The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 88

Republican--A. H. Heber, W. R. Hopkins, F. W. Willard, J. Showalter.

Democrat--J. O. Milner, G. M. Hoover, T. C. Craig, F. M. Gable.

Populist--Robt. B. Leedy, J. L. Andrews, Wellington Doty, B. F. Morris, Levi Dumbauld, C. W. d.i.c.kson, Geo. E. Smith of Neosho.

[277] In 1901, in Topeka, a candidate for the mayoralty, supposed to represent the liquor element, speaking on the afternoon of election day--bleak, dismal and shoe-top deep in snow and mud--said: "I will lose 1,000 votes on account of the weather as the women are out and they are opposed to me. It is impossible to keep them from voting."

CHAPTER XLI.

KENTUCKY.[278]

In October, 1886, the a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Women held its annual congress in Louisville, and for the first time woman suffrage was admitted to a place on the program. It was advocated by Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney of Ma.s.sachusetts and Miss Laura Clay.

The subject was much discussed for the next two years and in February, 1888, Mrs. Mary B. Clay, vice-president of the American and of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociations, called a convention in Frankfort. Delegates from Lexington and Richmond attended, and Mrs.

Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana was present by invitation. The Hall of Representatives was granted for two evenings, the General a.s.sembly being in session. On the first Mrs. Wallace delivered an able address and the hall was well filled, princ.i.p.ally with members of the Legislature. On the second Mrs. Clay spoke upon the harsh laws in regard to women, and Prof. E. B. Walker on the injustice of the property laws and the advantage of giving women the ballot in munic.i.p.al affairs. He was followed by Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett, who argued that women already had a right to the ballot under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Const.i.tution. At the conclusion of her address she asked all legislators present who were willing to give the ballot to women to stand. Seven arose and were greeted with loud applause.

When the annual meeting of the American W. S. A. convened in Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 20-22, 1888, Miss Laura Clay, member of its executive committee from Kentucky, issued a call to the suffragists of that State to attend this convention for the purpose of organizing a State a.s.sociation. Accordingly delegates from the Fayette and Kenton county societies met and organized the Kentucky Equal Rights a.s.sociation. The following officers were elected: President, Miss Clay; vice-presidents, Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Mrs. Mary B.

Clay; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer; recording secretary, Miss Anna M. Deane; treasurer, Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard.

The second annual convention was held in the court house at Lexington, Nov. 19-21, 1889, with officers and delegates representing seven counties. The evening speakers were Mrs. Clay, Mrs. Josephine K. Henry and Joseph B. Cottrell, D. D. A committee was appointed, Mrs. Henry, chairman, to present the interests of women to the approaching General a.s.sembly and the Const.i.tutional Convention. (See Legislative Action for 1890.)

The next annual meeting took place in Richmond, Dec. 3, 4, 1890. Mrs.

Sarah Hardin Sawyer was asked to prepare a tract on co-education, which proved of great a.s.sistance in opening the colleges to women. The evening speakers were Mrs. Shepard, Mrs. Henry and the Rev. John G.

Fee, the venerable Kentucky Abolitionist.

The fourth convention was held in Louisville, Dec. 8-10, 1891, and was addressed by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and the Rev. Dr. C. K. J.

Jones.

The fifth annual meeting convened in Richmond, Nov. 9, 10, 1892.[279]

Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain's paper, "Why a Democratic Woman Wants the Ballot," was afterwards widely circulated as a leaflet. The evening speakers were Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, D. C., and Dr. J.

Franklin Browne.

The General a.s.sembly of 1892 was in session most of that year and some months in 1893, as there was a vast amount of business to be done in bringing all departments of legislation into harmony with the new const.i.tution. During all this time the State a.s.sociation was busy urging the rights of women; and at its sixth convention, held in Newport, Oct. 17-19, 1893, was able to report that a law had been secured granting a married woman the power to make a will and control her separate property. Among the speakers was the Rev. G. W.

Bradford.

The annual meeting took place in Lexington, Oct. 24-26, 1894. The most encouraging successes of any year were reported in the extension of School Suffrage and the pa.s.sage of the Married Woman's Property Rights Bill. In answer to the pet.i.tion of the Fayette County society to Mayor Henry T. Duncan and the city council of Lexington to place a woman on the school board, Mrs. Wilbur R. Smith had been appointed. She was the first to hold such a position in Kentucky. Mrs. Farmer gave an address on School Suffrage, with ill.u.s.trations of registration and voting, which women were to have an opportunity to apply in 1895.[280]

In 1895 Richmond was again selected as the place for the State convention, December 10-12, at which legislative work in the General a.s.sembly of 1896 was carefully planned. (See Legislative Action.)

