of the attendees remained to hear from Rev. Olympia Brown of Wisconsin, Rev. Anna Howard Shaw of Washington, Mary (Emma?) S. DeVoe of Huron, and Susan B. Anthony. Alice M.A. Pickler also “came forward in response to being called, and gave expression to her confidence in the men of the state, whom she characterized as the noblest on earth.” Her husband, John Pickler, who became the party’s nominee for United States representative, included his support of suffrage in his acceptance speech.
Anthony had brought a letter to Mitchell from Ezra B. Taylor of Ohio, the chair of the U.S. House judiciary committee, that encouraged South Dakota Republicans to support suffrage, and she read to the Republican convention a letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The convention also received and read a letter from Clara Barton of the American Red Cross Society, asking for them to support woman suffrage.
There were active opponents on hand for the Republican convention as well. Earlier that month, Hutchinson County Republicans in convention in Olivet had instructed their delegates “to prevent the adoption of woman suffrage as a plank in our party platform.” There were reports that issues of The Remonstrance were distributed by anti-suffragists at the Republican convention as they had been at the Democratic convention.
“The Republicans as a party failed to endorse woman suffrage.”
Some suffragists (particularly national representatives) were bitterly disappointed at events they perceived as insults, especially when a few men from native tribes in the state arrived and were seated immediately, on the main floor, when the suffragists had not been. This event reappeared in numerous speeches later, especially by Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, with accompanying racist language about the native men, as an illustration of injustice towards ‘educated’ ‘respectable’ women. Yet, most local suffragists did not seem to dwell on that incident to quite the same degree. Rev. A.W. Adkinson remarked that: “On the whole the friends of equal suffrage are well satisfied with the work of the republicans. While they did not get what they asked for, they are gratified with the feeling of the majority of the delegates on that subject,” and another person submitted to the Woman’s Tribune that “the women speakers were treated with respect and cordiality, and were invited to speak at the close of the opening session, which they did with excellent effect” [24]. Perhaps the Republicans benefited from the contrast with the suffragists’ reception by the Democrats…
Extract from Emma DeVoe’s address before the Republican convention:
“… The times are as revolutionary now as they were in 1776 and if the cause for which our forefathers fought was just, then is our cause of equal suffrage in South Dakota is just, and if our cause of equal suffrage is not just, then the very foundation of the republic is false, and structure reared thereon, should fall to the ground dishonored and disgraced.”
The Dakota Ruralist (Aberdeen SD), October 4, 1890, “Page 52 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10.
Extracts from the fairly optimistic report of Henry B. Blackwell about the conventions to The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University:
“The suffrage convention was brilliant, harmonious, and effective. Mrs. Johnson, of Highmore, presided. The afternoon meetings averaged 500; the evening meetings, 1,000. Many of the Republican delegates, as they arrived, came into the meetings and showed a deep interest. All the speakers were heard with attention.”
“At the Republican State Convention, the women speakers were treated with respect and cordiality, and were invited to speak at the close of the opening session, which they did with excellent effect. But the second address of Anna Shaw, when called out by the delegates at the commencement of the evening session, was the oratorical success of the convention…
The convention itself was a thoroughly western gathering, a refreshing contrast to the quiet and conservative eastern political assemblies. The main street of Mitchell was gay with bunting. Every candidate and every county delegation had a headquarters designated by immense canvas placards. Huron and Pierre, rivals for the State capital, had theirs. A thousand men from all parts of the State gathered on the sidewalks like bees in swarming time. But during their three days’ stay, I did not hear a single oath, or see anything stronger than soda water. The absence of the saloon and all that it indicates was an object-lesson for prohibition far weightier than an abstract argument…
The woman suffrage cause was greatly promoted among the delegates and outside attendants upon the convention by an anonymous ‘Remonstrance’ claiming to be issued by Eastern women. It was generally supposed to be circulated by that justly odious organization, the Liquor Dealers’ Association, and the floors of the different headquarters were literally covered with these circulars thrown aside with contempt by the fair-minded delegates, who resented the unsupported assertions and unreliable figures which, after all, proved nothing, and convinced nobody…”
Catt’s account in 1916 of the 1890 Republican convention, with racism towards American Indians:
“My first campaign was that in South Dakota in the year 1890… My first point was Mitchell, where a two days’ suffrage meeting was held prior to the State Republican Convention. Miss Anthony was the leader; Miss Shaw ‘the star’ and the very best women of South Dakota were there. Of course, we wanted a plank in the Republican platform. The great concession was made the suffragists of ten seats on the platform where no one of us could see or be seen. I was fortunate enough to be one of the ten and being young, I did not mind standing on a chair in order to see the convention. Peeping over the heads and shoulders of those before me, I saw a man arise and move that a delegation of Sioux Indians be admitted. They had been enfranchised by the National government and the delegate said, their votes must be won. They were admitted to the floor of the house,–three blanketed, long-haired, greasy men of the plains.”
