A large and successful convention met at Helena in November, 1897, when a State central committee was appointed, with Mrs. Haskell as chairman and members in nearly every county. Madame F. Rowena Medini was made president, but she left the State before her year of office had expired and Dr. Mary B. Atwater filled her place. No convention being held in 1897 or 1898 she acted as president until that of October, 1899, when Dr. Maria M. Dean was elected. Mrs. Chapman Catt was present.
To Mrs. P. A. Dann of Great Falls, a contemporary of Miss Susan B. Anthony, too much honor can not be given for her years of service and financial help. U. S. Senator Wilbur F. Sanders has been a loyal friend. Foremost among the early workers for woman suffrage in Montana was Mrs. Clara L. McAdow, whose energy and business talent made the Spotted Horse, a mine owned by herself and husband, a valuable property.
In July, 1889, Henry B. Blackwell, corresponding secretary of the American W. S. A., came to Montana to present the question to the Constitutional Convention. His address was received with warm applause but the convention refused to adopt a woman suffrage amendment by 34 yeas, 29 nays. A resolution was presented that the Legislature might extend the franchise to women whenever it should be deemed expedient, thus putting the matter out of the hands of its proverbial enemies. The measure had able champions in B. F. Carpenter, W. M. Bickford, J. E. Rickards, Hiram Knowles, P. W. McAdow, J. A. Callaway, Peter Breen, T. E. Collins, W. A. Burleigh, W. R. Ramsdell, Francis E. Sargeant, William A. Clark (now U. S. Senator), its president, and others. Prominent among those opposed were Martin Maginnis and Allen Joy. It was lost by a tie vote, July 30. A proposal to submit the question separately to the electors was defeated by the same vote, August 12. The constitution conferred School Suffrage, which women already possessed under Territorial government, and gave to taxpaying women a vote on questions of taxation.
Legislative Action and Laws: In 1895 women secured an enactment that the commissioners of any county, at the request of a certain number of petitioners, must call a special election for a vote on licensing the sale of liquor. A two-thirds vote is necessary to prohibit this. Women themselves can neither petition nor vote on the question.
This year a bill was introduced by Representative John S. Huseby for a constitutional amendment granting suffrage to women. It was passed in the House, 45 yeas, 12 nays; indefinitely postponed in the Senate by a "rising vote," 14 yeas, 4 nays.
In 1897 a systematic effort was made to secure a bill for this amendment. Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, chairman of the State central committee, invaded the legislative halls with an able corps of assistants from the W. S. A. Petitions signed by about 3,000 citizens were presented, and it looked for a time as if the bill might pass. It was debated in the House and attracted much attention from the press, but lacked five votes of the required two-thirds majority. It was not acted upon in the Senate.
In 1899 Dr. Mary B. Atwater, then president of the State Association, with other officers and members, succeeded in having a Suffrage Amendment Bill introduced. Some excellent work was done, but the measure was lost in Committee of the Whole.
Dower is retained but curtesy abolished. If there is only one child, or the lawful issue of one child, the surviving husband or wife receives one-half of the entire estate, real and personal; if there is more than one child, or one child and the lawful issue of one or more deceased children, the survivor receives one-third. If there is no issue living the survivor takes one-half of the whole unless there is neither father, mother, brother, sister nor their descendants, when the widow or widower takes it all.
The wife may mortgage or convey her separate property without the husband's signature. He may do this but can not impair her dower right to one-third.
A married woman may act as executor, administrator or guardian. She may also sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name.