** I have yet to go through the Pickler Family Papers at the S.D. State Archives in Pierre, so there’s certainly more to see than what I have here so far from other sources. See also: Linda M. Sommer, “Dakota Resources: The Pickler Family Papers and the Humphrey Family Papers at the South Dakota State Historical Society,” South Dakota History (1994), 126-128.
Alice M. Alt Pickler was a critical leader of the South Dakota suffrage movement from the 1880s in the territorial period through the passage of the state suffrage amendment in 1918. She served as state president of the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1909, was franchise superintendent for the South Dakota Women’s Christian Temperance Union, represented South Dakota at a number of national suffrage conventions, and held a number of other key offices in other years. She further supported the national suffrage amendment, speaking at Congress in 1894 and supporting the state branch of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage organized in Sioux Falls in 1917. Her husband John Pickler was also a key supporter of suffrage as a prominent politician.
Find the Picklers featured on a coloring page and the “Wave the Banner” activity page at: Coloring and Activity Pages.
Alice May Alt was born on November 17, 1848 near Iowa City. She attended university in Iowa and trained as a teacher. In 1870, she married fellow graduate, John A. Pickler. John had served in the Third Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War. They moved to Ann Arbor MI where John graduated from law school, then to Kirksville MO and then to Muscatine IA. In 1883, they homesteaded in Faulk County, just south of the townsite that became Faulkton. They went to Faulk County with a number of Iowans, including two of Alice’s sisters: Kate (Faulkner) and Nellie (Latham). They had four children: Lulu (Frad), Madge (Hoy), Alfred, and Dale (Conway). Between them, the Picklers acquired a number of parcels of land in the Faulkton area [“Alice M.A. Pickler,” in C.H. Ellis, History of Faulk County, South Dakota (Faulkton SD: Record Print, 1909), 276-281; Atlas of Faulk County (1910), via Ancestry.com; Des Moines Register (IA), January 24, 1914; “Dakota Images: Alice Alt Pickler,” South Dakota History 24(2) (1994), 152-153; “Alice Mary Alt Pickler,” Findagrave.com].
Alice Pickler was superintendent of the franchise department for the Dakota Territory W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) under territorial president Helen M. Barker. At the 1885 statehood constitutional convention in Sioux Falls, Pickler, Barker, and Julia Welch attended and presented the W.C.T.U.’s request to the committee on elections and suffrage that the word “male” be left out of the voter qualifications [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 553].
In 1885, Alice and John Pickler attended the American Woman Suffrage Association convention in Minneapolis, where John spoke about the recent defeat of his legislative bill for suffrage by the territorial governor’s veto. When John was nominated for congress by the Republican party in September 1889, he brought her on the platform of the convention to give her public recognition for her work on the 1885 bill. Alice had lived in Bismarck for the 1885 legislative session to work with John and other advocates [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 414; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), September 27, 1889; Bismarck Weekly Tribune (ND), February 27, 1885].
At territorial W.C.T.U. conventions in 1887 and 1888, as supt. of franchise, Pickler gave addresses on suffrage and provided literature on suffrage that attendees could take back to their communities. At the 1888 convention, she “gave an able and exhaustive report of work during the past year, and recommended that every effort be made by the Union to secure the passage of a franchise bill this coming winter” [The Herald (Big Stone City, SD), September 23, 1887; Mitchell Capital (SD), September 14, 1888; Press and Daily Dakotaian (Yankton SD), September 29, 1888; (quote) The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 29, 1888, p.307, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].
NWSA Membership Card for Mrs. Alice M.A. Pickler, #2021-04-26-0043, Box 6676, Folder 19, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – November 1898, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.
Before the 1888 convention, she published the following open letter:
“TO THE WOMEN OF DAKOTA. The following urgent appeal should receive a prompt response. Let each of our Dakota subscribers secure its immediate publication in the local papers of the county: Faulkton, Dak., Aug. 13,1888.
Dear Sisters: While the grand cause of equal suffrage is making such rapid advancement all over our land, it behooves us to be found in the front ranks of this grand army of progress. As your Superintendent of Franchise, I urge now the importance of giving attention to this part of our work. Send to Woman’s Journal, Boston, for suffrage leaflets (15 and 30 cents per 100), and names of members of your Union to Woman’s Journal, which will be sent four weeks, on trial, free. I will also have suffrage literature for sale at Fargo, at the convention.
