FOOTNOTES:
[475] In the centennial year, when protests were in order, the following was sent to the National Association at Philadelphia, describing the manner in which a lady eighty-four years old celebrated her birthday:
"Neutral Station, Kansas, July 17, 1876.
"Dear Sisters: Two days ago, on Saturday, the 15th, as has been usual for three or four years, a company of our friends and neighbors met at our house to celebrate my eighty-fourth birthday. We had a pleasant time. Some pieces, composed for the occasion, were read, and a clergyman made some appropriate remarks. I improved the opportunity to obtain the names of the ladies present, and succeeded with all, old and young, except one who was afraid it would get her into a trap; but with the rest it needed but little electioneering beside reading your advertisement to secure their names. We, as a neighborhood, are ignorant on the subject. I solicited assistance pecuniarily, and send you what I can, with a word of encouragement still to work and wait, and my earnest prayer for your final success.
Elsie Stewart."
The other signatures were: Henrietta L. Miller, Mrs. Julia A. Ingraham, Mrs. Hollet, Mrs. Lottie Griffin, Selinda Miller, Celina Lake, Mollie Yeates, Betsey J. Corse, Mary G. Hapeman, Mrs. Maggie Clark, Miss Elsie Miller, Louie Ingraham, Malura Hickox, C. A. Eddy, Anna Lowe, Charlotte H. Butler.
[476] President, Mrs. Mary Maberly; Secretary, Miss Lillie M. Hull; Treasurer, Mrs. Emma H. Johns; and an able executive committee, of which Mrs. E. M. Alden, Mrs. Emma Faris, Mrs. Mattie McDowell and Bertha H. Ellsworth, who was then teaching there, were members.
[477] Arkansas City Suffrage Club, with Mrs. M. B. Houghton, President; Mrs. E. T. Ayers, Vice-President; Miss Gertrude Fowler, Secretary, and Mrs. F. Daniels, Treasurer; also one at Winfield, county-seat of Cowley county, with Mrs. J. Cairns, President; Mrs. M. R. Hall, Secretary, and Mrs. E. D. Garlick, Treasurer; and vice-presidents from each of the churches, as follows: Mesdames P. P. Powell, G. Miller, M. Burkey and J. C. Fuller.
[478] President, Mrs. Hetta P. Mansfield, Winfield; Vice-President-at-Large, Mrs. Anna C. Wait, Lincoln; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Bertha H. Ellsworth, Lincoln; Recording Secretary, Miss Georgiana Daniels, Eureka; Treasurer, Mrs. D. A. Millington, Winfield; Chaplain, Rev. S. S. Cairns, Winfield; Vice-Presidents and Executive Committee, Mrs. Judge Griswold, Leavenworth; Miss Sarah Hurtsel, Columbus; Mrs. Anna Taylor, Wichita; Miss Myra Willets, Independence; Mrs. W. P. Roland, Cherryvale; Judge Lorenzo Westover, Clyde; Mr. V. P. Wilson, Abilene; Hon. Albert Griffin, Manhattan; Mrs. A. O. Carpenter, Emporia; Mrs. Noble Prentis, Atchison; Mrs. S. S. Moore, Burden; Mrs. Emma Faris, Carnerio; Mrs. Houghton and Mrs. Farrer, Arkansas City; Mrs. Finley, Topeka.
[479] The towns visited were: Beloit, Lincoln Center, Wilson, Ellsworth, Salina, Solomon City, Minneapolis, Cawker City and Clyde. The officers of the Topeka society were: President, Mrs. Priscilla Finley; Secretary, Mrs. E. G. Hammon; Treasurer, Mrs. Sarah Smith. The officers of Beloit were: President, Mrs. H. Still; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. J. M. Patten, Mrs. M. Vaughan; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. F. J. Knight; Recording Secretary, Mary Charlesworth; Treasurer, Mrs. M. Bailey. At Salina, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. Christina Day are the officers.
