# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/15

​ THE Nineteenth Century witnessed the first organized movement of women to secure equal rights with men in civil, political and industrial affairs. In barbarous ages and uncivilized countries women have been held as inferiors, subject to servitude little better than slavery. The first indication of civilization is the growing tendency to accord to women better treatment and the recognition of their rights and privileges. As nations become enlightened they gradually remove oppressive laws and customs, and their degree of enlightenment will be determined by the removal of restrictions upon women from the enjoyment of equal rights and privileges with men. In the early years of the century, in America as well as in the old world, the industrial occupations open to women were confined almost wholly to housework, sewing and school teaching, and a vast majority of school teachers were men. Colleges and all learned professions were closed against girls and women. Every step of their advancement has met with bitter opposition; but step by step they have slowly won their way; first from housework to teaching; then the doors of a few colleges were opened to them; a few of them began to speak in public as preachers and reformers; others became authors and editors, later physicians and lawyers appeared among them; some were elected to public offices; many States granted them qualified suffrage and some removed all restrictions and accorded them equal rights with men.
The movement for the equal rights of women in America began as early as 1837 when a National Woman’s Antislavery Convention was called to meet in New York, ​in which eight States were represented by seventy-one delegates. Among those who took part in the deliberations were Lydia Maria Child, Abby Kelley, Mary S. Parker, Deborah Shaw, and Abigail Hopper Gibbons. Abby Kelley was a young and beautiful woman of Quaker ancestry, an eloquent and logical speaker who gave her early years to the Antislavery movement. When she began to speak in public in behalf of freedom for the slaves she was assailed by the clergy, ridiculed by society women, churches and public halls were closed against her, and personal violence, encouraged by wealthy citizens and high officials, was often visited upon the courageous girl who dared to plead for universal freedom. Mobs assailed her and broke up her meetings; men and women were expelled from churches for listening to her on Sunday. But she never faltered in the good cause and never quailed before the tirades of personal abuse or the assaults of mobs. Her eloquence and courage paved the way for women as public speakers and illustrated their power in that capacity. In 1840 Margaret Fuller wrote an essay, published in the “Dial,” demanding equal rights for women with men, in education, industry and politics. In 1849 Lucretia Mott, the eminent Quaker minister, delivered a powerful discourse in Philadelphia in reply to a lecture by Richard H. Dana ridiculing the idea of political equality for women. In 1847 Susan B. Anthony made her first public speech in Canajoharie, New York, and the same year Antoinette L. Brown and Lucy Stone made their first appearance as public speakers.
The question of the right of women to speak in public, vote, and to serve as delegates to conventions, caused a division in the ranks of the American Antislavery Society in 1840 and disturbed the peace of the World’s Antislavery Convention held in London the same year. Several American societies had sent women as delegates to that Convention, among whom were Lucretia Mott, Abby Southwick and six other young women under thirty years ​of age. When Wendell Phillips, the eloquent apostle of universal freedom, moved the admission as delegates, of all persons having proper credentials, an English clergyman objected to the admission of the American women “as it would shock the sense of propriety of the people of England.” He was supported by the Rev. Henry Grew of Philadelphia, who gravely proclaimed that “the reception of women as a part of this Convention would be a violation of the customs of England, and the ordinance of Almighty God.” Wendell Phillips, George Thompson, a member of the British Parliament, Daniel O’Connell and other friends of human rights made earnest and eloquent pleas for their admission, but English and American prejudice prevailed and the women delegates were refused seats in the Convention. William Lloyd Garrison, the great Antislavery leader, thereupon refused to take a seat in the Convention which had by an arbitrary power of numerical strength excluded all women delegates. This act of tyranny was led by clergymen from both England and America, fortified with frequent quotations from the Bible showing the inferiority of women. George Bradburn sprang to his feet in the midst of this “thus saith the scripture” argument, and towering like a knight, he indignantly exclaimed: “Prove to me gentlemen that your Bible sanctions the slavery of women—the complete subjugation of one-half of the race to the other—and I should feel that the best work I could do for humanity would be to make a grand bonfire of every Bible in the universe.” Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other women delegates who had come 3,000 miles to represent their constituents in the World’s Antislavery Convention, now realized that the American negroes were not the only people deprived of rights, and then and there was inaugurated the plan of beginning a crusade, upon their return to America, in behalf of the enfranchisement of women. Susan B. Anthony says in her “History of Woman Suffrage”: “The movement for woman’s ​suffrage, both in England and America, may be dated from this World’s Antislavery Convention.”