Suffragists were given five minutes and Shaw called to speak for them: “She has made many powerful addresses but never one quite so wonderful as that. All the men who packed that big skating-rink combined, could not have produced so soul-stirring an appeal for any cause but alas, it was a prophet whose soul was lighted by a vision of truth, speaking to a mob, who marveled at the power of the speaker but did not comprehend her message.”
Hannah J. Patterson, ed., The Hand Book of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and Proceedings of the Forty-Eighth Annual Convention held at Atlantic City, N.J., September 4-10 inclusive, 1916 (New York, 1916), 59.
In September, Anna Howard Shaw spoke at the Lincoln County Agricultural Association’s fair near Canton. Her half-hour talk included pointed comments on the native men that had been seated at the Republican convention in Mitchell. Shaw told the crowds that “she never knew the importance of being a man forcibly, until she attended the republican state convention at Mitchell” because their votes as men “was the reason the republicans loved their Indians more than their women” [25].
Occasionally, local Republican events opened to suffrage speakers even without a party platform. In September, Laura Johns’ campaign stop for suffrage in Turton conflicted with a Republican political meeting. According to Johns, her local host, Mrs. Oldfield, “had been equal to the occasion. She had written to the gentlemen who were to address the political meeting, explaining that our bills* had been up ten days before theirs, and the consequence was that they had arranged for us to divide the time. The school-house was full to overflowing; the band played; our ladies sang ‘Give the Ballot to the Mothers,’ and I occupied the first hour, and was followed by Mr. Sterling, of Redfield, and Mr. Koens, of Deland^, who discussed the principles of Republicanism, and said a good word for woman suffrage. The meeting closed at a late hour, after a thoroughly good time. While some Republicans plumed themselves on having added to our audience, and while the suffragists took unto themselves the credit of having enlarged the Republican audience, the larger part of the assembly had come to hear it all.” That month, Henry Blackwell’s stop in nearby Redfield had a similar conflict. He reported that his hosts similarly negotiated with the Republicans to split the time at the courthouse. He reported that “Mr. Gamble, Republican candidate for U. S. Congress, spent an hour in elucidating the merits of the McKinley tariff, and I then devoted an hour to showing the justice and practical value of woman suffrage. The large audience remained in almost undiminished numbers to the close” [26].
* The posters that advertised the event.
^ Likely a misspelling of Doland.
By the end of the summer, when no political parties had adopted a suffrage plank, organizers held little hope that the bill would pass at the November election [27]. The S.D.E.S.A.’s disappointment at the amendment’s defeat was profound. According to a report in The Woman’s Journal (the national suffragist newspaper out of Boston), the S.D.E.S.A. passed several “resolutions of thanks” after the election, which included one thanking the Farmers’ Alliance for the suffrage column in their paper, but also one that read:
“Resolved, That, while we are grateful to the men of South Dakota who possessed manhood and independence of character sufficient to defend the rights and liberties of their wives and daughters at the recent election by voting for their enfranchisement, we deplore the political corruption which has so far tainted the moral understanding of party managers that they did not dare to stand for right, justice and progress, and which sent every wire-pulling Republican, Independent and Democrat to the polls to scratch the ‘Yes’ from the ticket of every man who did not know enough to prepare his own ballot.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), December 6, 1890, p.392, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
In January 1891, Libbie Wardall reported to The Woman’s Journal on the national Farmers’ Alliance convention that had recently been held in Florida. She concluded: “We did not find the convention, made up of men from thirty States, prepared to endorse woman suffrage, as we had hoped might be possible. But the favorite motto of the Alliance—’Equal Rights to All and Special Privileges to None’—is certainly tending towards our recognition. When men once come to realize that women are an important factor in politics, and can become a power if the ballot is placed in their hands, then we shall not be compelled to beg for our rights—they will be forced upon us. Elizabeth M. Wardall” [28].