The convention met in Lexington, Dec. 18, 1896. A committee was appointed to work for complete School Suffrage in the extra session of the General a.s.sembly the next year.[281]

Covington entertained the annual meeting Oct. 14, 15, 1897. Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe of Illinois, a national organizer, was present, being then engaged in a tour through the State. This convention was unusually large and full of encouragement.

The eleventh convention was held in Richmond, Dec. 1, 1898, and the twelfth in Lexington, Dec. 11, 12, 1899. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay, secretary, a.s.sisted, the former giving addresses both evenings. It was decided to ask the General a.s.sembly to make an appropriation for the establishment of a dormitory for the women students of the State College.

Miss Laura Clay has been president of the State a.s.sociation since it was organized in 1888. Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick was the first vice-president, but removing to Ma.s.sachusetts the following year, Mrs.

Mary Barr Clay, the second vice-president, was elected and has continued in that office. There have been but two other second vice-presidents, the Hon. William Randall Ramsey and Mrs. Mary C.

Cramer, and but two corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer and Mrs. Mary C. Roark. The office of treasurer has been filled continuously by Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard.[282] During all these years H. H. Gratz, editor of the Lexington _Gazette_, and John W. Sawyer, editor of the _Southern Journal_, have been among the most faithful and courageous friends of woman suffrage. The Prohibition papers, almost without exception, have been cordial.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: During the General a.s.sembly of 1890, a committee of eight from the E. R. A. went to Frankfort to ask legislation on the property rights of women, and for women physicians in the State asylums for the insane. A pet.i.tion for property rights was presented, signed with 9,000 names. Of these 2,240 were collected by Mrs. S. M. Hubbard. On January 10 appeals were made in Representatives' Hall by Miss Laura Clay for the Women Physicians Bill, and by Mrs. Josephine K. Henry for the Property Rights Bill. The latter had carefully prepared a compendium of the married women's property laws in all the States, which was of incalculable value throughout the years of labor necessary to secure this bill.

The press of the State, with few exceptions, espoused the cause of property rights for women. Seven bills were presented to this General a.s.sembly, among them one drawn and introduced into the Senate by Judge William Lindsay, afterward United States Senator. This secured to married women the enjoyment of their property, gave them the power to make a will and equalized curtesy and dower. Although reported adversely by the committee, it was taken up for discussion and was eloquently defended by Judge Lindsay. It pa.s.sed the Senate, but, was defeated in the House by the opposing members withdrawing and breaking the quorum.[283] A bill introduced by the Hon. William B.

Smith, making it obligatory upon employers to pay wages earned by married women to themselves and not their husbands, became a law at this session.

The Const.i.tutional Convention held in 1890-91 was the field of much labor by the State a.s.sociation. In October a committee consisting of Mrs. Henry, Miss Clay, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer, Mrs. Isabella H.

Shepard and Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett went to Frankfort to appeal for clauses in the new const.i.tution empowering the General a.s.sembly to extend Full Suffrage to women; to secure the property rights of wives; and to grant School Suffrage to all women. The importance of their claims was so impressed upon the convention that it appointed a special Committee on Woman's Rights, with one of its most esteemed members, the Hon. Jep. C. Jonson, as chairman, who did all in his power to bring their cause favorably before this body.

On the evening of October 9, in Representatives' Hall, Miss Clay, Mrs.

Shepard and Mrs. Bennett addressed an audience composed largely of members, being introduced by Mr. Jonson. Later, Mrs. Henry was given a hearing before the committee. Her tract appealing for property rights was read before the convention by Mr. Jonson and supplied to each of the 100 members. In addition she supplied them several times a week with leaflets, congressional hearings, etc., and wrote 200 articles for the press on property rights and thirty-one on suffrage.

The five ladies, with Mrs. Sarah Hardin Sawyer and Mrs. Margaret A.

Watts, met in Frankfort again on December 8, and obtained hearings before the Committees on Revision of the Const.i.tution, Education and Woman's Rights. Mrs. Henry also addressed the Committee on Elections, who asked that her speech be printed and furnished to each member of the convention.