The suffrage movement in Iowa began in the summer of 1854 when Frances Dana Gage of Ohio delivered a series of lectures in the southwestern part of the State on temperance and woman’s rights. In 1855, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer of Council Bluffs gave several lectures on the Martha H. Brinkerhoff, a talented and eloquent young woman, traveled through the chief towns of northwestern Iowa speaking on suffrage and awakening deep interest in that section as the pioneer advocate of equal rights, organizing many societies. In 1868-9-70 Annie C. Savery of Des Moines lectured on the subject in various localities.
On the 17th of April, 1869, the first organization was made in Dubuque, called the “Northern Woman Suffrage Association.” Mary N. Adams was one of the leaders of the movement; she lectured in many places in that part of the State and wrote able articles for the press. The Polk County Suffrage Society was organized on the 25th of October, 1870. In the fall of the same year a society was established in Burlington, through the efforts of Mary A. P. Darwin, who delivered a series of lectures through the southern part of the State. Mattie Griffith of Davenport was a pioneer in the cause in that city and vicinity as early as 1868. In 1870 Mrs. Bloomer and Mrs. Hannah Tracy Cutler lectured at Oskaloosa where a society was soon after organized. During the year 1870-71-72-73, lectures were given by Nettie Sanford, Lizzie B. Reed, Mrs. A. M. Swain, Susan B. Anthony and others who carried on an active campaign for the cause, and many societies were established.
On the 17th of June, 1870, a State Convention of advocates of woman suffrage was held at Mt. Pleasant where was organized the “Iowa Woman Suffrage Society.” The following officers were elected: president, Henry ​O’Connor; vice-presidents, Amelia Bloomer, Nettie Sanford, Mrs. F. W. Palmer, Joseph Dugdale and John P. Irish; secretary, Belle Mansfield; corresponding secretary, Annie C. Savery; executive committee, Mary A. P. Darwin, Mattie Griffith, Mrs. J. L. McCreery, Rev. Augusta Chapin and Charles Beardsley. The object of the organization was to secure the ballot for women by amendment of the Constitution of the State which limits the right of suffrage to men.
At the session of the Thirteenth General Assembly, in 1870, John P. Irish of Johnson County, introduced into the House of Representatives a joint resolution providing for submission to a vote of the people of an amendment to the Constitution, striking the word “male” from the article on suffrage. The resolution passed both branches and was approved by Governor Merrill. Before a proposed amendment to the Constitution becomes effective it must receive the approval of two successive General Assemblies and the votes of a majority of the electors voting at an election in which it is submitted for approval or rejection.
The first annual meeting of the State Society was held at Des Moines on the 19th of October, 1871, at which Amelia Bloomer presided in the absence of the president. There was a large attendance and many accessions were made to the membership. The principal speakers were Mrs. Delia Ruttkay, Nettie Sanford, Amelia Bloomer, Annie C. Savery and Mrs. Spaulding. When the Fourteenth General Assembly convened, John A. Kasson who was a most influential member, proposed to the officers of the Suffrage Society to secure a joint meeting of the Legislature at which the advocates of the amendment should have a hearing before that body and present their arguments for its consideration. For some reason not explained the managers neglected to avail themselves of the opportunity to plead their cause under such favorable circumstances. Had they made their arguments through ​their ablest advocates to the tribunal which must decide the case, it was the general belief of impartial observers that they would have won a victory. But instead, they called a mass meeting of the public, where excellent speeches were made but a majority of the members who were to decide the fate of the amendment were not present and the bill lacked four votes of a constitutional majority on the Senate roll call. It passed the House by the decisive vote of fifty-eight ayes to thirty-nine nays. Had the suffrage managers taken the advice of the able and experienced legislator, there is little doubt that equal suffrage would have been engrafted upon our State Constitution. The liquor power at that time was in the minority and powerless to manipulate the defeat of woman suffrage as it has ever since done. The advocates of equal suffrage have never ceased to press the reform upon succeeding Legislatures but every saloon in the State stands on guard to defeat a reform which would strike the death knell to its existence.