Sources
[1] Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” South Dakota History (1982), 205; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), November 15, 1889. More on the founding of the S.D.E.S.A. on my page Timeline of South Dakota Suffrage, 1889-1890.
[2] Wessington Springs Herald (SD), November 8, 1889; “Page 66 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), December 14, 1889, p.394, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923), 115.
[3] Wessington Springs Herald (SD), December 27, 1889, January 24, 1890; “Page 27 : Among the Workers,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), March 1, 1890, p.65, December 6, 1890, p.392, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Morgan, History of the Wheel, 341.
[4] Nelson, “Defending Separate Spheres,” p128-130 in Lahlum and Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box (2019).
[5] Wessington Springs Herald (SD), December 27, 1889.
[6] Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), February 21, 1890.
[7] Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), February 7, 1890.
[8] Jennings, “Lake County Woman Suffrage Campaign,” South Dakota History (1975), 407.
[9] The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), April 26, 1890, p.130, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; The Dakota Ruralist, May 31, 1890, and Rapid City Republican (SD), May 23, 1890, “Page 34 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10
[10] Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 116; Mitchell Capital (SD), June 20, 1890.
[11] The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), June 13, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), July 25, 1890; Citing Sentinel (Madison SD), June 12, 1890, Jennings, “Lake County Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 401; Mitchell Capital (SD), April 7, 1893; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 555-557; Catt and Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics (1923), 116.
[12] Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), June 14, 1890.
[13] Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923), 116.
[14] “Page 43 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Guide to the Hagerty-Lloyd Historic District (1990), 11-12, Beulah Williams Library Archives and Special Collections, NSU.
[15] Sturgis Advertiser (SD), July 3, 1890; Mitchell Capital (SD), July 11, 1890.
[16] The Daily Plainsman (Huron, SD), July 10, 1890; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 787; Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 214-218.
[17] Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 24, 1890; Kimball Graphic (SD), July 4, 1890; “Page 44 : Entire Page,” and “Page 47 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10.
[18] Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), July 26, 1890; Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 26, 1890; Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (1925), 116 (quote); Wittmayer, 213-214.
[19] Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 26, 1890.
[20] Wessington Springs Herald (SD), September 12, 1890, September 19, 1890; The Daily Courier (Elk Point SD), September 26, 1890; The Dakota Ruralist, July 26, 1890, “Page 44 : Entire Page,” “Page 45 : Entire Page,” “Page 47 : Entire Page,” Ipswich Gazette (SD), July 17, 1890, “Page 47 : Entire Page,” “Page 48 : Entire Page,” and The Journal (Sioux City IA), ??, “Page 53 : Entire Page,”; and “Page 58 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10.
[21] Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 3, 1890; “Page 54 : Flyer: Independent Rally,” “Page 56 : Program: Independent Rally,” and handwritten Madison, October 2, 1890, “Page 58 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Ross-Nazzal, Winning the West for Women, 48, 53.
[22] Hot Springs Star (SD), February 14, 1890; Jennings, “Lake County Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 394-396.
[23] “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 6, 1890, p.284, September 13, 1890, p.292, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 788.
[24] Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 222; Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 9, 1890, August 12, 1890; Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890, image 1, pg 4, pg 9, pg 10, (Adkinson quote) September 5, 1890; Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), August 29, 1890; Hot Springs Star (SD), October 3, 1890; Catt’s presidential address recounting the event in Hannah J. Patterson, ed., The Hand Book of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and Proceedings of the Forty-Eighth Annual Convention held at Atlantic City, N.J., September 4-10 inclusive, 1916 (New York, 1916), 59–60, 66; Catt and Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics (1923), 116; Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (1925), 116.
[25] Daily Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), September 11, 1890, September 12, 1890; Nelson in Lauck et al., 139; and Rozum, “Citizenship, Civilization, and Property,” in Lahlum/Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box (2019), 250.
[26] The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 4, 1890, p.316, and October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
[27] Nelson in Lahlum/Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box (2019), 132.
[28] The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), January 31, 1891, p.34, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
History in South Dakota 