On December 12 the Hon. W. H. Mackoy, at the request of the suffragists, offered this amendment to the section on elections: "The General a.s.sembly may hereafter extend full or partial suffrage to female citizens of the United States of the age of 21 years, who have resided in this State one year, etc." By his motion the ladies appeared before the convention in Committee of the Whole. They selected Miss Clay as their spokesman and sat in front of the speaker's stand during her address.

The only clause finally obtained in the new const.i.tution was one permitting the General a.s.sembly to extend School Suffrage to women; but the Legislature of 1892 made important concessions.

Among the members of the General a.s.sembly of 1894 especial grat.i.tude is due to Judges S. B. Vance and W. H. Beckner. The former introduced the Bill for Married Women's Property Rights in the House, giving Senator Lindsay credit for being practically its author. Judge Beckner cordially supported this bill, saying he preferred it to one of his own, which he had introduced but would push only if it should be evident that Judge Vance's more liberal bill could not become law. To the leadership of these two is due the vote of 79 ayes to 14 noes with which the bill pa.s.sed the House. In the Senate it came near to defeat, but was carried through by the strenuous efforts of its friends, especially of Senators W. W. Stephenson, Rozel Weissinger and William Goebel. Senator Weissinger withdrew in favor of the House bill one of his own, not so comprehensive. The bill pa.s.sed on the very last day of the session possible to finish business. The Senate vote was 21 yeas, 10 nays.[284] It was signed March 15 by Gov. John Young Brown, who always had favored it.

Another signal victory this year was School Suffrage for women of the second-cla.s.s cities. Since 1838 widows with children of school age had been voters for school trustees in the country districts, and in 1888 this right was extended to allow tax-paying widows and spinsters to vote on school taxes. This general law, however, did not apply to chartered cities. The vigilance of Mrs. Farmer observed and seized the opportunity offered by the revision of city charters, after the adoption of the new const.i.tution, to put in clauses granting full School Suffrage to all women. At her instigation, in 1892, the equal rights a.s.sociations of Covington, Newport and Lexington, the only second-cla.s.s cities, pet.i.tioned the committee selected to prepare a charter for such cities to insert a clause in the section on education, making women eligible as members of school boards and qualified to vote at all elections of such boards. This was done, and the charter pa.s.sed the General a.s.sembly in 1894, and was signed by Governor Brown on March 19. The influence of the State a.s.sociation was not sufficient, however, to have School Suffrage put in the charters of cities of the first, third and fourth cla.s.ses. The Hons. Charles Jacob Bronston, John O. Hodges, William Goebel and Joel Baker did excellent service for this clause.

The changes wrought by liberal legislation and the part the State a.s.sociation had in securing this will be best understood by quotations from a leaflet issued by the State a.s.sociation:

In 1888 the Kentucky E. R. A. was organized for the purpose of obtaining for women equality with men in educational, industrial, legal and political rights.

We found on the statute books a law which permitted a husband to collect his wife's wages.

We found Kentucky the only State which did not allow a married woman to make a will.

We found that marriage gave to the husband all the wife's personal property which could be reduced to possession, and the use of all her real estate owned at the time or acquired by her after marriage, with power to rent the same and receive the rent.

We found that the common law of curtesy and dower prevailed, whereby on the death of the wife the husband inherited absolutely all her personalty and, when there were children, a life interest in all her real estate; while the wife, when there were children, inherited one-third of her husband's personalty and a life-interest in one-third of his real estate.

I. In 1890 we secured a law which made the wife's wages payable only to herself.

II. From the General a.s.sembly of 1892-93 we secured a law giving a married woman the right to make a will and control her real estate.

III. From the General a.s.sembly of 1894 we secured the present Law for Husband and Wife. The main features of this are:

1. Curtesy and dower are equalized. After the death of either husband or wife, the survivor is given a life estate in one-third of the realty of the deceased and an absolute estate in one-half of the personalty.

2. The wife has entire control of her property, real and personal. She owns her personal property absolutely, and can dispose of it as she pleases.[285] The statute gives her the right to make contracts and to sue and be sued as a single woman.

This enables a married woman to enter business and hold her stock in trade free from the control of her husband and liability to his creditors.

3. The power to make a will is the same in husband and wife, and neither can by will divest the other of dower or interest in his or her estate.