Volume III Part 82 (1/2)
As has been indicated in another connection, it was the legislature of 1881 which distinguished itself by pa.s.sing a bill for amending section 2 of article II. of the State const.i.tution so as to give women the right to vote in all elections. The legislature of 1883 did nothing to further ameliorate the legal condition of women; and the highest legal rights enjoyed by women of Indiana are indicated in the foregoing recital of legislative action upon the subject from 1860 to 1884 inclusive.
For some years after public schools were established in Indiana, women had no recognition. I am told by a reliable gentleman, Dr.
R. T. Brown, who served from 1833 to 1840 as examiner in one of the most advanced counties of the commonwealth, that during that period no woman ever applied to him for a license to teach, and that up to 1850 very few were employed in the public schools. At that time it was permitted women to teach ”subscription” schools during the vacations, for which purpose the use of the district school-house was frequently granted. It was by demonstrating their capacity in this un.o.btrusive use of holidays, that women obtained employment in the regular schools. The tables show that in 1861 there were 6,421 men and 1,905 women employed in the primary schools, and 128 men and 72 women in the high schools.
From that time up to 1866, owing to the war, the number of men decreased while that of women rapidly increased. The tables for that year show 5,330 men and 4,163 women in the schools. The number of men employed in 1880 was 7,802, of women, 5,776. While the very best places are held by men, the majority of the second-rate places are filled by women, and men fill a majority of the lowest places. The average daily wages received by men engaged in the public schools in 1880 was $1.86, while the average daily wages of women was $1.76.
Of the twenty-six academies, colleges and universities, all are, with two notable exceptions--Hanover and Wabash--open to women.
Of these, Butler, at Irvington, formerly known as the Northwestern Christian University, was the first to admit women to a ”female course,” which its managers arranged to meet the needs of the female mind. In its laudable endeavor to adapt its requirements to this intermediate cla.s.s of beings, the university subst.i.tuted music for mathematics, and French for Greek. Few, however, availed themselves of this course, and it was utterly rejected by Demia Butler, a daughter of the founder of the inst.i.tution, who entered it in 1860, and graduated from what was then known as the male course, in 1864, thus winning the right to be remembered as the first woman in Indiana to demonstrate the capacity of her s.e.x to cope with the cla.s.sics and higher mathematics. From that time the ”female course” became gradually less popular, until it was discarded. One after another, private and denominational schools have fallen into line, until nearly all of them are open to women without humiliating conditions.
Up to 1867 the Indiana University exhibited the anomaly of a great inst.i.tution of learning supported by the State, and regarding itself as the crown of the public-school system, free to but one-half of the children of the commonwealth. Since that date it has been open equally to both s.e.xes in all three of its departments--the State Normal School, located at Terre Haute, the Agricultural College, located at Lafayette and commonly known as Purdue University, and the State University proper, including literary and scientific departments located at Bloomington. Of this last branch, 30 per cent. are women. That there is no longer any discrimination in these higher inst.i.tutions of learning is not true. Girls must always feel that they are regarded as belonging to a subordinate cla.s.s, wherever women are not found in the faculty and board of managers. The depressing influence of their absence in superior positions cannot be measured.
Very few women are found in college faculties in Indiana, and none on boards of trustees. Those most conspicuous in ability are Mrs. Sarah A. Oren,[342] who, having served two successive terms as State librarian, was called from that position to fill a chair at Purdue University, where she remained several years; Miss Catharine Merrill, professor of English literature in Butler University, who throughout her term of service from 1869 to 1883 enjoyed the deserved reputation of being one of the strongest members of the faculty;[343] and Miss Rebecca I. Thompson, who is professor of mathematics at Franklin College, the leading Baptist school in the State. The women occupying these conspicuous positions are all identified with the suffrage movement; Professor Thompson, of Franklin, is the president of the Johnson County Suffrage a.s.sociation. Miss N. Cropsey has served the cause of public education in Indianapolis in some capacity for twenty years, and has for several years been superintendent of the primary schools, a place which she fills with acknowledged ability. Miss Cropsey is another living denial of the common a.s.sertion, that only half-cultured and ill-paid women want the ballot.