This year may be our opportunity. Should the coming Legislature grant us suffrage, we will by our votes be able to place it in the Constitution when we become a State. We must have a headquarters at Bismarck the coming year, and for this object we must have money. Please consult together and decide how much your Union can raise for this object the coming year, —say $5, $10 or $15 by January, 1889, and send word by delegates to Fargo. Appoint a Superintendent of Franchise, if none is appointed. Let us as true women stand together, and by God’s blessing we will succeed, keeping this end in view: If woman’s influence, presence and counsel is good in the home it will be good in the State. If purity is good for the home it is good for the State.
With an earnest prayer for success, Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler, Superintendent Franchise, W. C. T. U.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 1, 1888, p.278, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
After the convention, she reported:
“The suffrage sentiment in Dakota is certainly increasing. A more marked interest was taken in the subject at the W. C. T. U. convention at Fargo, in which both Dakotas were represented, than ever before… The sentiments of the members in both House and Council, so far as heard from, are very encouraging. It would make your hearts glad, as it has mine, to read the good words of the noble men who favor giving to the brave pioneer women of Dakota the same rights they ask for themselves. Dakota men have known for many years what it was to disfranchised, but their lot in this respect has been light indeed compared to their sisters’, thousands of whom are unrepresented tax-payers.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), January 12, 1889, p.16, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
In 1887 and 1889, Pickler was a member of the contingents from the W.C.T.U. who went to the territorial legislature in Bismarck to ask for woman suffrage. In 1887, she went with Barker and Mrs. S.V. Wilson to present petitions. In 1889, she went with Barker and Philena Everett Johnson of Highmore to advocate for suffrage and prohibition. They established a W.C.T.U. headquarters in Bismarck “to which all will be welcome who can come and help to work for freedom. No more important spot can be found in this broad land for the effective prosecution of this work” [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 544; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), December 29, 1888, p.414, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].
Though the statehood conventions had not included suffrage in the new state constitution, they did direct the first state legislature to pass a bill putting equal suffrage on the state’s first public ballot. Suffragists began planning a public campaign for the amendment. In the fall of 1889, Emma Smith DeVoe arranged a slate of speakers, including Alice Pickler as the W.C.T.U.’s franchise supt., for Woman’s Day at the fair in Huron, after which a group met to plan the first state suffrage convention for South Dakota. Pickler was one of the signatories on the call published for the convention, and, at the convention, was named to the executive committee of the newly-organized South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association (S.D.E.S.A.) [“Page 06 : The Convention Called,” The Union Signal, November 7, 1889, in “Page 09 : South Dakota — Equal Suffrage Work,” “Page 09 : [news clipping: “Woman’s Day”],” Dakota Farmer (Huron SD), November 1889, “Page 31,” “Page 66 : Entire Page,” and “Page 67 : Entire Page” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].
In December 1889, a W.C.T.U. reception at the Hotel Fredonia in Washington D.C. honored Alice Pickler for her work for suffrage [Evening Star (Washington D.C.), December 17, 1889, December 18, 1889; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), January 3, 1890].
In February 1890, the S.D.E.S.A. sent the Picklers and Alonzo Wardall as delegates to the national suffrage convention in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Music Hall. During the convention, Alice participated in a discussion on “Our Attitude toward Political Parties,” commenting with regret that the new state university and agricultural college had gender equality for students, but were governed completely by men. Later, the South Dakota delegation were introduced by Susan B. Anthony and gave remarks requesting the national organization’s assistance to mount their state amendment campaign. Wardall made the primary address, after which Alice “indorsed Mr. Wardall’s remarks and praised Dakota’s men as ‘the grandest in the world'” [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), December 6, 1889, February 28, 1890; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), December 11, 1889; et al.; Evening Star (Washington DC), February 19, 1890; Washington Critic (DC), February 20, 1890; Jamestown Weekly Alert (ND), February 27, 1890; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 173].
About John and Alice Pickler in a D.C. newspaper:
“his wife is in word and deed his other self… ‘Why, they say that she is a better politician than I am, out home,’ said he, ‘and I have a sneaking notion away down in my boots that this is only a plain statement of facts.’ … he positively glowed as he told of the work his wife had done both for himself and the State … he is a strong suffragist, and in speaking of that he declared that the devotion of our women during the war had made him so…. When he was nominated for Congress his wife was by his side, as usual, and was sitting in one of the boxes of the opera house at his elbow as he stood on the stage making his speech of acceptance and thanks.” When John thanked her as part of the speech, Alonzo Edgerton and another went to the box and “induced her to stand up, which increased the uproar tenfold.”
