FOOTNOTES:
[418] Mrs. Wolcott is a remarkable woman, of rare intelligence, keen moral perceptions and most imposing presence. Much of her success in life is due no doubt to her gracious manners. Her graceful figure, classic face, rich voice and choice language make her attractive in the best social circles, as well as in the laboratory and lecture-room. She is a perfect housekeeper and a most hospitable hostess. Having enjoyed many visits at her beautiful home I can speak alike of her public and domestic virtues.—[E. C. S.
[419] See [Vol. I., page 389].
[420] During a visit with my school-friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Ford Proudfit, at Madison, in 1879, I heard a great deal said of the injustice of this law as illustrated in two notable cases of widows in the enjoyment of their husbands' entire estates, while the dead men's relatives, many of them, were living in poverty. This was most shocking! though widowers, from time immemorial, have possessed the life-earnings and inheritance of their wives, while the dead women's mothers and sisters were starving and freezing within sight of the luxurious homes that rightfully belonged to them! It makes a mighty odds whose ox is gored—the widower's or the widow's!—[S. B. A.
[421] In 1867 the governor, General Lucius Fairchild, appointed Laura J. Ross, M. D., as commissioner to the World's Exposition in Paris. In 1871 Mrs. Mary E. Lynde was appointed on the State Board of Charities and Corrections by Governor Fairchild.
[422] The committee on resolutions were: Dr. Laura J. Ross, N. S. Murphey, Mrs. Livermore, Madame Annecke, Geo. W Peckham and Rev. Mr. Gannett. The officers of the convention were: President, Rev. Miss Augusta J. Chapin; Vice-Presidents, O. P. Wolcott, M. D., Laura J. Ross, M. D., and Madame Matilde F. Annecke; Secretary, Miss Lilia Peckham.
[423] For a further description of this convention see Mrs. Stanton's letters from The Revolution, [Vol. I., page 873].
[424] Miss Lilia Peckham, G. W. Peckham, esq., Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Madam Matilde Annecke, Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, Rev. Mr. Eddy, Rev. Mr. English, Rev. Mr. Fallows.
[425] Miss Lilia Peckham died in Milwaukee, the city of her residence. She had been ill but a few weeks, her physicians considering her recovery certain up to within an hour of her death; but a sudden and unlooked-for change took place. One of the truest, purest and best spirits we have ever met has thus passed from earth to heaven. All who met her soon came to appreciate her gifted nature, her rare talent and spiritual insight. But only those who knew her well can bear witness to her wonderful unselfishness, her remorseless honesty of speech and deed, the loftiness of her ideal and the beauty of her womanly soul. The Milwaukee Sentinel closes a brief obituary notice of our friend and co-worker as follows:
"This talented young woman is well known throughout the country as an earnest advocate of the woman's rights movement. Only a few weeks since she made a successful tour through the West, speaking in various city pulpits. Fearlessly she spoke all that she had come to feel was truth, though it shook the very foundations of old creeds and ideas. Many efforts from her scholarly pen attest to her devotion to every onward movement of the hour. She was to have entered the Cambridge Divinity School early in the present autumn, having chosen the ministry for her life-work. That a life so full of promise of usefulness should be so suddenly stopped is irreconcilable with our finite judgment. It is hard to say, 'it is well,' though God's fact may be that this young life, with its beauty of character, its sisterly affection, its still larger sisterly sympathy with a suffering humanity, its longings and aspirations, its zealous strivings after the true and good, is full and complete now; still we shall mourn her loss, her brief though beautiful career."
[426] The members of the Wisconsin Senate who voted against the woman suffrage amendment were: Ackley, Adams, Burrows, Chase, Coleman, Delaney, Flinkelberg, Flint, Kusel, Palmetier, Pingel, Rankin, Ryland, Smith and Van Schaick—15. No better work can be done by Wisconsin suffragists than to try to defeat every one of them at the next election. The following voted for the measure: Bennett, Crosby, Ellis, Hamilton, Hill, Hudd, Kingston, Meffert, Phillipps, Scott, Simpson, Wiley, Randall—13. Senators Wing and McKeeby were paired, and Senators Erwin and Richardson were absent.
[427] The officers of the Wisconsin State society for 1885 were: President, Harriet T. Griswold, Columbus; Vice-Presidents, Laura Ross Wolcott, Milwaukee; Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine; Emma C. Bascom, Madison; F. A. Delagise, Antigo; Laura James, Richland Center; Recording Secretary, Helen R. Olin, Madison; Corresponding Secretary, M. W. Bentley, Schofield; Treasurer, Dr. Sarah R. Munro, Milwaukee; Chairman Executive Committee, Amelia B. Gray, Schofield. Among others active in the movement are Eliza T. Wilson, Menominee; Alura Collins, Muckwonago; Mrs. S. C. Burnham, Bear Valley; Sarah H. Richards, Milwaukee; Mrs. W. Trippe, Whitewater.
[428] Eveleen Mason, May Wright Sewall, Mary A. Livermore, Dr. Sarah Munro, Mrs. Haggart, Mrs. K. R. Doud, Miss Comstock, the Grand Worthy Vice-Templar from Milwaukee, Mrs. Le Page, and Mrs. Amy Talbot Dunn, as Zekel's wife, made a deep impression.
[429] See vol. II. page [259].
[430] For her argument see Woman's Journal, April, 1876.