Of the four medical colleges in Indianapolis, two admit women and two exclude them. No theological school in the State receives women, nor does the only law school, which is located at Indianapolis; but its former president, Hon. James B. Black, told me that it was ready to receive them upon application.
Formerly, many questions now decided by the board of trustees of each school district, were directly settled by the people themselves at the annual school meeting. For instance, the teacher for the coming term was elected from among the candidates for that place; the salary to be paid, the length of term, the location of the school-house, were all questions to be decided by ballot. I have reliable authority for the a.s.sertion that in some parts of the State, as early as 1860, widows, and wives whose husbands were necessarily absent from the school meetings, voted upon these questions. During the years of the war this practice became very common, but fell into disuse upon the return of peace.
There are many physicians in Indiana enjoying the merited esteem of their respective communities and having a lucrative practice.
The most notable example of success in this profession is Dr.
Mary F. Thomas of Richmond.[344] Another living testimony to woman's right in the medical profession is Dr. Rachel Swain of Indianapolis, whose patrons are among the first families of the city. By zealous devotion to her profession she has secured the respect and social recognition of the community in which she moves. As an avowed friend of suffrage, whose word in season is never lacking, Dr. Swain carries a knowledge of our principles into circles where it would otherwise slowly penetrate. Dr. Mary Wilhite of Crawfordsville ranks with the best physicians of that city. In her practice she has gained a competence for herself and disseminated among her patients a knowledge of hygienic laws that has improved the health and the morals of the community to which she has ministered. She, too, advocates political equality for woman. Dr. Sarah Stockton of Lafayette settled in Indianapolis in the autumn of 1883, and was soon, on the pet.i.tion of leading citizens, including both men and women, appointed as physician to the Woman's Department of the Hospital for the Insane. Her professional labors at the hospital and in general practice indicate both learning and skill. In November, Dr. Marie Haslep was elected attendant physician at the Woman's Reformatory, a State inst.i.tution having some four hundred inmates, where her services have been characterized by faithfulness and caution.
Elizabeth Eaglesfield, a graduate of the law department of Michigan University, was admitted to the bar of Marion county in the spring of 1885, and is the first woman to open an independent law-office in this State.
Very few women have served in the ministry. The only one who ever secured any prominence in this profession was Miss Prudence LeClerc, who was pastor of the Universalist church in Madison in 1870-71, and served parishes at different points in south-eastern Indiana until her death in 1878. Miss LeClerc frequently spoke at suffrage conventions, and called meetings wherever she preached, instructing the people in the philosophy of this reform.
To obtain accurate statistics as to the professions and industries is extremely difficult, as the year 1881 was the first in which the State considered women at all. That year the head of the bureau of statistics sent to each town and county commissioner certain sets of questions relative to women's occupations. The grace with which they were received, the seriousness with which they were considered, the consequent accuracy with which they were answered, may be inferred from the fact that one trustee replied, ”The women in our county are mostly engaged in baby-tending,” and that his response was generally copied by the press as a manifestation of brilliant wit. Although some commissioners felt their time too valuable to spend in gathering information relative to the work of women, from the reports of those who seriously undertook to canva.s.s this matter, a table has been arranged and published, which, though incomplete, must be regarded, both in variety of occupations and in the numbers of women registered, as a most favorable showing for this Western State. The total number of women engaged outside of home, in non-domestic and money-making industries, is 15,122; the number of industries represented by them is 51. Add to these the number of teachers, and we have over 20,000 women in the trades and professions denied the ballot, that sole weapon pledged by a republic to every citizen for the protection of person and property.
Of the men and women prominent in this movement since 1860, whose names are not mentioned in the first volume, the one meriting the first place is beyond doubt Dr. R. T. Brown of Indianapolis. He has the longest record as an advocate of suffrage to be found in the State. As a speaker in the first Harrison campaign (1836) he advocated suffrage without regard to s.e.x. Engaged as a teacher or inspector in the public schools in the early years, Dr. Brown argued the adaptation of women to the teacher's profession, and insisted that salaries should be independent of s.e.x; and in many individual cases where he had authority, women secured this recognition before it was generally admitted even in theory to be just.
