Invaluable Out-of-Staters

Many individuals from other states came to South Dakota to speak about equal suffrage, campaign, organize, and advise. A few out-of-staters came in to campaign against equal suffrage as well. Here are highlights of their work… (in alphabetical order):

Jane Addams (1860-1935) [Chicago, Illinois]

On October 14-15, 1914, Jane Addams spoke in Lead and Deadwood, “under the auspices” of Martha Bullock, president of the Deadwood Franchise League, and was introduced by Mrs. Norman T. Mason. Addams spoke on “the positive changes in Chicago since women got the vote” to an audience of hundreds. Her visits were “an impetus” for increased campaign activity in the northern Hills and were credited with “a great influence in arousing interest” statewide [Doughty, “The Suffrage Movement in Lawrence County,” 655; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), October 2, 1914, October 8, 1914, October 11, 1914, October 13, 1914, October 14, 1914, October 15, 1914, October 15, 1914, October 16, 1914; Weekly Pioneer Times Mining Review (Deadwood, SD), October 22, 1914, October 22, 1914; Woman’s West of the River Suffrage Number, Rapid City Daily Journal (SD), October 26, 1914; Lead Daily Call (SD), October 20, 1914; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), October 22, 1914; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), September 15, 1923].

“She is gifted with such an attractive personality and her uplift work in Chicago is so widely known that Mr. Norman T. Mason who introduced her to her audience most tactfully, was forced to seek oratorical flights to avoid platitudes. Miss Addams was surrounded on the stage by a score of men and women from different parts of the Hills. In her talk Miss Addams devoted but little time to generalities but got down to a concrete basis by giving her personal experience in Chicago since the women obtained the vote there. This she did so skillfully and with such delicate humor that she kept her audience thoroughly good-natured…
She declared that women of Chicago were taking advantage of their rights through the ballot by forcing many long needed reforms and obtaining results for the city that were generally satisfactory because they now had a direct instead of indirect influence…
Miss Addams outlined the scope of work that women can accomplish without affecting their respectability or domestic standing and maintained that they need the responsibility of the ballot in order to bring their full talents into play.”
Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), October 15, 1914.

Beulah Amidon (Ratliff) (1894-1958) [Fargo, North Dakota]

In December 1916, Beulah Amidon arrived in Deadwood to start her tour of the state in the interests of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. There, she met with women at the house of Josephine Neil where “Miss Amidon explained the federal amendment, and told of the work the Congressional Union has done toward its passage.” She then went to Pierre and met with fifty to sixty women at the home of Ruth Hipple, then to Huron where the group was smaller {possibly because of local loyalties to the SD Universal Franchise League’s president Mamie Pyle?}. Amidon then spend two days in Aberdeen where “she met a number of women in their own homes, and was invited to address the women’s clubs, of which Aberdeen has an amazing number. It was possible to accept only five of these invitations…” She then went to Sioux Falls to make plans for a state organizing meeting [The Suffragist (December 16, 1916), 9; 5(56) (January 24, 1917), 8].

On January 13, 1917, interested women met at the Quaker Tea Room in the Hub Building (133-135 S. Phillips) in Sioux Falls on January 13, 1917, on “one of the bitter cold days of winter, with the thermometer at twenty below zero,” and a state board of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was organized under the chairmanship of Mrs. A.F. Fellows. Beulah Amidon (another photo), who had been speaking across the state for a month, organized the conference with principal speaker Margaret Whittemore. Amidon spoke at the meeting about “the Woman’s Party campaign in the west” [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), January 8, 1917; Madison Daily Leader (SD), January 9, 1917; The Suffragist 5(56) (January 24, 1917), 8; 1918 Sioux Falls City Directory, via Ancestry.com].

*The Suffragist* (National Woman’s Party), December 16, 1916.

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) [Rochester, New York]

Find my full notes on Anthony’s work in South Dakota and sources on my post: “Susan B. Anthony in SoDak,” July 29, 2020.

Susan B. Anthony was one of the national leaders who sent letters to the 1885 statehood convention in Sioux Falls to encourage their inclusion of women’s suffrage in the state constitution being planned. Anthony objected to the admission of Dakota as a state without suffrage. The 1889 statehood convention directed that equal suffrage be on South Dakota’s first ballot. In 1889, Alonzo Wardall and John and Alice Pickler attended the national suffrage convention in 1889 and asked Anthony to come to South Dakota to lead the organization of their campaign and to bring national funds for the effort.

“Susan B. Anthony announces that all the woman suffrage stumpers of the country are to be turned loose on South Dakota. Heaven help Dakota and her people.”
Wichita Eagle (KS), October 26, 1889.

In November 1889, Susan B. Anthony arrived in South Dakota after a stop in Duluth MN. During her trip, she organized equal suffrage associations/clubs in Aberdeen, Watertown, and Mitchell, and in Minnehaha, Hand, and Lake Counties. Her first visit concluded with a speech to the state Farmers’ Alliance meeting at the opera house in Aberdeen. At the meeting, the convention passed a suffrage resolution with only five dissenting votes. She also appeared at the college in Brookings, speaking at their chapel; she talked “briefly upon the progress the women and girls have made during the last fifty years toward their rightful place in society and affairs in general” [Brookings County Sentinel (SD), November 22, 1889].

In January 1890, Anthony wrote to Elizabeth Wardall about the campaign —
Letter to Mrs. Wardall from Susan B. Anthony, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

In May 1890, Anthony returned to South Dakota, staying for six months without pay and relying on host families like the Wardalls and DeVoes in Huron for lodging and making travel arrangements [Letter to Mrs. Wardall from Susan B. Anthony, November 16, 1890, #2021-02-26-0011, WCTU Suffrage Susan B. Anthony Letters, Box 6674, Folder 38, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].

“Woman suffrage has received a very great impetus by the arrival of Susan B. Anthony. She was present at our last executive committee meeting and aided much by her counsels and words of cheer.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 10, 1890, p.152, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Anthony traveled with Mary Seymour Howell, speaking in nearby towns and together for convention locations — “They hold two each week at county seats, and speak at other important points on intervening evenings. Large audiences rise en masse to their feet, indicating their desire for the success of our cause” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), June 21, 1890, p.194, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

““LETTER FROM MRS. HOWELL. Canton, S. D., June 14, 1890. Editors Woman’s Journal: … Convention follows convention (this being our fourteenth), two and three each week, in such rapid succession that we are no sooner out of one that we find ourselves going into another with the same enthusiasm and energy. We have grand meetings. Everybody wants to see Miss Anthony, and every one does who gets to the meetings in time or can find standing room or gaze at her from the windows. I call them our boxes, for often a patient audience stands outside in the winds of Dakota to hear her. And they hear something worth all the distance they have travelled, for Miss Anthony never spoke as she does to-day… She is busy each moment, going to bed at midnight, and awake and at work in the early morning, never in her dreams forgetting this campaign.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), June 21, 1890, p.200, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

At her speech in Wessington Springs:
“… Her words were fired with the zeal which has held her steadfast to her work for forty years. She has lived down the cruel taunts and exasperating ridicule of opponents and now commands the respect and esteem of all. Every young girl in college; every wage earner among women, indeed all women, owe something to this great apostle of our class. The three score years and ten rest lightly on her gray crowned head, her physical and mental vigor enabling her to lecture every evening, with sometimes long and tiresome journeys between.”
Wessington Springs Herald (SD), May 16, 1890.

At Letcher, “she made it clear to her audience that if the three million women in this country who work for their livelihood had the right of suffrage they would get better wages and more equitable laws… Political parties become interested in the wrongs suffered by all classes who have votes and give too little consideration to those who have not. Whether, Negroes, Chinamen, white men or women this rule applies with equal force. Arm women with the ballot and their just demands will receive the same respect and consideration as those of men, which is not the case at present.”
Wessington Springs Herald (SD), May 23, 1890.

At Pearl Creek M.E. Church in Floyd Township, Sanborn County (the church later built new across the county line in Pearl Creek Township, Beadle County): “Susan B. Anthony spoke in this church and was escorted by Otto Meyer, ancestor of many in the county. The story is told of a German who tried to heckle Miss Anthony by saying, ‘So you vant the vomen to vote’, whereupon she marched down and gave the rest of her talk directly to him.”
Records of Beadle County Settlers, 1879-1900 Pearl Creek Township Pearl Creek 6, Mildren McEwen Jones collection, Huron Public Library.

Anthony generated criticism from Marietta Bones and Helen M. Gougar of Indiana/Kansas for allegedly holding back the national funds from local suffrage leaders, and there were disagreements about the connections between suffrage, prohibition, and political parties, creating internal tension that carried through the end of the campaign in 1890.

“… she had told the Executive Committee that the National Committee would not contribute one single dollar toward the one hundred dollar monthly salary of the State secretary; that no National officers were paid for their services, and that she had no doubt that some of the women suffrage workers of the state would do the work of the secretary for nothing; and, further, she told them that if they cut loose from Miss Anthony and her committee, as they proposed to do, they would find themselves cut loose from the goose that laid the golden egg for the South Dakota work.”
Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 114–115.

“Of course Miss Anthony and Mrs. Bones do not dwell in any great sisterly love, but they should put blinds over their eyes while working in double harness, until after the result is decided.”
Quoting Pierre Free Press in St. Paul Daily Globe (MN), April 3, 1890.

The Wessington Springs Herald‘s editors, T. Linus and LoElla H. Blank, defended Anthony:
“To be sure some of us may think we know a good deal about woman suffrage; but we should be willing to admit that those who have devoted twenty, thirty, and even fifty years to this cause might know even more, and we should be glad of their help, especially as it is to be paid for by outside parties or donated entire. We hope our South Dakota Association will not kick up a row simply because they cannot handle the money that was donated the National Association for work in our state.”
Wessington Springs Herald (SD), March 28, 1890.

Bones claimed that Anthony “dominates in running the campaign by spinisters[sic] and motherless foreign women who have no mission at home to fill.”
Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 26, 1890, citing the St. Paul (MN) Press.

In early June 1890, at the invitation of H.L. Loucks, Anthony attended the Independent Party convention for their discussion of a suffrage platform, where she reportedly had “very hearty reception from the farmers,” but they did not adopt a suffrage platform at the end.

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

For July 4th, 1890, Anthony and Lucy Stone (the NAWSA executive committee chair) encouraged suffragists around the country to hold Fourth of July meetings to rejoice over Kansas and Wyoming victories and to raise funds for the Dakota campaign — “Let the women who believe in representative government enlist the men who also believe in it, and together let them make this a Fourth of July worthy of a Republic.” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 31, 1890, p.172, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 6, 1890].

““HELP FOR DAKOTA. A private letter received from Miss Anthony just as last week’s Woman’s Journal was going to press, says: ‘I wish you would keep making strong and varied appeals for the South Dakota campaign. The more I see and learn of the work here, the more I see and feel that we must raise every dollar from outside of this State. We are paying our railroad fare from outside money. The collections, after rousing speeches, amount to barely enough to pay hall rent and incidental local expenses. If there is a little left over, we have it placed in the County W. S. A. treasury. Of course, if the rains do come, and the people do have good crops, they will be more able to contribute. But splendid men and women—college educated, too,—drive ten, fifteen and twenty miles io our county conventions, who, much as they long to help, can’t give a quarter toward the work, because they haven’t it. We must raise the money from outside…’ … a. s. b. {Alice Stone Blackwell}”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 31, 1890, p.172, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

“Susan B. Anthony is fighting a brave battle in South Dakota. Although about seventy years of age, she has spoken for weeks without intermission. She made two Fourth of July addresses; one at 11A.M. at Wessington, twenty miles west of Huron; another at 4 P. M. at Merritt’s Grove, ten miles south of Wessington… Two open-air speeches in one day will tax the energies of the most practised male speakers. Yet Miss Anthony’s second speech was said to be the best of the two…
At the request of the new executive committee, on account of the intense heat and arrival of harvest, Miss Anthony has consented to postpone holding more county meetings until after the Republican State Convention at Mitchell, August 25, devoting herself meanwhile to home work at and near headquarters. Her permanent address will be, till further notice, Huron, South Dakota.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 2, 1890, p.241, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Anthony attended and spoke at the Huron state convention in July 1890 where the state officers all resigned under protest and new leadership was elected. She was put on the executive committee with the new leadership. Marietta Bones called Anthony’s removal of Samuel A. Ramsey and placement of herself on the executive committee “tyrannical” [Minneapolis Tribune (MN), July 15, 1890].

In August 1890, the reconstituted SD Equal Suffrage Association met in Mitchell with many outside speakers including Anthony. The suffragists who stayed in Mitchell after the 1890 state suffrage convention and approached the state Republican party convention were initially denied seats, but eventually ten were found at the back of the hall. Anthony and Shaw were also only given permission to speak at the Republican convention during the recess, after the general meeting had adjourned to await committee reports. Apparently about two-thirds of the attendees remained to hear from Anthony, Rev. Olympia Brown, Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Emma S. DeVoe, and Alice M.A. Pickler. Anthony also read a letter to the convention from Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Republicans did not adopt a suffrage platform.

“Poster Advertising Susan B. Anthony,” at the courthouse in Leola, September 20, 1890, #2021-02-08-0005, in Suffrage Correspondence 1890, Pickler Papers H91-74, SD State Archives.

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

“RESOLUTIONS OF THANKS IN DAKOTA. The following resolutions were passed at a meeting of the executive committee and friends of the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association, held at Huron… Resolved, That the earnest and heartfelt gratitude of all the suffragists of South Dakota is hereby extended to Susan B. Anthony, who has devoted her entire time, energy and experience for six months to the cause of liberty and justice; and to her noble co-workers.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), December 6, 1890, p.392, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

After the 1890 campaign, “Miss Anthony’s sister Mary said, ‘When my sister returned from South Dakota, I realized for the first time that she was indeed three score and ten'” [Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (1925), 118].

“The speakers of that campaign never tired of recalling their experiences, and in the recollection found some reward for the hardships they had undergone. Before going to one town Miss Anthony and her companion had been warned against a certain hotel which was considered the worst in the state. At the close of the afternoon meeting a man came up and said he would be pleased to entertain the ladies and that he could make them very comfortable. To the weary women this seemed a sure escape from the poor hotel. They cheerfully accompanied the man, and upon arriving at his home were chagrined to find that it was the very hotel against which they had been warned. Courageously they made the best of the flies, sour bread, muddy coffee and green grapes; Miss Anthony exerting herself to be amusing as well as forebearing. Upon retiring for the night, Mrs. Howell, Miss Anthony’s companion, found her room was situated next to the kitchen and she heard the landlady say, ‘Well, I never supposed I could entertain big-bugs and I thought I couldn’t live through having Susan B. Anthony here, but I’m getting along all right. You ought to hear her laugh! Why, she laughs just like other people.'”
Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (1925), 118.

The 1891 National American Woman Suffrage convention heard from Anna Howard Shaw, Henry Blackwell, Emma Smith DeVoe, and Alice and John Pickler about the results of the 1890 campaign. Anthony made the introduction for John Pickler. In 1895, Anthony made the introduction of John and Alice Pickler at a meeting of the National Council of Women.

In November 1910, Shaw returned to the Black Hills for another state amendment campaign. In a report she sent in to NAWSA press chair Ida Hustad Harper, she concluded:
“As I went over the route which Miss Anthony and I took together just 20 years ago, and met the people who heard and cared for us then, there was a great sadness over it all. It was so different, now going alone, and then in company with my splendid leader. Every place was hallowed by the memory of her and the hardships I shared with her. It was not successful then, but it was not a failure. Nor will it be this time, no matter how the vote goes next Tuesday. We may lose the battle, but in the end we will win the war… Anna H. Shaw.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 12, 1910, p.200, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Sarah Atkins [Indianapolis, Indiana]

Sarah (Mrs. E.C. Atkins) hosted a lawn party to raise funds for the South Dakota campaign. She decorated with electric lights and Chinese lanterns. Speakers included Atkins herself and May Wright Sewall. The names and amounts donated would be sent to the Woman’s Journal in Boston and the Woman’s Tribune in Nebraska for publication. The Journal reported that the event raised $179.95 [Indianapolis Journal (IN), July 26, 1890; Jamestown Weekly Alert (ND), August 21, 1890]. Also on the Atkins’ from Historic Indianapolis.com.

Rachel Foster Avery (1858-1919) [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]

In October 1909, Sioux Falls suffragists held a meeting in the Commercial club rooms of the YMCA block, and Avery, then vice-president of N.A.W.S.A., gave the primary address during which she talked over suffrage work across the U.S. and in England [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 23, 1909]. On October 27th, she spoke on suffrage to students and faculty at the Lutheran Normal School (now Augustana University) in Sioux Falls [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 3, 1909; Lutheran Normal School Mirror 12(3) (December 1909), 59]. Avery also spoke in Hurley and at the courthouse and opera house in Canton during her time in South Dakota before and after the Sioux Falls convention [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), October 28, 1909; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 3, 1909; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), November 5, 1909].

In November 1909, the state suffrage convention was held in Sioux Falls. It opened at the First Methodist Episcopal Church and a public reception was held for Rev. Anna Howard Shaw in the parlors of the Cataract Hotel. Main speakers from out-of-state were Shaw, Rachel Foster Avery, Lulu L. Shepard (Utah), and Perle Penfield (Texas). Avery spoke on “Why Some Women Want to Vote” in which she “likened our government to our private homes, showing where woman’s hand was necessary in the municipal housekeeping” and told the crowd: “Woman is told that it is her role to dress well, to smile and to flatter. Is it funny? No; it is tragic.” Avery was also tasked with helping organize South Dakota’s state suffrage headquarters and was reported to be “the greatest relief and help” [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 28, 1909; Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 3, 1909, November 5, 1909; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 3, 1909, November 4, 1909, November 5, 1909, pg 1, pg 10 (quotes), November 6, 1909; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909; Mobridge News (SD), November 12, 1909; Norfolk Weekly News-Journal (NE), November 5, 1909; Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 143, 147, 172; Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08439, Pyle Papers, USD].

Dr. Barton O. Aylesworth (1860-1933) [Colorado]

Dr. B.O. Aylesworth was president of the Colorado Agricultural College. In November 1909, he was one of the speakers for the N.A.W.S.A. rally held at Carnegie Hall in N.Y.C. to raise funds for the South Dakota suffrage amendment campaign [Marion Daily Mirror (OH), November 17, 1909; Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (ND), November 17, 1909; Mitchell Capital (SD), November 18, 1909; “Mrs. Belmont Presiding At Carnegie Hall Suffrage Meeting; page 2,” JK1881 .N357 sec. XVI, no. 3-9 NAWSA Coll, series: Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911; Scrapbook 8 (1909-1910), LOC].

He made an extensive campaign tour through South Dakota from June 6 to November 8, 1910. He reported speaking at 103 public meetings in 54 towns, including stops in Sioux Falls, Vermillion, Philip, Scenic, Rapid City, Deadwood, “from an automobile” at the corner of Main and Lee Streets and the Methodist church in Lead, the Methodist church in Custer, for the S.D. WCTU convention at Huron, the state Federation of Women’s Clubs meeting at Aberdeen, the Chautauqua at Canton, the State Conservation Congress at Pierre, the Old Soldiers’ Reunion at Colton, a district fair at Scenic, a District Teachers’ Normal Association at Mitchell, and the state fair at Huron. He spoke particularly about the successes of equal suffrage in his home state of Colorado [Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), June 10, 1910, June 11, 1910; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), June 2, 1910; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), June 16, 1910; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 793; Program for the 22nd Annual W.C.T.U. Convention in Huron, September 1910, #2021-02-22-0057 to -0067, Box 6674, Folder 28, WCTU Suffrage Convention Programs, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 97; Forty-third Annual Report of N.A.W.S.A. given at the Convention held at Louisville, KY. October 19 to 25 inclusive (New York 1911), 158; 98; Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08428, Pyle Papers USD; Bad River News (Philip SD), June 16, 1910 (including details of what he spoke about); Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 2, 1910; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), October 9, 1910, October 16, 1910; Queen City Mail (Spearfish, SD), October 12, 1910, October 19, 1910; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), October 15, 1910. pg 1, pg 2; October 22, 1910; Mitchell Capital (SD), October 27, 1910; Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), September 23, 1910, pg 8, September 30, 1910].

“The most unique event I have known in a year’s campaigning for equal suffrage occurred at Scenic, S. D., last week. Scenic is two years old. It is a ‘dry farming’ village in the Bad Lands. For two years the local W. C. T. U. has conducted a ‘dry-farming’ fair under the leadership of Mrs. E. M. Skinner, assisted by the fifteen women of the Union who have braved this pioneer West. This year they gathered surprisingly good farm exhibits from a radius of twenty-five miles. The art display and music were of high quality. Equal suffrage had the most prominent place on the program. One hundred dollars above all expenses were raised for the Union treasury. For a year a Rest Room has been kept open for the country people. Thus these women have “come home” to that entire region. They touch the daily life of the community at every point. It is an example of good cheer and neighborhood unity. Ninety per cent, of the large audience publicly attested a desire for equal suffrage in South Dakota. Barton O. Aylesworth.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston SD), October 29, 1910, p.187, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

In private letters Anna Howard Shaw wrote to her partner Lucy Anthony, she wrote that Craigie and Aylesworth were unrealistically optimistic about the chances for the suffrage bill to carry [Anna Howard Shaw papers, seq. 65, seq. 68, Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, Shaw Correspondence, 1873-1926. Shaw to Lucy E. Anthony, 1906-1910. A-68, Series X, folder 507. Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

Helen LaReine Baker () [Spokane, Washington]

Helen LaReine Baker was invited to South Dakota to speak for suffrage during the campaign in the fall of 1909 and toured with Lydia B. Johnson, then president of both the state suffrage association and the state federation of women’s clubs, “speaking in opera houses, churches, high schools and colleges, and even in court.” [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 21, 1909; The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), October 28, 1909, November 4, 1909; Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 143]. She first stopped in the Black Hills and spoke in Sturgis [“Page 025 : Mrs. Baker Is Accorded Honor,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 10/1/1910-12/30/1910 (Scrapbook L), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 18]. On October 14 1909, Helen LaReine Baker of Spokane, Washington spoke on suffrage at the opera house “between the first and second picture shows. She made some very good arguments in favor of her theme. Among others was the belief that the mothers of the country ought to have a voice in the making of the juvenile laws…. After speaking at the opera house, Mrs. Baker went to the Scenic theatre where she gave an Interesting address. Mrs. Baker is a pleasing speaker and made friends for the cause which she espouses” [Lead Daily Call (SD), October 15, 1909]. A local suffrage club was organized following her speech in Rapid City [Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), October 22, 1909.

When Baker came to Pierre, Governor Robert S. Vessey and his wife Florence hosted a reception for her at his residence [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 21, 1909; The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), October 28, 1909; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), October 29, 1909]. It was arranged by the Pierre Women’s club and speakers included Baker, the Governor, Major Wood of Custer, Dr. M.M. Farr of Pierre, and Julius H. Johnson of Fort Pierre [Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), October 21, 1909].

In November, she sent greetings from a visit in Denver to the SDESA’s Sioux Falls convention [Argus Leader (Sioux Falls SD), November 4, 1909].

According to one report, in Sioux Falls, she gave a “surprise” address on suffrage during an intermission of a play at “the New theater.” After the first act, “an exquisitely gowned, auburn-haired woman arose from her seat in a box and addressed the audience on ‘votes for women’… [she] bore the frank gaze of the assembled crowd quietly and confidently” [“Page 141 : They Gasp at Mrs. Baker: Spokane Woman Gives Theater Audience Surprise,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 6/19/1910-9/30/1910 (Scrapbook K), Primarily Washington].

Louise G. Baldwin () [Washington D.C.]

Louise G. (Mrs. Harris T.) Baldwin was scheduled to speak at the South Dakota League of Women Voters convention in October 1926 [The Discerning Voter 2(2) (September-October 1926), 2-3]. Baldwin was chair of the LWV Living Costs committee, and later by 1937, she was the LWV first vice-president and legislative chair [Evening Star (Washington D.C.), October 23, 1927, January 5, 1937].

*The Discerning Voter* 2(2) (September-October 1926), 3.

Adelaide Ballard (1842-1922) [Iowa]

In August 1896, Adelaide Ballard, president of the Iowa Woman’s Suffrage Society, spoke on suffrage at the Turner County W.C.T.U. convention held in Hurley [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), August 6, 1896].

Clara Barton (1821-1912) [Maryland]

Clara Barton of the American Red Cross Society, in the midst of South Dakota’s 1890 drought ,”investigated the suffering in South Dakota, and says that there is urgent need of immediate help” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), March 15, 1890, p.81, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

In August 1890, she sent a letter recommending suffrage to the state Republican convention in Mitchell that was read to the convention by its chair [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890].

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

Elsie L. Benedict (1885-1970) [Denver, Colorado]

Elsie Benedict came to South Dakota to campaign from July to November of 1916 as part of a “Flying Squadron” with Effie McCollum Jones, Emma Smith DeVoe, and other local women. Benedict, “famed as an open air speaker,” used her skills for street meetings that gathered interest for Jones’ rally lectures in the evenings.

In Sioux Falls, “an altercation arose between Elsie and a man who was accused by another hearer of being an anti spy so our collection was a failure and the meeting broke up in a whirl of excitement.”
Jones to Pyle, August 31, 1916, RA07474-RA07475, Box 1, Correspondence, 1910, April – 1916, December, Pyle Papers, USD.

“There is no danger that women will become masculine if equal suffrage carries. They will still cling to the little eccentricities peculiar to their sex—for instance, I went without my supper tonight rather than miss curling my hair for this occasion.”
Saturday News (Watertown SD), November 2, 1916.

