[156] No mention is made of women postmasters as these are found in all States. The first were appointed by President Grant during his first term of office, 1868-1872.
[157] In the various States under the head of Education, Roman Catholic colleges and universities are not considered, as they are nowhere co-educational.
The public school statistics are taken from the reports for 1898-9 of the U. S. Commissioner of Education.
CHAPTER XXV.
ALABAMA.[158]
Actual work for woman suffrage in Alabama began in 1890, at the time the constitutional convention of Mississippi was in session. The editor of the New Decatur Advertiser opened his columns to all matter on the question and thus aroused local interest, which in 1892 culminated in the formation in that town of the first suffrage club in the State, with seven charter members. The women who thus faced a most conservative public sentiment were Mesdames Harvey Lewis, F. E. Jenkins, E. G. Robb, A. R. Rose, B. E. Moore, Lucy A. Gould and Ellen Stephens Hildreth.
Before the close of the year a second club was formed in Verbena by Miss Frances A. Griffin, who has since become noted as a public speaker for this cause. Others were soon established through the efforts of Mesdames Minnie Hardy Gist, Bessie Vaughn, M. C. Arter, W. J. Sibert and Miss B. M. Haley.
In 1892 and 1893 the Woman's Column, published in Boston, was sent by the National Association to 1,500 teachers, ministers, school superintendents, editors, legislators and other prominent people, the names being furnished by Mrs. Hildreth. A State organization was effected in 1893, with Mrs. Hildreth, president, and Miss Griffin, secretary.