When the Republican State Convention met in 1874, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert was given a hearing before the committee on resolutions where by argument and eloquence she succeeded in securing the following declaration from the Convention:
“Resolved, That since the people may be entrusted with all questions of governmental reform, we favor the final submission to them of the question of amending the Constitution so as to extend the right of suffrage to women, pursuant to the action of the Fifteenth General Assembly.”
Governor Carpenter, in his message to the Sixteenth General Assembly, urged the approval of the suffrage amendment; Matilda Hindman was granted a hearing before the Legislature and Susan B. Anthony made a powerful appeal to the members in a public speech. The measure was, however, defeated in the Senate after having passed the House.
In the face of many discouragements the crusade went ​on year after year. New workers were continually swelling the ranks of the reformers; among the active advocates for the next ten years may be mentioned Amelia Bloomer, Margaret Campbell, a logical and brilliant speaker whose services were in demand from Maine to California, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Lizzie B. Reed, Caroline A. Ingham, Mary A. Work, Narcissa T. Bemis, Eliza H. Hunter, Mary J. Coggeshall, Jennie Wilson, Elizabeth Parker Gue, Adeline M. Swain, Amanda Stewart, Orilla M. James, Harriet G. Bellangee, Martha C. Callanan, Florence English, Ellen Armstrong, Angeline Allison, Mariana T. Folsom, all of whom served during a portion of this period as officers of the State Society.
Each year the society has kept open house in a building on the State Fair Grounds, during the annual exhibitions, where literature has been distributed and petitions presented to all visitors for signatures asking for the enactment of an equal suffrage amendment to the State Constitution.
The first woman appointed to a clerkship in a State office in Iowa was Linda M. Ramsey of Tipton, afterwards Mrs. Hartzell, an active suffrage worker; as early as 1864, Adjutant-General N. B. Baker appointed her one of his clerks where she served with marked efficiency for several years. Miss Augusta Mathews was employed by Governor Stone as a clerk in the Executive office a few years later. In 1870 Miss Mary E. Spencer of Clinton County was a candidate for engrossing clerk of the House of Representatives and was elected over her male competitors. She gave such satisfaction that each succeeding General Assembly has chosen women to some of the legislative offices. In 1871 Ada E. North was employed as a clerk in one of the State offices. In September, 1872, she was appointed by Governor Carpenter State Librarian and is believed to have been the first woman in America to hold a State office. In 1874 Governor Carpenter appointed Deborah Cattell a Commissioner to investigate ​charges of cruelty in the State Reform School at Eldora. In 1876 Governor Kirkwood appointed Nancy R. Allen, a notary public; Mrs. Merrill a teacher and chaplain at the State penitentiary; Miss Dr. McCowen and Dr. Sara A. Pangborn on the staff of physicians at the State insane asylums. Governor Gear, in 1880, appointed Dr. Abbie M. Cleaves a delegate from Iowa to the National Conference of Charities and Correction and to the National Association for the Protection of the Insane; and the General Assembly elected Jane C. McKinney a trustee of the Insane Asylum at Independence. Governor Sherman appointed Mary H. Wright and Dr. Abbie Cleaves delegates to the National Association for the Prevention of Insanity, in 1883.
In 1880, the General Assembly passed an act to extend to women the right to hold the office of county recorder and the first woman elected under its provisions was Miss Addie Hayden of Warren County. Mrs. J. C. Hill was chosen recorder of Osceola County at the same election.
The question of the eligibility of women to hold office in Iowa was raised in 1869, in the case of Julia C. Addington, who had been elected county superintendent of schools. The case was referred to Attorney-General Henry O’Connor, who held that “there is no provision of law in Iowa preventing women from holding the office of superintendent of schools.” The question was again raised at the election of October, 1875, when Elizabeth S. Cooke was elected to the office of superintendent of schools in Warren County. Her competitor, a Mr. Huff, who was not elected, sought to procure the office by having women declared to be ineligible. He succeeded in procuring a decision of the District Court which declared that “the defendant, Miss Cooke, being a woman, was ineligible to the office.” The case was taken to the Supreme Court which reversed the decision of the lower Court, holding that “there is no constitutional ​inhibition upon the right of women to hold the office of superintendent of schools.”
The Sixteenth General Assembly being in session promptly enacted the following law which settled the question:
“Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Iowa, that no person shall be deemed ineligible, by reason of sex, to any school office in Iowa.
“Section 2. No person who may have been, or shall be elected or appointed to the office of county superintendent of schools, or director, in the State of Iowa, shall be deprived of office by reason of sex.”