During a flying squadron event in Lead — “at 8 o’clock the call of a bugle attracted hundred of men to Dickinson’s corner and when they reached there they saw something which Lead has seldom seen–a young woman with a wonderful voice, asking the voters of South Dakota to vote for the enfranchisement of women this fall.” Benedict spoke at Dickinson’s corner, and then also at the Grier monument in front of the opera house [Lead Daily Call (SD), August 8, 1916, August 9, 1916].

In Lead: “Two street meetings were held, one at the corner of Main and Bleeker streets and the other at the Grier monument, both presided over by Mrs. Elsie V. Benedict of Colorado. she of the wonderful voice, profound and convincing argument and pleasing personality. The first meeting, at the corner of Bleeker and Main streets, blocked the streets for over two hundred feet in all directions and not a man stirred from his position after Mrs. Benedict began her talk until she had finished her argument, and when she did she was greeted by a storm of applause, and the crowd followed her to the Recreation building where she delivered her second address of the evening. Here, too, another very large crowd greeted her, and every member of it was interested in what she had to say, for she told it so interestingly and convincingly that all wanted to listen, and those who were skeptic when she started, were nearly if not completely convinced of the truths she told… She pleased the crowd, she convinced the doubting members of it and gave the cause of equal suffrage the best boost that it has ever received in the Black Hills… Miss Rose Bower of Rapid City, before the open air meetings, blew bugle call on the cornet, and attracted the crowd, but the calls were unnecessary after Mrs. Benedict had once spoken, for the people just could not help but follow her to her next speaking post.”
Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), August 9, 1916.

In Madison, according to one report, in an answer to the idea that voting would lead women to be masculine and neglect their home, Benedict “told that she had been a voter for a number of years, yet she took good care of her husband and devoted the regulation amount of time each day to curling her hair,” and that there were a lot of male “sissies” that were still effeminate despite their voting (some gender history analysis needed here) [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 30, 1916].

In 1916, Benedict followed touring anti-suffragists, seeking to disturb their meetings and holding counter-rallies on the streets outside their venues.

More about Benedict, the Flying Squadron, and counter-Anti campaigning on my post: “The 1916 Campaigns.”

In 1918, because of concerns about voter “intimidation” in Deadwood, the national franchise league sent Elsie Benedict (a newspaperwoman from Denver) to coordinate policing the polls. After an address at the high school, groups of four girls per poll went out to monitor on election day. Cicely Tinsley, then living in Deadwood, agreed to “supervise and protect the girls.” [Doughty, “The Suffrage Movement in Lawrence County,” 656].

“Elsie Lincoln Benedict,” Wikimedia Commons.

Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950) [Boston, Massachusetts]

During the 1890, as an editor of The Woman’s Journal newspaper with her parents Henry Blackwell and Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell was a distant advocate of the South Dakota ballot campaign and funds for the campaign — “Let the friends of equal rights everywhere communicate with them, and send what aid they can. a.s.b.” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 2, 1889, p.348 (quote), January 4, 1890, p.420, April 5, 1890, p.108, May 31, 1890, p.172, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]. One press report informed by Susan B. Anthony was that she had put Blackwell and Clara Colby in charge of the receipt and disbursement for the $3,000 pledged to South Dakota [St. Paul Daily Globe (MN), April 13, 1890].

She also apparently communicated with Susan B. Anthony about the campaign tactics, at one point, according to an Anthony biographer “urging Miss Anthony not to antagonize the prohibition and W.C.T.U. people” [Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 115].

In 1898, Blackwell’s national press work talked about the additional organized opposition to suffrage during that South Dakota campaign, yet the vote came closer than in 1890 [Griggs Courier (Cooperstown ND), December 8, 1898; Dickinson Press (ND), December 10, 1898].

In 1910, it was reported that Blackwell donated $100 to South Dakota for “press work” for expenses like postage [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), October 13, 1910].

In 1914, she wrote for The Woman’s Journal about the South Dakota anti-suffragist Ethel Jacobsen and her traveling for Anti campaigning — “It is a curious fact that the women who are loudest in declaring woman’s place to be the home are often women who spend a large part of their own time away from home. A.S.B.” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 12, 1914, p.254, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

In 1916 campaign, Blackwell, again in The Woman’s Journal, wrote about the clashes between the Flying Squadron and anti-suffragists in South Dakota [The Remonstrance Against Woman Suffrage (April 1917), 8].

Henry Browne Blackwell (1825-1909) [Boston, Massachusetts]

The 1885 statehood convention in Sioux Falls received letters from national leaders Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, and Lillie Devereux Blake, as well as Marietta Bones of Webster SD. The convention did not include full suffrage in their proposed constitution, but did include school elections and offices and a provision to put full suffrage on the first ballot [Kimball Graphic (SD), October 2, 1885; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 552-553].

National suffrage activist Henry B. Blackwell of Boston attended and addressed the 1889 statehood convention in Sioux Falls [Kingsbury/Smith, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 2 (1915), 1926; Jennifer M. Ross-Nazzal, Winning the West for Women: The Life of Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe (Seattle: The University of Washington Press, 2011), 33]. He also attended constitutional conventions in North Dakota and Montana [Introduction, in Rozum and Lahlum, Equality at the Ballot Box, 2].

During the 1890 campaign, Henry B. Blackwell of Boston spoke at several places in South Dakota, asserting that “God had made men and women equal, but man had deprived her of her rights” and discussing the national/international scope of the suffrage movement [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 787-788]. Laura Cunningham of Highmore said his lecture there “was beautiful, scholarly, logical and convincing” [Letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Murray Wardall from Laura Cunningham, September 1, 1890, #2021-01-20-0115, Box 6674, Folder 1, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: A-C, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

After visiting South Dakota’s legislators in Washington D.C. and Pettigrew supporters in Sioux Falls, Blackwell attended the state suffrage convention in August 1890 in Mitchell, serving on the committee on resolutions, and speaking with Colby and Anthony for the first evening’s addresses. His address was on “Woman Suffrage, A Growth of Civilization” [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 5, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 49 : Entire Page,” and “Page 50 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

His report of the suffrage convention and the Republican state convention was printed in The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

His report on visits to St. Lawrence, Miller, Highmore, Blunt, and Pierre in The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 13, 1890, p.292, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University:
“The people are hospitable, frank and friendly, but have given little time or thought to woman suffrage. They have suffered terribly from three years of short crops. Many have left, more are leaving, but those who remain will do well with cattle, herds, sheep and wheat.”

In September and October 1890, he went on a speaking tour through thirty counties in South Dakota [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 29, 1890, September 5, 1890, September 12, 1890; Brookings County Sentinel (SD), September 5, 1890, September 12, 1890, September 19, 1890; Sully County Watchman (Onida SD), September 6, 1890; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), October 3, 1890; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), October 16, 1890; Letter to W.F. Bailey from D.C. Thomas, September 7, 1890, #2021-02-03-0028, Box 6674, Folder 5, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: R-Z, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 27, 1890, p.308, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

After his address in Highmore, the Herald reported: “Like most of the preceding speakers, his arguments were strong and to the point; but, unlike some of them, his arguments were such as to disarm prejudice and make each voter believe it is his duty to cast his ballot for equal suffrage, and in no way did Mr. Blackwell antagonize or anger those who differ with him on the subject. He is one of the most scholarly men that has ever visited our little city, and as an orator has few equals anywhere” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 13, 1890, p.293, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]. When he spoke at the courthouse in Madison on September 24th, the local newspaper described him in this way: that he “possesses a famous record as an advocate of the rights of the colored race, but is the husband of Lucy Stone, the authoress.” The paper reported that the talk was “very slimly attended” by forty people and half of those had left before the end — in the preceding days, Anna Shaw and Susan Fessenden had also both been in Madison speaking on suffrage during the W.C.T.U. convention [Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 24, 1890, September 25, 1890]. When he went to Elk Point, the editor there described him as a man “for whom the governor of Kentucky, in the days of slavery, offered a reward of $5,000 dead or alive” [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), September 24, 1890; The Daily Courier (Elk Point SD), September 25, 1890]. After a visit to Hand County (St. Lawrence or Miller), a local supporter wrote: “We enjoyed very much the forceful and inspiring words of Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman’s Journal. If he will only come back, and give us due notice of his coming, we will pack the Opera House with an audience more worthy of him.” About his talk at Huron’s opera house, he wrote “I have since been informed, ‘Mr. Blackwell somehow succeeded in converting not only the decent people, but some of the meanest bummers in town, hitherto bitterly opposed.’ On the whole, I am pleased with this somewhat doubtful compliment, as even ‘the meanest bummers’ of the male sex will vote next November” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

“Wool, Water and Woman Suffrage” by Henry B. Blackwell [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 11, 1890, p.324, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]:
“The three greatest needs of South Dakota to-day are wool, water, and woman suffrage—the last the most needed of the three. I have visited thirty counties of the State during the past six weeks at the invitation of leading citizens, to speak in behalf of the pending Woman Suffrage Constitutional Amendment…
But west and north of Huron I have found general depression and distress. For want of rain in many localities, there has not been a good grain crop since 1885, and for two years wheat, corn, and flax have failed. As a consequence, hundreds of the American population have returned East, and hundreds more are going this fall, carrying with them wherever they go a tale of discouragement. In some of the “dry” counties, I have driven twenty miles without passing a single inhabited house, with deserted claim-shanties and old breakings overgrown with weeds everywhere in sight…. [T]he craze for breaking land and sowing grain has crippled hundreds of farmers, and the purchase of costly machinery for threshing, on credit, has sealed their fate….
Better than in any other way, by adopting the Woman Suffrage Constitutional Amendment. One hundred thousand dollars spent in advertising would not “boom” South Dakota so grandly as that would do. The plain people of the Eastern and Middle States—not the very rich or the very poor, but the farmers and mechanics—believe in woman suffrage. They are moving West by tens of thousands every year. Emigration agents are inviting them to North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico. When they learn that South Dakota has ranged herself alongside of the new woman suffrage State of Wyoming, the intelligent American population will give the preference to South Dakota. Parents will say: ‘Let us go where our girls will grow up on an equality with our boys’” Eastern bankers and capitalists will say: ‘The men who respect women so highly that they have given them equal rights with themselves are men who can be trusted.’ Capital will flow in at lower interest. Your beautiful towns and cities will grow, and your glorious grassy plains, no longer a wilderness, fertilized by flowing wells and streams and lakes, will blossom as the rose. It is sometimes said that “woman suffrage will only double the vote.” That is exactly what is needed to purify politics. It will make it impossible to use money to corrupt legislation. Give every family two votes, one for the business and one for the home; send the bummers to the rear, and you will ensure material prosperity and the permanent supremacy of temperance, liberty, and justice.”

“Henry B. Blackwell, of the Boston Woman’s Journal, says the three greatest needs of South Dakota to-day are wool, water and woman suffrage. The alliteration is very cute, and that is the best that can be said of it.”
Quoting the Sioux Falls Argus paper, St. Paul Daily Globe (MN), October 16, 1890.

Report of H.B.B. on his visits to Roscoe, Ipswich, Leola, Westport, Aberdeen for the fair, Redfield, Wolsey, and Huron in The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

In November, Blackwell wrote to the Wardalls asking for vote returns by county for printing in The Woman’s Journal, and wondered if there was ongoing discussion about how the votes were counted [Henry Blackwell to Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Wardall, November 16, 1890, #2021-03-30-0038, 1890 Campaign Folder 3, Box 6675, Folder 28, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].

The 1891 National American Woman Suffrage convention heard from Anna Howard Shaw, Henry Blackwell, Emma Smith DeVoe, and Alice and John Pickler about the results of the 1890 campaign [“Page 55 : Program: 1891 National American Woman Suffrage Convention (Page 5),” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Alexandria Gazette (VA), February 28, 1891; Evening Star (D.C.), February 28, 1891; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 182–183]. Blackwell told the convention that “in South Dakota one-third of the population could not read or speak English, and this was one of the causes of the defeat of woman suffrage. He had visited Dakota, and described some portions of the country. In many places the American settlers had been starved out, and left for other part of the country, but the degraded foreigners were used to hard times and stayed” [The Washington Post (DC), March 1, 1891, “Page 59 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

When Blackwell passed away in 1909, the editor of the Dakota Republican in Vermillion wrote about Blackwell’s work in South Dakota and legacy, noting that when Blackwell first spoke for suffrage in 1853, the only place it existed was school suffrage in Sweden. “The world for women has been revolutionized in the direction of larger freedom. And now other man has worked so long or so hard to bring about this change as Henry B. Blackwell” [The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), September 16, 1909].

Mary C.C. Bradford () [Colorado]

Rachael Brill (1870-1965) [Nebraska]

As secretary for Clara B. Colby, Rachael Brill camped with Colby at the Black Hills Chautauqua near Hot Springs for ten days to distribute their Woman’s Tribune publication and campaign for suffrage [Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), August 12, 1892].

Rev. Olympia Brown (1835-1926) [Wisconsin]

Reverend Olympia Brown, president of the Wisconsin E.S.A., came to South Dakota in the spring of 1890 [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), March 15, 1890, p.85, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

She was a scheduled speaker for the state suffrage convention held in Mitchell in August 1890, where she gave the opening invocation and a talk titled “Why Disenfranchise the Church and School.” At the time of the convention, Brown preached in the Baptist church in Mitchell [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 5, 1890, September 19, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 49 : Entire Page,” “Page 50 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

She was also part of the group that stayed to attend the Republican convention and ask for a suffrage platform. They were only given permission to speak during the recess, after the general meeting had adjourned to await committee reports. Apparently about two-thirds of the attendees remained to hear from Brown, as well as Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Emma S. DeVoe, Susan B. Anthony, and Alice M.A. Pickler. “The Republicans as a party failed to endorse woman suffrage” [Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 222]. Also [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890; Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), August 29, 1890].

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

In the days following the conventions, she went to Grant County for a series of talks at Big Stone City and Marvin, but later said she thought they had a false sense of security about the election. She skipped going to the Sisseton Agency–not thinking the $2 for livery and board was worth reaching only about twelve eligible (white) voters there. She found the trip fairly discouraging. She also wrote to Susan B. Anthony that she “spoke as well as I could under the circumstances carefully avoiding politics and religion, foreigners negroes and indians, prohibition temperance, the social evil and all” at Simpson Park by Big Stone City and, at at a schoolhouse in Marvin, “[avoided] of course politics religion Indians foreigners negroes paupers tramps prohibition temperance social evil, etc.” She also went through Roberts County with at least five stops [Letter to Miss Anthony from Olympia Brown, September 3, 1890, #2021-01-20-0066 to -0096, Box 6674, Folder 1, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: A-C, Letter to W.F. Bailey from C.F. Walker, September 8, 1890, #2021-02-02-0050, Box 6674, Folder 5, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: R-Z, and Letter to Mrs. Wardall from Olympia Brown, November 25, 1890, #2021-03-30-0049, 1890 Campaign Folder 3, Box 6675, Folder 28, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

On September 17, 1890, Brown was a speaker at the Woman’s Day program of the state fair in Aberdeen. The local paper reported that there was a lot of noise from the exhibition hall nearby, “but the lady persevered and held her audience.” With Shaw and Blackwell, she also spoke three nights at the Methodist Church while they were in town [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 16, 1890, September 3, 1890; “Page 47 : Entire Page,” Daily News (Aberdeen SD), September 18, 1890, “Page 50 : Entire Page,” and Aberdeen Daily News (SD), September 17, 1890, “Page 52 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

In late September, Brown and Anthony were the featured speakers at the Edmunds County suffrage convention at Ipswich, at which eight townships were represented and committees were formed “to make a thorough house to house canvass of the county. It was the largest audience assembled in Ipswich for a long time, and nearly every man present donned the yellow ribbon.” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 27, 1890, p.308, and October 11, 1890, p.324, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University:

Eureka Sep 27
Mound City Sep 30
Ashton Oct 11-12
Clark Oct 13
Watertown Oct 14
Castlewood Oct 15
Estelline Oct 16
Bruce Oct 17
Brookings Oct 18-19 [Brookings County Sentinel (SD), October 3, 1890; October 17, 1890, October 24, 1890, p.5, p.6]

Just before the election, she and Matilda Hindman gave one last suffrage rally at the opera house in Madison [Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 4, 1890]. Afterwards she wrote from Racine WI to Libbie Wardall asking follow-up questions about the politicians elected to the state legislature and wishing that Independents or Republicans had come out in support [Letter to Mrs. Wardall from Olympia Brown, November 25, 1890, #2021-03-30-0049, 1890 Campaign Folder 3, Box 6675, Folder 28,].

Ulrikka F. Bruun [Chicago]

In early September 1898, Ulrikka Bruun did a schoolhouse tour in Marshall and Roberts Counties with at least seven stops. There was also interest in having her speak in Aberdeen and she was anticipated to speak in Clay County. In October 1898, Bruun, described as “a most talented lady and able orator,” spoke on suffrage at the Norwegian church in Madison, though it was slimly attended because of the weather. She was a guest of Rev. N.M. Minne while in Madison. She went next to Dell Rapids [Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), August 5, 1898; Letter to Clare M. Williams from Mrs. Jane Roberts, August 22-23, 1898, #2021-04-07-0086 to -0088, Box 6676, Folder 5, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – August 1898, Folder 1, and Article about Mrs. Bruun’s Equal Suffrage Lectures, #2021-04-14-0066, Box 6676, Folder 11, Letter to Mrs. Clare M. Williams from Laura A. Luse, August 22, 1898, 2021-04-08-0025 to -0029, Box 6676, Folder 6, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – August 1898, Folder 2, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 18, 1898, October 19, 1898].

State officers invited her to return to South Dakota for the 1909-1910 campaign (I don’t have anything about her coming) [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 5, 1909; Ulrikka Feldtman Bruun, Sange, digte og rim (Chicago: J.W. Hanssen’s Bogtrykkeri, 1921), 241].

Ulrikka Feldtman Bruun, *Sange, digte og rim* (Chicago: J.W. Hanssen, 1921).

Mary Baird Bryan (1861-1931) [Lincoln, Nebraska / Washington DC / Miami, Florida]

Mary Baird Bryan did a speaking tour in October 1916 in South Dakota, speaking at Goss hall to Watertown, the auditorium of Mitchell City Hall, and Redfield, Aberdeen SD, and Valley City ND. A scheduled trip to Vermillion ended up disappointingly cancelled at the last minute because of transportation issues–she was scheduled to speak at the city theatre at 8:45pm after the first movie, when her train from Sioux City was expected at 8:30pm–the train was late out of St. Paul. Her national profile as the wife of Nebraska politician William Jennings Bryan attracted crowds [Saturday News (Watertown SD), October 12, 1916; Mitchell Capital (SD), October 12, 1916; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 12, 1916, October 19, 1916; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), October 12, 1916; Philip Weekly Review and Bad River News (SD), October 19, 1916; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), October 19, 1916; Des Moines Register (IA), November 27, 1916; Deutscher Herold (Sioux Falls SD), November 30, 1916]

William Jennings Bryan () [Lincoln, Nebraska / Washington DC / Miami, Florida]

“William Jennings Bryan, preacher delivered an interesting and powerful sermon at the auditorium of the Northern Normal and Industrial school on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25, to an audience estimated at 1,500, every seat in the auditorium being filled, including chairs which had been placed on the stage, while as many people as the police would permit stood in the aisles…. He paid in an eloquent tribute to motherhood, dwelling upon the time given, the pain suffered, the sacrifices made, the tasks performed by women who were the mothers of the race, and incidentally mentioned his belief in women suffrage, drawing enthusiastic applause from portions of the audience” [The Industrial-Normal Exponent [NSU] (November 1914), 37].

In June 1916, Bryan spoke during a suffrage convention in Sioux Falls (or at least at the same time?). His train was delayed and he didn’t arrive in Sioux Falls until 12:40am. Reportedly crowds waited for him, and he spoke until 2am [Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), July 6, 1916].

Alice Snitzer Burke () [New York]

In the summer of 1916, Alice Snitzer Burke and Nell Richardson embarked on a national auto tour for women’s suffrage in “a little yellow car, called ‘The Golden Flier’… they are the first women to make the circuit of the United States by automobile and their tour is the biggest suffrage demonstration ever undertaken” In August, they passed through South Dakota, speaking in Huron [Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 25, 1916, August 17, 1916].

“Mrs. Burke and Miss Richardson speak from their car—which is bright yellow on the exterior, lined with white leather, and is equipped with a fireless cooker, a baby typewriter, tools with which Miss Richardson does the repairing ‘without getting dirty,’ she says: a small hand sewing machine and the wardrobe necessary for its occupants for the trip, as well as suffrage literature and pennants. The car is kept in repair by its manufacturer, and it is lighted with four yellow moons of electricity swung on its four corners and fed from the car’s storage batteries.”
Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 25, 1916.

*Mitchell Capital* (SD), April 13, 1916.

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) [Charles City/Mason City IA / New York City]

During the 1890 campaign, Carrie Lane Chapman was a scheduled speaker for the state suffrage convention held in Mitchell in August 1890. She gave a talk titled “They Don’t Want to Vote.” Afterwards, she was accompanied the committee that approached the state Republican convention to appeal for a suffrage platform. That disappointment left a big impression; she retold her account of the story during her NAWSA presidential address in 1916. [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 8, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 12, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” and “Page 48 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Hannah J. Patterson, ed., The Hand Book of the N.A.W.S.A. and Proceedings of the 48th Annual Convention held at Atlantic City, N.J., September 4-10 inclusive, 1916 (New York, 1916), 59].

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

After the Mitchell convention, she lectured at Bedford’s Hall in Canton — “Miss Chapman has a good reputation as a speaker and our people will not regret the time spent in hearing her” though a bad storm prevented a large attendance [Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), September 5, 1890, September 12, 1890; The Daily Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), September 10, 1890]. She was also scheduled by the S.D.E.S.A. to speak in Ethan, Plankinton, Worthing, Hurley and Alcester as well as through Yankton County, where she claimed success with German Catholics in the northeastern part of the county [Davison County Gazette?, “Page 52 : Entire Page,” and Alcester Journal (SD), October 23, 1890, “Page 53 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), October 24, 1890; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), October 16, 1890; Jones, “A Case Study: the Role of Women in Creating Community on the Dakota Frontier, 1880 to 1920,” Master of Arts thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (December 2015), 96; Egge, “Ethnicity and Woman Suffrage,” in Lahlum & Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box (2019), 224].

At the Mitchell convention, “her beautiful face and costume attracted the attention of the audience, and it was closely held for some time by her eloquent, fluent words.”
Wessington Springs Herald (SD), September 12, 1890.

Chapman is “said to be the best looking…”
Davison County Gazette?, “Page 52 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10.

Through the end of October, she was scheduled for the following appearances [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 11, 1890, p.324, and October 25, 1890, p.340, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]:

Alexander Oct 11-12
Bridgewater Oct 13
Worthing Oct 14
Lennox Oct 15
Parker Oct 16
Hurley Oct 17
Canistota Oct 18-19
Salem Oct 20
Canova Oct 21
Vilas Oct 22
Roswell Oct 23
Artesian Oct 24
Woonsocket Oct 25
Letcher Oct 27
Alpena Oct 28
Tulare Oct 29
Ashton Oct 30
Mellette Oct 31
Northville Nov 1
Aberdeen Nov 2

After the 1890 campaign, “Carrie Chapman Catt lay ill for months afterward with typhoid fever and in her delirium constantly made speeches and talked of the campaign” [Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 118].

In February 1891, at the NAWSA convention, Chapman was scheduled for a talk on “Indians versus Women” [“Page 55 : Program: 1891 National American Woman Suffrage Convention (Page 5),” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

“Years after this campaign was over, Carrie Chapman Catt would point to the South Dakota effort as the first time that the brewers’ interests used the ‘foreign vote as a bloc’ in a large way against suffrage: ‘South Dakota permitted foreigners to vote on their first papers, and there were 30,000 Russians, Germans and Scandinavians in the State…. Unable to read or write in any language or to speak English, these men were boldly led to the ballot boxes under the direction of well known saloon henchmen, and after being voted were marched away in single file, and, within unmistakable sight of men and women poll workers, were paid for their votes.'”
Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 206.

In September 1895, Catt returned to South Dakota to be a key speaker at the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association convention in Pierre and lead a parliament of methods to train local workers [Sioux City Journal (IA), September 6, 1895; Mitchell Capital (SD), September 20, 1895; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), September 26, 1895; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), September 26, 1895; et al.; Rachel Foster Avery, ed., Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, held in Washington, D.C., January 23d to 28th, 1896 (Washington DC, 1896), 158].

Carrie Chapman Catt, NAWSA president, to Mariana Wright Chapman, February 3, 1898:
“… I have waited to learn positively whether we should be called upon to look after the campaigns in Washington and South Dakota. I felt, if we were to do this, that all our force would be needed and that I must continue in my present office. It is now pretty plain to me that it would be foolish to put money in those states, and we are not wanted there…. during the summer, I presented the fact to the Business Committee, that if we were to undertake the South Dakota campaign there was no money to pay for it. They all felt, however, that we should go ahead and do the best we could… Miss Anthony loaned $800 and that amount we still owe.”
MCW Family Papers, SFHL-RG5-260, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, Item ID: A00180079.

In February 1898, Catt made a report at the NAWSA convention in Washington D.C. on the campaigns in South Dakota and Washington. South Dakota had requested financial assistance. Catt put forward a motion to send them $5,000, but after discussion at the convention, the motion was postponed indefinitely [Avery, ed., Proceedings of the 30th Annual Convention of NAWSA … Washington, D.C., February 13-19, 1898 (Washington DC, 1898), 17].

In October 1898, Catt was a speaker at a state convention was held in Sioux Falls [Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage vol. 4, 558-559]. When the amendment failed at the 1898 ballot, Catt blamed the complications of South Dakota’s third-party politics and their foreign-born supporters, many of whom were anti-prohibition. According to historian Sara Egge, she said she would refuse to support the SDESA until they effectively broke off from the WCTU, and she wrote to local suffrage associations encouraging them to bypass the state organization and work directly with NAWSA [Egge, “Ethnicity and Woman Suffrage,” in Lahlum & Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box (2019), 232].

