Dr. Mary B. Atwater has been for over three years chairman of the Board of Health of Helena.
Women served as notaries public until a ruling of Attorney-General C. B. Nolan (1901) declared this illegal.
In 1892, the first year the Populist party put a ticket in the field, it nominated Miss Ella Knowles for the office of Attorney-General. She made a spirited campaign, addressing more than eighty audiences, and alone organized some fourteen counties, being the first Populist to speak in them. She ran 5,000 votes ahead of her ticket, in a State which casts only about 50,000. The contest was so close that it was three weeks before it was decided who had been elected; but when the votes came in from the outlying precincts, where she was unknown, it was found that her Republican opponent, H. J. Haskell, had a majority. Miss Knowles was then appointed Assistant Attorney-General, an office which she filled for four years to the eminent satisfaction of the people. During this time she married her rival.
Occupations: No occupation is now legally forbidden to women. Mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Haskell, a bill was passed by the Legislature of 1889 which gave women the right to practice law. The Rev. Alice S. N. Barnes was ordained in the Congregational Church in 1896, and has preached regularly ever since. In 1889 she was chosen as moderator at the Conference of the Congregational Churches of Montana, at Helena.
Education: The educational advantages for women are the same as those accorded men. All institutions of learning—the State University, the Agricultural College, even the School of Mines—are open to both sexes.
In the public schools there are 201 men and 885 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $69.28; of the women, $48.61.
Montana women were awarded seven medals at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. Their botanical exhibit was one of the most notable at the exposition. It was artistically arranged by Mrs. Jennie H. Moore, the flowers being all scientifically labeled and properly classified. Of the $100,000 appropriated to the use of the State Commission, the men assigned $10,000 to the women for their department, exercising no supervision over them. At the close of the exposition they brought back $2,800, which they turned into the State treasury, and $3,000 worth of furniture, which they presented to various State institutions.
In 1894 there was an exciting contest over removing the location of the permanent capital and some fear that Helena would lose it. A number of her leading women, in a special car provided by the Northern Pacific R. R., visited the prominent towns in Eastern Montana, speaking and working in the interest of their city and undoubtedly gaining many votes for Helena, which was selected instead of the rival, Anaconda.
In 1896 Mrs. Haskell was made a delegate to the Populist convention of Lewis and Clarke County, which met in Helena, and also to the Populist State and National Conventions. She took a prominent part in their proceedings, and was instrumental in securing a woman suffrage plank in the Populist State platform after a hard fight on the floor of the convention. At the Populist convention in St. Louis that year she was chosen a member of the National Committee.