[480] The women of Kansas should never forget that to the influence of Mrs. Nichols in the Constitutional convention at Wyandotte, they owe the modicum of justice secured by that document. With her knitting in hand, she sat there alone through all the sessions, the only woman present, watching every step of the proceedings, and laboring with members to so frame the constitution as to make all citizens equal before the law. Though she did not accomplish what she desired, yet by her conversations with the young men of the State, she may be said to have made the idea of woman suffrage seem practicable to those who formed the constitution and statute laws of that State.—[E. C. S.
[481] See compiled laws of Kansas, 79, page 378, chapter XXXIII.
[482] Miss Flora M. Wagstaff of Paoli was among the first to practice law in Kansas. In 1881, Ida M. Tillotson of Mill Brook, and in 1884, Maria E. DeGeer were admitted.
[483] The names of representatives voting for the committee stand as follows: Yeas—Barnes, Beattie, Bollinger, Bond, Bonebrake, Brewster, Buck, Butterfield, Caldwell, Campbell, Carter, Clogston, J. B. Cook of Chetopa, H. C. Cook of Oswego, Collins, Cox, Currier, Davenport, Dickson, Edwards, Faulkner, Gillespie, Glasgow, Gray, Grier, Hargrave, Hatfield, Hogue, Hollenshead, Holman, Hopkins, Hostetler, Johnson of Ness City, Johnson of Marshall, Johnson of Topeka, Johnson (Speaker of the House), Kelley of Cawker City, King, Kreger, Lawrence, Lewis, Loofburrow, Lower, McBride, McNall, McNeal, Matlock, Maurer, Miller, Moore, Morgan of Clay, Morgan of Osborne, Mosher, Osborn, Patton, Pratt, Reeves, Rhodes, Roach, Roberts, Slavens, Spiers, Simpson, Smith of McPherson, Smith of Neosho, Stewart, Stine, Sweezy, Talbot, Vance, Veach, Wallace, Wentworth, Wiggins, Willhelm—75. The names of senators were: Yeas—Bowden, Congdon, Donnell, Edmunds, Granger, Hicks, Humphrey, Jennings, M. B. Kelley, Kellogg, Kimball, Kohler, Pickler, Ritter, Rush, Shean, Sheldon, White, Young—19.
[484] The Committee on the Political Rights of Women, granted by the House, were: George Morgan of Clay, George Seitz of Ellsworth, David Kelso of Labette, F. W. Rash of Butler, W. C. Edwards of Pawnee, F. J. Kelley of Mitchell, W. H. Deckard of Doniphan.
[485] The speakers were: Rev. Amanda May (formerly of Indiana), Mrs. Martha L. Berry, Mrs. Ada Sill, Mrs. Colby, Dr. Addie Kester, Mrs. M. D. Vale, Rev. C. H. Rogers, Mrs. De Geer, Miss Jennie Newby. Officers: President, Mrs. Anna C. Wait of Lincoln; Vice-President, Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Salina; Treasurer, Mrs. Martia L. Berry of Cawker City; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. B. H. Ellsworth of Lincoln; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Alice G. Bond of Salina.
[486] When Miss Anthony and I went through Kansas in 1867 we held an afternoon and evening meeting in Salina. Our accommodations at the hotel were wretched beyond description. Mother Bickerdyke was just preparing to open her hotel but was still in great confusion. Hearing of our dismal quarters she came and took us to her home, where her exquisitely cooked food and clean beds redeemed in a measure our dolorous impressions of Salina. Our meetings were held in an unfinished church without a floor, the audience sitting on the beams, our opponents (two young lawyers) and ourselves on a few planks laid across, where a small stand was placed and one tallow candle to lighten the discussion that continued until a late hour. Being delayed the next day at the depot a long time waiting for the train we held another prolonged discussion with these same sprigs of the legal profession. We had intended to go on to Ellsworth, but hearing of trouble there with the Indians we turned our faces eastward. Mother Bickerdyke and her thrilling stories of the war are the pleasant memories that still linger with us of Salina.—[E. C. S.