On April 20-22, 1916, Catt planned to come to South Dakota as president of NAWSA to meet with the state board in Sioux Falls [Oakes Times (ND), April 13, 1916; 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), 112]. The Minnehaha County Franchise League held a luncheon in honor of Catt’s visit. The crowd included “one hundred and twenty men and women prominent in the city and state.” The tables were decorated with “graceful branches of daffodils.” Catt and Alice Lorraine Daly of Madison made “informal addresses” for the reception. Other attendees of note include league president Belle Leavitt and former president Mrs. Clark; SDUFL officers: Mamie Pyle, May Ghrist, Elinor Whiting, and Nina Pettigrew; L.M. Gibbs the secretary of the Sioux Falls Commercial Club; and Dr. Harlan president of Sioux Falls College [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), April 22, 1916].

*Madison Daily Leader* (SD), April 12, 1916

In March 1917, Catt reached out to Mamie Pyle to ask about South Dakota’s resource needs since NAWSA was working in other states as well and needed to plan out its year. Several national organizers were sent to South Dakota for the 1917-1918 campaign year [Carrie Chapman Catt NAWSA press to Mrs John M. Pyle, March 20, 1917, RA07490, Box 1, Correspondence, 1917, Janurary- December, Pyle Papers USD]. In October 1918, Catt planned to visit the state but contracted influenza and had to cancel her visit at the last minute [New-York Tribune (NY), October 3, 1918; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 10, 1918, p.1, p.7; Saturday News (Watertown SD), October 10, 1918, pg. 1, October 10, 1918, pg. 2; Jones, “A Case Study…,” M.A. thesis, UW-Milwaukee (2015), 108-109]. At a distance, Catt advised Pyle on personnel difficulties with some of the national organizers late in the campaign, and worked with her on determining an apportionment method to solicit funds to make up the campaign’s deficit after the November 1918 election–in addition to sending $1,000 in national funds [Pyle to Rewman, November 2, 1918, RA11638, Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, and Catt to Pyle, November 6, 1918, RA11705, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7; Pyle to Catt, November 9, 1918, RA11776, Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, and Pyle to Catt, November 12, 1918, RA11801, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14; and Catt to Pyle, December 2, 1918, RA12008 and RA12009, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, Pyle Papers USD].

“There have been many incidents which have come to our attention in the last year to show that people’s nerves are pretty close to the skin, and I diagnosed the case of those organizers as a case of nerves. I presume they were tired; I presume they were oppressed; I presume they were more or less frightened over the Influenza and therefore sensitive. Miss [Gertrude] Watkins has always been a tempery little girl. You and Mrs. McMahon are in no sense blameable…. My heart aches for you…”
Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle Papers USD.

The Great War made us a “high strung country,” making people “ill tempered, suspicious, distrustful and ugly.” In France, people shrug “C’est la guerre” “I think we will have to say that for our two girls.”
Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD.

When the state amendment passed in South Dakota, Catt sent a telegram to Pyle, saying “it is glorious” [Catt to Pyle, November 9, 1918, RA11769, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD]. McMahon also reported that “Mrs. Catt had a little ceremony in the office where your message came, and I was given the honor of placing a star on South Dakota in her big national map” [McMahon to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11781, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD]. In December, Catt asked Pyle to request a resolution from the South Dakota legislature in support of a federal amendment [Catt to Pyle, December 20, 1918, RA12056, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, Pyle Papers USD].

Catt returned to South Dakota as a speaker at the SD LWV convention on October 24-25, 1919 in Mitchell. She and a number of National LWV leaders were on a tour of the western U.S. to organize state chapters. At the Mitchell event, Catt called on women who had been active in campaigning since 1890 to rise and be recognized with badges of honor [The Woman Citizen 4 (November 15, 1919), 487; (December 9, 1919), 506].

George Clark () [Chicago, Illinois]

In November 1909, George Clark arrived in Huron SD, “making a preliminary tour of the state in the interest of antiwoman suffrage” to look at organizing a state association [Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 30, 1909]. His visit “has seemingly put new life into woman suffrage in that locality” [Saturday News (Watertown SD), December 3, 1909].

Clara B. Colby (1846-1916) [Beatrice, Nebraska]

Active since the early 1880s, Clara B. Colby was elected president of the Nebraska Equal Suffrage Association in 1888 and edited the Woman’s Tribune newspaper [Kimball Enterprise (SD [Dakota Territory), July 6, 1883; Press and Daily Dakotaian (Yankton SD), December 6, 1888, January 23, 1889].

On July 15, 1890, she began an extensive campaign tour of the Black Hills concurrently with Mary S. Howell. They had different stops on their routes but joined up for conventions in the larger towns [Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), July 25, 1890; August 8, 1890; Hot Springs Star (SD), August 1, 1890; “Page 46 : Appointments,” “Page 48 : From South Dakota,” and Dakota Ruralist, August 16, 1890, “Page 57 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), July 26, 1890, p.250, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

July 15 : Collins
July 16 : Dudley
July 18 : Cascade
July 19 : Smithwick
July 20 : Oelrichs
July 21-22 : Hot Springs (with Howell)
July 24 : Spring Creek
July 25 : Rockerville
July 26 : Sheridan
July 27 : Hill City
July 28 : Menches
July 29 : Extra
July 30-31 : Rapid City (with Howell)
August 1 : Big Bottom
August 2 : Todd’s
August 3 : Minnesela
August 4 : Spearfish
August 5 : Centennial
August 6 : Whitewood
August 7-8 : Deadwood (with Howell)
August 13-14 : Custer courthouse (with Howell). From Custer, Colby concluded her touring and left for home in Nebraska [Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), August 9, 1890, August 16, 1890].

In Deadwood, she spoke in front of the Keystone hotel [Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), August 9, 1890]:

“Mrs. Colby is the editor and publisher of the Woman’s Tribune, of Beatrice, Nebraska, and an earnest and enthusiastic advocate of woman’s suffrage… canvassing the Hills in the interest of this cause… Mrs Colby finds that it is impossible to get at the voters through addresses given in the churches and other public balls, hence she speaks in the open air and on the street corners, or wherever she can collect a crowd together, in this way she has met a large number of the voters of this part of the state and presented the cause of equal suffrage to them. On Thursday evening she addressed an audience of nearly a thousand men on the streets of Lead City and she has delivered similar addresses in other cities and towns… [the spectacle of an open-air meeting] is a novel one in this part of the country and it is doubtful if such a sight has often been witnessed… Every step that has been taken toward the betterment of woman’s condition from the time when they were regarded a the property of their husbands and lords has been taken against bitter prejudice and in the face of fierce opposition… Mrs. Colby doubtless made many converts by her address, and many who came to scoff went home to think the matter over.”

Colby was a scheduled speaker for the state suffrage convention held in Mitchell in August 1890, speaking on “The Ideal Relation of the Sexes” [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

She also spoke on September 17, 1890, during the Woman’s Day program of the state fair in Aberdeen [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 16, 1890, September 3, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 22, 1890; September 5, 1890; “Page 47 : Entire Page,” and Aberdeen Daily News (SD), September 17, 1890, “Page 52 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

In 1892, Clara B. Colby and secretary Rachael Brill camped at the Black Hills Chautauqua near Hot Springs for ten days to distribute their Woman’s Tribune publication and campaign for suffrage [Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), August 5, 1892, August 12, 1892].

“it is always a pleasure to listen to such a talented, fluent speaker, whether one agrees with her or not, and too, she presents some very convincing arguments, in a manner that surely wins converts to the cause.”
Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), August 5, 1892.

On July 16, 1896, Colby spoke on suffrage in Hot Springs from the veranda of the Evans Hotel [Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), July 17, 1896].

Mabel Costigan (1873-1951) [Denver, Colorado]

Mabel Costigan, as chair of the League of Women Voters committee for food supply and demand, was a speaker at the SD LWV convention on October 24-25, 1919 in Mitchell [The Woman Citizen 4(19) (November 15, 1919), 487].

Mary E. Craigie (1850-1928) [Brooklyn, New York]

Mary Craigie came to South Dakota to campaign in 1910 as chair of the National Church Work Committee for NAWSA. She reported giving 57 addresses at churches in the state and speaking to 300 ministers about the suffrage amendment.

She made speeches at the state fair in Huron on September 21, 1910, at a rally at the city hall in Mitchell in October where she “closed the addresses of the evening by giving a resume of the work done in New York,” and to the women meeting during the Presbyterian state synod meeting–the Presbyterian women endorsed suffrage even though the general assembly did not [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), September 22, 1910; Mitchell Capital (SD), October 6, 1910; Saturday News (Watertown SD), October 21, 1910; Forty-third Annual Report of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association given at the Convention held at Louisville, KY. October 19 to 25 inclusive (New York 1911), 161].

“The ballot in the hands of woman, she said, is the hope of civilization.”
Mitchell Capital (SD), October 6, 1910.

In private letters Anna Howard Shaw wrote to her partner Lucy Anthony, she described how Craigie worked in communities to built interest ahead of Shaw coming for big lecture events. She also wrote that Craigie and Aylesworth were unrealistically optimistic about the chances for the suffrage bill to carry [Anna Howard Shaw papers, seq. 65, seq. 67–seq. 68, Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, Shaw Correspondence, 1873-1926. Shaw to Lucy E. Anthony, 1906-1910. A-68, Series X, folder 507. Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

“Mrs. Craigie has done good work here and the people like her. At Watertown, she stayed a week and at her meeting invited preachers and a lot of people to come and had a long list of those who were to be there and take part and not one of them came. But they said she was so lovely she did not mind it at all…”
Shaw papers, seq. 68, Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University

During the contentious state meeting of the South Dakota Federation of Women’s Clubs in October 1910 in Aberdeen, the convention heard speeches on suffrage from both B.O. Aylesworth of Colorado and Mary Craigie of Brooklyn NY [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 27, 1910]. After the Aberdeen meeting, Craigie and Lydia Johnson, with Peter Norbeck, S.W. Clark, and other local notables led a citizens meeting on the suffrage amendment at the courthouse in Redfield [“Citizens Meeting at the Court House, Redfield, South Dakota,” JK1881 .N357 sec. XVI, no. 3-9 NAWSA Coll series: Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911; Scrapbook 9 (1910-1911), Library of Congress].

Mary Craigie wrote a report on the South Dakota campaign for publication in The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), January 21, 1911, p.23 [Schlesinger Library, Harvard University] in which she discussed work with clergy, like a German minister in Aberdeen who made speeches himself and translated suffrage leaflets into German for the SDESA to use and the Catholic priest Father Haire, also of Aberdeen, who spoke out in support. She also wrote at fair length about what she considered to have been the “causes of defeat” including a long, complicated ballot and active anti-suffrage campaigning by the New York antis and “the liquor interests,” who she said had organized in most SD cities to work against both suffrage and the local option bill that was also on the ballot.

Also, from the Library of Congress: “Mrs. Craigie on Woman Suffrage,” clipping from Albany, February 1914; and photo of Craigie from a NAWSA scrapbook.

Stella Crossley () []

Stella Crossley was assigned by Maria McMahon to organize District 4, which included ten southeastern counties, from Yankton. Gertrude Watkins also worked in the southern counties. According to McMahon’s end-of-campaign article, local committees loved them — “Never a fair that was not covered, nor a Teachers’ Institute, nor a Farmers’ Alliance, nor a political meeting. Everywhere that voters foregathered, there they were” [Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), May 16, 1918, May 30, 1918; McMahon, 1918?, RA12088, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, Pyle Papers USD; McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509]. In July, May Ghrist of Miller with organizers Pidgeon, Crossley, and Stadie did a lecture tour and petition drive in Roberts County [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), July 12, 1918]. In September, she was in Scotland with Josephine Miller to speak on the Amendment [The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), September 5, 1918].

Near the end of the campaign, Crossley, Watkins, and Peshakova came into conflict with Maria McMahon and went on something of a strike. Crossley then resigned on October 17, though Watkins and Peshakova did continue some work in the final days. Crossley likely hurt her relationship with NAWSA in the mix, but returned to New York and married soon after. Correspondence from the Pyle Papers at USD-Vermillion regarding the conflict:

Pyle to McMahon, November 1, 1918, RA11621-RA11624, McMahon to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11685, and Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Schuler, November 1, 1918, RA11625-RA11628, and Pyle to Shuler, November 2, 1918, RA11640-RA11642, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Rewman, November 2, 1918, RA11638, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Stadie to Pyle, November 1, 1918, RA11630, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Ghrist, November 2, 1918, RA11637, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“[Crossley] got peeved over some imaginary trouble and took it up with Miss Watkins and Miss Watkins demanded an apology from Mrs. McMahon. There was nothing to apologize for and I wrote them to that effect and that Miss Crossley’s resignation was accepted on the 17th of October,” Pyle to Leavitt, November 3, 1918, RA11646-RA11647, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, and Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“all they had to say was that they thought Mrs. McMahon and Mrs. Pyle had been very unappreciative and that Mrs. McMahon had nagged them and had not been kind.” Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, and Pyle to Catt, November 12, 1918, RA11801, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Pyle received an apologetic letter from Watkins. McMahon to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11781, and Pyle to McMahon, November 12, 1918, RA11807, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Watkins to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Watkins to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“I realized that Stella was entirely in the wrong… ” Peshakova to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11798, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Pyle to McMahon, November 13, 1918, RD11821, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Catt to Pyle, December 2, 1918, RA12008 and RA12009, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
McMahon to Pyle, December 6, RA12026-RA12034, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
Pyle heard that Crossley had married, she “might as well because her days with the National were done.” Crossley’s expense statement was exorbitant and included salary for days she was in Mitchell “hatching up all this trouble.” Pyle said that Crossley’s reply to her request for an itemized statement was “the rudest most impertinent thing you could imagine. I have paid no attention to it.” Pyle to Stevens, December 27, 1918, RA12071-RA12073, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December

Ida Crouch-Hazlett (c1870-1941) [Chicago/Denver/etc.]

In April 1898, Ida Crouch-Hazlett came to South Dakota as an organizer for the suffrage amendment campaign. She spent a great deal of time organizing in the Black Hills [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), September 8, 1898, et al.]. Some of her stops:

April 9, 1898, Hot Springs, city hall: And organized a local suffrage club [Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), April 8, 1898, April 15, 1898].
April 1898, Custer, Four Mile, and Pringle: Spoke two nights at the courthouse “has charge of work in Black Hills and Pine Ridge and Rosebud agencies.” She reportedly had “fair sized audiences” and was “a fluent and entertaining speaker” [Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), April 16, 1898, April 23, 1898].
May 1898: Belle Fourche: at Methodist and Congregational churches, and was the guest of Mr. Giles [Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), May 24, 1898].
May 1898: Centennial, Minnesela, and Reed’s S.G.(?) [Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), May 24, 1898].

Photograph, “Mrs. Ida Crouch-Hazlett Press Notice,” 2021-05-06-0006, in WCTU SDESA Records – 1898 Campaign, in WCTU leaflets, Pickler Papers H91-74, SD State Archives.

She had some points in the Hills like Keystone where she had a positive result, and others like Deadwood where she faced marked opposition, and she was frequently frustrated with the state organization’s management of the campaign [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 21, 1898; Linda M. Sommer, “Dakota Resources: The Pickler Family Papers and the Humphrey Family Papers at the South Dakota State Historical Society,” South Dakota History 24(2) (1994), 130-132].

In April, Crouch-Hazlett was one of the speakers at the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association annual meeting in Sioux Falls at the opera house [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 791].

In July, Capitola Butterfield–a teacher at the Ogallala Boarding School on the Pine Ridge reservation–wrote to Crouch-Hazlett advising against her coming to speak on suffrage, “as it would I fear at this time prove fruitless.” Also (with racist language): “You would reach here about 12 (noon) by stage from Rushville Neb. There is a Hotel at Agency where the accommodations are good for an Agency. How long it would take you – I have no idea but the trip would be an expensive one for you I fear, and as there are places where so many more civilized people live, it would seem that the money could be better expended” [Letter to Mrs. Ida Crouch-Hazlett from Capitola C. Butterfield, July 20, 1898, #2021-04-07-0016, Box 6676, Folder 4, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence -July 1898 Folder 2, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

In July, she spoke on “Social Reforms” at a meeting at the Congregational church in Rapid City–“she told much truth and pressed the facts home to her hearers.” She had scheduled talks on suffrage for the following two days “but owing to limited advertising and other drawbacks her lectures did not take place” [Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), July 29, 1898].

In September, she toured in Minnehaha County, and in October, went through Davison County [Süd Dakota Nachrichten (Sioux Falls SD), September 1, 1898; Mitchell Capital (SD), October 7, 1898]. She was scheduled for stops in:

September 1: Grand Meadow
September 2: Taopi
September 3: Buffalo
September 4-5: Clear Lake
September 6: Humboldt
September 7: Wellington
September 8: Benton
September 9: Lyons
September 10: Burke
September 11-12: Dell Rapids
September 13: Baltic
September 14: East Sioux Falls
September 15: Rowena
September 16: Brandon
September 17-18: Valley Springs
September 19: Red Rock
September 20-21: Garretson
September 22: Sherman
September 24-25: Sioux Falls
October 12: Badger
October 13: Beulah
October 14: Emsley
October 15-16: Victor
October 17: Tobin
October 18: Ethan
October 19: Prosper
October 20: Perry

Crouch-Hazlett “says that active opposition to the movement has ceased in the state except among classes that have everything to fear from upward social movements.”
Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), September 22, 1898; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), September 23, 1898; et al.

In early October, Crouch-Hazlett was scheduled for talks for the Mitchell suffrage club, but they cancelled because they “received information that Mrs. Crouch-Hazlett’s speeches do more harm than good for the equal suffrage cause” [Mitchell Capital (SD), September 30, 1898]. She printed her reply in the Mitchell Republican, that no one has the authority to cancel her engagements and she’ll appear as announced. She explained how she works on suffrage only, not in conjunction with temperance [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 7, 1898]. On October 4, she spoke at the Methodist church in Mount Vernon on a Saturday evening on suffrage and on Sunday evening on social reforms. The local suffragists described her as a “forcible and logical speaker… will be the occasion of much talk and much thought by both men and women. We believe that much good has been accomplished by her coming here” [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 7, 1898]. She spent a week in Davison County, speaking also at Badger Township school house No. 1 [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 21, 1898].

“It is folly to appeal to merely the church-going people in the treatment of a question that must be settled at the polls by all classes of people. It has been said all along by the best suffragists in the state and elsewhere that this would be the rock upon which South Dakota would split.”
Mitchell Capital (SD), October 7, 1898.

Also in October, Crouch-Hazlett spoke two nights at the Methodist church in Kimball, went to Bon Homme County, and was scheduled for a schoolhouse/town hall tour through rural Clay County from Oct. 26 to Nov. 7. News reports in Vermillion of her tour were positive–that “the ladies were charmed” and she “made many friends during her brief canvass in this county” [Kimball Graphic (SD), October 7, 1898; Mitchell Capital (SD), October 21, 1898; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 28, 1898, November 3, 1898, November 10, 1898; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), November 10, 1898].

Emma Smith DeVoe (1848-1927) [Washington]

In 1910, DeVoe sent 100 of Washington’s campaign cookbooks back to South Dakota for suffragists there to sell to raise funds [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), September 1, 1910].

In August-October 1916, she came back to campaign in South Dakota as part of the “Flying Squadron” with Elsie Benedict and Effie McCollum Jones who canvassed around South Dakota, going to Watertown, Madison, Sioux Falls, and Mitchell. In October she went to the Black Hills, speaking with Mabel Rewman in Terry and Terraville, and participating in a suffrage meeting with Elsie Benedict in Lead.

Also see Emma Smith DeVoe biography page and my post “The 1916 Campaigns.”

Marion H. Drake () [Chicago, Illinois]

In 1914, Marion H. Drake was a key speaker for W.C.T.U. Day at the Lake Madison Chautauqua. A suffrage parade brought her from the hotel to the auditorium, though it was held in the rain and delayed from the afternoon to the evening because her train arrived in town late. She also appeared in Arlington, Parker, Milbank, Sisseton, and spoke from the courthouse bandstand in Watertown during her time in South Dakota. She spoke on the themes of labor regulations for women and children, on the international suffrage movement, and on the alderman election she had just run and lost against a ward boss in Chicago. However, she was booked as a replacement for another speaker, which apparently was a logistical challenge for some communities. Women in Parker were reportedly rude to Drake when she came there and made Drake question whether to continue the tour. M. Jean Wilkinson wrote to friend Elizabeth Safford to “be good to Marion Drake… She is just a human girl and needs a little mothering to put heart in her.” Wilkinson also described her presentation style, saying that Drake “is not a ranter but tells in a quiet, calm manner the things they did, actually did in the First Ward at Chicago and it makes an impression… She is not one of the hypnotic kind but she is cultured and true blue and her talk is very interesting” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 17, 1914, June 25, 1914, June 26, 1914, August 22, 1914; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), August 28, 1914; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), August 28, 1914; Saturday News (Watertown SD), August 20, 1914; August 27, 1914; Letter to Mr. Smith from M. Jean Wilkinson, #2021-06-09-0250, Letter to Mrs. Simmons from Geo. G. Smith, April 5, 1914, #2021-06-09-0213, Letter to Mrs. Safford, June 30, 1914, #2021-06-09-0177, Letter to Mrs. Schuppert, July 8, 1914, #2021-06-09-0150, Partial Letter from L.E.S., August 1914, #2021-06-09-0113, Letter to “M. Jean” from “Safford”, August 18, 1914, #2021-06-09-0131, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD Digital Archives].

Julia Mills Dunn (1837-1922) [Moline, Illinois]

In October 1898, Julia Mills Dunn as president of the Illinois state suffrage association came to campaign in South Dakota with M. Lena Morrow and Emmy C. Evald. She was scheduled for Alcester, and in early October, Dunn spoke at the M.E. church in Madison. Dunn and Morrow’s expenses were paid by the Illinois state suffrage association. She returned to Moline after speaking in larger cities in eastern South Dakota [Kimball Graphic (SD), October 14, 1898; Tollefson to Williams, September 11, 1898, 2021-04-13-0036 to -0039, Box 6676 , Folder 10, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – September 1898, Folder 1, Pickler Collection, SD State Archives; Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 29, 1898, October 6, 1898; Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, 599; Topeka State Journal (KS), November 5, 1898].

Dunn also wrote lyrics for “God Shall Lead Us On” that was included in the 1889-1890 songbook put out by the S.D.E.S.A. [Danny O. Crew, Suffragist Sheet Music: An Illustrated Catalogue of Published Music Associated with the Women’s Rights and Suffrage Movement in America, 1795-1921, with Complete Lyrics (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co., 2002), 109].

Emmy Carlsson Evald () [Illinois, Swedish-American]

Emmy C. Evald came to campaign in South Dakota with Julia Mills Dunn, as president of the Illinois state suffrage association, and M. Lena Morrow. In one letter, Alice Tollefson of Elk Point wrote to the state ESA about Evald’s pending visit–she thought that Evald would be well-received in Elk Point but campaigning in Jefferson and McCook (townships?) among the French and Irish Catholics would be “work wasted.” Tollefson also noted that Evald would miss reaching “the big Skandinavian element” if she only appeared at towns along the railroad lines, and asked state secretary Clare Williams if the state would “let Mrs. Evald go into the country” [Kimball Graphic (SD), October 14, 1898; Tollefson to Williams, September 11, 1898, 2021-04-13-0036 to -0039, Box 6676, Folder 10, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – September 1898, Folder 1, and Tollefson to Williams, September 27, 1898, 2021-04-15-0011, 2021-04-15-0012, Box 6676, Folder 13, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – September 1898, Folder 4, Pickler Collection, SD State Archives].

Susan S. Fessenden (1840-1933) [Boston]

In September 1890, Susan S. Fessenden spoke on suffrage at a W.C.T.U. convention at the opera house in Madison, appearing with Anna Howard Shaw, her predecessor in her role at the time as the national W.C.T.U. superintendent of franchise. She spoke on “The Responsibility of Government to the Liquor Traffic” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 19, 1890, September 22, 1890].

“Mrs. Fessenden is a lady of striking personal appearance, considerably above the ordinary stature, straight as an arrow, almost white, wavy hair dressed in the style of continental days, a mild, pleasant, motherly expression, and a cast of countenance that strikingly resembles the portraits of Martha Washington which may be seen in the U.S. histories of today. During a two hours’ address she will scarcely raise or lower her voice a single pitch, and uses no gestures whatsoever. She is a natural orator with an unusually fine command and easy flow of language and her address yesterday afternoon was considered the finest and most ‘telling’ of any of the series.”
Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 22, 1890.

Antoinette Funk (1873-1942) [Chicago]

Antoinette Funk visited South Dakota as a NAWSA organizer in the fall of 1914, before proceeding to North Dakota, Montana, and Nevada. Her plan was to spend three days in Vermillion, then do a seven-day tour that included speaking at the courthouse in Canton, Labor Day at Alsen, and working with Mamie Pyle at the state fair in Huron [Wakonda Monitor (SD), August 20, 1914, August 27, 1914; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), September 4, 1914, September 11, 1914; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), September 26, 1914; Lemmon Herald (SD), October 2, 1914; Letter to Miss Wilkinson from Mrs. Pyle, August 24, 1914, #2021-06-09-0030, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

Susie Bird reported that “Antoinette Funk of Chicago delivered suffrage addresses to many thousands of people from three to five times a day, from chairs, drays, soap boxes, autos, and piano boxes, in all parts of the fair grounds and on the city streets. She was a most interesting speaker. Even though the cannon was sounding for the fire works to begin, I heard men say: ‘I wish she would speak longer.'”
Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), September 26, 1914.