National Tribune (Washington DC), March 20, 1890.
During the 1890 campaign, Alice Pickler served as secretary of her local suffrage club in Faulkton and did speaking stops in Redfield and in Potter and Sully Counties. In April, it was reported that she would “go into the field this month talking equality and justice in South Dakota.” For the state W.C.T.U., Emma Smith DeVoe and Pickler served respectively as superintendent and state superintendent of franchise. In August 12-21, she toured Sully County, organizing clubs at nine locations and presiding at a county convention in Onida. In August, she replaced Helen Barker on the SDESA’s executive committee. In September, she was an evening speaker for the Brookings County suffrage convention and lectured at nearby Volga as well [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), April 18, 1890, May 30, 1890; Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), July 26, 1890, August 9, 1890, August 16, 1890, August 23, 1890; Brookings Register (SD), September 12, 1890; Brookings County Sentinel (Brookings SD), September 12, 1890, September 19, 1890, pg 8, pg 11; Highmore Herald (SD), May 17, 1890, “Page 34 : Entire Page,” The Woman’s Tribune, June 7, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” “Page 48 : Entire Page,” and Dakota Ruralist, August 16, 1890, “Page 57 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Letter to Miss Sarah A. Richards from William F. Bailey, August 15, 1890, #2021-02-02-0054, Box 6674, Folder 5, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: R-Z, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Citing Faulk County Record, May 22, 1890, in Faulk County Newspaper Excerpts].
Pickler “does not profess to be and is not a great orator, but her honesty and sincerity of purpose carry conviction with all she says.”
Brookings County Sentinel (Brookings SD), September 19, 1890.
In 1890, her husband John was serving in the U.S. Congress. The Woman’s Cycle publication gave a description of Alice Pickler at work as advocate and mother, that she, “from her home in Washington, D.C. is taking an active part in the suffrage campaign. The Cycle says, ‘She and her husband live in a quiet way in lodgings near the capitol. About her desk are great piles of documents to be sent out to her state, and the moment the room is cleared of men wanting postoffices, and the mending is done, she takes up her pen and addresses bundles until the baby either wakes up or becomes tired of amusing himself'” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), March 15, 1890, p.81, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; reprinted from WJ (I assume) in The Herald (Big Stone City, SD), March 25, 1890; The Advance (Milbank SD), March 28, 1890].
As a member of the state executive committee, she participated in the state conventions in July in Huron and in August in Mitchell. When she signed the call for the July convention, some newspapers criticized the suffragists for seeming like a third-party political movement – especially with the Picklers, Hardens, and Wardalls as leaders; one called her “the wife of South Dakota’s erratic congressman.” At the Huron convention, Pickler served on the committees on resolutions and plan of work. At the Mitchell convention, following an address of welcome by a local minister, “Mrs. Alice M.A. Pickler responded on behalf of the State Equal Suffrage Association. Her womanliness, her pleasing manner, her evident sincerity and her great earnestness won for her a warm place in the estimation of her audience. Her address was listened to with interest and she was heartily applauded.” She also gave a short address reporting on the field work underway for the campaign, and she gave introductions for a few guest speakers. After the convention, she joined the committee that approached the Republican state convention for a suffrage plank on their platform. There, Pickler “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” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 24, 1890; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), July 2, 1890; Kimball Graphic (SD), July 4, 1890 (quote 1); Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 5, 1890, September 12, 1890; Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890, pg. 1, pg 4 (quote 3); “Page 31 : Entire Page,” “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 44 : Entire Page,” “Page 49 : Equal Suffrage Proceedings (continued on page 50)” (quote 2) “Page 50 : Equal Suffrage Proceedings (continued from page 49),” and “Page 51 : 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention program (Page 2),” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 222].
More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.
Women’s Day at the state fair in 1890 was superintended by Emma DeVoe. Alice Pickler was on the platform with the key speakers of the day [Daily News (Aberdeen SD), September 18, 1890, “Page 50 : Entire Page,” and “Page 52 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].
Susan B. Anthony “is not so convincing as is Rev. Anna Shaw, not so pleasant as Mrs. Pickler, nor again is she so rabid as Mrs. Gougar.”
Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), October 11, 1890.