When, in 1855, the Northwestern Christian (now Butler) University was founded, Dr. Brown, as one of the trustees, advocated coeducation; in 1858 he took the chair of natural science, and in that branch taught cla.s.ses of both s.e.xes until 1871. In 1868 he was active in organizing the Indiana Medical College on the basis of equal rights to women, and filled the chair of chemistry until 1872; in 1873 he was appointed to the chair of physiology, which he held until 1877, and then resigned because the board of trustees determined to exclude women. This proves that Dr.
Brown's devotion to the doctrine of equal rights is of that rare degree which will bear the crucial test of official and pecuniary sacrifice. He has been an active member of the State and city suffrage a.s.sociations from the beginning.
The name of Mary E. Haggart first appears as a member of the State a.s.sociation at the convention held in Indianapolis in 1869.
In 1870, Mr. Hadley made a speech in the State Senate against woman suffrage, to which Mrs. Haggart wrote an able reply which was published and widely commented on by the press of the State.
Her next notable effort was in a discussion through several numbers of the _Ladies' Own Magazine_, published by Mrs. Cora Bland, where she completely refuted the objections urged by her opponent, a literary gentleman of some note. Mrs. Haggart has addressed the legislatures of her own State, of Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island and Kentucky, as well as the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives at the hearing granted the National a.s.sociation. She seldom speaks without the most careful preparation, and never without manifesting abilities of the highest order. Perhaps no woman in the State, as a speaker, has won higher encomiums from the press or has better deserved them.
The first active step taken in suffrage by Mrs. Florence M.
Adkinson (then Miss Burlingame) was to call a convention in Lawrenceburg. In 1871, 1872, she gave several lectures on suffrage and temperance in Ohio, and held a series of meetings in southeastern Indiana. Though an acceptable speaker, it is as a writer that Mrs. Adkinson is best known; she is an officer in both the State and the city organizations, and in every capacity serves the cause with rare fidelity.
The name of Lizzie Boynton of Crawfordsville frequently occurs in suffrage reports between 1865 and 1870. She was a member of the State a.s.sociation and a frequent speaker at its conventions.
Besides working in that body, she a.s.sisted in the organization of the local society at Crawfordsville, wrote poems, stories, essays, and won high rank in the State in literature and reform.
From mature womanhood her record as Mrs. Harbert belongs to Illinois rather than Indiana.
The first time I met Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace she was circulating a temperance pet.i.tion to present to the legislature. One day while busy on the third floor of the high-school building a fellow-teacher sent up word that a lady wished to see me.
Descending, I was introduced to Mrs. Wallace, who, in a bland way, requested me to sign the paper which she extended. Never doubting that I might do so, I had taken my pen when my eye caught the words: ”While we do not clamor for any additional civil or political rights.” ”But I do clamor,” I exclaimed, and threw down the paper and pen and went back to my work, vexed in soul that I should have been dragged down three flights of stairs to see one more proof of the degree to which honorable women love to humiliate themselves before men for sweet favor's sake. Mrs.
Wallace went forward with her work of solicitation, thinking me, no doubt, to be a very impetuous, if not impertinent, young woman.
When, however, upon the presentation of her pet.i.tion, whose framers had taken such care to disclaim any desire ”for additional civil and political rights,” Mrs. Wallace was startled by Dr. Thompson's avowal (having known the doctor, as she navely says, ”as a Christian gentleman”), that he was not there ”to represent his conscience, but to obey his const.i.tuents,” in her aroused soul there was that instant born the determination to become a ”const.i.tuent.” As soon as the hearing was at an end, Mrs. Wallace confessed this determination to Dr. Thompson, thanking him for unintentionally awakening her to a sense of woman's proper position in the republic. This change in Mrs.
Wallace's att.i.tude was not generally known until the following May, when the annual State Temperance convention was held in Indianapolis; then, in her address before that body, she avowed her conviction that it was woman's duty to seek the ballot as a means of exerting her will upon legislation. From that time Mrs.