“… feel that we did such good by our constant attention to the voters. Mrs. Funk spoke often and so well, and is so pretty to look at as well as interesting to listen to that she made converts I know.”
Letter to Mrs. Powell by M. Jean Wilkinson, September 26, 1914, #2021-06-09-0033, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

Funk’s own report: “During my campaign in the Dakotas I spoke wherever possible out-of-doors, even though meetings were arranged for me in hall, court houses and churches. I found that the small audiences that would assemble in these places were made up of women and men already interested and that the uninstructed voter would only listen when you caught him on the street. I spent the week of the state fair at Huron with Mrs. Pyle and witnessed a wonderful demonstration of activity. As high as 50,000 people a day were in attendance. The grounds were covered with yellow banners. Every prize-winning animal, every racing sulky, automobile and motor cycle carried our pennants. Twenty thousand yellow badges were given away in one day. The squaws from the reservation did their native dances waving suffrage banners. And the snake charmer on the midway carried a Votes For Women pennant while an enormous serpent coiled around her body. I spoke during the fair four and five times a day and held streets meetings down town in the evening. When not thus engaged I assisted Mrs. Pyle and her committee in distributing thousands of pieces of literature and was amazed at the eagerness of the people to receive the same. Mrs. Pyle and myself investigated the fair grounds to see how much was thrown away and found almost none.”
The hand book of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and proceedings of the Forty-sixth Annual Convention, held at Nashville, Tennessee, November 12-17, inclusive, 1914 (New York, 1914), 121.

Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) [Fayetteville, New York]

One of the NAWSA vice-presidents, Matilda Joslyn Gage of New York, came to Dakota Territory in the summer of 1883 and undertook a series of lectures “at various points in the Territory during the summer to awaken public sentiment on this question” and sent a memorial for suffrage to the 1883 statehood convention [Report of the sixteenth annual Washington Convention, March 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, 1884 (Rochester, N.Y. : National Woman Suffrage Association, 1884), 81; Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 552; Early History of Brown County, usgwarchives.net]. “First, Mrs. Gage wrote a letter of arousal to all women of Dakota, setting forth the legal injustices to women in the proposed new code and urging them to write all delegates objecting to the introduction of the world “male” into the proposed constitution…. From Aberdeen Mrs. Gage under date of September 3, 1883, wrote a stirring letter to the ‘gentlemen’ of the convention which was meeting in Sioux Falls. Among other things, she suggested that it should be the pride of Dakota to accord to its women all the rights claimed by men. The arguments presented by Mrs. Gage failed to convince the men” [Early History of Brown County, usgwarchives.net]. Several of her children lived with their families in the Aberdeen area [Early History of Brown County, usgwarchives.net]. For more about Gage: Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist by Angelica Shirley Carpenter.

Emily Gardner () [England]

Emily (or Emilie) Gardner came to South Dakota to campaign in 1910. Late in the campaign, she focused on work in the Black Hills and specialized in street rallies [Black Hills Daily Register (Lead, SD), October 31, 1910; Forty-third Annual Report of N.A.W.S.A. given at the Convention held at Louisville, KY. October 19 to 25 inclusive (New York 1911), 98; The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), October 6, 1910; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 6, 1910; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 793].

In a report to NAWSA press chair, Anna Howard Shaw wrote in Nov. 1910:
“At Lead I met Miss Gardner, the young English suffragist, who is giving her time gratuitously to the campaign. She has done splendid work, and is at home in out-of-door meetings.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 12, 1910, p.200, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Omar E. Garwood (1878-1957) [Denver, Colorado]

Omar E. Garwood was assistant district attorney in Colorado and came to South Dakota in 1910 to “assist in the suffrage campaign”–“Mr. Garwood is a successful politician and able attorney and he is so pleased with the workings of woman suffrage in his home state that he comes here to help.” In Vermillion, he spoke at the opera house at an event following politicians Burke and Vessey [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 793; Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), October 7, 1910; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), October 7, 1910; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), October 26, 1910; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), October 27, 1910]. Also [“Omar Elvin Garwood,” Findagrave.com]

“For sixteen years I have seen the fairness of the equal suffrage principle demonstrated in Colorado.”
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), October 26, 1910.

Mary L. Geffs (1856-) [Denver, Colorado]

In September 1916, Mary L. Geffs came to Sisseton to speak on “Suffrage from a Socialist viewpoint… On the street if weather permits, otherwise in the court house.” The next night she spoke on Socialism itself [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), September 15, 1916, September 22, 1916; American Socialist (September 23, 1916), 4].

Helen M. Gougar (1843-1907) [Indiana/Kansas]

In April, Gougar spoke at a district convention in Illinois, which Catherine Waugh (McCulloch) chaired, to raise funds for the South Dakota campaign [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 3, 1890, p.138, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]. According to one account, Waugh also traveled with her in South Dakota [Dakota Ruralist, June 28, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

Helen M. Gougar arrived in South Dakota from Indiana in April 1890 to lecture for the suffrage amendment. One report said she had twenty engagements booked from June 2 to 21. She also became involved in the leadership crisis in July. With Libbie Wardall, she reviewed the financial records of M. Barker and asking him to resign [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 10, 1890, p.152, June 21, 1890, p.194, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), April 2, 1890; Hot Springs Star (SD), April 4, 1890; Madison Daily Leader (SD), April 18, 1890; Dakota Ruralist, June 28, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Saturday News (Watertown SD), November 14, 1918; Letter to Mrs. Pickler from L.A. Wardall, July 8, 1890, #2021-05-13-0092, WCTU Correspondence 1888-1886, Box 6677, Folder 7, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].

She was often biting in her rhetoric, with racist or xenophobic tinges (though she was far from the only one). In a speech Canton, she “proceeded to give the garlic munchers a bath in blue vitriol” for opposing suffrage [Quoted in Nelson in Lauck et al., 139]. {I don’t know what she meant by ‘garlic munchers’ — what I found online was that it’d likely reference southern European immigrants (Italy, Greece, etc.) but there weren’t too many immigrants from that area in South Dakota at that time…}

Her schedule from June (at least as planned):

June 2: Brookings
June 3: Watertown
June 4: Clark
June 5: Faulkton, Third District W.C.T.U. convention
June 6: Redfield
June 7: Miller, opera house
June 8: St. Lawrence
June 9: Highmore
June 10: Pierre
June 11: Huron
June 12: Aberdeen
June 13: Woonsocket
June 14-15: Mitchell, courthouse
June 16: Yankton
June 17: Scotland
June 18: Elk Point
June 19: Canton
June 20: Sioux Falls
June 21: Madison, opera house

[Sources for above: Highmore Herald (SD), May 17, 1890, “Page 34 : Entire Page,” The Union Signal, “Page 36 : Entire Page,” and The Woman’s Tribune, June 7, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings County Sentinel (SD), May 30, 1890; Hand County Press (Miller SD), May 29, 1890, June 5, 1890, June 12, 1890; Mitchell Capital (SD), June 6, 1890; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), May 14, 1890; Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 28, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 31, 1890, p.172, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]

Anthony held back the national funds from local suffrage leaders, generating criticism from Marietta Bones and Helen M. Gougar of Indiana/Kansas that carried through the end of the campaign in 1890. In November 1890, Gougar was thanked by the S.D.E.S.A. for making and raising contributions herself for the campaign work [St. Paul Daily Globe (MN), April 13, 1890; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 766, 786-787; Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 208-220; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), December 6, 1890, p.392, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

A report of a letter that Gougar submitted to The Woman’s Journal about the 1890 suffrage campaign then in progress: In Wessington Springs Herald (SD), July 25, 1890.

“THANKS TO MRS. GOUGAR. Huron, S. D., Oct. 2, 1890.
Editors Woman’s Journal: I desire to express through your columns the gratitude which the South Dakota E. S. A. owes to the able political and social reformer, Helen M. Gougar, of Indiana. First, for the twenty brilliant and effective lectures given by her daring the season, in all the principal cities of the State, the worth of which cannot be estimated. Since that time she has never forgotten the needs of the work, using her influence and talents to arouse sympathy and raise funds for the campaign of equal rights carried on there. Having announced her intention to furnish the sum of one thousand dollars, she is bravely accomplishing the task, having sent nearly nine hundred dollars to the State treasury. This donation is appreciated the more from the fact that, owing to the impoverished condition of the State, it would have been almost impossible to pay the necessary expenses at headquarters, had not this generous friend come to the rescue. All the evidence now goes to prove that Mrs. Gougar will receive the only reward that she craves—an assurance of the success of the equal suffrage amendment to the constitution of South Dakota. e. m. w. [Elizabeth Murray Wardall]”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332–333, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

More on Gougar: Ida A. Harper, “Three Women.” Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine (1887), 402.

Sara Green [Kansas City, Missouri]

In August 1924, Sara Green spoke on the responsibility of women as voters at the Farmer-Labor hall in the Peck building in Sioux Falls for the Women’s Progressive Club [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), August 26, 1924].

Laura A. Gregg (Cannon) (1869-) [Nebraska / Iowa / Garnet, Kansas]

In September-November 1897, NAWSA speakers Laura A. Gregg (IA), Rev. Henrietta G. Moore, Mary C.C. Bradford (CO), Mary Garrett Hay, Laura M. Johns (KS), and Carrie Chapman Catt participated in county conventions and suffrage meetings across South Dakota. In Brookings, Gregg served as the “manager” of the convention–making opening and closing addresses, introductions, etc. In early October, she campaigned in Day County with poor results and looked at stops in Clark and Marshall Counties. Later in the 1898 campaign, suffragists in Britton SD arranged for Gregg to campaign around the county with the Populist party. She worried opponents would take aim at her traveling with a group of men, but that they were “courteous” and endorsed suffrage in their speeches as well [The Woman’s Column 10(39) (September 25, 1897), 2; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 15, 1897; Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 21, 1897, November 11, 1897; Semi-Weekly Register (Brookings SD), October 16, 1897, October 27, 1897; Kimball Graphic (SD), October 23, 1897, November 13, 1897; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), November 12, 1897; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 14, 1897, pg1; pg5; October 21, 1897; Mitchell Capital (SD), November 12, 1897, pg. 3, pg. 7, November 19, 1897; Saint Paul Globe (MN), November 17, 1897; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), November 18, 1897, November 25, 1897; Letter to Mrs. Williams from Laura A. Gregg, October 5, 1898, #2021-04-22-0080 to -0085, and Postal Card to Mrs. Clare M. Williams from Josephine F. Cloyd, October 8, 1898, #2021-04-22-0026, Box 6676, Folder 17, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – October 1898, Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage vol. 4, 557; Nelson in Lahlum/Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box, 142-143].

Following from a Letter to Mrs. Williams from Laura A. Gregg, October 5, 1898, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives:

“I was so glad to hear from you, for I have felt so kind o’ lone and lorn this past week… I could not explain it clearly enough to get them to work up the meetings as they ought to have been…. I was provoked at Pierpont because there was a large audience, and I might have gotten some pledges, but the preacher would not let me talk but 45 minutes, and I could not ask for pledges. I organized the committee by yelling at the top of my voice, while the social was going on.”

“I am afraid that the liquor power is not sleeping. A Scandinavian told me that the Saloon men were fighting hard, that they do not miss an opportunity to button hole their customers and ridicule Woman Suffrage, and I suppose they are using money too, and we have got that to face. But I hope we can beat them anyway.”

“I know how slow the women are to respond. How provoking it is- It seems that they can’t arouse enough to see the importance of this movement, and the necessity of being prompt.”

In response to news that Capt. E.H. Allison planned to give civics classes on the West River reservations for male tribal members that would be eligible to vote for president, Gregg publicized her (racist) indignation that the women’s suffrage amendment had in turn been voted down while native men would be able to influence “the policy of the government under which those intelligent women must live” [Portland Daily Press (OR), July 31, 1900; Red Lodge Picket (MT), August 10, 1900].

In September 1907, the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association met in Pierre and Gregg was the primary speaker [Forest City Press (SD), September 5, 1907; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD) September 19, 1907, September 26, 1907].

In May 1909, Gregg, “a most efficient and tactful organizer” for NAWSA, came to South Dakota [Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 38, 142-143, 172; Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08439, Pyle Papers, USD]. She made an address on “The Moral Side of Suffrage” in Hurley [Turner County Herald (SD), May 27, 1909, June 3, 1909]. She also spoke and organized a local committee in Yankton [The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), June 10, 1909].

More about Gregg: The Morning Astorian (OR), February 17, 1906.

*Minneapolis Journal* (MN), May 29, 1901.

Harriet Grim (1885-1967) [Chicago, Illinois]

In June 1910, Harriet Grim came from the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (with their financial support) to lecture on suffrage in South Dakota for several weeks [Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08428, Pyle Papers USD]. She spoke in Salem at a union service on Suffrage Sunday and went to the Black Hills, where she appeared at Deadwood union hall and the Congregational church at Custer [Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08433, Pyle Papers USD; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), June 18, 1910; Philip Weekly Review (SD), June 30, 1910; Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), July 1, 1910].

Sophie F. Naylor Grubb (1834-1902) [Lawrence, Kansas (or Missouri)]

Sophie F. Grubb was the superintendent of foreign literature for the National WCTU sent the SDESA at least 20,000 printings of suffrage literature in Norwegian, German, and Swedish, one 10,000 in February and another in August [The Woman’s Tribune, April 5, 1890, “Page 32 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), February 22, 1890, p.63, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Letter to Mrs. Wardall from S.F. Grubb, August 18, 1890, #2021-01-22-0003, Box 6674, Folder 2, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: D-G, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; “Sophronia ‘Sophie’ Farrington Naylor Grubb,” Findagrave.com; “Sophie Naylor Grubb,” Wikipedia.].

Mary Garrett Hay (1857-1928) [Kansas]

In October 1898, Hay was a speaker at a state convention was held in Sioux Falls [Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage vol. 4, 558-559].

Photo of Hay in South Bend News-Times (IN), May 10, 1919.

Matilda B. Hindman (c.1828-1905) [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] was a veteran suffrage campaigner when she arrived in South Dakota in March 1890. She had been a leader of suffrage in Pennsylvania from 1870, had worked closely with Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell in the American Woman Suffrage Association, and had done intensive lecture tours in Michigan, Massachusetts, Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, Washington, and California before 1890, and lectured in Wisconsin and New York afterwards. Raised by parents who actively worked for equal pay for female teachers in their school district, Hindman consistently spoke on equal pay, women in the labor force, and the power of the ballot to protect women’s rights. She lived in Pittsburgh with her sister Jennie, a teacher who also assisted Matilda periodically with arranging speaking appearances.

See my complete notes for her work in South Dakota and more of her biography at: Matilda Hindman and the 1890 Campaign.

Clara Hoffman (1831-1908) [Missouri]

Clara Hoffman was the featured speaker at the 1893 convention of the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association in Aberdeen, held to coincide with Woman’s Day at the Grain Palace Exposition. Hoffman spoke in the evening at the Grain Palace too [Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 13, 1893; Harriet Taylor Upton, ed., Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, held in Washington, D.C., February 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, 1894 (Washington DC, 1894), 214; Harper/Anthony, History of Woman Suffrage vol. 4, 558].

George H. Hodges (1866-1947) [Olathe, Kansas]

In July 1916, the former governor of Kansas, George H. Hodges (D), spoke at a chautauqua event in Scotland SD. His talk was called “How Prohibition Killed Kansas” but was an address supportive of prohibition. The news item noted that Hodges was “also a strong equal suffragist” [The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), July 13, 1916].

Mary Seymour Howell (1844-1913) [Albany, New York]

Mary Seymour Howell, then corresponding secretary of the New York Equal Suffrage Association, was sent to campaign in South Dakota by the National American Woman Suffrage Association [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890, image 1; “Mary Howell,” Western New York Suffragists].

Howell traveled with Susan B. Anthony, speaking in nearby towns and together for convention locations — “They hold two each week at county seats, and speak at other important points on intervening evenings. Large audiences rise en masse to their feet, indicating their desire for the success of our cause” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 10, 1890, p.152, May 24, 1890, p.168, and June 21, 1890, p.194 (quote), Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]. Howell spoke with Susan B. Anthony in Beadle, Hutchinson, Douglass, Yankton, Minnehaha, Charles Mix, Bon Homme, Lincoln, Union, Lake, Moody, Miner, Hanson, and Turner Counties [Kimball Graphic (SD), June 13, 1890, June 27, 1890; Mitchell Capital (SD), May 9, 1890, May 16, 1890, May 23, 1890; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), May 29, 1890; Madison Daily Leader (SD), May 30, 1890, June 27, 1890, June 28, 1890, June 30, 1890; Union County Courier (SD), June 4, 1890, June 11, 1890; Dakota Ruralist, June 28, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” “Page 44 : Entire Page,” and “Page 45 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

Her schedule for May 13 to June 8:

Woonsocket May 13 and 14
Wessington Springs May 16 and 17
Mitchell (convention) May 20 and 21
Ethan May 22
Armour (con.) May 23 and 24
Delmont May 25
Tripp May 26
Olivet (con.) May 27
Running Water May 28
Tyndall (con.) May 29
Yankton (con ) May 30 and 31
Lesterville June 3
Vermillion (con.) June 4
Elk Point (con.) June 5
Alcester June 6
Eden June 7
Worthing June 8

In May, Howell arrived at Tripp in Hutchinson County where she was scheduled to lecture at a schoolhouse…
[quoting original text:] “Upon her arrival here she was confronted by a gang of scabby-brained Russians fresh from a hole-in-the-wall, who think that woman was created solely to ‘stay at home home and take care of the children’ and other menial duties, who informed her that they did not believe in woman’s rights or woman preachers and under no circumstances could she speak in the school-house. This aroused the few white people in town and they determined to open the school-house to Mrs. Howell at all hazards, but some of the gentlemen from the land where freedom of speech and the press is unknown were so demonstrative in their actions that the lady hardly felt safe to even remain in town, and she spent the afternoon with an old acquaintance and went to Parkston to wait for a train to take her to Scotland. Such behavior on the part of the school board and city officers has given our little town a black name that will require long and careful nursing to restore to its usual brightness.”
Madison Daily Leader (SD), May 29, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), May 30, 1890.

Press Notice for Mrs. Howell, June 30, 1890, #2021-02-18-0041, Box 6674, Folder 26, WCTU Suffrage Press Notices on Mary Seymour Hall, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

In Mitchell, for their county convention, she gave the evening address in the courtroom of the Davison County Courthouse the day after Susan B. Anthony spoke [Mitchell Capital (SD), May 9, 1890, May 16, 1890, May 23, 1890, pg 1, pg 4]. In Madison in June, they spoke at the opera house, and Howell spoke under the title of “The Dawn of the Twentieth Century” for two hours [Madison Daily Leader (SD), June 30, 1890]. In Elk Point, she met with Rev. J.W. Hines who had worked in the anti-slavery movement in New England in the 1830s and 40s [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), July 16, 1890].

“LETTER FROM MRS. HOWELL, Canton S.D., June 14, 1890. We are such busy workers that we find no time to send you letters as we hoped when we began this campaign. Convention follows convention (this being our fourteenth), two and three each week, in such rapid succession that we are no sooner out of one that we find ourselves going into another with the same enthusiasm and energy… At the close of each meeting, we pin on the yellow ribbon to a large number of converts, amid inspiring music and great enthusiasm…. We need funds to carry on the work here, and we hope the friends of freedom will do everything they can to provide means that the battle may go on to victory. Liberal contributions have been made, but they are small in comparison with the vastness of the State and the labor to be accomplished…. This is a glorious country, with its broad prairies and boundless acres. Let us all do our work so well, those at home sustaining those who have come here, that on the fourth of next November this young State shall crown the daughters of Dakota with liberty, and lead the Union to perfect equality.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), June 21, 1890, p.200, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Early in July, she provided a field report to the state convention in Huron and gave the evening lecture at the opera house while a committee met elsewhere to discuss state leadership [Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 10, 1890; The Dakota Ruralist, July 19, 1890, “Page 44 : Entire Page,” and “Page 45 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10]. On July 15, 1890, she began an extensive campaign tour of the Black Hills, concurrently with Clara B. Colby. They had different stops on their routes but joined up for conventions in the larger towns [Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), July 25, 1890; August 8, 1890; Sturgis Advertiser (SD), July 31, 1890; Hot Springs Star (SD), August 1, 1890; “Page 46 : Appointments,” Page 48 : From South Dakota, and Dakota Ruralist, August 16, 1890, “Page 57 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), July 5, 1890, p.213, July 26, 1890, p.250, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

July 15 : Buffalo Gap
July 16 : Custer
July 17 : Martin Valley
July 19 : Fairburn
July 20 : Hermosa. Howell was in Hermosa from the 19th to the 21st, lectured once, and organized a Custer County suffrage association–all county officers were Hermosa residents except one [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 2, 1890, p.241, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]
July 21-22 : Hot Springs (with Colby)
July 24 : Black Hawk
July 25 : Piedpont
July 26 : Grashul
July 27 : Tilford
July 28 : Sturgis
July 29 : Sparks
July 30-31 : Rapid City (with Colby)
August 1 : Lead
August 2 : Terraville
August 3 : Central City
August 4 : Elk Creek Station
August 5 : Perry
August 6 : Galena
August 7-8 : Deadwood (with Colby)
August 13-14 : Custer courthouse (with Colby) [Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), August 9, 1890].

In August 1890, the reorganized state association held another state convention in Mitchell and Howell was a participant with many of the other national workers [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 8, 1890, August 22, 1890; Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 8, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 19, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]. She spoke on “why the ballot needs the women” and on the utility of street meetings [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890, image 1]. In a talk titled “Our Republic” she was quoted saying: “Men are poor housekeepers and have kept the political house alone too long” [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), September 19, 1890].

On Saturday, September 13, 1890, Howell lectured on suffrage in Brookings [Brookings County Sentinel (SD), September 5, 1890].

In November, she wrote from Albany to the Wardalls inviting assistance from South Dakotans with the campaigning in New York, asking for a letter from Libbie Wardall to read at their NY state convention, expressing ‘homesickness’ for South Dakota, and “My love to all your family… With many thanks for all your kindness to me and remembrances to all who remember me…” [Letter to Mr. Wardall from Mary Seymour Howell, November 20, 1890, #2021-03-30-0027, 1890 Campaign Folder 3, Box 6675, Folder 28, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].

Also: “Mary Howell,” and photo, Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote, by the Rochester Regional Library Council (RRLC).

Mrs. Frank Illingworth () [Wadena, Minnesota]

In May 1918, at a Reading Circle club meeting in Mitchell, the program was suffrage with an address by Mrs. Frank Illingworth of Wadena MN at the invitation of sister-in-law Mrs. J.S. Knapp [Mitchell Capital (SD), May 2, 1918].

Laura M. Johns () [Kansas]

Laura M. Johns attended the state suffrage convention held in Mitchell in August 1890 and, as president of the Kansas ESA, spoke on her state’s experience with municipal suffrage. She stayed in the state and campaigned up to the election [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 8, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 5, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 48 : Entire Page,” “Page 49 : Entire Page,” “Page 50 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Letter to W.F. Bailey from D.C. Thomas, September 7, 1890, #2021-02-03-0028, Box 6674, Folder 5, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: R-Z, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

Report by Johns, September 22, 1890, about her campaigning in Ferney, Turton, and Frankfort in The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 4, 1890, p.316, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
“Well, these things teach us to appreciate the work of those who blazed the way for us. I thought I appreciated it before, but I appreciate it more now. This bracing Dakota atmosphere is our salvation. I do not believe I could otherwise stand the strain. I have spoken twenty-three times in twenty-one days. And it would have been twenty-six times instead of twenty-three, but for storms and delay of trains, and a railroad accident… All over this State I find remarkably bright people, full of energy and sparkle, well read, well educated, fully informed on the questions of the day. I wish I could find time to write a letter oftener for the Woman’s Journal; but the strain is heavy; there is very little time, and being entertained in families uses up many hours in talk which I should otherwise use in writing.”

“Mrs. Laura M. Johns, in a private letter of Oct. 11, from South Dakota, writes: We think we are going to win this battle. It will be close, but still we will win. Hurrah! Oh, the Lord grant us enough of votes! Reports have been coming in of late showing good gains. The politicians report a big rise in enthusiasm since the depression which followed the Republican Convention… I cannot write very well on this freight train, but I wanted to tell you the good news. Of course we can’t know, but this is the way it looks now. Hastily, Laura M. Johns.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University

The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 27, 1890, p.308, October 11, 1890, p.324, and October 25, 1890, p.340, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University:

Watertown Sep 27-28
Grover Sep 29
Hazel Sep 30
St. Lawrence Oct 10 [Hand County Press (Miller SD), October 9, 1890]
Fort Pierre Oct 11
Pierre Oct 14
Holabird Oct 15
Ree Heights Oct 16, in the afternoon and the evening [Hand County Press (Miller SD), October 2, 1890]
Highmore Oct 17
Miller Oct 18-19
Cavour Oct 20
Iroquois Oct 21
Carthage Oct 22
Howard Oct 23
Wentworth Oct 24
Flandreau Oct 25-26
Colman Oct 27
Madison Oct 28
Dell Rapids Oct 29
Hartford Oct 30
East Sioux Falls Oct 31
Sioux Falls Nov 1-2
Elk Point Nov 3

At the end of September. Johns spoke in Watertown, Grover, and Hazel. She also spoke with Anthony in Pierre in October 1890 [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 16, 1890]. Though different from the above schedule, Johns was on the advertised program to talk at the Brookings suffrage convention on the evening of October 29th [Semi-Weekly Register (Brookings SD), October 16, 1897, October 27, 1897].

