Volume III Part 89 (1/2)

Babbitt, Chicago; Third, Mrs. Chas. E. Brown. Evanston; Fourth, Mrs. Carrie A. Potter, Rockford; Fifth, Mrs. F. A. W. s.h.i.+mer, Mt.

Carroll; Sixth, Mrs. Sarah C. McIntosh, Joliet; Thirteenth, Mrs. B.

M. Prince, Bloomington; Fourteenth, Mrs. C. B. Bostwick, Mattoon; Sixteenth, Mrs. J. W. Seymour, Centralia; Nineteenth, Mrs. J. H.

Oberly, Cairo.

[371] _President_, Mrs. Fernando Jones; _Vice-Presidents_, Mrs.

Robert Collyer, Mrs. Richard Somers, Rev. C. D. Helmer; _Corresponding-Secretary_, Mrs. C. B. Waite; _Recording-Secretary_, Mrs. S. H. Pierce; _Treasurer_, Mrs. J. W. Loomis; _Executive Committee_, Mrs. Rebecca Mott, Mrs. H. W. Fuller, Mrs. Dr. C. D. R.

Levanway, Fernando Jones, Miss Thayer, Rev. J. M. Reid, Mrs. Jno.

Jones, Mrs. Wm. c.o.ker, Dr. S. C. Blake.

[372] The officers of the Illinois State a.s.sociation are now, 1885; _President_, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Evanston; _Vice-President-at-large_, Mrs. M. E. Holmes, Galva; _Secretary_, Rev. Florence Kollock, Englewood; _Treasurer_, Dr. L. C. Bedell, 354 N. La Salle street, Chicago; _Executive Committee_, Hon. M. B.

Castle, Sandwich: Mrs. E. J. Loomis, 2,939 Wabash avenue, Chicago; Mrs. Clara L. Peters, Watseka; Mrs. L. R. Wardner, Anna; Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn, Moline; Mrs. Helen E. Starrett, Lake Side Building, Chicago; Capt. W. S. Harbert, Evanston; Rev. C. C. Harrah, Galva.

[373] From time to time we have had for president, Mrs. Eunice G.

Sayles, Mrs. Anna M. J. Dow, Mrs. Flora N. Candee, Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn, Mrs. Nettie H. Wheelock; for secretaries, Mrs. C. W. Heald, Mrs. Lucy Anderson, Mrs. Kate Anderson; among those who have been active members of the society from its formation are, Harriet B. G.

Lester, Ida Peyton, L. F. M'Clennan, Catharine H. Calkins, Dr. Jane H. Miller, Margaret Osborne, Harriet M. Gillette, Laoti Gates, Mary F. Barnes, Mary Wright, M. M. Hubbard, Emma Jones, Mary A. Stewart, Kate S. Holt, Mary A. Stephens, Abbie A. Gould, Mrs. M'Cord, Lydia Wheelock, Mrs. E. P. Reynolds, J. A. Tallman, Ann Eliza Reator, Dr.

S. E. Bailey, Dr. E. A. Taylor, Lucy Ainsworth, Jerome B. Wheelock, M. A. Young, Mary Knowles, M. E. Abbot, Lois Forward, Mrs. Young.

[374] Mrs. Clara Lyon Peters of Watseka, furnished the largest pet.i.tion ever sent from Illinois; W. B. Wright of Greenview, Mrs.

S. Eliza Lyon of Toulon, Mrs. Hannah J. Coffee of Orion, Mrs. Eva Edwards of Plymouth, Mrs. C. E. Larned of Champaign, Mrs. Barbara M. Prince of Bloomington, Mrs. F. B. Rowe of Freedom, Mrs. Jane Barnett, Mrs. E. H. Blacfan, and Mrs. E. T. Lippincott of Orion, Mrs. Julia Dunn of Moline, Mrs. Clara P. Bourland of Peoria, Sybilla Leek Browne of Odell, Mrs. Jacob Martin, Cairo, Mary E.

Higbee, Kirkland Grove, Mary Thompson, LaSalle, Emily Z. Hall of Savoy, Elizabeth J. Loomis of Chicago, have all done worthy work in circulating pet.i.tions, both to congress and the State legislature.

[375] Mrs. Archibald is the daughter of Betsey Hawks, of Genesee county, N. Y. I well remember the brave-hearted mother in the early days of the movement, when in 1852 I made my first stammering speech in the town-hall at Batavia. She arranged the meeting, and entertained the speakers, and was indeed ”the cause” in that conservative village.--[S. B. A.

[376] When at Durand, near Davis, in 1877, Mrs. Davis and her husband drove over, and at the close of my lecture, she gave me her maiden name and said, ”Do you not remember me? I sat by your side and fairly pushed you up in that teachers' convention at Rochester, in 1853, when you made that first speech you told about; and I have been most earnestly hoping and working for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women ever since.”--[S.B.A.

CHAPTER XLIV.

MISSOURI.

Missouri the First State to Open Colleges of Law and Medicine to Woman--Liberal Legislation--Eight Causes for Divorce--Harriet Hosmer--Wayman Crow--Works of Art--Women in the War--Adeline Couzins--Virginia L. Minor--Pet.i.tions--Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, May 8, 1867--First Woman Suffrage Convention, Oct.

6, 1869--Able Resolutions by Francis Minor--Action Asked for in the Methodist Church--Const.i.tutional Convention--Mrs. Hazard's Report--National Suffrage a.s.sociation, 1879--Virginia L. Minor Before the Committee on Const.i.tutional Amendments--Mrs. Minor Tries to Vote--Her Case in the Supreme Court--Miss Phoebe Couzins Graduated from the Law School, 1871--Reception by Members of the Bar--Speeches--Dr. Walker--Judge Krum--Hon. Albert Todd--Ex-Governor E. O. Stanard--Ex-Senator Henderson--Judge Reber--George M. Stewart--Mrs. Minor--Miss Couzins--Mrs. Annie R.

Irvine--”Oregon Woman's Union.”

It has often been a subject for speculation why it was that a slave State like Missouri should have been the first to open her medical and law schools to women, and why the suffrage movement from the beginning should there have enlisted so large a number of men[377]

and women of wealth and position, who promptly took an active interest in the inauguration of the work. A little research into history shows that there must have been some liberal statesmen, some men endowed with wisdom and a sense of justice, who influenced the early legislation in Missouri.

By the const.i.tution, imprisonment for debt is forbidden, except for fines and penalties imposed for violation of law. A homestead not exceeding $3,000 in value in cities of 40,000 inhabitants or more, and not exceeding $1,500 in smaller cities and in the country, is exempt from levy on execution. The real estate of a married woman is not liable for the debts of her husband. There are eight causes for divorce, so many doors of escape for unfortunate wives from the bondage of a joyless union.

The memory of the unjust treatment of Miss Hosmer will always be a reproach to Ma.s.sachusetts. That she enjoyed the privileges of education in Missouri denied her in Ma.s.sachusetts was due in no small measure to the generosity and public spirit of Wayman Crow.

Speaking of the gifted sculptor, a correspondent says:

Harriet Hosmer was born in 1830. She studied sculpture in the studio of Mr. Stephenson, in Boston, and also with her father. In 1830, after being denied admission to anatomical lectures in Harvard and many other colleges at the East, she went to St.