Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1916-03-22
EXTRACTS FROM THE AUTO
BIOGRAPHY OF
lane GREY SWISSHELM
First Newspaper Woman of
Minnesota.
A Remarkable Woman Of Ante.
belIum Days-1815.1s65
CHI A P T E r Xxx.
Rights of Married Women.

After mothers death, prosecuted to
successful issue a suit for the re-
cOvery Of the house in which I was
born. 1t stood on Water street, near
Market. and our lawyer. Walter Lowrie,
afterwards supreme judge, was to have
given us possession Of the property on
the LIST of July, 1915, which would add
eight hundred dollars year to the in
come OF my sister and myself. But on
the 10th OF April, the great fire swept
away the building and left lot bearing
ground rent. Property rose and we had
good offer for the lease. Every one
was willing to SELL but the purchasers
concluded that both our husbands must
sign the deed. To this no objection
was made, and we met in William
Shinn's office, when my husband re-
fused to sign unless my share of the
purchase money were paid to him.
Mothers will was sacred to me- The
money he proposed to put in improve
ments the SWissvale mills. These
in case of his death before his mother,
would go to his brothers. I had not
even a dover right in the estate, and
already the proceeds of my labor and
income from my separate estate were
put upon it, I refused to give him the
money, and on my way alone from the
lawyers office it occurred to me that
all the advances made by humanity had
been through the pressure of Injustice
and that the screws had been turned
on me that I might do something to
right the great wrong which forbade
a married woman to own property. So,
instead of spending my strength quar-
reling with the hand. 1 would strike for
the heart Of that great tyranny
1 borrowed books from Judge Will
kins, took legal advice from Colonel
Black, studied the laws under which
I lived, and began a series of letters in
the Journal on the subject of a mar
ried woman's right to hold property.
I said nothing of my own affairs and
confined myself to general principles,
, until a man in East Liberty furnished
me an illustration, and with it I made
the cheeks Of men burn with anger
and shame.
The case was that of young Ger
man merchant who married the daugh-
ter of a wealthy farmer. Her father
gave her a handsome outfit Of choice
and furniture. She became i'll soon af-
ter marriage, her sister took her place
died, after bequeathing the clothes and
furniture to the sister; but the sorrow
ing husband held fast to the property
and proposed to turn it into money.
The father wanted it as souvenir of
his lost child, and tried to purchase
of him, but the husband raised the
price until purchase was impossible,
when he advertised the goods for sale
q fat o11 iii
zen, highly respected, and SO great con-
tempt and Indignation was felt that at
the vendue no one would bid against
him, SO the husbands father came for
ward and ran up the price of the ar
ticles. When her riding Dress hat and
whip were held up, there was gen.
eral cry of shame. The incident came
just in time for my purpose, so !
turned every mans scorn against him.
self, said to them:
"Gentlemen, these are your laws
Your English ancestors made them!
Your fathers brought them across the
water and planted them here, where
they flourish like green bay tree. You
robbed that wife of her right to devise
her own property-that husband is sim.
ply your agent"
Lucretia Mott and Mary A. Grew, OF
Philadelphia, labored assiduously fol
the same object, and in the session OF
AT and '4S, the legislature of Pennsyl
vania secured to married women tn,
right to hold property.
Soon after the passage of the bill
William A. Stokes said to me:
1--WE hold you responsible for tina
law, and I tell you now, you will liv
TO rue the day when you opened sucl
a Pandoras box in your native state
and cast such an apple Of discord int
every family in it,"
His standing as a lawyer entitled hi
opinion to respect and as he went on t
explain the impossibility of reconcilin,
that statute with the general tenor O
law and precedent, I was gravely ap
prehens1ve. The public mind was no
prepared for SO great a change; Their
had been no general demand for it
lawyers did not know what to do wit
1T, and judges shook their heads. In
deed. there was so much doubt and OF
position that I feared a repeal, unit
some months after Col. Kane came t
me and said:
There is a young lawyer from Steu
benville named Stanton who would lik
to be introduced to you"
I was in a gracious mood and cor
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