In September-November 1897, national speakers Laura A. Gregg (IA), Rev. Henrietta G. Moore, Mary C.C. Bradford (CO), Mary Garrett Hay, Laura M. Johns (KS), and Carrie Chapman Catt participated in county conventions and suffrage meetings planned in South Dakota. Local women who spoke at campaign events included Anna R. Simmons, Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, and Dr. Mary T. Lowrey [The Woman’s Column 10(39) (September 25, 1897), 2; Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 21, 1897, November 10, 1897, November 11, 1897, November 12, 1897; Kimball Graphic (SD), October 23, 1897, November 13, 1897; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), November 5, 1897, November 12, 1897; Saint Paul Globe (MN), November 17, 1897; TTurner County Herald (Hurley SD), November 11, 1897, November 18, 1897, November 25, 1897; Letter to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt from Katharine E. Dopp, December 24, 1897, #2021-05-06-0061, Box 6676, Folder 24, WCTU SD Equal Suffrage Association Records – 1898 Campaign, Letter to Clare M. Williams from W.S. Shepherd, August 1898, #2021-04-12-0060 to -0075, Box 6676, Folder 5; Box 6676, Folder 9, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – August 1898, Folder 5; WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – August 1898, Folder 1, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage vol. 4, 557].

Dr. Effie McCollum Jones (1869-1952) [Iowa]

Dr. Effie McCollum Jones had been Universalist pastor in Waterloo IA who resigned in order to lecture. In Iowa, she served as chair of state finance committee for their suffrage association, and chair of the political science committee for their state Federation of Women’s Clubs. She campaigned through South Dakota with the “Flying Squadron” and gave rally speeches in the evenings after they held women’s meetings and street rallies. Learn more details and citations on my post: “The 1916 Campaigns.”

See especially: Effie McCollum Jones, “The South Dakota Campaign,” The Woman Voter 7(10) (October 1916), 14-15.

*Pierre Weekly Free Press* (SD), August 10, 1916

“General” Rosalie Jones (1883-1978) [New York]

In 1914, Alice Pickler and the state Federation of Women’s Clubs arranged for Rosalie Jones to come and do a small speaking tour in South Dakota, after having seen her speak in Chicago. She opened her tour on August 7, with a stop in Mitchell, speaking from the courthouse steps. She was introduced by Rev. Henry Snyder. After the 1.5-hour speech, she sold photographs of herself and took a collection for the state suffrage association. She also scheduled stops in Redfield, Faulkton, Watertown, Faulkton, and Sioux Falls. In Watertown, she spoke from the bandstand in the courthouse square; in Faulkton, she appeared at the ball park and stayed with the Picklers. She spoke also about the famous marches she led in New York to Albany and Washington DC [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 6, 1914, August 13, 1914, pg. 3, pg. 8; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), August 14, 1914; Minneapolis Morning Tribune (MN), August 16, 1914; Argus Leader (Sioux Falls SD), August 7, 1914; Saturday News (Watertown SD), August 6, 1914, page 4; August 6, 1914, page 5, August 13, 1914; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), August 20, 1914, August 27, 1914; Letter to Mr. Smith, August 5, 1914, #2021-06-09-0164, Letter to Safford, August 8, 1914, #2021-06-09-0148, Letter to Mrs. Jennie Stowell from M. Jean Wilkinson, August 10, 1914, #2021-06-09-0141, Letter to Mrs. Rice, August 11, 1914, #2021-06-09-0058, and Letter to Mrs. Record, #2021-06-09-0061, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

Jones “is very pretty and sweet, is a wealthy girl and financing her own trip when most people of her class would be spending the money at some summer resort”
Letter to Charles Smith from Jean Wilkinson, August 5, 1914, #2021-06-09-0164, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

“Rosalie Jones arrived today, tired and hungry but has had such successful meetings that she is quite jubilant and so are we.”
Letter to Safford, August 8, 1914, #2021-06-09-0148, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

In Mitchell,
“an attractive young woman mounted a box on the court house steps last evening. Her gown was of modish cut, her hat of Dame Fashion’s latest dictate, and her voice well-modulated and cultured”
“mounted a real soap box on the steps of the court house and appealed in a sparklingly witty manner to an audience of over 500 voters to help carry the suffrage amendment through”
“instead of a political harangue of abuse and a desire for sympathy, Miss Jones gave a succinct presentation of her reasons for asking for the ballot”
“declared that the giving of suffrage to women would not be the cause of a large number of foreign-born women and colored women rushing in to misuse the ballot. She stated that the native-born and the educated women of America far outnumbered the others and the them the ballot would be a long-wanted right”
The “open-air meeting, which was held on the court house lawn, was very well attended… “sympathizers of the movement were easily distinguishable by the yellow flowers they wore”
Jones’ visit “has aroused Mitchell league to activity for coming fall”
Mitchell Capital (SD), August 13, 1914].

“The first attendant didn’t know Rosalie and brought a high stool but she sent him back until he brought the genuine article to which she is accustomed.”
Argus Leader (Sioux Falls SD), August 7, 1914.

In Faulkton, Jones “stood and shouted for two hours in favor of equal suffrage.”
The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), August 20, 1914.

Letter to “Friends” and a Sign for Rosalie Jones, August 25, 1914, #2021-06-09-0013, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

Rev. Linton E. Keith [Illinois]

In the fall of 1898, Keith did a short speaking tour through South Dakota for the state suffrage campaign, appearing at least at Aberdeen, Brookings, Madison, Vermillion, and Mitchell. Keith was a Presbyterian minister and the author of pro-suffrage writing including a book called “Female Filosofy: Fished Out and Fried” in 1894 (“in a tongue-and-cheek tone”) and an article “She’s Northing But a Woman” in 1897. According to a letter he wrote to Clare Williams, he agreed to speaking for the campaign for two months and asked for $10 advances, $5/weekday (paid on each day) + expenses, and that the SDESA to the arrangements and advertising. In Vermillion, he made an afternoon outdoor address on the courthouse grounds and an evening lecture at the city hall theater [Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), September 9, 1898, September 16, 1898; The State Democrat (Aberdeen SD), September 23, 1898; Semi-Weekly Register (Brookings SD), September 23, 1898; Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 29, 1898, October 3, 1898, October 6, 1898, October 10, 1898; Mitchell Capital (SD), October 14, 1898; Letter to Clare M. Williams from L.E. Keith, July 27, 1898, #2021-04-06-0106 to -0111, Box 6676, Folder 3, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence -July 1898 Folder 1, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; University of Arkansas Libraries Facebook blog: https://librariesblog.uark.edu/recognizing-suffrage-an-imperfect-struggle/]. I can’t find much about him online…

Leaflet advertising “Female Filosofy by Feelix Feeler,” #2021-04-06-0129, and “Poster advertising L.E. Keith’s Oct. 19th meeting [At the Rink]” #2021-04-23-0060, in WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence 1898, Pickler Papers H91-74, SD State Archives.

Enclosed with letter to Clare M. Williams from L.E. Keith, July 27, 1898, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

Ex-Governor Koch [Kansas]

In October 1909, Sioux Falls suffragists held a meeting in the Commercial club rooms of the YMCA block, Koch, “who is a strong suffragist, happened to be in the city and he dropped in on the suffragist meeting.” He made a few remarks at the close of Rachael Foster Avery’s address and “outlined the improvements in the municipal conditions of Kansas since women had been given the privilege of voting at municipal elections” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 23, 1909].

Fola LaFollette (1882-1970) [Madison, Wisconsin]

Fola LaFollette was trained as an actor, and was the daughter of Senator Robert LaFollette and Belle Case LaFollette–also an activist.

In 1910, LaFollette campaigned through South Dakota, including at Library Hall in Rapid City, at the opera house in Pierre, in Custer, Deadwood, Lead, and Hot Springs, speaking on suffrage and performing “How the Votes were Won” [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 793; Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08428, Pyle Papers USD; Forty-third Annual Report of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association given at the Convention held at Louisville, KY. October 19 to 25 inclusive (New York 1911), 160–161; Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 6, 1910; Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), July 8, 1910; Philip Weekly Review (SD), July 7, 1910, July 14, 1910; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), July 21, 1910]. Her tour was supported by Perle Penfield who was working in South Dakota for that campaign. Penfield reported arranging her appearances “sometimes in theatres, often in churches. Her tour turned a snug sum into the campaign fund” [Forty-third Annual Report of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association given at the Convention held at Louisville, KY. October 19 to 25 inclusive (New York 1911), 161]. She was scheduled for other stops, but had to cut her tour short in July [Bad River News (Philip SD), July 21, 1910; Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 21, 1910, July 23, 1910].

She returned for a tour in 1914 that included chautauquas in Watertown and Canton, and an appearance in Yankton. On July 20, a parade of sixteen horsemen and fifty-three cars of suffragists went in procession through Huron to bring Wisconsin activist Fola LaFollette to speak at the Chautauqua auditorium. The procession included the mayor of Huron, Mamie Pyle, Alva E. Taylor, and Grace Richards. Her speech was on “Democracy of Woman Suffrage.” LaFollette had also gone on a tour through Iowa before that [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), July 17, 1914; Huron Daily Huronite (SD), July 3, 1914; Forest City Press (SD), July 15, 1914; Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 14, 1914; The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), July 16, 1914; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), July 17, 1914; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (SD), June 19, 1914, June 26, 1914; Letter to Miss Wilkinson from Kathryn Schuppert, July 11, 1914, #2021-06-09-0173, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, Box 6677, Folder 22, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].

*Dakota Farmers’ Leader* (Canton SD), June 19, 1914.

Lora S. LaMance (1857-1939) []

In July 1915, the W.C.T.U. sent Lora S. LaMance to speak in Custer at the Methodist Episcopal and Congregational churches. She planned to be in the Black Hills for two weeks. She returned in 1916, speaking at the same churches on August 25th [Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), July 17, 1915, August 12, 1916, August 19, 1916, and September 2, 1916].

On September 4, 1916, the suffrage committee in Philip hosted national W.C.T.U. lecturer Lora S. LaMance. She spoke for a women’s meeting at the house in the afternoon at 2:30pm, a street meeting from an auto at 7:15pm, and a public rally at the opera house in the evening at 8pm [Philip Weekly Review and Bad River News (SD), August 31, 1916]. Also: “Lora Sarah Nichols Lamance,” Findagrave.com.

Julia Lathrop (1858-1932) [New York]

Julia Lathrop, chair of the National Childrens’ Bureau, and Anna Oleson of Minneapolis spoke at the SD LWV convention on October 23-25, 1919 in Mitchell [Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 27, 1919, September 29, 1919; The Woman Citizen 4(19) (November 15, 1919), 487].

In October 1925, Lathrop returned to Mitchell to give the banquet keynote address for the state LWV convention [The Discerning Voter 1(3) (October 1925), 4].

M. Lena Morrow Lewis (1868-1950) [Illinois/California]

In the fall of 1898, M. Lena Morrow campaigned through the Black Hills, expecting to speak at twenty-one places. Morrow came to campaign in South Dakota with Julia Mills Dunn, as president of the Illinois state suffrage association, and Emmy C. Evald [Kimball Graphic (SD), October 14, 1898]. In October, she spoke at city hall in Deadwood, and in Hot Springs, SD at the city hall auditorium on one afternoon and at the State Soldier’s Home that evening [Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), October 7, 1898, October 14, 1898; Article about an Equal Suffrage Meeting, October 15, 1898, #2021-04-23-0047, H91-74, Box 6676, Folder 18, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – October 1898, Folder 4, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives]. The same month in Custer, she spoke at the courthouse. Reports on the talk in the Chronicle were anti-suffrage and refused to publish her objections to their report [Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), September 24, 1898; October 8, 1898; October 15, 1898; October 29, 1898]. At a talk in Sturgis, she was scheduled as a counterpoint to anti-suffrage speaker Elizabeth Crannell who had come to Sturgis [Nelson in Lahlum/Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box, 139-142]. In November 1898, Morrow came to Rapid City, speaking at the Presbyterian church and the Congregational church on back-to-back nights–“She is a fluent talker and an earnest worker and made votes for the amendment granting suffrage to women” [Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), November 4, 1898]. She also made requests to speak at political meetings held by the various parties [Topeka State Journal (KS), November 5, 1898]. Dunn and Morrow’s expenses were paid by the Illinois state suffrage association [Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, 599].

“… a good speaker, rapid in enunciation and clear and logical in argument. Her own ladylike deportment on the rostrum was one of the strongest arguments in favor of woman suffrage.”
Article about an Equal Suffrage Meeting, October 15, 1898, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives.

Lena Morrow Lewis, returned to South Dakota in the spring of 1909, then coming from California. She lectured at the courthouse in Sisseton on May 6 and 7, at the Methodist Episcopal church in Madison on May 11, and in Pierre on suffrage “from a socialist standpoint.” The Sisseton news item promoted: “ladies especially invited” and free admission, and that Lewis had “the reputation of being one of the best woman orators on the American platform” [Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), April 29, 1909; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), April 30, 1909; Madison Daily Leader (SD), May 10, 1909].

Mary A. Livermore (1820-1905) [Massachusetts]

Mary A. Livermore was scheduled to lecture at the Congregational church in Yankton on February 7, 1879, but cancelled. I would not normally include an event that did NOT happen, but found it interesting that the local paper printed that: “Mrs. Livermore will not come to Yankton other engagements preventing. It is reported that the sudden sickness of the distinguished female lecturer was caused by the news of the defeat of Capt. Miner’s woman suffrage bill.” [Daily Press & Dakotan (Yankton SD), February 4, 1879, February 6, 1879, and (quote) February 11, 1879]. Livermore was an officer of the American Woman Suffrage Association, a prominent lecturer nationally, and a historian – writing a book on women’s battlefield contributions during the Civil War and co-authoring a biographical encyclopedia of “leading American women” with Francis Willard [Daily Press & Dakotan (Yankton SD), September 13, 1876; Press and Daily Dakotaian (Yankton SD), November 5, 1887; Willard and Livermore, A Woman of the Century (1893)].

Maud L. McCreery (1883-1938) [Green Bay, Wisconsin]

In October 1916, Maud McCreery of Green Bay came to South Dakota and campaigned in Moody County. In Madison, spoke on suffrage on Egan Avenue & Fifth Street near the Dakota State Bank building — “Despite a breeze which was too chilly for comfort, a considerable number of men and women heard Mrs. McCreery’s address, given from an automobile drawn up to the curb line.” She also spoke to the Civic and Child Welfare Club in Madison and toured Lake County “making a couple of speeches a day in the smaller towns. Members of the local suffrage committee will accompany her.” They visited Ramona and Winfred at least. The Madison editor described her as “a small, young woman, who possesses a voice of sufficient capacity to be plainly heard by large street gatherings, and one that seems none the less for wear, having been used at open air meetings two or three times a day for the … speaking in the interests of the South Dakota Universal Franchise league. She said today that after eight weeks spent in seven counties of the state she is most sanguine. She told that a survey being taken is proving that between 85 and 90 per cent of the women of South Dakota, and related that in Egan, where she made a canvass last week, thirty-nine of forty-four women visited, went on record as being in favor of suffrage. Mrs. McCreery told that she found the women of South Dakota more interested in suffrage than were those of other states in which she had spoken” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 28, 1916, October 30, 1916, October 31, 1916, November 4, 1916; Des Moines Register (IA), November 27, 1916; Deutscher Herold (Sioux Falls SD), November 30, 1916].

Rev. J.T. McCrory [Pittsburg, Pennsylvania]

In July 1890, Rev. James T. McCrory of Pittsburg, a prohibition advocate, came to South Dakota to support the suffrage campaign. He spoke at least at the Davison County Courthouse, although there was not a large audience, and at Huron [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), June 21, 1890, p.194, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Mitchell Capital (SD), July 4, 1890; Dakota Ruralist, August 16, 1890, “Page 57 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

Catherine Waugh McCulloch (1862-1945) [Chicago, Illinois]

In June 1890, attorney Catherine Waugh McCulloch traveled in South Dakota with Helen Gougar for the SD campaign. McCulloch had just married Frank H. McCullough in Chicago (officiated by Anna Howard Shaw [listed below]), and the couple came to South Dakota together. They then planned to visit relatives and friends in Iowa and Nebraska before returning to Chicago [Dakota Ruralist, June 28, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), June 21, 1890, p.194, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

“Miss Waugh especially keeps in a very happy frame of mind. She thinks the organizer has given her the very best places in the State; each one seems to excel the last in intelligence and enthusiasm.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), June 21, 1890, p.194, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Her schedule (at least as planned) [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 31, 1890, p.172, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]:

June 2: Milbank
June 3: Twin Brooks
June 4: Waubay
June 5: Webster
June 6: Bristol
June 7-8: Andover
June 9: Groton
June 10: Doland
June 11: Frankfort
June 12: Aberdeen
June 13: Columbia
June 14: Westport
June 15: Frederick
June 16: Bath
June 17: Huffton
June 18: Britton
June 19: Spain
June 20: Langford
June 21-22: Newark
June 24: Mellette
June 25: Ashton
June 26: Northville
June 27: Hitchcock
June 28-29: Clark
June 30: Henry

In 1914, she came again to South Dakota on an extensive West River suffrage campaign tour, going through Pierre; Lead; Custer; Black Hawk and Rapid City in Pennington County; Nisland and Fruitdale in Butte County; and Piedmont and Sturgis in Meade County. In Lead, she was given a reception at the home of Mrs. M.L. Johnson, spoke that evening at the Methodist church, and spoke the next day at the Homestake Opera House where she spoke of suffrage working in Illinois [Woman’s West of the River Suffrage Number, Rapid City Daily Journal (SD), October 26, 1914; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), October 15, 1914, October 29, 1914; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), October 17, 1914, October 31, 1914; Lead Daily Call (SD), October 20, 1914, October 23, 1914; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), October 21, 1914; Lemmon Herald (SD), November 6, 1914 et al.; Jean McLeod Doughty, “The Suffrage Movement in Lawrence County,” in Some History of Lawrence County (Deadwood: Lawrence County Historical Society, 1981), 655].

Photograph of “Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch, Justice of the Peace of Evanston, Ill.,” National Woman Suffrage Press Bureau, Library of Congress;
Photograph of Catherine Waugh McCullough speaking from a car, 1912, and speaking in Sister Bay WI, 1912, Wisconsin Historical Society;
Catherine Waugh McCulloch collection 1909-1945, MSMcCu87, Richard J. Daley Library Special Collections and University Archives.
Photo of McCulloch in South Bend News-Times (IN), May 10, 1919.

McCulloch, representing the League of Women Voters committee on the unification of laws, returned to South Dakota to be a speaker at the SD LWV convention on October 24-25, 1919 in Mitchell [The Woman Citizen 4(19) (November 15, 1919), 487].

More: McCulloch’s Woman’s Wages. Rockford IL: Daily Gazette, 1880.

Maria S. McMahon (1871-1958) [Washington D.C.]

In 1918, Maria McMahon came from N.A.W.S.A. as field director to help organize the South Dakota campaign. She worked closely with state president Mamie Pyle, and she arranged for additional national organizers to come work the state by regions. She organized county committees in Turner and Lake Counties, and visited Canton, Vermillion, Mitchell, Gary, and Deadwood as well. McMahon also arranged for petition drives in Lake County [McMahon to Pyle, 1918?, RA12085-RA12087, McMahon, 1918?, RA12088, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, and McMahon to Weller, March 6, 1918, RD08106, correspondence 1918-03-01 to 1918-03-11, Pyle Papers USD; Madison Daily Leader (SD), February 12, 1918, February 14, 1918, February 16, 1918, March 12, 1918; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), February 28, 1918; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), February 28, 1918, p.4, p.8; Mitchell Capital (SD), March 7, 1918, April 11, 1918; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), April 2, 1918]. McMahon worked with Pyle and Clara Ueland of Minnesota on planning for a Mississippi Valley suffrage conference in Sioux Falls, though it ultimately never was held [Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association, Minnesota Historical Society, Manuscripts Collection; 308.B.15.9B, Box 3, Conventions, 1913-1919, Mississippi Valley Conferences, Folder 2]. When McMahon spoke at a YWCA meeting in Madison, “she presented suffrage as a war measure. The girls continued their work on war relief while she talked, as it is felt that this work is far too important to be discontinued even for one meeting” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), February 16, 1918].

*The Herald-Advance* (Milbank SD), May 31, 1918.

“I believe one of our very best means of spreading propaganda is just getting our message over at these big patriotic meetings.”
McMahon to Ueland, May 20, 1918, Mississippi Valley Conferences, Folder 2.

In the summer, when the S.D.U.F.L. arranged for Schools of Methods at several points around the state, intended to train local workers for the campaign, McMahon taught on organization, press, and publicity [Program, “School of methods,” South Dakota Universal Franchise League, June 1918, RA05030-RA05033, Box 7, Printed Materials, Pamphlets – South Dakota Universal Franchise League, Pyle Papers, USD; Saturday News (Watertown SD), May 30, 1918, June 6, 1918; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), May 31, 1918; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), June 9, 1918; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), June 15, 1918; The Woman Citizen 3 (July 20, 1918), 158 and (November 16, 1918), 508-509].

*The Woman Citizen* 3 (July 20, 1918), 148, 158

For the Fourth of July, Pyle and McMahon arranged for an airplane to fly over the park and distribute suffrage literature—“plane beautifully decorated, made a flight with suffrage pennants and streamers flying in the breeze, above 25,000 persons gathered on the grounds.” McMahon also made a speech at the park [The Woman Citizen 3 (July 20, 1918), 158].

In August, McMahon spoke at a meeting of the Minnehaha County Franchise League. The meeting reported on the county’s petition work, Mrs. T.J. White talked on NAWSA’s women’s overseas hospitals, and Belle Leavitt introduced Lola Levoy, a local Red Cross nurse who had just “been accepted for duty in France behind the lines in a gas hospital, which the French have turned over to the women’s oversea staff.” McMahon gave the main talk of the meeting; “she spoke of the work of the women’s committee of the national council of defense… [and] gave President Wilson great praise for the hearty endorsement he has given suffrage in the following words ‘The full and sincere democratic reconstruction of the world for which we are striving and which we are determined to bring about at any cost, will not have been complete or adequately attained until women are admitted to suffrage.'” [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), August 15, 1918].

“We are having a hard time to raise money, and need every ounce of energy we can muster for our campaign…
Our great difficulty is that we cannot get indoor audiences. The perpetual ‘business’ of women, and continuous patriotic and political rallies of men, render it almost impossible to hold any kind of indoor meeting….
We have now an excellent corps of workers, six organizers of the very best, besides myself who are here, there and everywhere.”
McMahon to Ueland, from Mitchell/Aberdeen SD, July 25, 1918, Mississippi Valley Conferences, Folder 2.

“It has always been hard to get people to come to a purely suffrage meeting, when there were not so many distractions, but now I am wondering if even Mrs. Catt will draw a very large audience…. It is difficult to raise money and extremely difficult to get any sort of work done and with every body tense, as every body is, over the war situation, there is very little heart for conferences or extra efforts of any kind.”
McMahon to Ueland, August 6, 1918, Mississippi Valley Conferences, Folder 2.

“We have really put on a worthwhile campaign, considering how few workers we have had and how little money. The South Dakota women are a very limp lot—with the exception of about half a dozen, the campaign has been run from the outside, but I believe it is going to pull through, in spite of our anti-alien complication.”
McMahon to Ueland, August 31, 1918, Mississippi Valley Conferences, Folder 2.

In September 1918, McMahon and Pidgeon went to the Milbank fair where the local women had arranged for an Amendment E booth. They “emphasized the necessity of Americanizing the vote this critical time by requiring voters to be citizens, and by enfranchising the patriotic women who wish to perform this additional service to their country” [The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), September 27, 1918].

In late October 1918, McMahon had a disagreement with several of the other organizers, particularly Stella Crossley and Gertrude Watkins. They went on a kind of informal strike, though Watkins eventually expressed regret over the disagreement [Pyle to Leavitt, November 3, 1918, RA11646-RA11647, Pyle to Whiting, November 3, 1918, RA11653, Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, Watkins to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7; Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD].

Then, McMahon’s son Percy passed away. She received the news while working in Bon Homme, Yankton, and Turner Counties, and she had to take a late-night handcar from Tyndall to the train station in Scotland in order to start her trip home to Falls Church and D.C. Later in November, she stayed with Carrie Chapman Catt in New York City and was the person to pin a star for South Dakota on Catt’s map of states with suffrage during the victory celebration at NAWSA headquarters [Belle Pellon? Leavitt to Pyle, November 1, 1918, RA11619, Pyle to McMahon, November 1, 1918, RA11621-RA11624, McMahon to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11685, Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, Pyle to Schuler, November 1, 1918, RA11625-RA11628, Pyle to Leavitt, November 3, 1918, RA11646-RA11647, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle to Hipple, November 8, 1918, RA11754, Pyle to Hipple, November 13, 1918, RD11820, and Pyle to McMahon, November 13, 1918, RD11821, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD].

“I suffered no ill effects from the ride in the hand car. In fact I did not realize I was on one. That whole awful trip passed like a night… I am thinking of you today. For your sake and for the sake of South Dakota, I hope you win. I am trying to arouse myself and an interest, but right now, I must confess it does not seem to me to matter whether women vote or do not, or whether any of the things over which we work and worry ever come to pass. When those one loves best go from us in a moment and we cannot ever see their faces again, what is the use of the struggle?”
McMahon to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11685, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle Papers USD.

From McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 508:

“No one who has not campaigned in a state like South Dakota can imagine the difficulties they faced—hard enough at any time—with tremendous distances, poor railroad service, and a large foreign population; in war time, with everyone’s attention focused on specific war activities, with all the money going to war investments, and an influenza epidemic sweeping the country, next to impossible.”

During petition drives, “we called our organizers ‘the grasshoppers’ during these drives, because they cleaned up a county in a day.”

