The first agitation of the question of woman suffrage in Minnesota, and the first petitions to the Legislature to grant it, began immediately after the Civil War, through the efforts of Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns and Mrs. Mary J. Colburn, and the first suffrage societies were formed by these ladies in 1869. The work has continued with more or less regularity up to the present.

From 1883 to 1890 the State Suffrage Association held its annual meetings regularly in one or the other of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, the Hon. William Dudley Foulke, Mary A. Livermore, the Rev. Ada C. Bowles, Abigail Scott Duniway and other eminent advocates were secured as speakers at different times. Dr. Martha G. Ripley succeeded Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns as president in 1883, and was re-elected each year until 1889. She was followed by Mrs. Ella M. S. Marble for that year, and Dr. Mary Emery for 1890.

The association contributed toward sending Mrs. Julia B. Nelson to South Dakota to speak in the suffrage campaign of 1890. On November 18, 19, the State convention was held in St. Paul, Mrs. Stearns presiding. Mrs. Nelson was elected president. Among the speakers were Attorney-General Moses E. Clapp, the Reverends Mr. Vail and Mr. Morgan, Mrs. A. T. Anderson, Mrs. Priscilla M. Niles, Mrs. Ella Tremain Whitford and the Rev. Olympia Brown of Wisconsin.

In the autumn of 1891 the convention met at Blue Earth City. This place had not lost the savor of the salt which Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Phoebe W. Couzins had scattered in the vicinity thirteen years before, and the meetings were enthusiastic and well-attended. The Rev. W. K. Weaver was the principal speaker.

It was largely as the superintendent of franchise of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was better organized, that Mrs. Nelson, president of the suffrage association from 1890 to 1896, was able to secure thousands of signatures to the petitions for the franchise which were sent to each Legislature during those years.

The meeting of 1892 took place at Hastings, September 6-8, and was welcomed by the Rev. Lewis Llewellyn. Letters were read from many noted people, and addresses given by the Rev. Mr. Morgan, Mrs. Stearns and several local speakers.

The convention met in Lake City, Aug. 24, 25, 1893, with the usual fine addresses, good music and representative audiences.

In 1894 Woman's Day was celebrated at the State Fair, its managers paying the speakers.

In the spring and autumn of 1895 Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe of Illinois and Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas, national organizers, lectured throughout Minnesota and formed a number of clubs. They also attended the State convention, which was held in the Capitol at St. Paul, September 10, 11. Gov. D. M. Clough was among those who made addresses.

In 1896 the president, Mrs. Nelson, gave one month to lecturing and visiting societies.

In October, 1897, the acting president, Mrs. Concheta Ferris Lutz, made an extended lecture tour. The annual meeting convened at Minneapolis in November, at the same time as a conference of the officers of the National Association. All arrangements were made by Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Dr. Ripley and Mrs. Niles. The meetings in the First Baptist Church, one of the largest in the city, were very successful. On Sunday evening the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National Association, preached in the Universalist Church, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, lectured in the Wesley M. E. Church, both to crowded houses. The next evening, when Miss Anthony, national president, and the latter spoke, every foot of standing ground was occupied, and on Tuesday, when Miss Shaw gave her lecture on The Fate of Republics, the church was equally well-filled.

Mrs. Nelson, after seven years' service, relinquished the office of president and Dr. Eaton was elected. Professional duties soon made it necessary for her to resign and her place was filled by Mrs. Lutz. Political equality clubs were formed in six different wards of Minneapolis by Dr. Eaton.

The convention of 1898 was called October 4, 5, at Minneapolis, with Mrs. Chapman Catt in attendance. The meetings were held in the G. A. R. Hall, the Masonic Temple and the Lyceum Theater. Mrs. Martha J. Thompson was elected president and Dr. Ethel E. Hurd corresponding secretary.

In 1899 the convention met in the court-house of Albert Lea, October 9, 10. On the first evening Mrs. Chapman Catt was the speaker, her theme being A True Democracy. The Rev. Ida C. Hultin of Illinois lectured on The Crowning Race. Miss Laura A. Gregg and Miss Helen L. Kimber, both of Kansas, national organizers, gave reports of county conventions conducted by them throughout Minnesota, with the assistance of Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden, president of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association. The records showed ninety-eight suffrage meetings altogether to have been held during the year.