In 1880 in Polk County, Mary A. Work was unanimously elected school director in Delaware township and soon after was chosen president of the school board. In 1885 the school board of the city of Des Moines elected Louisa M. Wilson to the office of superintendent of schools, at a salary of $1,800 a year. She had supervision over eighty teachers, two of whom were men principals of grade schools. The office of State Librarian in Iowa was filled by women from 1872 to 1898, and several women have been elected trustees of the various State institutions.
At the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Women held at Des Moines in October, 1885, Dr. Jennie McCowen in her report for Iowa, said:
“An increasing number of women have been elected on school boards, and are serving as officers and county superintendents of schools. Last year six women served as presidents, thirty-five as secretaries and fifty as treasurers of school boards. Of the superintendents and principals of the graded schools about one in five is a woman; of county superintendents, one in nine; of teachers in normal institutes, one in three; of principals of secondary institutions of learning, one in three; of tutors and instructors in colleges, one in two; and in the twenty-three higher institutions of learning, thirteen young women are officiating as professors and in three of these colleges the secretary of the faculty is a woman. One of the State Board of Examiners, is Ella A. Hamilton of Des Moines. The ‘Northwestern Educational Journal’ is edited by a woman. The school of Domestic Economy at the State Agricultural College, is in charge of ​Mary B. Welch as dean. A number of young ladies, graduates of the State University and other literary schools, have gone to this School of Domestic Economy to finish their education.”
Many of the most talented editorial writers for Iowa journals have for many years been women; and among Iowa authors of books on various subjects are many brilliant women.
Ellen S. Tupper of Iowa was for twenty years the highest authority in the United States on bee-keeping. She contributed to the best bee journals and conducted departments in the New York Tribune, the Iowa Homestead, and other papers of wide circulation. Two of her daughters were talented Unitarian ministers. Mary A. Emsley of Mason City and Louisa B. Stevens of Marion, were among the pioneer women bankers of Iowa. Mrs. M. A. Turner was for many years secretary and treasurer of the Des Moines Street Railway Company.
During the War of the Rebellion Iowa furnished many devoted and heroic nurses to the army in the field and camp. Among them may be mentioned Annie Wittenmyer, Ann E. Harlan, Almira Fales, Phoebe Allen, Mrs. I. K. Fuller, Mrs. Simmons, Jerusha R. Small, Melcena Elliott and Arabella Tannehill. No State in the Union has produced a truer heroine than Iowa, in the brave little Irish girl of Boone County, Kate Shelley, who at the peril of her life, saved a night train loaded with sleeping passengers on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway.
The legislation of Iowa as to the rights of women, from the first, has been more liberal than that of a large majority of the States. Under the first code of the Territory, 1842-3, the widow inherited one-third of the real estate and personal property; and if there were no children she received one-half of all property. If there were no kindred, she received the entire estate. The code of 1851 provided that the personal property of the wife did not vest in the husband at once but, if left in his control, ​it became liable for his debts, unless she filed a notice with the recorder of deeds setting forth her claim to the property with a full description. The same rule applied to specific articles of personal property. Married women abandoned by their husbands could, upon application to the court, procure authority to transact business in their own names.
The Code of 1860 did not materially change these provisions. Under both the husband was entitled to the wages and earnings of his wife. The Code of 1873 was intended to place the husband and wife on an equality as to property rights. By its provisions a married woman may own in her own right real and personal property acquired by gift, descent, or purchase; and she may exercise as absolute ownership over her property as the husband does over his. The wife may receive wages for her personal labor, maintain an action therefor in her own name and hold the same in her own right. She may prosecute and defend actions at law, or in equity, for the preservation and protection of her rights and property. Contracts may be made by a wife, and liabilities incurred and the same enforced by, upon or against her, to the same extent as though she were unmarried. The property of both husband and wife is equally liable for the expenses of the family and the education of the children and neither is liable for the debts of the other without express contract. The parents are the natural guardians of the children and are equally entitled to their care and custody. A man is not permitted to mortgage the homestead, household furniture or other exempt property without the coöperation and joint signature of the wife.
In 1894 an act was passed by the Legislature granting suffrage to women at municipal or school elections, where bonds are to be issued or taxes levied.