Late in the campaign, Pickler was scheduled for speeches at Britton and Amherst on October 24 and 25 respectively [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 25, 1890, p.340, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].
In January 1891, Pickler’s report of her campaign activities included:
Attending Faulk, Spink, and Clark conventions in June
Assisting Mrs. Nelson in organizing ten clubs in Faulk Co in May
From July to Oct held meetings, took collections, and organized clubs (in most) in: (Potter Co) Lebanon, Arena, Lowell, Gettysburg; (Sully Co) Turley, Norfolk, Brayton, Goddard SH, Okobojo, Brooking SH (school house?), Lewiston, Hartmwn[sic] SH, Onida; (Kingsbury Co) Manchester, DeSmet, Arlington; (Brookings Co) Volga, Aurora, Brookings; (Codington Co) Davidson SH, Goodwin, Altamont, Watertown; (Hamlin Co) Castlewood, Estelline; (Deuel Co) Gary ; (Brown Co) Groton, Verdon, and Ferney; (Marshall Co) Langford, Newark, Britton, Amherst, SH near Spain, Spain; (Day Co) Andover; (Roberts Co) Wilmot; (Grant Co) Milbank and Twin Brooks; (Faulk Co) Faulkton, two SH near Dodge (FK?), one SH near James
Attending Mitchell convention in August
Methodist conference at Mitchell in October
For a total of: 57 public meetings and 13 afternoon meetings
Letter to Mrs. Wardall from Alice M.A. Pickler, January 30, 1891, #2021-03-24-0093, 1890 Campaign Folder 2, Box 6675, Folder 27, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre.
After the defeat of the 1890 amendment, Pickler remained on the state executive committee as they planned to approach the 1891 legislature for another amendment [Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 12, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 22, 1890, p.376, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].
The Picklers returned to Washington D.C. and attended the national suffrage convention in 1891 with Emma Smith DeVoe, where they reported on the results of the 1890 ballot, and Pickler also led an opening prayer. In her report of the election, she discussed complications of the third-party politics and the “disturbing influence of the Indian problem” (about the simultaneous vote on enfranchising native men), but expressed encouragement at the number of votes the amendment did receive. Also at the NAWSA convention, “Representative J.A. Pickler was introduced by Miss Anthony as the candidate who, when told that if he expressed his views on woman suffrage he would lose votes, expressed them more freely than ever and ran ahead of his ticket ; and his wife as the woman who bade her husband to speak even if it lost him the office, and who was herself the only Congressman’s wife that ever took the platform for the enfranchisement of women.” [Alexandria Gazette (VA), February 28, 1891; Hot Springs Star (SD), March 6, 1891; Evening Star (Washington DC), February 28, 1891; “Page 55 : Program: 1891 National American Woman Suffrage Convention (Page 5),” and Washington Post (DC), March 1, 1891, “Page 59 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 183 (quote 2)].
In September-October 1891, Pickler was president of the Sixth district of the S.D. W.C.T.U. and the Picklers attended a meeting in Onida to re-organize a suffrage association for Sully County [Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), September 5, 1891, September 26, 1891, October 3, 1891, October 10, 1891].
In 1891, Alice Pickler served as a member of the NAWSA executive committee representing South Dakota. At the state meeting in Huron in December 1891, she “conducted devotional exercises” and was re-elected to the position. In December 1892, she was elected with Libbie Wardall to be state delegates to the NAWSA convention in D.C. in January 1893. During a discussion on press work at the 1893 NAWSA convention, she said “there were plenty smart women in her state to keep the papers informed of the advance in suffrage matters.” Pickler served on the committees for resolutions, congressional work, and petitions for the national convention. She also gave the state report from president Irene Adams with her own comments appended. Pickler spoke on the “lax” divorce laws in South Dakota, the counties that had elected women as superintendents (of schools?), and their intention to ask the governor to name women to the state boards on educational and charitable institutions. In February 1894, Pickler was also part of the delegation from South Dakota to the NAWSA convention. While attending the 1894 convention, Pickler was named to the congressional committee and was part of a small group of suffragists who spoke to the U.S. Senate, after others had presented to the House judiciary committee. In 1895, the Picklers attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in D.C. and John made an address advocating suffrage. In 1896, she and the Simmons’ represented South Dakota at the NAWSA convention in D.C. [Mitchell Capital (SD), December 4, 1891, December 25, 1891, December 9, 1892; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), December 4, 1891; Columbus Journal (NE), December 30, 1891; Madison Daily Leader (SD), December 9, 1892; The Daily Plainsman (Huron SD), December 21, 1891; Evening Star (Washington DC), January 17, 1893 (quote); Alexandria Gazette (VA), January 18, 1893, February 21, 1894; Hand County Press (Miller SD), February 2, 1893; Washington Times (DC), March 2, 1895; Harriet Taylor Upton, Proceedings of the 25th Annual Convention of NAWSA, held in Washington, D.C., January 16-19, 1893 (Washington DC, 1893), 20, 148, 164-165; Upton, ed., Proceedings of the 26th Annual Convention of NAWSA, held in Washington, D.C., February 15-20, 1894 (Washington DC, 1894), 91, 214-216; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), March 3, 1894, p.69, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Avery, ed., Proceedings of the 28th Annual Convention of NAWSA, held in Washington, D.C., January 23-28, 1896 (Washington DC, 1896), 95, 158].
