[397] For legal opinion see [Appendix for New York].
[398] In 1902 the hospital at Gowanda, the largest of the kind in the State, placed a woman on its staff as specialist in gynecology.
[399] In 1901, when Mr. Low was again a candidate and was elected, these clubs were a prominent factor in the campaign. They arranged meetings, addressed large audiences, raised $30,000 and circulated 1,000,000 pieces of literature. Their work was commended by the press of the whole United States and much credit was given them for the success of the Reform ticket. When the Board of Education of forty-six members was appointed by Mayor Low, various societies petitioned him to give women a representation upon it, but he declined to do so.
CHAPTER LVII.
NORTH CAROLINA.[400]
The only attempt at suffrage organization in North Carolina was made by Miss Helen Morris Lewis, Nov. 21, 1894. A meeting was called at the court house in Asheville and attended by a large audience, which was addressed by Miss Lewis and Miss Floride Cunningham. Thomas W. Patton, mayor of the city, made a stirring speech in favor of giving the ballot to women. At his residence the next day a society was formed with a membership of forty-five men and women; president, Miss Morris; vice-president, T. C. Westall; secretary, Mrs. Eleanor Johnstone Coffin; treasurer, Mayor Patton. The next mayor of Asheville, Theodore F. Davidson, also advocated woman suffrage.
In 1895 addresses were made in various cities by Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, who had been attending the national convention in Atlanta.
Later on Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and Miss Belle Kearney, a noted lecturer from Mississippi, aroused considerable enthusiasm in various places by pleas for woman suffrage in their temperance addresses. Miss Lewis has spoken in a number of towns and at the State Normal School. No organized work has been done, however, and but little public interest is felt.