In 1895 Richmond was again selected as the place for the State convention, December 10-12, at which legislative work in the General Assembly of 1896 was carefully planned. (See Legislative Action.)
The convention met in Lexington, Dec. 18, 1896. A committee was appointed to work for complete School Suffrage in the extra session of the General Assembly the next year.[281]
Covington entertained the annual meeting Oct. 14, 15, 1897. Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe of Illinois, a national organizer, was present, being then engaged in a tour through the State. This convention was unusually large and full of encouragement.
The eleventh convention was held in Richmond, Dec. 1, 1898, and the twelfth in Lexington, Dec. 11, 12, 1899. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay, secretary, assisted, the former giving addresses both evenings. It was decided to ask the General Assembly to make an appropriation for the establishment of a dormitory for the women students of the State College.
Miss Laura Clay has been president of the State Association since it was organized in 1888. Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick was the first vice-president, but removing to Massachusetts the following year, Mrs. Mary Barr Clay, the second vice-president, was elected and has continued in that office. There have been but two other second vice-presidents, the Hon. William Randall Ramsey and Mrs. Mary C. Cramer, and but two corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer and Mrs. Mary C. Roark. The office of treasurer has been filled continuously by Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard.[282] During all these years H. H. Gratz, editor of the Lexington Gazette, and John W. Sawyer, editor of the Southern Journal, have been among the most faithful and courageous friends of woman suffrage. The Prohibition papers, almost without exception, have been cordial.
Legislative Action and Laws: During the General Assembly of 1890, a committee of eight from the E. R. A. went to Frankfort to ask legislation on the property rights of women, and for women physicians in the State asylums for the insane. A petition for property rights was presented, signed with 9,000 names. Of these 2,240 were collected by Mrs. S. M. Hubbard. On January 10 appeals were made in Representatives' Hall by Miss Laura Clay for the Women Physicians Bill, and by Mrs. Josephine K. Henry for the Property Rights Bill. The latter had carefully prepared a compendium of the married women's property laws in all the States, which was of incalculable value throughout the years of labor necessary to secure this bill.
The press of the State, with few exceptions, espoused the cause of property rights for women. Seven bills were presented to this General Assembly, among them one drawn and introduced into the Senate by Judge William Lindsay, afterward United States Senator. This secured to married women the enjoyment of their property, gave them the power to make a will and equalized curtesy and dower. Although reported adversely by the committee, it was taken up for discussion and was eloquently defended by Judge Lindsay. It passed the Senate, but, was defeated in the House by the opposing members withdrawing and breaking the quorum.[283] A bill introduced by the Hon. William B. Smith, making it obligatory upon employers to pay wages earned by married women to themselves and not their husbands, became a law at this session.
The Constitutional Convention held in 1890-91 was the field of much labor by the State association. In October a committee consisting of Mrs. Henry, Miss Clay, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer, Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard and Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett went to Frankfort to appeal for clauses in the new constitution empowering the General Assembly to extend Full Suffrage to women; to secure the property rights of wives; and to grant School Suffrage to all women. The importance of their claims was so impressed upon the convention that it appointed a special Committee on Woman's Rights, with one of its most esteemed members, the Hon. Jep. C. Jonson, as chairman, who did all in his power to bring their cause favorably before this body.
On the evening of October 9, in Representatives' Hall, Miss Clay, Mrs. Shepard and Mrs. Bennett addressed an audience composed largely of members, being introduced by Mr. Jonson. Later, Mrs. Henry was given a hearing before the committee. Her tract appealing for property rights was read before the convention by Mr. Jonson and supplied to each of the 100 members. In addition she supplied them several times a week with leaflets, congressional hearings, etc., and wrote 200 articles for the press on property rights and thirty-one on suffrage.
The five ladies, with Mrs. Sarah Hardin Sawyer and Mrs. Margaret A. Watts, met in Frankfort again on December 8, and obtained hearings before the Committees on Revision of the Constitution, Education and Woman's Rights. Mrs. Henry also addressed the Committee on Elections, who asked that her speech be printed and furnished to each member of the convention.