The Democratic party of Iowa has never, in convention, indorsed woman suffrage. The Republican party, as mentioned, once only, approved equal suffrage. Neither ​of these two parties has ever nominated a woman for a State office. In 1877 the State Prohibition party, by resolution demanded suffrage for women and again in 1879 the State Convention of the same party approved suffrage for women. In 1881 the Greenback State Convention nominated Adeline M. Swain of Fort Dodge for Superintendent of Public Instruction. At the election she received 26,794 votes. In 1883 the Greenback party in State Convention again indorsed woman suffrage and nominated Abbie O. Canfield of Burlington for Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1884 Mrs. H. J. Ballangee of Des Moines and Mrs. A. M. Swain of Fort Dodge were among the delegates elected by the Greenback State Convention to represent that party in the National Convention to nominate a candidate for President. They were received by the National Convention with great courtesy and participated in its deliberations. The Populist party in National Convention indorsed woman suffrage.
Among the political and temperance speakers of note may be mentioned J. Ellen Foster, Matilda Fletcher, Adeline M. Swain, Mrs. W. R. Cole and Mary J. Aldrich. The first woman minister in Iowa was Rev. Augusta Chapin, Universalist and Rev. Mary A. Safford was one of the Pioneer Unitarian ministers of the State.
In 1874 Mary B. Welch was appointed lecturer on Domestic Economy at the State Agricultural College and was subsequently elected to a full professorship in charge of that department which has from that time been presided over by women professors. Miss Phœbe Ludlow was appointed professor of English literature in the State University. In all of the professions, law, medicine, journalism and divinity, Iowa women have become numerous, taking as high rank as men. As dentists, stenographers, telegraph operators, bankers, farmers, merchants, librarians, insurance solicitors and officers, bookkeepers, cashiers, photographers, newspaper reporters, ​and many other occupations, girls and women have made their way by merit and business enterprise, until the time has arrived in the opening years of the Twentieth Century when almost every vocation is open to women. Prejudice has slowly been overcome by efficiency, until a woman can choose among the occupations the one best suited to her qualifications and tastes as men have done in all the years of the past.
The friends of equal suffrage have never ceased to present their petitions at each succeeding session of the General Assembly and earnest workers urge the reform before the members.
Among the efficient advocates of the cause who in recent years have aided in the work, in addition to those heretofore named, may be mentioned Mrs. Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, the efficient president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, the worthy successor of Susan B. Anthony, and the Iowa woman who has attained greatest prominence in her chosen work; Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden of Sioux City, Mrs. J. B. Romans of Denison, Mrs. Adelaide Ballard of Hull and Mrs. C. H. Flint of Des Moines. For many years the Woman’s Standard, conducted by women, has been a most efficient aid in the reform work. In 1891 the State Association was incorporated under the name of “The Iowa Equal Suffrage Association.”
With the organization of the first woman’s club in Iowa, a movement was inaugurated the influence of which has been more far reaching than might at first thought be realized. The first step in this direction was taken late in the seventies; for a time the movement made slow progress, the clubs were few and limited in scope. From the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Women at Des Moines in 1885 dates the general awakening of the desire for a wider culture. Many of the clubs were devoted to study, others to philanthropy, church interests and social affairs. The study of literature, arts, sciences, ​history, parliamentary law and innumerable subjects has not only interested women in a wide range of topics but enabled them to become proficient speakers and writers. Clubs devoted to philanthropy, organized industrial schools, libraries, village improvement and humane societies.
So widespread and varied had this movement become that the need of a State organization was felt and at a meeting held in Des Moines, in April, 1893, the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs was organized. The object of the Federation was stated in the constitution to be “to bring into communication with one another the various Women’s Clubs throughout the State, that they may compare methods of work and become mutually helpful.” The officers consist of a president, first vice-president, recording secretary, corresponding secretary and auditor.
It was further provided that the president of each federated club should be a vice-president of the State Federation and that these, with the general officers, constitute the executive board to transact the business of the Federation subject to its direction. The constitution of the clubs, applying for admission to the Federation, must show that no sectarian or political test is required and that while distinctly humanitarian movements may be recognized, their chief purpose is not philanthropic, or technical, but social, literary, artistic or scientific culture. The meetings of the State Federation are biennial. The number of clubs belonging to the State Federation at the close of the Nineteenth Century was one hundred ninety-eight, the number of members 7,000. The number of towns and cities represented by these clubs was one hundred thirty-six.