“South Dakota will perhaps never realize how much she owes to Mrs. John L. Pyle, President of the Universal Franchise League, who gave herself absolutely to the winning of political freedom for South Dakota’s women. Shouldering the responsibility that others refused, she was at her desk from early in the morning often until 11 o’clock and later at night. Neither home cares nor illness nor anything else stood in the way of her complete service. The best there was in her she gave to the cause she loves and she has the gratitude of those for whom and with whom she worked.”

Anna Maley (1872-1918) [Chicago]

See especially: Anna A. Maley, “The Equal Suffrage Campaign in South Dakota,” The Progressive Woman 3(34) (March 1910), 10.

Anna Maley spoke in South Dakota in October 1910 at the courthouse in Madison on the state militia bill and suffrage — “Equal suffrage from a socialist standpoint will also be discussed. Something new and of special interest to women” — at the opera house in Vermillion, and at the courthouse in Sisseton [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 17, 1910; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 20, 1910; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), October 21, 1910].

Theresa S. Malkiel (1874-1949) [New York City]

On July 10, 1916, Theresa S. Malkiel, as chair of the Woman’s National Committee of the Socialist Party of America, spoke at the courthouse in Sisseton [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), July 7, 1916].

Helen Guthrie Miller (1861-1949) [St. Louis, Missouri]

As vice-president of NAWSA, Helen Guthrie Miller came to South Dakota in October 1916, speaking at twenty-nine points in Pierre, Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Vermillion, and Huron, including at Huron College. In Sioux Falls, “the heart of the enemy’s country” {I assume because of the brewing industry in Sioux Falls??}, she spoke at two picture shows, colleges, a women’s club meeting, and a Republican meeting. In Vermillion, she spoke at a picture show the day after anti-suffragists Lucy Price and Minnie Bronson had spoken there, as well as at the university and the Methodist church [Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), October 19, 1916; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), October 19, 1916, October 26, 1916; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 19, 1916; Des Moines Register (IA), November 27, 1916; Deutscher Herold (Sioux Falls SD), November 30, 1916; Nettie Rogers Shuler, ed., The hand book of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and proceedings of the Forty-ninth Annual Convention, held at Washington, D.C., December 12-15, inclusive, 1917 (New York: NAWSA, 1917), 72].

More: Photograph, “Helen Guthrie Miller,” State Historical Society of Missouri; “Helen Guthrie Miller,” Findagrave.com.

Josephine Miller (1888-1972) [Little Rock, Arkansas]

Josephine Miller came to South Dakota as a NAWSA organizer in the 1918 campaign. She was experienced with Red Cross work in France and was described by chair of organization Maria McMahon as having “personal charm and unflagging energy” [Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), August 24, 1918; McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509]. In August, she went to Flandreau to work with Gertrude Watkins and Liba Peshakova to canvass and organize in Moody County [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 19, 1918]. In September, she was in Scotland with Stella Crossley to speak on the Amendment [The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), September 5, 1918]. She reportedly found the experience to be educational [Pat Ramsey, Biography of Josephine Miller, 1888-1972, Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920].

“We were given cordial receptions at each city and at a number of places our initial meeting was largely attended. The second and third meetings, however, always were more largely attended. Some of the leagues organized already have more than doubled the charter membership.”
Ramsey, Biography of Josephine Miller, quoting Daily Arkansas Gazette.

Florence Monahan (1888-1973) [Minneapolis, Minnesota]

Florence Monahan came from Minneapolis to Sisseton to organize Roberts County for suffrage, appearing in Rosholt, New Effington, Claire City, Peever, Wilmot, Summit, Corona, Ortley, and White Rock [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), August 18, 1916, September 1, 1916]. She also spoke in Milbank [The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), August 25, 1916].

Rev. Henrietta G. Moore () [Ohio]

In October 1897, Henrietta Moore, Laura Johns, and Carrie Chapman Catt, with Laura Gregg and Mary Hay, were speakers at state conventions held in Sioux Falls, Vermillion, Elk Point, Milbank, Madison, Brookings, Aberdeen, Howard, and Parker [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 14, 1897, pg1; pg5; October 21, 1897; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), October 15, 1897; Semi-Weekly Register (Brookings SD), October 16, 1897, October 27, 1897; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), November 5, 1897; Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 6, 1897, November 10, 1897; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), November 11, 1897; Mitchell Capital (SD), November 12, 1897, pg. 3, pg. 7, November 19, 1897; Saint Paul Globe (MN), November 17, 1897; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), November 11, 1897, November 18, 1897, November 25, 1897; Letter to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt from Katharine E. Dopp, December 24, 1897, #2021-05-06-0061, Box 6676, Folder 24, WCTU SD Equal Suffrage Association Records – 1898 Campaign, Letter to Clare M. Williams from W.S. Shepherd, August 1898, #2021-04-12-0060 to -0075, Box 6676, Folder 5; Box 6676, Folder 9, WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – August 1898, Folder 5; WCTU & Suffrage Correspondence – August 1898, Folder 1, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives; Anthony/Harper, History of Woman Suffrage vol. 4, 558-559; Old Courthouse Museum, Sioux Falls, The Bottle and the Ballot exhibit].

Julia B. Nelson (1842-1914) [Red Wing, Minnesota]
More: Frederick L. Johnson, “Nelson, Julia Bullard (1842–1914),” MNopedia (Last modified: August 5, 2019).

As vice-president of the Minnesota W.C.T.U., Julia B. Nelson spent six months in South Dakota during the 1890 campaign, with $400 pledged from Minnesota to fund her work. She organized Marshall County in April, and had stops at the Methodist Episcopal church in Milbank in April, at the M.E. church in Big Stone City, at the M.E. church in Kimball in June [The Herald (Big Stone City SD), April 1, 1890, page 4, page 8; The Advance (Milbank SD), April 4, 1890; Kimball Graphic (SD), June 6, 1890; The Union Signal, “Page 36 : Entire Page,” and Dakota Ruralist, June 28, 1890, “Page 42 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10 Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), March 1, 1890, p.72, April 12, 1890, p.120, May 10, 1890, p.152, June 21, 1890, p.194, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

“Mrs. Julia B. Nelson, of Red Wing, Minn., is also at work in the northern tier of counties. Not very full reports of her work have yet been received at this office, but enough has reached us to guarantee the fact that she is doing excellent service. She has canvassed Grant County, and is now working in Day County. Next week she will work in Marshall County.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), April 19, 1890, p.124, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

A local suffrage club was organized in Kimball after her speech [Kimball Graphic (SD), June 6, 1890]. In June, she did a schoolhouse tour at points in Davison County and organized local clubs at Perry, Badger, and Lisbon Townships [Mitchell Capital (SD), June 6, 1890, June 20, 1890].

For July 4th, Nelson spoke at Wessington Springs “to large crowds. Among them were about 200 Indians who came from their reservation forty miles distant to attend the celebration” [Woman’s Tribune, August 16, “Page 48 : Letter from Mrs. DeVoe,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10]. In the following days, she also visited four of the surrounding rural schoolhouses, including Dale Township [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), July 4, 1890, July 25, 1890]. She then attended and spoke at the July 1890 state suffrage convention in Huron, and served on its committees on resolutions, organization, and plan of work [Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 10, 1890; The Dakota Ruralist, July 19, 1890, “Page 44 : Entire Page,” and “Page 45 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

” In Amherst (30 miles northeast of Aberdeen), a large audience bad gathered to bear Mrs. Nelson speak at 7:30 P.M. Her train was three hours late, but the people waited patiently, prompting her to write: ‘The sight of that brave audience was enough to revive the weariest traveler.'”
— Julia Wiech Lief, “A Woman of Purpose: Julia B. Nelson,” Minnesota History 47(8) (Winter 1981), 302-314.

In August, Nelson toured in Lake County, with a schedule that included Wentworth, Prospect, Franklin Twp., Orland Twp., Hermon Twp., Concord Twp., Wayne Twp., Badens Twp., Leroy Twp., and the Thomas school house [Dakota Ruralist, August 16, 1890, “Page 57 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10].

She also attended the state suffrage convention held in Mitchell in August 1890, where she gave an original poem “in Norwegian brogue”, spoke from the platform on Tuesday afternoon, and reported on her field work in Grant, Edmunds, Davison, Faulk, Moody, and other counties [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 8, 1890; Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 12, 1890, September 19, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 48 : Entire Page,” “Page 49 : Entire Page,” and “Page 50 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

Nelson to the convention in her field work report — “I discovered the woman who didn’t want to vote—because she believes woman’s place is at home. She was visiting in Moody County when I saw her; she was going from there to Sioux Falls to spend a couple of weeks and then to Minneapolis to spend a month. [Laughter.]”
“Page 50 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10.

In the fall of 1890, Nelson spoke on suffrage in Jerauld, Union, Hutchinson, Yankton, Lincoln, and Minnehaha Counties and west to Pierre [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 29, 1890; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 8, 1890; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), October 17, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 27, 1890, p.308, and October 11, 1890, p.324, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Letter to Emma S. DeVoe from Louis N. Crill Jr., October 8, 1890, #2021-01-20-0023, and Letter to Will F. Bailey from Crill, October 9, 1890, #2021-01-20-0200, Box 6674, Folder 1, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: A-C, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

Part of her schedule [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 25, 1890, p.340, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]:

Hitchcock, October 28
Allen Township, October 29
Huron, October 30
Highmore, October 31

Germans-from-Russia communities in Hutchinson Counties were hostile. She once went fourteen miles to Jamesville (an area of Mennonite Germans-from-Russia) in a buggy but was turned away without leaving it. She had slightly better luck with Norwegians at Norway township; her experience married to Norwegian immigrant, Ole Nelson, gave her an “in” with Norwegian communities. Nelson believed that touring rural school districts was the best way to reach foreign farmers — “she explained that their lack of support was neither a permanent cultural hallmark nor an unchangeable political stance. She argued that when she could gather an audience, she made converts” [Egge, “Ethnicity and Woman Suffrage,” in Lahlum and Rozum, Equality at the Ballot Box, 225].

Anna Dickie Oleson (1885-1971) [Minneapolis, Minnesota]

Anna D. Oleson was a guest speaker at a Minnehaha County franchise league meeting in February 1919, at the fourth district Federation of Women’s Clubs meeting held in Madison in May 1919, and at the South Dakota League of Women Voters’ inaugural state conference held in Mitchell in October 1919 [Saturday News (Watertown SD), February 6, 1919; The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), May 15, 1919; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), September 17, 1919; Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 27, 1919, September 29, 1919].

Mabeth Hurd Paige (1870-1961) [Minneapolis, Minnesota]

In March 1921, the South Dakota League of Women Voters held their state convention at the Cataract Hotel in Sioux Falls, with meetings held in their ballroom. The program included Mrs. James Paige of Minneapolis (regional director) [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), March 11, 1921].

Maud Wood Park (1871-1855)

On February 17, 1922, the Minnehaha League of Women Voters held a reception and banquet at the Cataract Hotel for the visit of national LWV president, Maud Wood Park [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), February 17, 1922, February 18, 1922].

Mrs. John R. Parkes [Minneapolis, Minnesota]

Parkes, of the national League of Women Voters, helped plan the program for and was scheduled to speak at the South Dakota LWV conventions in 1924 and 1926 [Weekly Pioneer-Times (Deadwood, SD), November 19, 1924; The Discerning Voter 2(2) (September-October 1926), 4].

Dr. E.L. Parks [Atlanta, Georgia]

In 1895, the Lake Madison Chautauqua had an Equal Suffrage Day on July 16th. John and Alice Pickler appeared on the platform, and Alice led the meeting. Dr. E.L. Parks of Atlanta, Georgia, also appeared as a speaker — “Dr. Parks told of the hold the question was beginning to take on the leading ladies of the south.” [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), June 20, 1895].

Perle Penfield (Newell) (1881-1937) [Texas]

“In 1908 Penfield herself was recruited to work as a national field secretary, organizer, and speaker for the National American Woman Suffrage Association by president Anna Howard Shaw. In this position, Penfield traveled across the country to form suffrage clubs and on one occasion worked in six different states in six months; she held parlor meetings, addressed churches and schools, and set up booths at state fairs” [Kassie Dixon, “Newell, Perle Potter Penfield.” Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, 2017].

In November 1908, Anna Howard Shaw went on a speaking tour in South Dakota that was organized by Perle Penfield [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 792].

In September 1909, Penfield came to South Dakota to help prepare the state for the campaign and plan the November convention in Sioux Falls. Her early work also included working with Cicely Tinsley of Sioux Falls for Woman’s Day at the State Fair in Huron where she made an address on “Women and Industry,” helping organize a campaign booth afterwards for the Corn Palace festival in Mitchell, and going on to speak at the state meeting of the Federation of Women’s Clubs. In the towns she visited that fall, “sentiment seemed indifferent and sleeping” [Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 146-147].

In November 1909, the state suffrage convention was held in Sioux Falls. It opened at the First Methodist Episcopal Church and a reception was held in the parlors of the Cataract Hotel. Perle Penfield of Texas was one of several out-of-state speakers to address the convention. She spoke on “Woman as a Citizen”. She then stayed in South Dakota for the year as one of the campaign’s principal field workers. [Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 5, 1909; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 3, 1909, November 4, 1909, November 5, 1909, pg 1, pg 10 (quotes from her speech), November 6, 1909; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909; Mobridge News (SD), November 12, 1909; Norfolk Weekly News-Journal (NE), November 5, 1909; Forty-second annual report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York, 1910), 143, 172].

In 1909-1910, major field workers included Perle Penfield, Rose Bower, and Anna Ursin. Penfield stayed in South Dakota for much of the year, and campaigned at the state fair in 1909 and 1910, suffrage meetings in Sioux Falls in October and November (the state convention) of 1909, Vermillion and Yankton in December 1909; Madison, Howard, and Salem in January 1910; Arlington and Volga with Gertrude Walker in March; Sisseton and Aberdeen in April; Rapid City in July, and Huron in October-November. She reported visiting 40-50 towns and covered 2,500 miles. Her stop in Vermillion included organizing a student & faculty suffrage league at the university for the National College League of Equal Suffrage [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 18, 1909, January 11, 1910; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), December 2, 1909, December 9, 1909; The Volante (Vermillion SD), December 7, 1909; December 14, 1909; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), December 9, 1909; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), December 17, 1909; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), December 16, 1909, February 3, 1910; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909, April 1, 1910; Brookings Register (SD), March 3, 1910; Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), July 22, 1910; Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), September 22, 1910; Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08429, Pyle Papers USD; The Industrial-Normal Exponent [NSU] (April 1910), 15; Forty-third Annual Report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York 1911), 160–162; Anna A. Mally, “The Equal Suffrage Campaign in South Dakota,” The Progressive Woman 3(34) (March 1910), 10].

Her goal was to organize central committees in each county, one women’s committee and one for men, the latter of whom were ” left to work in their own way” [Forty-second annual report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York, 1910), 148; Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08439, Pyle Papers, USD].

Penfield “has been actively engaged since the state organization was effected, forming campaign sub-committees in various localities of the state, and has been very successful in her work.”
Forty-second annual report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York, 1910), 145.

Penfield is “most successful in organizing, working with unflagging zeal in all kinds of weather”
Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08438, Pyle Papers, USD.

“… meetings are arranged in advance, but on the whole the organizer, even where entertainment is furnished, has to make all arrangements for meetings and many calls beside. Addresses have been made at clubs, Church services, college and high school chapel exercises, in court houses, offices, halls and homes.”
“South Dakota towns do no offer transportation facilities and this means several miles walking a day; pleasant in good weather, but variously difficult during the winter. There were experiences, amusing and otherwise, with drifts, drives and trains. Today, March 28, for the first time in about three months, the train taken was on time.”
“An effort is at present being made to get the men to combine into a state wide league. It has not advanced beyond the first stage of talking, and prophecies would be hazardous.”
Forty-second annual report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York, 1910), 148.

“Field work in a South Dakota winter is strenuous…. Waiting in country stations night after night to catch a train, and then rising before light to catch another. Driving through storms with icicles on brows and lashes, wading through snow drifts with the mercury vainly reaching upward toward zero; holding meetings in all sorts of places, school houses, offices, court houses and churches.” – Perle Penfield
Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08427, Pyle Papers USD

See Penfield’s reports of her work: As of April 1910 in Forty-second annual report N.A.W.S.A. (New York, 1910), 146-149, and in October 1911 in Forty-third Annual Report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York 1911), 160–162.

In the late spring and summer of 1910, the board of the state campaign had a leadership crisis, with disagreements between Tinsley as headquarters secretary, the “Committee of Five” that headed the board, and field workers including Penfield. Tinsley resigned in May as did several of the leaders in Sioux Falls. Penfield went to Sioux Falls to fill in at headquarters temporarily, but eventually Minnie Sheldon was hired to replace Tinsley. Penfield stayed in the state and continued to organize. In September 1910, she worked the state fair, but with the Beadle County E.S.A. at their booth in the Beadle County Building, apart from the S.D.E.S.A.’s booth in the Women’s Building. After the fair, she stayed in Huron and worked with their suffragists to campaign around the county, which was “most thoroughly covered by an automobile campaign. The cars left Huron every afternoon carrying speakers and entertainers, and meetings were held in every town and nearly every schoolhouse in the county.” NAWSA president Anna Howard Shaw supported Penfield and her work in Huron [Campbell to Breeden, RD06668, correspondence 1910-05, Breeden papers USD; Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 7, 1910; Saturday News (Watertown SD), July 15, 1910; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 12, 1910, p.200, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Forty-third Annual Report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York 1911), 160–162].

Photograph, on a poster for a Penfield lecture, digital collections of the University of South Dakota, Vermillion.

Mrs. L.B. Perry [Minnesota]

During the 1898 campaign, Mrs L.B. Perry of Minnesota had a suffrage campaign schedule through Grant County of evening meetings at:
[The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), October 21, 1898; October 28, 1898].

October 24: Alban M.E. church
October 25: Vernon school No. 2
October 26: Revillo
October 27: Georgia school No. 2
October 28: Albee
October 29: Stockholm school No. 3
October 30: Twin Brooks Village
October 31: Marvin
November 1: Summit
November 2: Mazeppa school No. 2
November 3: Farmington school No 2
November 4: Blooming Valley school No 6
November 5: Grant Center, Beardsley school

Liba Peshakova () [New York]

Liba Peshakova came to South Dakota as a national organizer for the 1918 campaign. Maria McMahon, who chaired the field work, described her as “a sort of wizard when it came to money-raising and petition work” [McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509]. In Madison, Stadie, Watkins, Peshakova, and Pidgeon led canvassing work—“three auto loads of ladies comprise the committees in charge of the drive.” They also held open-air addresses downtown where “an interested crowd of citizens, which included many women and a large farmer contingent, gathered at the corner of Egan avenue and Center street Saturday evening to listen to addresses on the citizenship bill and the suffrage amendment.” Peshakova spoke on women and war work [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 15, 1918, August 17, 1918, August 19, 1918]. After Madison, she went to Lake Preston and, with Watkins and Miller, to Flandreau [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 19, 1918].

RD05026, Liba Peshakova biography, Pyle papers USD.

Near the end of the campaign, Crossley, Watkins, and Peshakova came into conflict with Maria McMahon and went on something of a strike. At the time Peshakova was in Brookings, and went to Mitchell with Watkins. Crossley then resigned, though Watkins and Peshakova did continue some work in the final days. Peshakova went to Hanson County and visited Plankinton as well. Watkins had been influential in initially recruiting her to come from Chicago to work in South Dakota. Correspondence from the Pyle Papers at USD-Vermillion regarding the conflict:

Pyle to McMahon, November 1, 1918, RA11621-RA11624, McMahon to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11685, and Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Schuler, November 1, 1918, RA11625-RA11628, and Pyle to Shuler, November 2, 1918, RA11640-RA11642, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Peshakova and Watkins “are pouting over at Mitchell.” Pyle to Rewman, November 2, 1918, RA11638, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Stadie to Pyle, November 1, 1918, RA11630, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Ghrist, November 2, 1918, RA11637, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Leavitt, November 3, 1918, RA11646-RA11647, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, and Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Peshakova to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11689, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“all they had to say was that they thought Mrs. McMahon and Mrs. Pyle had been very unappreciative and that Mrs. McMahon had nagged them and had not been kind… but I thought it was a dreadful thing for Miss Watkins to have proposed to withdraw the organizers from the state.” Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, and Pyle to Catt, November 12, 1918, RA11801, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
McMahon to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11781, and Pyle to McMahon, November 12, 1918, RA11807, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Watkins to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Watkins to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“[I] could not find it in my heart to do other than stand by Gertrude…– I fear I bungled horribly… I realized that Stella was entirely in the wrong… I want you to know, Mrs. Pyle, that I heartily enjoyed working under your direction, and am so happy that the state carried—happy for you and happy for Gertrude, for I assure you that no one would have felt more keenly distressed than Gertrude, had Amendment E failed to carry.” Peshakova to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11798, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Telegraphed on election day to tell Pyle that she had been in Hanson County for two days and was going to Plankinton, but did not send any follow-up with funds raised or an invoice for her expenses. Pyle to McMahon, November 13, 1918, RD11821, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Catt to Pyle, December 2, 1918, RA12008 and RA12009, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
McMahon to Pyle, December 6, RA12026-RA12034, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
Watkins and Peshakova “expressed sincere regrets over the whole affair and their part in it,” Pyle to Stevens, December 27, 1918, RA12071-RA12073, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December

Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon (1890-1979) [Virginia]

Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon was the first to arrive to assist organizer Maria McMahon for the 1918 campaign and held enlist county-level committees. McMahon then assigned her to District 1 from Watertown, and Pidgeon took up residence in the Kampeska Hotel there [McMahon, 1918?, RA12088, and Bird to Pyle, December 20, 1918, RA12055, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, Pyle Papers USD; Saturday News (Watertown SD), April 4, 1918, May 30, 1918; McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509]. She did organizing work in Milbank [The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), February 1, 1918, February 8, 1918]. In June 1918, a School of Methods was organized by Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon (Quaker from Virginia) and held in Watertown, and then taken to Aberdeen, Huron, Pierre, Deadwood, Mitchell and Sioux Falls [The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), May 31, 1918].

“Since war began women realize that suffrage, always a right, has now become a necessary duty, to support the battle for democracy which is being fought by our men in the trenches, women must have votes.”
The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), February 8, 1918.

In July, May Ghrist of Miller with organizers Pidgeon, Crossley, and Stadie did a lecture tour and petition drive in Roberts County [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), July 12, 1918]. In Madison, Stadie, Watkins, Peshakova, and Pidgeon led canvassing work—“three auto loads of ladies comprise the committees in charge of the drive.” They also held open-air addresses downtown where “an interested crowd of citizens, which included many women and a large farmer contingent, gathered at the corner of Egan avenue and Center street Saturday evening to listen to addresses on the citizenship bill and the suffrage amendment.” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 15, 1918, August 17, 1918, August 19, 1918].

Stevens and Pidgeon went to Huron at the end of the campaign to be with Pyle for the election returns [Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, and Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle Papers USD].

Pidgeon Papers at Swarthmore, overview.
Oral History Interview at University of Virginia, catalog record.
Photograph in 1913 Swarthmore College yearbook, Halcyon, on archive.org.

*Saturday News* (Watertown SD), May 16, 1918.

Jane Pincus (-1979) [Albany, New York]

In October 1917, Mabel Vernon, secretary of the National Women’s Party (NWP), and Jane Pincus, NWP organizer, came to South Dakota in a tour of the region. They met with supporters at a tea at the home of Myra Weller in Mitchell, with Mrs. J.D. Stemler in Plankinton, and on October 31st met with Hattie E. Fellows and the other state leaders in Sioux Falls with a lunch at the Cataract Hotel and tea/meeting at the Quaker Tea Room. The tables were decorated with yellow chrysanthemums and the colors purple, gold, and white [Argus Leader (Sioux Falls SD), November 1, 1917; Mitchell Capital (SD), November 1, 1917, pg. 4, pg. 5, November 8, 1917; The Suffragist 5(94) (November 10, 1917), 8; Grand Forks Herald (ND), October 9, 1917].

Photo of Jane Pincus from Library of Congress.

Jeanette Rankin (1880-1973) [Montana]

In February 1914, Jeanette Rankin wrote to M. Jean Wilkinson with advice for dealing with anti-suffragist Minnie Bronson and a response of ‘maybe’ to the invitation to write for the South Dakota Messenger [Letter to Miss Wilkinson from Jeannette Rankin, February 23, 1914, #2021-06-09-0063, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

Nell Richardson () [New York]

In the summer of 1916, Alice Snitzer Burke and Nell Richardson embarked on a national auto tour for women’s suffrage in “a little yellow car, called ‘The Golden Flier’… they are the first women to make the circuit of the United States by automobile and their tour is the biggest suffrage demonstration ever undertaken” In August, they passed through South Dakota [Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 25, 1916, August 17, 1916].

“Mrs. Burke and Miss Richardson speak from their car—which is bright yellow on the exterior, lined with white leather, and is equipped with a fireless cooker, a baby typewriter, tools with which Miss Richardson does the repairing ‘without getting dirty,’ she says: a small hand sewing machine and the wardrobe necessary for its occupants for the trip, as well as suffrage literature and pennants. The car is kept in repair by its manufacturer, and it is lighted with four yellow moons of electricity swung on its four corners and fed from the car’s storage batteries.”
Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 25, 1916.