In 1900 the convention took place at Stillwater, October 11, 12. The officers elected were: President, Mrs. Maude C. Stockwell; vice-president, Mrs. Jennie E. Brown; corresponding secretary, Miss Delia O'Malley; recording secretary, Mrs. Maria B. Bryant; treasurer, Dr. Margaret Koch; auditors, Sanford Niles and Mrs. Estelle Way; chairman executive committee, Mrs. Martha J. Thompson.[341]

Judge J. B. and Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, C. W. and Mrs. Martha A. Dorsett have been among the oldest and most valued suffrage workers in the State. Miss Martha Scott Anderson, on the staff of the Minneapolis Journal, gives efficient help to the cause. Three presidents of the State W. C. T. U., Mesdames Harriet A. Hobart, Susanna M. D. Fry and Bessie Laythe Scoville have been noted as advocates of equal rights.[342]

Legislative Action and Laws: In February, 1891, at the request of Mrs. Julia B. Nelson, president, and Mrs. A. T. Anderson, chairman of the executive committee of the State association, S. A. Stockwell introduced in the House a bill conferring Municipal Suffrage upon women. Mrs. Nelson spent several weeks at the capital looking after the petitions which came from all parts of the State, interviewing members of the Legislature, distributing literature and trying to get the bill out of the hands of the Committee on Elections, to which it had been referred. After repeated postponements a hearing finally was granted, at which she made a strong plea and showed the good results of woman suffrage in Kansas and Wyoming. The bill was indefinitely postponed in Committee of the Whole, by a vote of 52 yeas, 40 nays.

Among the leaflets placed on the desk of each member was one especially prepared by Mrs. Nelson, entitled Points on Municipal Suffrage. One of its twelve points was this: "If the Legislature has the power to restrict suffrage it certainly has the right to extend it. The Legislature of Minnesota restricted the suffrage which had been given to women by a constitutional amendment, when it granted to the city of St. Paul a charter taking the election of members of the school board entirely out of the hands of women by giving their appointment to the mayor, an officer elected by the votes of men only."[343]

Early in the session of 1893 Mrs. Nelson had a conference with Ignatius Donnelly, leader of the Populists, who was then in the Senate. He was willing to introduce a suffrage bill, but as the Republicans were in the majority it was thought best to have this done by John Day Smith, the leader of that party in the Senate. Mr. Smith consented, with the understanding that Mr. Donnelly should help by championing the bill. "Municipal Suffrage for women with educational qualifications," was all this bill asked for. Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Anna B. Turley and Senator Donnelly made addresses before the Judiciary Committee at a hearing in the Senate Chamber, with an interested audience present. Mrs. Nelson also gave an evening lecture here on The Road to Freedom.

In place of this bill one to submit an amendment to the voters was substituted. The suffragists were averse to this, but accepted it with the best grace possible, and enthusiastically worked for the new bill to amend the State constitution by striking the word "male" from the article restricting the suffrage. Senators Smith, Donnelly and Edwin E. Lommen spoke for the bill, and it passed the Senate by 31 yeas, 19 nays.

In the House it was persistently delayed by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, George H. Fletcher, and the friends could not get it upon the calendar in time to be reached unless it should be made a special order. Edward T. Young endeavored to have this done, but as there were several hundred other bills to be considered and less than three days of the session left, his motion was lost. On the last night, Mr. Young and H. P. Bjorge made an effort to have the rules suspended and the bill put upon its final passage. The vote on this motion was 54 yeas, 44 nays, but as a two-thirds vote is necessary it was lost. Speaker W. E. Lee voted with the affirmative.[344]

Three Suffrage Bills were introduced into the Legislature of 1895, two in the House and one in the Senate. The first, for an amendment to the State constitution, was offered by O. L. Brevig and was indefinitely postponed. S. T. Littleton presented the second, which was to give women a vote upon all questions pertaining to the liquor traffic. This found favor in the eyes of the W. C. T. U., as did also the County Option Bill of J. F. Jacobson, but both were unsuccessful. George T. Barr introduced a Municipal Suffrage Bill into the Senate, but too late for it to be acted upon.