At the NAWSA convention, Pickler “talked off-hand and entirely as one accustomed to it.”
Hand County Press (Miller SD), February 2, 1893.“We said we would not have it written in the history of our State that any legislature had ever convened without our knocking at the door for suffrage.”
Upton, Proceedings of the 25th Annual Convention of NAWSA, 1893, 148.
In July 1894, Alice Pickler, Eva Myers and Helen Barker were speakers for a W.C.T.U. School of Methods held at the Lake Madison Chautauqua, at which suffrage and prohibition were the main topics of discussion. For the 1895 chautauqua at Lake Madison, the Picklers tented on the grounds and Alice ran a platform meeting on suffrage with the guest speaker Dr. E.L. Parks of Atlanta GA. She “told of the part equal suffrage played in the great women’s council at Washington last winter [Note: the National Council of Women in D.C.], the Major gave some very potent reasons why he thought women entitled to the ballot, and Dr. Parks told of the hold the question was beginning to take on the leading ladies of the south.” Pickler had also been a speaker for the W.C.T.U. Day at the Chautauqua in 1893 [Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 15, 1893, July 20, 1894, July 16, 1895, July 17, 1895].
On September 17-18, 1895, Pickler participated in the joint S.D.E.S.A. and W.C.T.U. state convention held in Pierre. She gave a response to the addresses of welcome by local dignitaries, gave an executive report, and led devotional exercises for the Tuesday evening program. In 1896, she helped organize and lead the state convention at Salem (McCook Co.). During the 1897 state meeting in Mitchell, Pickler led devotions and prayers, and she was re-elected state vice-president. She also made remarks “in reference to the past work of the association concerning what had been accomplished in former years as to securing the franchise for woman. In a historical way she associated the white ribbon of the W.C.T.U. with the yellow ribbon of the suffrage movement.” In response, Jane Breeden raised concerns about the “propriety” of continuing to closely pair the temperance and suffrage causes. At the September 1899 state convention, records from the 1898 campaign were given to Pickler for storage in her library. At the 1900 state meeting in Brookings, Alice Pickler was elected state president to replace Anna Simmons who had moved to Chicago [Sioux City Journal (IA), September 6, 1895; Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), December 4, 1896; Mitchell Capital (SD), September 24, 1897, October 1, 1897 (quote); Semi-Weekly Register (Brookings SD), December 2, 1898; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 790; Avery, ed., Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Convention of NAWSA, held at the Church of Our Father … Washington, D.C., February 8-14, 1900 (Philadelphia: Alfred J. Ferris, 1900), 89; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 559].
Profile and photo of Pickler in South Dakota Messenger, Vol. 1, No. 3, November 8, 1897, #2021-05-19-0036, in WCTU Messenger – 1897, Pickler Papers H91-74, SD State Archives.
In 1901, she again attended the national NAWSA convention as South Dakota’s delegate, held in Minneapolis. She gave the state report on the results of the 1898 campaign, recounting that relatively few votes had stood “between us and the great hope of our hearts” and how their present strategy was to organize small Political Equality Clubs around the state “to form a nucleus for the distribution of literature.” For the 1902 NAWSA convention, she was represented in proxy by her daughter Lulu Pickler Frad who presented Alice’s president’s report for South Dakota [Alice Stone Blackwell, ed., Proceedings of the Thirty-third Annual Convention of NAWSA, held at First Baptist Church … Minneapolis, Minn., May 30-June 5, 1901 (Warren OH, 1901), i, 94 (quote), 128; Proceedings of the Thirty-fourth Annual Convention of NAWSA and First International Woman Suffrage Conference, Washington, D.C., February 12-18, 1902 (Washington DC, 1902), 55, 89, 116].