Charles Edward Russell (1860-1941) [New York]

As a speaker for the 1914 Chautauqua at Lake Madison, M. Jean Wilkinson reported that Russell supported suffrage in his talks. At the time, he was editor of Pearson’s Magazine [Letter to Mrs. Rardin from M. Jean Wilkinson, July 1, 1914, #2021-06-09-0082, Letter to Mrs. Safford, June 30, 1914, #2021-06-09-0177, and Letter to Miss Rankin, July 3, 1914, #2021-06-09-0075, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

Prince A. Sawyer (1847-1912) [Sioux City, Iowa]

P.A. Sawyer, an attorney and former state legislator from Sioux City, spoke on equal suffrage at the county W.C.T.U. convention held in August 1898 at the Congregational church in Meckling [Vermillion Plain Talk (SD) , August 12th, 1898, September 2, 1898; “Prince Albert Sawyer,” The Iowa Legislature (has photo); “Prince Albert Sawyer,” Findagrave.com].

Lella M. Sewall () [Brookline, Massachusetts]

For the National WCTU Flower Mission Department, Sewall sent Alice Pickler a donation following Anna Simmons “Foot of Dimes” appeal [Letter to Mrs. Alice M.A. Pickler from Lella M. Sewall, July 25, 1914, #2021-06-09-0174, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD Digital Archives].

Rev. Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919) [Michigan/Pennsylvania]

See also: Trisha Franzen, Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 67-71.

Anna Howard Shaw was “star speaker” of the 1890 South Dakota campaign [Saturday News (Watertown SD), November 14, 1918]. She spoke in larger cities in the spring of 1890, intending to return again in August. A biography of Anthony noted that Anthony “had to map out Dr. Shaw’s route herself and send her into the field with scarcely any advertisement” when state workers failed to make arrangements [The Union Signal, “Page 36 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 114].

She spoke in Mitchell on April 16 at the courthouse, Woonsocket on April 17, at the opera house in Huron on April 21, in Pierre at the rink hall on April 23, at the opera house in Miller on April 24, the opera house in Brookings on April 26-27, at the Baptist church and opera house in Madison, at the courthouse in Highmore, and in Vermillion, Yankton, Sioux Falls, Canton, Parker, and Howard [Mitchell Capital (SD), April 11, 1890, April 18, 1890; Madison Daily Leader (SD), April 19, 1890, pg. 2, pg. 3, April 21, 1890, April 25, 1890, May 5, 1890; Hand County Press (Miller SD), April 17, 1890, April 24, 1890, May 1, 1890; Brookings County Sentinel (SD), April 11, 1890; April 18, 1890, April 25, 1890; May 2, 1890; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), April 25, 1890; The Dakota Ruralist, April 19, 1890 in “Page 28 : [news clipping: Emma Smith DeVoe shows skill],” Pierre Daily Free Press (SD), April 21, 1890, “Page 30 : Equal Suffrage,” Pierre Signal (SD), April 25, 1890, “Page 30 : Equal Suffrage Meetings,” Highmore Herald (SD), April 26, 1890, “Page 30 : [news clipping: Emma Smith DeVoe in Highmore],” The Woman’s Tribune (Beatrice NE), May 10, 1890, “Page 33 : Entire Page,” and The Appeal (Aberdeen SD), April 25, 1890 and Woman’s Journal (Boston), May 3, 1890, “Page 35 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10]. In Madison, her crowd at the opera house reportedly numbered about 500 people and churches in the city cancelled their services/meetings for the event [Madison Daily Leader (SD), April 21, 1890]. At Highmore, “farmers with their wives came as far as fifteen miles to hear her,” and she and Emma DeVoe stayed with Philena Johnson [Madison Daily Leader (SD), April 25, 1890]. At the opera house in Huron, reports were that her speech was “a magnificent lecture” and that “the Opera House was well filled with the best people of Huron to listen to one of the finest lectures ever delivered in our city. Miss Shaw’s arguments are unanswerable, and her wit and incisiveness were vociferously applauded. During the entire lecture the attention was close and anxious, and at times the intense silence of that vast audience was wonderful” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 3, 1890, p.138, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

Report on Shaw’s talk at the courthouse in Mitchell on April 16 —
“The speaker paid a high tribute to the ‘wild and woolly west,’ where especially in South Dakota the soil that we tread and the air that we breathe developes[sic] broadness and liberality. ‘But’ said she, ‘men, remember you did not all come to Dakota alone.’ Then she spoke of the fortitude of the women who, with their children in so many cases, have endured the solitude of the claim while the husband was away at work, also the influence of the women on the character of the new state.”
That foreigners “who come to this country in swarms are immediately enfranchised as voters… This is an outrage on the womanhood of America.”
That men say women should be in their sphere, but crowded out women from their traditional occupations when the wages got high “Positions that pay $1.50 per week are classed in woman’s sphere, no matter what kind of work it is.”
Mitchell Capital (SD), April 18, 1890.

“We are especially happy in being able to have Rev. Anna H. Shaw, the National-American lecturer, with us during the last three weeks of this month. Her dates are all made, and she is now filling them to the great delight of all who hear her… Yours for victory, M. Barker, Sec’y So. Dakota E. S. A.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), April 19, 1890, p.124, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

“Rev. Anna H. Shaw was invited to address the students of the Methodist University at Mitchell, So. Dak., on April 17. All but three of the students wore the yellow ribbon when she left. Miss Shaw also addressed the Presbytery, which was in session. She is speaking every day, sometimes four times a day, and with excellent results.”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), April 26, 1890, p.129, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

Reverend Anna Shaw had to leave the South Dakota campaign field later in April when called to Michigan for appearances there. She returned as a scheduled speaker for the SD suffrage convention held in Mitchell in August 1890. She gave the opening response for NAWSA to the city’s welcoming address by Rev. Adkinson, “made a witty collection speech” on Monday evening, and gave an address on Tuesday evening on “Woman Suffrage, Essential to a True Republic” [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 15, 1890, September 5, 1890; “Page 31 : Program from 1890 South Dakota Equal Suffrage Mass Convention,” “Page 49 : Entire Page,” “Page 50 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), May 10, 1890, p.152, and August 16, 1890, p.261, September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

At the time of the convention, Shaw preached in the Methodist church in Mitchell [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890, Image 10].

Shaw is “undoubtedly the ‘Queen of the platform’ in South Dakota”
Wessington Springs Herald (SD), September 19, 1890.

“the oratorical success of the convention… received with a tempest of enthusiastic appreciation”
Hot Springs Star (SD), October 3, 1890.

The suffragists who stayed in Mitchell after the 1890 state suffrage convention and approached the state Republican party convention were initially denied seats, but eventually ten were found at the back of the hall. Anthony and Shaw were also only given permission to speak at the Republican convention during the recess, after the general meeting had adjourned to await committee reports. Apparently about two-thirds of the attendees remained to hear from Shaw as well as Olympia Brown, Emma S. DeVoe, Susan B. Anthony, and Alice M.A. Pickler. The Republicans did not pass a suffrage platform [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890; Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), August 29, 1890; Hot Springs Star (SD), September 5, 1890; Wittmayer, “The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign,” 222].

Henry B. Blackwell — “… 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. It was entirely impromptu, but easy, graceful, witty, and intensely earnest, admirable in matter and manner. It was received with a tempest of enthusiastic appreciation. At the close of her twenty minutes, if a resolution for equal suffrage could have been presented to the convention, it would probably have been carried by acclamation…”
The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

After the convention, Shaw’s schedule included stops through Beadle County in Iroquois, Cavour, Huron, Wessington, Wolsey, and Hitchcock between August 14 and August 20. In Cavour, she stayed with Mary Fisher [Dakota Ruralist, August 16, 1890, “Page 57 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Letter from Mary E. Fisher to Mrs. Wardall, August 14, 1890, #2021-01-22-0012, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: D-G, Box 6674, Folder 2, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].

In September 1890, Anna Howard Shaw spoke “to a fair-sized audience at Smith’s opera-house” in Kimball. The anti-suffrage editor of the Kimball Graphic described the address: “Miss Shaw is a very fluent talker–like her sex, for that matter–but differs from some of them in that she generally says something worth hearing. She is probably the most fluent lady speaker who ever appeared before a Kimball audience, and it is a pity she shouldn’t have a better theme to expend her talent on than woman suffrage” [Kimball Graphic (SD), September 5, 1890].

In September 1890, Shaw gave an address at Bedford Hall and after the racing events at the Lincoln County Agricultural Association’s fairgrounds in Canton–“Mrs. Shaw is one of the strongest speakers on this subject before the American people and all should make it a point to hear her.” Her half-hour talk included pointed comments on the native men seated at the Republican convention and opposition from Germans from Russia. Historian Paula Nelson wrote that Shaw “castigated the German-Russians for coming to the United States to escape oppression but oppressing women once they arrived” [Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), September 5, 1890, September 12, 1890; Daily Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), September 11, 1890, September 12, 1890; Nelson in Lauck et al., 139].

She was a speaker for the Woman’s Day program of the state fair in Aberdeen that DeVoe arranged for September 17th. The local paper reported that her loud voice fared better than other speakers’ with the noisy fair crowds, and Henry Blackwell reported that “the closing speech by Miss Shaw [was] an effective and brilliant appeal, which captivated her audience” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 16, 1890, September 3, 1890, September 17, 1890; “Page 47 : Entire Page,” Daily News (Aberdeen SD), September 18, 1890, “Page 50 : Entire Page,” and Aberdeen Daily News (SD), September 17, 1890, “Page 52 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 18, 1890, p.332, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

She also spoke with Susan Fessenden of Boston for the W.C.T.U. convention in Madison that month [Madison Daily Leader (SD), September 22, 1890].

Stops at the end of September 1890 [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 27, 1890, p.308, and October 11, 1890, p.324, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

Sioux Falls Sep 27-28
Montrose Sep 29
Salem Sep 30
Mellette Oct 11
Northville Oct 12
Aberdeen Oct 13
Britton Oct 14
Webster Oct 15, at opera house, arrangements reported by Irene Adams [Letter to Mrs. Wardall from Irene G. Adams, September 24, 1890, #2021-01-20-0038, WCTU Suffrage Correspondence 1890: A-C, Box 6674, Folder 1, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives, Pierre].
Watertown Oct 16

In October-November 1890, in the final days of the campaign, Susan B. Anthony and Anna Howard Shaw went to the western counties–speaking in Sioux City on the way. In the Hills, they spoke in Buffalo Gap, Hermosa, Hot Springs, Hill City, Custer, Rapid City, Postville, Sturgis, Whitewood, Minnesela, Spearfish, Lead, Deadwood, and Central City [Madison Daily Leader (SD), October 21, 1890; The Plain Dealer (Whitewood SD), May 17, 1890, “Page 35 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Hot Springs Star (SD), October 10, 1890, October 24, 1890; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), October 18, 1890; November 1, 1890; Sturgis Advertiser (SD), October 23, 1890, October 30, 1890; Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), October 23, 1890, October 30, 1890; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), November 2, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), October 11, 1890, p.324, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

It was reported in the Rapid City Black Hills Union that the Sunday evening Library Hall rally “was the largest that we have ever attended in this city… Rev. Anna Shaw is a very fluent and able speaker and would surely grace any pulpit. Throughout her disclosure she plainly remembered the day and abstained from those witticisms which add much to her power as a lecturer” [Black Hills Union (Rapid City SD), October 30, 1890].

“More than once the speakers slept in sod houses, where the only fuel for preparing the meals consisted of ‘buffalo chips.’ Sometimes they drove twenty miles between afternoon and evening meetings, at one time forty miles, on a wagon seat without a back.”
The Woman Citizen 3 (March 22, 1919), 901.

Shaw later reflected that she and Anthony “defied hardships, ridicule—and even prairie cyclones to carry the message of suffrage to South Dakota.” At one point, a “Russian” sheriff offered them a cellar to shelter during a cyclone but Anthony declined. On their way to the Black Hills, they did “campaign all the way and ‘rushing into Sioux City’ to give pay lectures, the proceeds of which were turned into the campaign fund.” In the Hills, “many of the halls were merely rough boards and most of them had no seats. I never saw so many intemperate men as at—-. We could not get any hall to speak in. They were all in use for the variety shows and there was no church finished, but the Presbyterian was the furthest along, and they let us have that, putting boards across nail kegs for seats. It was filled to overflowing—to the platform.”
— Rose Young, press chair NAWSA, Pensacola Journal (FL), March 30, 1919.

“‘when Miss Anthony and I talked woman suffrage through that part of the country,’ [Shaw] said. ‘I remember in a town called Hermosa, in the Black Hills, we had a desperate time one Sunday to get a place for a meeting, because a clergyman told the women it would be wicked to talk suffrage on Sunday. Last month, twenty years after almost to a day, I held a Sunday meeting in Pierre, S. Dak., and every church closed; the ministers took part, the choirs sang for us, and the Governor of the State, came and made a speech.'”
“American Suffragists Need Money,” JK1881 .N357 sec. XVI, no. 3-9 NAWSA Coll, series: Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911; Scrapbook 9 (1910-1911), Library of Congress.

After the 1890 campaign, “Dr. Anna Howard Shaw said that in all her years of lecturing and campaigning she had never been so exhausted as at the end of this season.” “Shaw lectured for the woman suffrage amendment in South Dakota from Aug. 7 to Nov. 5. During that time she spoke every day, often twice a day, and sometimes three times.” Then she passed through D.C., spoke to the Young WCTU of Washington, and then proceeded on to Atlanta for the National WCTU convention. Later in November, she spoke at the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association annual meeting where she “confined her remarks principally to the recent struggle in South Dakota, telling in clear and succinct terms the causes of the defeat of the woman suffragists in the recent election. Miss Shaw’s speech was very forcible, and the clever stories, cleverly told, with which she illustrated her address, were received with laughter and applause by a delighted audience” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 29, 1890, p.377, December 20, 1890, p.406, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 118].

The 1891 National American Woman Suffrage convention heard from Anna Howard Shaw, Henry Blackwell, Emma Smith DeVoe, and Alice and John Pickler about the results of the 1890 campaign [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 182–183]. Shaw’s address at the convention “Indians versus Women,” about her experience in the South Dakota campaign, was an expression of anger towards white men for voting in higher numbers for Indian suffrage than for women, describing the “realities of frontier women” and their worth. The speech included prejudiced stereotypes of native people but also “how Native Americans have been forced into a dependent relationship with the government” and the tragic massacre of Lakota women and children at Wounded Knee by the U.S. military [Franzen, Anna Howard Shaw, 71-72].

“A woman calling herself the Rev. Anna H. Shaw has written some severe things against the people of South Dakota because they voted against female suffrage. The Scandinavians voted against it, the reason, in Miss Shaw’s opinion, being ‘because their religion teaches subserviency of woman to man…’ …The Scandinavians are Lutherans, but almost every church teaches the subserviency of woman to man. Miss Shaw will have a hard road to travel in other States besides Dakota.”
Phillipsburg Herald (KS), May 19, 1892.

In November 1908, Anna Howard Shaw went on a speaking tour in South Dakota that was organized by Perle Penfield [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 792].

In November 1909, Shaw returned to Sioux Falls and attended a Ladies’ History Club meeting at the Carpenter house where she spoke about the 1890 campaign —

[from OCR reading] “Miss Shaw’s remarks were for the most part reminiscent and recalled many amusing incidents of nineteen years ago, when she and Miss Susan B. Anthony toured South Dakota in the cause of woman suffrage it was during one of those terrible hot, dry summers, the horrors of which are readily recalled by the older settlers when farmers had to drive many miles for water, and when meetings were often postponed until ten o’clock. at night on account of the heat. Tired, patient mothers came to listen, bringing their babies, having no one with whom to leave them and listened among quartets, quintettes, full choirs of walling infants to the message these earnest women were seeking to deliver. Miss Shaw called to mind the pathetic starved lives of the pioneers of the country, and paid a glowing tribute to their cheer and hospitality remarking, that, although in many [illegible] there was barely enough to eat such as they had was always shared freely and graciously, with her and Miss Anthony. Miss Shaw has the rare gift for seeing the funny side and her store house of good stories is as inexhaustible as her manner of telling them is inimitable. A social hour followed with Miss Shaw with her sparkling wit and [illegible] repartee as the center of attraction”
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 3, 1909.

The state suffrage convention in Sioux Falls opened at the First Methodist Episcopal Church and, after Shaw arrived by train, a public reception was held for her in the parlors of the Cataract Hotel. Shaw spoke at the Cataract “though weary.” During the convention she advised on fundraising, conducted a question box, and praised the support of Gov. Vessey. On the Friday evening of the convention, Shaw made the primary address at the M.E. Church and the audience was “of such huge proportions that an overflow meeting had to be provided elsewhere” [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 28, 1909; Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 3, 1909, November 5, 1909; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 3, 1909, November 4, 1909, November 5, 1909, pg 1, pg 10, November 6, 1909, September 15, 1923; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909; Mobridge News (SD), November 12, 1909; Norfolk Weekly News-Journal (NE), November 5, 1909; Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 143, 147; Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08439, Pyle Papers, USD].

Shaw was “one of the few women today who have endured true American pioneer life. From a childhood in the Michigan woods she earned her way through Boston University, taking degrees in both theology and medicine. Seven years ministry in a Massachusetts parish and three years as a physician in the slums of Boston have given her a grasp on vital problems and a sympathy with human nature that underlies her wonderful power at[sic] an orator. She has exchanged the little Cape Cod parish for a parish that knows no limit; her field is the world, and nearly every day in the week often twice on Sunday, crowded audiences hang on the inspiring words which drop like living coals from the lips of this wonderfully eloquent speaker.”
Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), October 28, 1909.

At the opening session on Wednesday: “The Reverend Anna Howard Shaw then rose and was greeted with rounds of applause. Her hair has turned gray since her last visit to our state; but her eye has lost none of its fire, her dimples are just as bewitching, her repartee as inimitable and her great heart and soul and mind are still reaching out toward humanity in a desire to help and uplift it.”
Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909.

“Let every woman who is interested in this movement decide to give and do something to make it win. The national organization will no doubt help, but we can ask with better grace, if at the same time we can report the results of efforts here”
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 5, 1909, pg. 1.

Question: Will women vote with their husbands?
Answer: Sometimes, if the husbands vote right.
…
Question: Will women refuse to marry?
Answer: That depends on the man.
…
Question: will all women vote against saloons?
Answer: Emphatically no. I find saloons in states where women vote and as much difference of opinion among the voters there as elsewhere. Personally I am against the selling of liquor, but I should work fully as hard for woman suffrage if I knew that every woman in the country would vote for saloons. Woman with a responsibility of citizenship would grow big enough to get an understanding of what is best for the community. Miss Anthony and I traveled and worked together for years in the cause of suffrage, knowing full well that if granted, our votes [on saloons] would cancel each other.
Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 5, 1909, pg 10.

In New York City, the National American Woman Suffrage Association held a mass meeting at Carnegie Hall, with an address by Anna Howard Shaw, in order raise funds for the suffrage campaign in South Dakota [Ogdensburg Journal (NY), November 17, 1909; Marion Daily Mirror (OH), November 17, 1909; Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (ND), November 17, 1909; Mitchell Capital (SD), November 18, 1909; “Mrs. Belmont Presiding At Carnegie Hall Suffrage Meeting; page 2,” JK1881 .N357 sec. XVI, no. 3-9 NAWSA Coll, series: Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911; Scrapbook 8 (1909-1910), LOC].

In late October 1910, Shaw returned to South Dakota to campaign for two weeks of speeches leading up to the election, including scheduled speeches at opera houses in Huron, Vermillion, Rapid City, and Hot Springs, and at Assembly Hall in Lead [The Plain Dealer (Whitewood SD), May 17, 1890, “Page 35 : Entire Page,” Emma Smith DeVoe: 1880-1890 (Scrapbook D), WSL Manuscripts, MS 171, Box 10; Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 793; Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), September 23, 1910, pg 1, September 30, 1910, October 28, 1910; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), October 23, 1910, November 2, 1910; Hot Springs Weekly Star (SD), October 27, 1910; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), October 13, 1910; Vermillion Plain Talk (SD), November 10, 1910; Forty-third Annual Report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York 1911), 161].

Photograph of Shaw, on poster about her upcoming lecture at the Huron Opera House, October 29, 1910, University of South Dakota, Vermillion.

Photograph of Anna Howard Shaw turning the crank of her car, Wisconsin Historical Society.

Photo of Shaw in South Bend News-Times (IN), May 10, 1919.

Anna Howard Shaw on the platform of the 44th NAWSA Convention in Philadelphia, 1912, sketch by Wallace Morgan, #NPG.95.60, National Portrait Gallery.

[from OCR text] “Dr. Anna Shaw, the celebrated English woman who, this evening will address voters in Lead at Assembly hall, on Equal Suffrage. Dr. Shaw came to this country when 8 (or 5?) years old and entered at once the rugged life of pioneer children in Michigan, then a country where there were neither schools or libraries and an education was a task for the bravest [illegible] kind of work she educated herself and at 18 (or 15?) became a teacher and in 1878 graduated from the theological school of Boston University. Following this she took up the work of the church and of medicine, practicing the latter among the poor of Boston. For years she has been actively involved with the Equal Suffrage movement and is now president of the National Women’s Suffrage association. She is possessed of a keen wit and a logic that is irresistible, which combined with a good, clear delivery and forceful manner, make her an exceptional speaker.”
Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), November 2, 1910.

According to a detailed report of the trip in a letter she sent to Ida Husted Harper, the NAWSA press bureau chairman, her trip was hard but “not a failure” regardless of the vote results: “We may lose the battle, but in the end we will win the war” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), November 12, 1910, p.200, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

But — according to private letters sent to her partner Lucy Anthony, Shaw was highly discouraged by her visit:
“Well this has been from my standpoint an expensive and profitless trip. Still, I should always have felt that I ought to have come if I had not. This trip is a sample of the way they have done things but they have not been trained and did not know what to do. That is our mistake in permitting women to manage a campaign who do not know how. We and the States must realize that every defeat is a national defeat and that it is our affair how a campaign is managed… Oh, if we could only have a victory in some of these States! How much longer have we to work and wait?”
Read more: Seq. 64–seq. 74, Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, Shaw Correspondence, 1873-1926. Anna Howard Shaw to Lucy E. Anthony, 1906-1910. A-68, Series X, folder 507. Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.

She returned to campaign in South Dakota in September 1914, with nine stops on her schedule. On September 1, she spoke at the city theatre in Vermillion, and she also visited the university for a reception in the parlors of East Hall. On September 7th, Anna Howard Shaw spoke at the courthouse square in Watertown, and afterwards at the Congregational church. She was a guest of Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Record while in Watertown. She spoke on woman’s sphere, as well as labor and working women in the context of the world war, and the ability of the ballot to give working women a voice for their rights. Her last stop was on the 9th when she spoke at a theater/opera house in Aberdeen [Wakonda Monitor (SD), August 20, 1914, August 27, 1914; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), September 3, 1914; Saturday News (Watertown SD), September 10, 1914; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), September 17, 1914; Lemmon Herald (SD), September 18, 1914, pg. 4, pg. 8; Letter to Miss Wilkinson from Mrs. Pyle, August 24, 1914, #2021-06-09-0030, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD State Archives].

In November 1918, Shaw sent a telegram to Mamie Pyle with congratulations on the state amendment passing [Shaw to Pyle, November 7, 1918, RA11738, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle Papers USD].

Lulu L. Shepard () [Salt Lake City, Utah]

In November 1909, the state suffrage convention was held in Sioux Falls. It opened at the First Methodist Episcopal Church and a reception was held in the parlors of the Cataract Hotel. Lulu L. Shepard of Salt Lake City was one of several out-of-state speakers that addressed the convention about “her voting experiences surprises and disappointments” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 5, 1909; Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 4, 1909, November 6, 1909; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909; Mobridge News (SD), November 12, 1909]. Shepard “a ‘real woman voter’ gave a spicy little talk on the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship as she found them” [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909].

Nettie Rogers Shuler (1862-1939) [New York]

NAWSA vice-president Nettie Rogers Schuler came to South Dakota for five weeks to be an instructor on methods for the School of Methods’ held at points around the state in the summer of 1918 [“School of methods,” South Dakota Universal Franchise League, June 1918, RA05030-RA05033, Box 7, Printed Materials, Pamphlets – South Dakota Universal Franchise League, Pyle Papers, USD; Saturday News (Watertown SD), May 30, 1918, June 6, 1918; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), May 31, 1918; Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times (SD), June 9, 1918; Custer Weekly Chronicle (SD), June 8, 1918, June 15, 1918; The Woman Citizen 3 (July 20, 1918), 148, 158; McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 508-509; Justina Leavitt Wilson, ed., Handbook of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and proceedings of the Jubilee Convention, 1869-1919, held at St. Louis, Mo., March 24-29, 1919 (New York 1919), 94].

See also: “Biographical Sketch of Nettie Rogers Shuler,” Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920, Women and Social Movements.

Quoting Schuler: Women “as a necessary industrial force in government” during a time of war should have full citizenship rights, and if ‘enemy aliens’ “are not willing to fight for us… they should not be entrusted to vote for us”
The Woman Citizen 3 (July 20, 1918), 148.

*Saturday News* (Watertown SD), May 30, 1918.

*The Woman Citizen* 3 (July 20, 1918), 148.

Ida M. Stadie () [New York City, New York]

Ida Stadie was assigned by Maria McMahon to organize District 6 from Rapid City but also did extensive work in the south-central counties including Hutchinson County and Scotland [McMahon, 1918?, RA12088, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, Pyle Papers USD; The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), July 11, 1918]. In July, May Ghrist of Miller with organizers Pidgeon, Crossley, and Stadie did a lecture tour and petition drive in Roberts County and gave Chautauqua talks in Milbank [Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), July 12, 1918; The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), July 19, 1918]. In Madison, Stadie, Watkins, Peshakova, and Pidgeon led canvassing work—“three auto loads of ladies comprise the committees in charge of the drive.” They also held open-air addresses downtown where “an interested crowd of citizens, which included many women and a large farmer contingent, gathered at the corner of Egan avenue and Center street Saturday evening to listen to addresses on the citizenship bill and the suffrage amendment.” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 15, 1918, August 17, 1918, August 19, 1918].

