The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-07-03
DR.. ANNA SHAW
WOMAN SUFFRAGE
LEADER IS DEAD
Death Came AS Result of
Pneumonia
SHE ROSE FROM POVERTY
Had Been Prominently Active in Pub
lie Affairs Up to Time of
Her Death

Philadelphia, July 2.-Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw, honorary president OF
the national American womans suf
frage association, died at her home in
Moylan, Pa, near here, at z O'Clock
this evening. She was II years old
DR.. Shaw also was chairman of the
woman's committee of the council oi
national defense and recently was
awarded the distinguished service
medal for her work during the war.
She was taken i'll in Springfield
ILL.,, about a month ago while on a
lecture tour with former President
ward university in the interest of the
league of nations. Pneumonia de
veloped and for two weeks she was
confined to her room in a Springfield
hospital. She returned to her home
about the middle of June and appar
emily had entirely recovered. Last
Saturday she drove to Philadelphia
in her automobile and upon her re
tuyn said she was feeling fine" She
was taken suddenly i'll again yester
day with a recurrence of the disease
and grew rapidly worse until the end
DR. Shaw long had been prominent
ly identified with the woman suffrage
movement and was president of the
national American woman suffrage as
sociation consecutively for II years
In 1915 she declined denomination
and then was elected honorary presi
dent She had spoken in every state
in the Union, before many state Leg.
islatures and committees of both
Houses, Of Congress in the interest OF
suffrage. She was a member of the
international woman suffrage alliance
international council of women,
league to enforce peace and national
society for broader education.
DR.. Shaw continued her active par.
in public affairs to the last.
preceding the great war,
in the early summer of 1914 she went
to Rome as chairman OF the commit
tee on suffrage and right of citizen
ship at the quinquennial session Of
the international council of women.
after hostilities had been
terminated in France by the armistice
DR.. Shaw signed the resolution she
helped draft for the national Ameri-
can woman suffrage association ad-
dressed to the peace conference, ask
ing for punishment of the Germans
for their crimes against women and
girls.
For her endeavors in the interest of
women at home as well as soldiers in
France during the war DR.. Shaw re-
ceived letters from Queen Mary OF
Great Britain. Nine Poincare, wife of
the president of France, President
Wilson and Gen. Pershing and other
celebrities.
DR.. Anna Howard Shaw was born
at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Eng, Febru-
ary IA. 1S47, and came to this coun-
try, an unknown pioneer girl of four
years and through her own efforts
eventually became the president of
the national woman suffrage associa-
ton. IN her girlhood she lived with
her parents immigrant family in a
Michigan wilderness 40 miles from a
post-office and 100 miles from a rail
road, starting her career as school
teacher who walked eight miles day
and received $4 a week. Her home
was a poverty stricken log cabin built
by her father, who was compelled to
leave his wife and children at the
mercy of Indians and wild animals
while he earned a living for them.
soI, tom, hr, I.F -
went to live with one of her married
sisters in northern town. After
studying at Albion college from 1872
to 1875, she was graduated from the
Boston school of theology in 1878,
paying her way through school and
college by preaching and lecturing
She suffered extreme poverty during
this period, living in an attic in Bos-
ton On account of her sex she was
refused ordination by the New Eng
land conference and by the general
conference of the Methodist Episco-
pal church, but in the same year had
the honor of being the first woman
by the Methodist Protestant
church. In her struggles to become
a minister she fought against ridicule,
and lack of the bagest
necessities.
After seven-years service as
preacher to a small flock at East
Dennis, DR. Shaw resigned from the
pulpit to take up the fight for tenn
perance, for suffrage and for social
purity. Her association, through her
preaching, with such prominent wom-
en- as Mary A. Livermore and Julia
Ward Howe, enlarged her view of life
and aroused enthusiasm for the
cause.