Alice Pickler wrote early histories of suffrage work in Dakota Territory and South Dakota that were included in Anthony and Harper’s fourth volume of The History of Woman Suffrage, published in 1902, and in C.H. Ellis’ 1909 History of Faulk County, South Dakota [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 552; C.H. Ellis, History of Faulk County (Faulkton SD: Record Print, 1909), 233].
Find Pickler featured on the “SoDak Suffrage in Public Memory” activity page at: Coloring and Activity Pages.
In 1902, the S.D.E.S.A. and Pickler as its president worked to gather petition signatures to put a suffrage amendment on the 1904 ballot under the new Initiative process. She reported afterwards: “A great surprise awaited us when the Secretary of State, himself not able to plainly speak the English language, refused to even file the petitions or receive them at all for transmission to the Legislature as required by the constitutional provision.” Berg had been advised by the SD Attorney General’s office that the Initiative process was not applicable to constitutional amendments. Her report continued: “The labor and cost of petition, expenses of legislative committee, and anxiety about the same, mark another milestone in our suffrage history. The unjust refusal of one man to the request of four thousand petitioners has made sentiment for us… [we] were much encouraged in circulating the petitions to find many who said they would sign and vote for the measure, too” [Harriet Taylor Upton, ed., Proceedings of the Thirty-fifth Annual Convention of NAWSA, held at New Orleans, La., March 19-25, inclusive, 1903 (Warren OH, 1903), 92 (quote), 122].
As state president, Pickler gave the state reports at the NAWSA conventions in 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1909 as well [Proceedings of the Thirty-seventh Annual Convention of NAWSA, held at Portland, Oregon, June 28-July 5, 1905 (Warren OH: Tribune Co., 1905), 176; Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual Convention of NAWSA held at Baltimore, MD., February 7-13, 1906 (Warren OH, 1906), 10; 163; Proceedings of the Thirty-ninth Annual Convention of NAWSA, held at Chicago, February 14-19, 1907 (Warren OH: Wm. Ritezel & Co., 1907), 10, 92, 167; Harriet Taylor Upton, Fortieth annual report of NAWSA, held at Buffalo, October 15-21, 1908 (Warren OH, 1908), 13, 98, 195; Albuquerque Morning Journal (NM), July 3, 1909].
In January 1907, Pickler worked with Luella Ramsey and Philena Johnson to advocate for suffrage at the state legislature in Pierre. They brought 36 yards of petitions for suffrage mounted on canvas that they had legislative pages unfurl in the state House. She had gone to Pierre to lobby in 1905 as well, but primarily for prohibition. In September 1907, she, Philena Johnson, and Rose Bower organized the state suffrage meeting that was held in Pierre with speaker Laura Gregg of Kansas [Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), January 26, 1905, September 19, 1907; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (SD), January 25, 1907; Charles Mix New Era (Wagner SD), January 25, 1907; Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), February 1, 1907; Forest City Press (SD), September 5, 1907; Proceedings of the Thirty-ninth Annual Convention of NAWSA, held at Chicago, February 14-19, 1907 (Warren OH: Wm. Ritezel & Co., 1907), 92].
Pickler served as president of the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1909. After the 1909 legislature passed a suffrage amendment bill to go on the 1910 ballot, the S.D.E.S.A. held a state meeting in Aberdeen at which Pickler presided as president. At the meeting, Lydia Johnson was elected to replace her, but Pickler continued to serve on the state campaign committee as a member at-large in 1909 and 1910 [Saturday News (Watertown SD), June 25, 1909; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), December 1, 1910, December 8, 1910; Box 1, Correspondence 1909, RD06565, and Votes for Women Campaign letterhead, May 1910, RA06634, Breeden Papers USD].
In 1910, Pickler was elected vice-president of the S.D. W.C.T.U. under president Anna Simmons, a position she held into 1916. The organization continued to work for the suffrage amendment even though the state Votes for Women campaign strove to work independently of the W.C.T.U. (unlike in past years). The 1910 amendment campaign was ultimately unsuccessful [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), September 29, 1910; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), September 22, 1911; Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 4, 1913, September 23, 1915, September 23, 1916; Mitchell Capital (SD), September 17, 1914].