In an end-of-campaign article, field director Maria McMahon wrote that Stadie had “had several of the hardest counties” — those with large foreign-born populations — but that “several of those selfsame counties are in the white list today. In Hutchinson county she raised money, edited, and issued a bi-monthly bulletin which was sent to every home, carrying to most of them the first message they had ever had on woman suffrage” [McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509]. In Scotland, she arranged for suffragists to participate in a local parade where “a whole section depicting the advance of women held back by ignorance, prejudice, and vices, women’s war activities, etc.” [McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 508].

Near the end of the campaign, Crossley, Watkins, and Peshakova came into conflict with Maria McMahon and went on something of a strike. Crossley then resigned, though Watkins and Peshakova did continue some work in the final days. Stadie played intermediary — meeting with Watkins and Peshakova in Aberdeen to hear their concerns, then meeting with Pyle in Huron, and going back again to Watkins and Peshakova in Mitchell to try and convince them to continue campaigning. Correspondence from the Pyle Papers at USD-Vermillion regarding the conflict:

Pyle to McMahon, November 1, 1918, RA11621-RA11624, McMahon to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11685, and Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“Miss Stadie has grown tremendously in the work in this state,” Pyle to Schuler, November 1, 1918, RA11625-RA11628, and Pyle to Shuler, November 2, 1918, RA11640-RA11642, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Peshakova and Watkins “are pouting over at Mitchell.” Pyle to Rewman, November 2, 1918, RA11638, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Stadie to Pyle, November 1, 1918, RA11630, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Ghrist, November 2, 1918, RA11637, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Leavitt, November 3, 1918, RA11646-RA11647, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, and Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Peshakova to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11689, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“all they had to say was that they thought Mrs. McMahon and Mrs. Pyle had been very unappreciative and that Mrs. McMahon had nagged them and had not been kind… but I thought it was a dreadful thing for Miss Watkins to have proposed to withdraw the organizers from the state.” Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, and Pyle to Catt, November 12, 1918, RA11801, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
McMahon to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11781, and Pyle to McMahon, November 12, 1918, RA11807, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Watkins to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Watkins to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“[I] could not find it in my heart to do other than stand by Gertrude…– I fear I bungled horribly… I realized that Stella was entirely in the wrong… I want you to know, Mrs. Pyle, that I heartily enjoyed working under your direction, and am so happy that the state carried—happy for you and happy for Gertrude, for I assure you that no one would have felt more keenly distressed than Gertrude, had Amendment E failed to carry.” Peshakova to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11798, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Catt to Pyle, December 2, 1918, RA12008 and RA12009, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
McMahon to Pyle, December 6, RA12026-RA12034, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
Watkins and Peshakova “expressed sincere regrets over the whole affair and their part in it,” Pyle to Stevens, December 27, 1918, RA12071-RA12073, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December

In the final days, Stadie worked in Parkston and Tripp in Hutchinson County. In Parkston, she and local women put up posters all over town, and stopped to talk several places though found there was “still a great deal of opposition” — five stores had torn down the posters. Although, she reported some improvement, saying that a man who at summer meetings had “almost pushed Mrs. [Stella] Baisch over, happened to be on the train when Mrs. Baisch & I got off. He stepped aside very gallantly & said ‘It is ladies first, now.'” The influenza epidemic had also greatly impacted the county — “One of our recent converts died… Many others who are favorable are ill. I know we will lose a great many voters for that reason alone” [Stadie to Pyle, November 3, 1918, RA11654-RA11655, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, and Pyle to Eggers, November 8, 1918, RA11753, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD]. Stadie had also done “great work” in Faulk and Potter Counties [Bixler? to Pyle, November 6, 1918, RA11703, and George to Pyle, November 9, 1918, RA11774, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle Papers USD].

Elizabeth Cady Stanton [New York]

In December 1889, it was reported that Elizabeth Cady Stanton had agreed to lecture in major cities in the South Dakota campaign [but I don’t think she did come out] [Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), December 19, 1889].

In 1890, she wrote a letter in support of suffrage to the South Dakota Republican convention that Susan B. Anthony read to the delegates [Mitchell Capital (SD), August 29, 1890].

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

Rene E.H. Stevens (1877-1951) [Omaha, Nebraska]

Rene Elizabeth Hamilton Stevens came to South Dakota as an organizer for the Aberdeen area, and for a time in the Black Hills, during the 1918 amendment campaign. She was assigned by Maria McMahon to organize District 2 from Aberdeen and later was sent to the Black Hills. Stevens and Pidgeon went to Huron at the end of the campaign to be with Pyle for the election returns. After leaving South Dakota, Stevens went on to work in Minnesota, and gave talk at a gathering at Clara Ueland’s house about the South Dakota campaign [McMahon, 1918?, RA12088, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December, Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, Rewman to Pyle, November 1, 1918, RA11629, and Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, and Pyle to McMahon, November 12, 1918, RA11807, Stevens to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11785, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, and Pyle to Stevens, September 19, 1918, RD11025, Box 3, Correspondence, 1918, September 10-19, Pyle Papers USD; McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509].

Ella S. Stewart (1871-) [Illinois]

In 1909, Ella Stewart came to South Dakota to help plan their campaign, and attended the Aberdeen convention in June 1909 [Kingsbury, History of Dakota Territory, vol. 3 (1915), 793; Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 143, 172; Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08439, Pyle Papers, USD]. She served as auditor of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and had been president of the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association. While in Hurley, she stayed with Edith Fitch [Turner County Herald (SD), May 13, 1909].

In July 1913, Ella S. Stewart returned to meet with state leaders in Huron. She was then president of the Illinois E.S.A. and a NAWSA board officer. In her reflections on the visit, she reported that — “Once more must all the dreary drudgery be borne—money raised, literature printed and distributed, committees organized, meetings held, and every voter interviewed… Distances are great, railroads still few, and the population scattered…. I marveled at the quiet, unboastful doggedness which brings them back to the struggle which worsted them three times… I only known that my soul was quickened and my faith in womanhood increased as I watched them gird on their armor…. as I looked from the window of my car on my way from Huron—across the green and rolling prairies and fields, I perceived a new token. The sod houses and shacks of the pioneers have been replaced by substantial and pretentious houses and buildings. There are windmills, silos, groves, and orchards. Automobiles are skimming the roads over which Miss Anthony was driven in oxcarts, up to date machinery is in the fields, and modern life breathes from neat villages.”

More information on Stewart: from Jane Addams Digital Edition, New Jersey and from Her Hat Was in the Ring.

Sylvanus A. Stockwell (1857-1943) [Minnesota]

In 1909, Senator S.A. Stockwell of Minnesota offered to campaign for suffrage in South Dakota during the last two weeks of August 1910. His wife was president of the Minnesota Suffrage Association and planned to fund his tour [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 5, 1909; Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08433, Pyle Papers USD]. I don’t know if he came.

Lucy Stone [Boston, Massachusetts]

[1890 campaigning]

Miss Stoner () [Wyoming]

In November 1910, Miss Stoner of Wyoming spoke on suffrage “to a large and interested audience in the Clarno school house last Friday evening” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 10, 1910].

Rep. Ezra B. Taylor [Ohio]

At the Mitchell 1890 convention, “The following letter was read from the Hon. E. B. Taylor, chairman of the judiciary committee of the U. S. House of Representatives: House of Representatives, Washington, D. C., Aug. 11, 1890. / My Dear Friend:—I am deeply interested in the suffrage campaign in South Dakota, and hope the Republicans of that great State will have the strength and wisdom to stand firmly by the right. In matters of essential ref orm our hope is in the great northwest, which is untrammelled by existing laws and unreasoning prejudices. There the principles of the Declaration of Independence are still believed in, and there good men know that good women are needed in the contest for social and political reform.Very sincerely yours, E. B. Taylor.” [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), September 6, 1890, p.284, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University]. {Taylor’s daughter was Harriet Taylor Upton, who was an active leader in NAWSA.}

More on the SDESA appeals to the 1890 party conventions.

Anna Ursin () [Christiana, Norway; Minneapolis, Minnesota]

In November 1909, Anna Ursin made an address on Thursday of the state suffrage convention in Sioux Falls, speaking about the progress of suffrage in Norway. Ursin joined Perle Penfield and Rose Bower as leading field workers for the 1910 campaign. In December 1909, Ursin started some campaign work in Vermillion and Clay County [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), November 4, 1909, November 5, 1909; Sisseton Weekly Standard (SD), November 12, 1909; Mobridge News (SD), November 12, 1909; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), December 9, 1909; Forty-second annual report of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, given at the Convention, held at Washington, D.C., April 14 to 19, inclusive (New York, 1910), 143].

“Miss Ursin is doing excellent work among the Scandinavians, visiting from house to house in country districts, speaking in school and meeting houses, anywhere she can get a hearing. She, also, is making votes.”
Page 3 and Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08427, Pyle Papers USD; Page 2, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08438, Pyle Papers, USD.

Ursin, “who had extensive experience in the Equal Suffrage campaign in Norway, is doing most effective work among the Scandinavian residents.”
Forty-second annual report of N.A.W.S.A. (New York, 1910), 145.

“Miss Ursin is most effective; she has a way of disappearing into the country and then suddenly reappearing with a handful of committees and workers…. a marvel of energy and purpose.”
Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08434, Pyle Papers, USD

At one point in 1910, she took a break and went back to Minneapolis after organizing suffrage committees in Huron and Volga because “the farmers are busy seeding” [Page 2, and Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08428-RA08429, Pyle Papers USD]. She traveled Brookings County with Gertrude Walker to organize suffrage committees, and translated a poster called “The Woman’s Reason” into Norwegian for distribution [Page 3, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08434, Pyle Papers, USD].

Mabel Vernon (1883-1975) [Washington D.C.]

In October 1917, Mabel Vernon, secretary of the National Women’s Party (NWP), and Jane Pincus, NWP organizer, came to South Dakota. They met with supporters at a tea at the home of Myra Weller in Mitchell, with Mrs. J.D. Stemler in Plankinton, and on October 31st met with Hattie E. Fellows and the other state leaders in Sioux Falls with a lunch at the Cataract Hotel and tea/meeting at the Quaker Tea Room. The tables were decorated with yellow chrysanthemums and the colors purple, gold, and white [Argus Leader (Sioux Falls SD), November 1, 1917; Mitchell Capital (SD), November 1, 1917, pg. 4, pg. 5, November 8, 1917; The Suffragist 5(94) (November 10, 1917), 8]. Also on Wikipedia “Mabel Vernon” and photo “Mabel Vernon Speaking at Suffrage Rally, May, 1916” from the Library of Congress.

Gertrude Von Petzold (1876-1952) [Iowa]

At the Watertown and Huron Chautauquas in July 1910, Rev. Gertrude von Petzold debated Iowa Senator Shirley Gilliland on suffrage. She had “worked with Mrs. Pankhurst, the great English Sufferagette” [Saturday News (Watertown SD), June 24, 1910, July 1, 1910; Madison Daily Leader (SD), July 14, 1910].

More: Claus Bernet, “Gertrude von Petzold (1876-1952): Quaker and First Woman Minister,” Quaker Studies 12(1) (2008), 129-133.

Sena Hartzell Wallace (1848-1932) [Kansas City, Kansas]

In June 1910, at the Methodist church in Elk Point, Sena Hartzell Wallace spoke primarily on a pending county option bill, but also was described as “quite as interested in equal suffrage and pleads for it not only because it is just and right, but because, with the ballot as a means, woman may contribute to the betterment of the world” [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), June 9, 1910]. She returned to the county for a speaking tour in September, appearing in Elk Point as well as several rural schools and churches [Union County Courier (Elk Point SD), September 8, 1910]. In November, the South-central Association of Congregational churches invited her to speak of suffrage and county option at their convention in Letcher [Mitchell Capital (SD), November 3, 1910].

In the spring of 1914, Sena Hartzell Wallace came to South Dakota to organize for the W.C.T.U.’s suffrage campaign and speak on temperance, appearing in Canton, Aberdeen, Lemmon, Mobridge, Buffalo, and Hurley. She missed an engagement in Ortley because of heavy rains (presumably hindering transportation). In October, she made a tour through the southeast that included Wakonda, Burbank, Vermillion, Elk Point, and Hurley. In Hurley, she met with the group at the Methodist church and spoke from automobile on Center Ave. “to a fair sized audience of men and women, advocating the cause of equal suffrage” [Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton SD), March 27, 1914, April 3, 1914, April 10, 1914; Rock Island Argus (IL), May 13, 1914; Lemmon Herald (SD), June 5, 1914; The Dakota Republican (Vermillion SD), October 8, 1914, October 22, 1914; Turner County Herald (Hurley SD), October 29, 1914; Letter to Miss Wilkinson from Mrs. Safford, April 30, 1914, #2021-06-09-0243, and Letter to Mrs. Phelps, June 4, 1914, #2021-06-09-0042, Box 6677, Folder 22, WCTU Correspondence – 1914 Folder 3, H91-74, Pickler Papers, SD Digital Archives].

Obituary in Rock Island Argus (IL), August 26, 1932.

Zerelda G. Wallace (1817-1901) []

According to a biography of Susan B. Anthony, Zerelda G. Wallace pledged a month to campaign in South Dakota during the 1890 campaign, but I don’t have any other sources to confirm that she did eventually come… [Nanette B. Paul, The Great Woman Statesman (New York: Hogan-Paulus Corp, 1925), 115].

Gertrude Watkins (1884-1938) [Little Rock, Arkansas]

Stella Crossley and Gertrude Watkins worked as organizers in the southern counties of the state in 1918. In Madison, Watkins spoke on the citizenship bill “making a strong appeal to the audience in behalf of the suffrage movement” at a union service held on the Library park lawn. She also met with local women at a porch meeting to plan canvassing work on Amendment E for Lake County. From Madison, she went to Miner and Sanborn Counties to organize advocates there [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 3, 1918, August 5, 1918, pg. 2, pg. 3, August 6, 1918]. A week later, she returned to Madison with Ida Stadie, Liba Peshakova, and Elizabeth Pidgeon to lead the canvassing work—“three auto loads of ladies comprise the committees in charge of the drive.” They also held open-air addresses downtown where “an interested crowd of citizens, which included many women and a large farmer contingent, gathered at the corner of Egan avenue and Center street Saturday evening to listen to addresses on the citizenship bill and the suffrage amendment… The greater part of those who heard Miss Watkins were men who listened with great respect and due attention to all the speaker had to say.” [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 15, 1918, August 17, 1918, August 19, 1918]. After Madison, Watkins, Peshakova, and Miller went to Flandreau to canvass and organize in Moody County [Madison Daily Leader (SD), August 19, 1918; Hardin to Pyle, November 7, 1918, RA11724-RA11725, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, Pyle Papers USD]. She also worked in Emery, Fulton, and Spencer [Peshakova to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11798, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD].

According to Maria McMahon’s end-of-campaign article, local committees loved Crossley and Watkins — “Never a fair that was not covered, nor a Teachers’ Institute, nor a Farmers’ Alliance, nor a political meeting. Everywhere that voters foregathered, there they were” [McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 509].

Pyle to McMahon, November 1, 1918, RA11621-RA11624, McMahon to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11685, and Pyle to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11691-RA11693, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Schuler, November 1, 1918, RA11625-RA11628, and Pyle to Shuler, November 2, 1918, RA11640-RA11642, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Rewman, November 2, 1918, RA11638, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Stadie to Pyle, November 1, 1918, RA11630, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Ghrist, November 2, 1918, RA11637, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
Pyle to Leavitt, November 3, 1918, RA11646-RA11647, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“Miss Watkins has always been a tempery little girl,” Catt to Pyle, November 4, 1918, RA11656, and Pyle to Catt, November 4, 1918, RA11663, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“all they had to say was that they thought Mrs. McMahon and Mrs. Pyle had been very unappreciative and that Mrs. McMahon had nagged them and had not been kind… but I thought it was a dreadful thing for Miss Watkins to have proposed to withdraw the organizers from the state.” Catt to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11795, and Pyle to Catt, November 12, 1918, RA11801, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Pyle received an apologetic letter from Watkins. McMahon to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11781, and Pyle to McMahon, November 12, 1918, RA11807, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
“I regret sincerely the way things turned out, for I am interested in the campaign and sincerely hope we win today.” Watkins to McMahon, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“I can’t express to you how sorry I am that things turned out as they did, in regard to my part in the work.” Watkins to Pyle, November 5, 1918, RA11696, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7
“[I] could not find it in my heart to do other than stand by Gertrude…– I fear I bungled horribly… I realized that Stella was entirely in the wrong… I want you to know, Mrs. Pyle, that I heartily enjoyed working under your direction, and am so happy that the state carried—happy for you and happy for Gertrude, for I assure you that no one would have felt more keenly distressed than Gertrude, had Amendment E failed to carry.” Peshakova to Pyle, November 12, 1918, RA11798, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Pyle to McMahon, November 13, 1918, RD11821, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14
Catt to Pyle, December 2, 1918, RA12008 and RA12009, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
McMahon to Pyle, December 6, RA12026-RA12034, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December
Pyle to Stevens, December 27, 1918, RA12071-RA12073, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, December

See also: Kevin C. Motl, “Lone Star Lieutenant: Gertrude Watkins and the 1919 Referendum Campaign of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association,” East Texas Historical Journal 54(2) (2016).

Mrs. M.L. Wells () [Tennessee]

Wells spoke on suffrage and the need of it “to aid in overthrowing wrong and in upbuilding right” at the Davison County Courthouse for the W.C.T.U. [Mitchell Capital (SD), October 12, 1888].

On December 6, 1892, Mrs. M.L. Wells of Tennessee was the primary speaker at the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association convention in Huron, she spoke at the Methodist church. As national W.C.T.U. organizer, she also made an appearance in Milbank during that trip [The Herald-Advance (Milbank SD), November 25, 1892; Pierre Weekly Free Press (SD), December 1, 1892; Mitchell Capital (SD), December 9, 1892].

Marguerite Wells (1895-1959) [Minneapolis, Minnesota]

As director of the fifth region (including South Dakota) for the League of Women Voters, Wells was scheduled to speak at the South Dakota League of Women Voters conventions in 1924-1926 [Weekly Pioneer-Times (Deadwood, SD), November 19, 1924; The Discerning Voter 1(3) (October 1925), 4; 1(10) (June-July 1926), 4; 2(2) (September-October 1926), 2-3].

Papers of Marguerite Milton Wells, 1895-1959, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard.

Margaret Whittemore (1884-) [Detroit, Michigan]

On January 13, 1917, interested women met at the Quaker Tea Room in the Hub Building (133-135 S. Phillips) in Sioux Falls, on “one of the bitter cold days of winter, with the thermometer at twenty below zero,” and a state board of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage was organized under the chairmanship of Mrs. A.F. Fellows. Beulah Amidon, who had been speaking across the state for a month, organized the conference and Margaret Whittemore appeared as its principal speaker. She “sketched briefly the growth of the Congressional Union, as the natural outcome of Susan B. Anthony’s farsighted plan to employ the political power of women to obtain political freedom for all the women of the United States. She told in detail the work being done by the Congressional Union in Washington, and the imperative need for cooperation from every state” [Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), January 8, 1917; The Suffragist 5(56) (January 24, 1917), 8; 1918 Sioux Falls City Directory, via Ancestry.com].

“There must not be one broken link. The women of the nation must stand together in their demand for justice.”
The Suffragist 5(56) (January 24, 1917), 8.

Photo of Margaret Whittemore, 1925, National Women’s Party records, Library of Congress, and one of Whittemore with Mabel Vernon on “Women for Congress” campaign tour stop, in Indianapolis Times (IN), March 4, 1926.

Frances Willard (1839-1898) [New York]

“Mrs. Narcissa White Kinney, of Astoria, Ore., recently sent fifty dollars to Frances Willard, to be used as she might think best for W. C. T. U. work. The amount was promptly forwarded to Mrs. Barker, president of the South Dakota W. C. T. U., as a gift from the National W. C. T. U., to help the campaign for equal suffrage in that State” [Brookings Register (SD), August 8, 1890; The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 16, 1890, p.261, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

Justine L. Wilson (Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson) () [New York City]

When Carrie Chapman Catt could not come to South Dakota to campaign in the fall of 1918 because of illness, NAWSA recording secretary Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson came instead. However, because of the influenza outbreak, the SDUFL could not arrange any public speaking engagements for her. Wilson was able to work with the local committee in Sioux Falls and submit a letter to South Dakota newspapers that “was the kind of message which I had hoped to get over in the motion picture houses and at the street meetings” [Pyle to Wilson, November 5, 1918, RA11694, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 1-7, and Wilson to Pyle, November 8, 1918, RA11767-RA11768, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD; McMahon, “How to Win a State,” The Woman Citizen 3 (November 16, 1918), 508]. Wilson was named with Catt as being upset about the disagreements that some of the NAWSA organizers in South Dakota had with the field director Maria McMahon and state president Mamie Pyle [McMahon to Pyle, November 10, 1918, RA11781, Box 4, Correspondence, 1918, November 8-14, Pyle Papers USD].

Mrs. A.C. Zehner () []

On October 12, 1910, Mrs. A.C. Zehner, a national lecturer, was scheduled to speak on suffrage at the M.E. Church in Scotland [The Citizen-Republican (Scotland SD), October 6, 1910].

Other out-of-state history connected to South Dakota suffrage:

It was reported that suffragists in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania had publicized their opposition to the admission of Dakota territory as a state without women’s suffrage [Yankton Press & Dakotan (SD), March 3, 1882; April 11, 1882; Canton Advocate(SD), April 27, 1882]. In 1884, the National Women’s Suffrage organization did the same [Yankton Press & Dakotan (SD), December 18, 1884].

In 1885, when recently-appointed territorial governor Gilbert Pierce vetoed the equal suffrage bill that had passed the legislature in session in Bismarck, the American Woman Suffrage Association and New York suffragists, who had been paying attention to the proceedings, denounced Pierce and submitted a request to President Cleveland to have Pierce removed from office [Geneva Daily Gazette (NY), March 20, 1885; Canton Advocate (SD), March 26, 1885, April 2, 1885; Kimball Graphic (SD), October 30, 1885].

In October 13-15, 1885, the American Woman Suffrage Association held its 17th annual meeting at the Church of the Redeemer Universalist church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. John and Alice Pickler attended and both spoke at the meeting. John, “the chivalrous legislator of Dakota…was invited to tell the history of the bill and did so in a vigorous speech. He said its passage was materially aided by the efforts of Eastern remonstrants to defeat it, and added: ‘There are peculiar reasons why our women should have their rights, as they own fully one-fourth of the land and are veritable heroines’” [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 414]. [Image of the church, via the Hennepin County Library].

Near the end of the 1890 campaign, The Witness from Frankfort, Kentucky, sent one hundred copies of their 8-page newspaper on suffrage to South Dakota for their campaign [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), October 31, 1890].

In 1890, equal suffrage was defeated at the polls by 23,790 votes [Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review (Rapid City SD), October 21, 1910]. According to S.D.E.S.A. secretary Elizabeth Wardall, 789 addresses had been made by national speakers and 707 by state speakers; the W.C.T.U. made 104 addresses for suffrage; 400 local clubs had been organized, and literature had been distributed to every voter [Anthony and Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (1902), 554-555].

Nettie C. Hall of Wessington Springs did campaign work in Nebraska [Wessington Springs Herald (SD), August 28, 1891 <– gives more detail].

On July 4, 1893 in Onida, suffragists hosted an ice-cream stand, “toiling hard all day to obtain funds” to send to the national association for campaigns running in Kansas, Colorado, and New York [The Woman’s Journal (Boston MA), August 5, 1893, p.243, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University].

“Indications point to South Dakota as being an open field for an interesting campaign for and against equal suffrage from now until the next election… The campaign will be one of the most interesting in the history of the state and money and talent provided by eastern people, both for and against the measure, will be used in this state to the best possible advantage.”
Madison Daily Leader (SD), November 30, 1909

In 1910, Headquarters secretary Cicely Tinsley arranged for a fundraiser with the Minneapolis Cereal Co. to receive a percentage of the sales of Cream of Rye product in South Dakota [Tinsley to general, April 2, 1910, RD07452, correspondence 1910-1916, Page 5, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, RA08427, and Page 5, Bulletin – votes for women, c1910, Pyle Papers USD].

In May 1914, a committee of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association was looking into “the position which the Indian voters of South Dakota will take with regard to granting the right of suffrage to women.” American Indian men were able to vote if they took their land allotment in severalty, and national suffragists, based on their own conceptions of gender roles in tribal cultures, were concerned that they might vote against equal suffrage [Madison Daily Leader (SD), May 13, 1914].

On April 20, 1916, the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Suffrage Club in Washington D.C. met on the topic of “Suffrage in South Dakota” [Washington Herald (DC), April 19, 1916, Page 10, Image 10].

In 1918, NAWSA Headquarters at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue hosted a public victory celebration for Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma, with speeches by Anna Shaw, Nettie Schuler, and senators from those states. Senator Thomas Sterling was scheduled to represent South Dakota at the event [Washington Herald (DC), November 22, 1918; New-York Tribune (NYC), November 24, 1918].

In July 1927, “After [the National Woman’s Party’s] annual convention in Colorado Springs, equal rights envoys motor to Rapid City, South Dakota, where they and group of western women meet with vacationing President Coolidge and ask for his aid in passing [the Equal Rights Amendment] pending in Congress. Coolidge claims he will lead the fight if women’s groups unite behind amendment.” [Detailed Chronology: National Woman’s Party History, Library of Congress-American Memory, 30, photograph of the envoy].

More to come!

History in South Dakota

The fascinating, complex, and rich history of South Dakota.

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