In 1897 Ignatius Donnelly secured the introduction of a bill to enfranchise taxpaying women. A hearing was given by the Judiciary Committee, at which Mrs. Nelson argued that in simple justice women who pay taxes should have a voice in their expenditure or be exempted from taxation, but the bill was not reported.

This year the State Federation of Clubs secured a resolution to submit an amendment to the electorate in 1898, giving women the privilege of voting for and serving on Library Boards.

In 1899 the Local Council of Women of Minneapolis obtained the Traveling Library Bill.

During this year no petitioning or legislative work was done by the suffragists. The previous legislature had submitted an amendment, which carried, providing that all amendments hereafter must receive a majority of the largest number of votes cast at an election, in order to be adopted. The precedent had been established in 1875 of requiring a vote of the electors on the granting of School Suffrage to women, and in 1898, of Library Suffrage, and it was held that the same would have to be done on granting Municipal or any other form of the franchise.

Dower and curtesy were abolished March 9, 1875. If either husband or wife die without a will, the survivor, if there is issue living, is entitled to the homestead for life and one-third of the rest of the real estate in fee-simple, or by such inferior tenure as the deceased was possessed of, but subject to its just proportion of the debts. If there are no descendants, the entire real estate goes absolutely to the survivor. The personal property follows the same rules. If either husband or wife has wilfully and without just cause deserted and lived separately from the other for the entire year immediately prior to his or her decease, such survivor shall not be entitled to any estate whatever in any of the lands of the deceased.

The estate of a child who dies without a will and leaves neither wife nor children, goes to the father; if he is dead, to the mother.

The wife can not convey or encumber her separate real estate without the joinder of her husband. The husband can sell or mortgage all his real estate without her joinder, but subject to her dower. They are both free agents as to personal property.

If divorce is obtained for the adultery of the wife, her own real estate may be withheld from her, but not so in case of the husband.

In case of divorce, the court decides which parent is more fit for the guardianship of children under fourteen years of age; over fourteen, the child decides. Except when children are given to the mother by decree of court, the father is the legal guardian of their persons and property. He may appoint by will a guardian for a child, born or unborn, to the exclusion of the mother.

The husband must support the family according to his means. Failure to do so used to be considered a misdemeanor but it has recently been made a felony punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary from one to three years unless he give bond for their maintenance. This is likely to be of little effect, however, because of the law of "privileged communications" which makes it impossible for the wife to testify against the husband.

In 1891 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years, after thousands of women had petitioned to have it raised to 18. If the child is under 10 years the penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary for life; between 10 and 14 not less than seven nor more than thirty years; between 14 and 16 not less than one nor more than seven years, or it may be imprisonment in the county jail not less than three months nor more than one year.

Suffrage: An amendment to the constitution was adopted in 1875, giving women a vote on all questions pertaining to the public schools. It being held afterward that this did not enable them to vote for county superintendents, an act for this purpose was passed by the Legislature in 1885. (!) The constitution was further amended by popular vote in 1898, granting to women the franchise for members of Library Boards, and making them eligible to hold any office pertaining to the management of libraries. On as harmless an amendment as this 43,600 men voted in the negative, but 71,704 voted in the affirmative; and it was adopted.

This was probably the last election at which any amendment whatever could have been carried; for, among four submitted in the same year, was one providing that thereafter no amendment could be adopted by merely a majority of those voting upon it, but that it must have a majority of the largest number of votes cast at that election.[345] None ever has been submitted which aroused sufficient interest to receive as large a vote of both affirmative and negative combined as was cast for the highest officer. Therefore in Minnesota it is impossible for women to obtain any further extension of the franchise. Their only hope for the full suffrage lies in the submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution by Congress to the Legislatures of the various States.

Office Holding: An act of 1887 declares that a woman shall retain the same legal existence and legal personality after marriage as before, and shall receive the same protection of all her rights as a woman which her husband does as a man; and for any injury sustained to her reputation, person or property, she shall have the same right to appeal, in her own name alone, to the courts for redress; but this act shall not confer upon the wife the right to vote or hold office, except as is otherwise provided by law. By a constitutional amendment adopted in 1875 women were made eligible to all offices pertaining to the public schools and to public libraries. They have served as State librarians.

Miss Jennie C. Crays was president of the Minneapolis school board for two years. There are forty-three women county superintendents at the present time, each having from 100 to 130 districts to visit. Women have served as clerks and treasurers of school districts.