In July 1912, Pickler and Simmons were speakers at the state meeting of the newly re-organized S.D. Universal Franchise League that was led by Mamie Shields Pyle. Pickler also served on the committee that had charge of writing the constitution of the new organization. At the meeting, Pickler was elected vice-president of the S.D.U.F.L. under Pyle, a position she held into 1914. In February, she wrote to NAWSA about working to distribute and get subscriptions to The Woman’s Journal. In June 1913, Pickler, Jane Mason, and Minnie Fox wrote resolutions endorsing the S.D.U.F.L.’s campaign for the Women’s Relief Corps [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 1, 1912; RD04998, Constitution of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League, Pyle Papers USD; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), July 10, 1913; Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 11, 1913; Des Moines Register (IA), January 24, 1914; Pickler to Agnes Ryan, February 12, 1913, Gen. Corr., 1839-1961, mss34132, box 28; reel 19, NAWSA Records].
In 1913, as representatives of the SD WCTU, Pickler and Simmons participated in lobbying at the state legislature at which a suffrage amendment was passed for the 1914 ballot. With Simmons, she also spoke on suffrage at a Lyman-Stanley county meeting in Fort Pierre that May. She became a SD WCTU franchise department superintendent with Edith Fitch and set up department headquarters in her deceased husband’s law office in Faulkton. In November 1913, she wrote to Alice Blackwell that “we are nicely installed and have started the ball rolling” at the headquarters and regarding the WCTU’s relationship with the SDUFL: “we are working together ‘separately’ and harmoniously in our respective fields.” [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), January 16, 1913; Dewey County Advocate (SD), January 17, 1913; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), May 15, 1913; Pickler to Alice Stone Blackwell, November 7, 1913, Gen. Corr., 1839-1961, mss34132, box 28; reel 19, NAWSA Records, Library of Congress].
In February 1914, Pickler was in Washington D.C. and attended a tea of the League for Woman Suffrage at which officials from NAWSA and the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage debated the wisdom of more substantial demonstrations and protests for a federal suffrage amendment [Evening Star (Washington DC), February 13, 1914].
In the spring of 1914, Pickler was waylaid for a time by a bad case of poison ivy but was back on the job in later May to go with M. Jean Wilkinson to have a suffrage booth in the parlors of the Masonic Temple for the GAR/WRC convention [Letter to Mrs. Rice, May 11, 1914, #2021-06-09-0085, Letter to Mrs. Safford, May 19, 1914, #2021-06-09-0218, Letter to Mrs. Safford, May 19, 1914, #2021-06-09-0218, and Letter to Mrs. Simmons, May 20, 1914, #2021-06-09-0228, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].
IN HER OWN WORDS: An open letter from Pickler to “White Ribboners” in Madison Daily Leader (SD), May 21, 1914:
“… let [women] be possessed with the spirit of freedom. Her own freedom, to possess her own children, to vote for the disposition of taxes on her own property and a clean world for her children and grandchildren to live in. Let us have the spirit of Patrick Henry: ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ And like Paul let us persuade men to vote for us in the spirit of love and earnestness.”
In 1914, the W.C.T.U. Day at the Lake Madison Chautauqua in July and the state W.C.T.U. convention in Mitchell in September included talks by Pickler on the state franchise department’s plan of work for the suffrage amendment. As W.C.T.U. state franchise supt. and representing the S.D. Federation of Women’s Clubs, Pickler made arrangements for a six-stop speaking tour through South Dakota by “General” Rosalie Jones of New York, after hearing Jones speak in Chicago [Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 17, 1914, August 6, 1914; Minneapolis Morning Tribune (MN), August 16, 1914; Mitchell Capital (SD), September 17, 1914; Letter to Charles Smith from Jean Wilkinson, August 5, 1914, #2021-06-09-0164, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].
During the 1916 ballot campaign, she continued to hold the position of state superintendent of legislation and franchise for the S.D. W.C.T.U. [Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 25, 1916].
In 1917, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage sent Jane Pincus and Mabel Vernon to South Dakota to organize a state branch. Pickler attended their meeting in Sioux Falls and was made the state chair for circulating the CUWS’ publication, The Suffragist [Argus Leader (Sioux Falls SD), November 1, 1917; The Suffragist (National Women’s Party) 5(94) (November 10, 1917), 8].