A law of 1889 gave to women as well as men the powers of constables, sheriffs or police officers, as agents of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

A law of 1891 enabled women to be appointed deputies in county offices.

Dr. Adele S. Hutchison is a member of the State Medical Board which examines physicians for license to practice. She was appointed by Gov. John Lind and is the first woman to hold such a position. Women can not sit on any other State boards.

There is no law requiring police matrons but they are employed in Minneapolis and St. Paul by the city charters.

The State hospitals for the insane are required by law to have women physicians. The steward's clerk in the State Institute for Defectives is a woman. The State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children has a matron, a woman agent and a woman clerk. The State Training School, once called the Reform School, has women for agent and secretary.

The State Prison has a matron for the eight women prisoners. There are about 500 men prisoners (1900).

The Bethany Home at Minneapolis was established by women in 1875, and is entirely officered by them. In 1900 it cared for 126 mothers and 226 infants, and had a kindergarten and a training school for nurses. The city hospitals send all their charity obstetrical cases here, and about half of its support comes from the city.

The Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children was founded by women in 1882, and until 1899 was entirely officered and managed by them.

The Maternity Hospital for unfortunate women was founded by Dr. Martha G. Ripley in 1888. In 1899 it cared for 103 mothers and 99 infants.

Occupations: No profession or occupation is forbidden to women by law. Women were admitted to the bar in 1877 by act of the Legislature. There are sixty-eight women doctors registered as in actual practice in the State. In Minneapolis there is an active Medical Women's Club of physicians of both schools. Women ministers are filling pulpits of Congregational, Universalist, Christian and Wesleyan Methodist churches, and the superintendent of the State Epworth League is a woman.

Women are especially conspicuous in farming, which is one of the greatest industries of the State.[346]

A number of women own and publish papers, and each of the large metropolitan dailies has one or more women on its staff.

Education: Women have been admitted to all departments of the State University since its foundation, and there are women professors and assistants in practically every department, including that of Political Science and the College of Engineering and Mechanic Arts. Of the four officers of the Department of Drawing and Industrial Art, three are women. The College of Medicine and Surgery also has women professors in every department, and women are on the faculty of the College of Dentistry.

The State School of Agriculture was established in the fall of 1888. In October, 1897, women were admitted to the regular course of study. In the Academic Department their class work is with the men, but instead of the especial branches of carpentry, blacksmithing and field work, they have sewing, cooking and laundering. They also have a department of home management, home economy, social culture, household art and domestic hygiene, Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith, preceptor.

All the other educational institutions are open to women, and the faculties of the Normal Schools are largely composed of women.

In the public schools there are 2,306 men and 9,811 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $46; of the women, $35.

The State Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. Lydia P. Williams, president, is in effect a suffrage kindergarten, many of its members working on committees of education, reciprocity, town and village improvements, household economics, legislation, etc.

In Minneapolis a stock company, capitalized at $80,000, is being formed to erect a club house for the women's societies.

The Local Council of Women of Minneapolis, organized 1892, is one of the strongest associations of the kind in the United States. During the past seven years it has been composed of nearly one hundred different organizations in the city, and now comprises twelve departments: reform and philanthropy, church, temperance, art, music, literature, patriotism, history, education, philosophy, social and civic. Honorary president, Mrs. T. B. Walker, acting president Mrs. A. E. Higbee, and corresponding secretary, Mrs. J. E. Woodford, are largely responsible for the success of the Council. (1900).

The School and Library Association was formed in 1899 at a meeting called by representatives of the Political Equality, the Business Women's, the Medical Women's and the Teachers' Clubs of Minneapolis. Eleven hundred signatures are required for the nomination of a member of the school board, but the women secured over 5,000 names on each petition for their candidates for school and library trustees, the largest one having 5,470. The association sent out dodgers with pictures and brief write-ups of the candidates, and also leaflets explaining to the women how to register and vote. Mrs. A. T. Anderson has been at the head of this work.

Women attend the conventions of the Prohibition and the People's parties as delegates, and are welcome speakers. Miss Eva McDonald (Valesh) was secretary of the Populist Executive Committee. Both Prohibitionists and Populists have passed woman suffrage resolutions in their State conventions. The Federation of Labor and the Grange have done the same.