In other aspects of her life:
In January 1890, Pickler signed a petition in support of having women managers for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 [Evening Star (Washington D.C.), January 13, 1890].
In 1894, she accepted a position on the board of “lady managers” for the Garfield Memorial Hospital in Washington D.C. [Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), February 2, 1894].
Image of Garfield Memorial Hospital in 1919, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7355, Martin A. Gruber Photograph Collection, Image No. SIA2010-1978.
In March 1895, Pickler and Emma Cranmer of Aberdeen addressed a mass meeting of the W.C.T.U. in D.C. [Washington Times (D.C.), March 4, 1895].
The Picklers were active in the Methodist church and were on the first board of trustees for the church in Faulkton. One of Alice’s key partners in the suffrage and temperance movements was Anna Simmons, whose husband was minister at the Methodist church in Faulkton [Des Moines Register (IA), January 24, 1914; Stephen Perry, We Are Yet Alive: United Methodists in the History of North Dakota and South Dakota [draft Chapters 1 & 2] (Anoka MN: February 2018), 94, 133].
They were also active with the Grand Army of the Republic / Women’s Relief Corps. Alice was active with the W.R.C. at least from 1892 to 1914. She served as state president, vice-president, chaplain, counselor, and inspector. In August 1896, she was elected chaplain at a national level for the W.R.C. [Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 13, 1892; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), June 13, 1895, November 12, 1914; Evening Star (Washington DC), April 20, 1896; National Tribune (Washington DC), August 6, 1896, October 29, 1896; Journal of the Fourteenth National Convention of the Woman’s Relief Corps (Boston MA: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1896), 275; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), June 16, 1899; Mitchell Capital (SD), June 30, 1899, June 22, 1900, June 29, 1900; Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), July 13, 1900; Des Moines Register (IA), January 24, 1914].
Alice’s parents, Joseph Alt and Eliza Kepford, died in January and February of 1904 respectively, in Johnson County, Iowa where they had settled in the 1840s and where Alice had been born. They had also been firm supporters of “the church and temperance reform” [“Alice M.A. Pickler,” in C.H. Ellis, History of Faulk County, South Dakota (Faulkton SD: Record Print, 1909), 276-277].
In 1908, Alice Pickler was one of seven governor appointees to the National Mothers’ Congress in Washington D.C. [Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), February 27, 1908; Evening Star (Washington D.C.), March 6, 1908, Page 12, Image 12].
John died in June 1910 [Des Moines Register (IA), January 24, 1914].
In 1914, she wintered in Orlando, Florida after a stop in Washington D.C. [Des Moines Register (IA), January 24, 1914].
In 1915, she served as vice-president of the board of directors for the new Providence Hospital in Faulkton, at which Abbie Jarvis was a lead physician and also a director [Mitchell Capital (SD), December 16, 1915].
In 1916, Pickler was a member of the state board for the South Dakota Anti-Saloon League as they worked for a prohibition amendment at the November elections that year [Mitchell Capital (SD), March 16, 1916].
After the U.S.’s entry into World War I, Pickler was named an honorary vice-chair of the Women’s Committee of the South Dakota Council of National Defense [Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), June 14, 1917].
In 1920, she was elected vice-president of the Sixth district of the S.D. Federation of Women’s Clubs in Aberdeen [Madison Daily Leader (SD), May 18, 1920].
On March 31, 1932, Alice Pickler died in Mission TX while visiting her daughter Dale Conway [Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 30, 1915; “Dakota Images: Alice Alt Pickler,” South Dakota History 24(2) (1994), 152-153; “Alice Mary Alt Pickler,” Findagrave.com].
Legacy:
The Picklers house in Faulkton, the “Pickler Mansion” or the “Pink Castle” at 900 8th Ave. S. was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in April 1973. It had been largely vacated by 1955. The house was turned over to the Faulk County Historical Society in 1987 and many of the papers archived at the State Archives in Pierre [“Maj. John A. Pickler Homestead,” National Register of Historic Places nomination, July 1972, NRIS # 73001742; Michael Zimny, “Landmarks : The Pickler Mansion in Faulkton,” South Dakota Public Broadcasting, April 17, 1915].
In 1991, historian Sally Roesch Wagner presented living history portrayals of Pickler [Press-Republican (Plattsburgh NY), January 30, 1991; February 6, 1991].
History in South Dakota 