CHAPTER LXX.
WEST VIRGINIA.[461]
In 1867 Samuel Young introduced into the Senate of West Virginia a bill to confer the suffrage on educated, taxpaying women, but it found no advocates except himself. In 1869 he presented a resolution asking Congress for a Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women, which received the votes of eight of the twenty-two senators.
No further step ever was taken in this direction until the spring of 1895, when Mrs. Annie L. Diggs of Kansas was sent into the State by the National Woman Suffrage Association but reported that the question was too new to make any organization possible. In the fall Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizer, arranged a two weeks' series of meetings with the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio as speaker, and several clubs were formed in the northern part of the State. A convention was called to meet in Grafton, November 25, 26, when an association was formed and the following board of officers was elected: President, Mrs. Jessie C. Manley; vice-president, Harvey W. Harmer; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Annie Caldwell Boyd; recording secretary, Mrs. L. M. Fay; treasurer, Mrs. K. H. De Woody; auditors, Mrs. M. Caswell and Mrs. Louise Harden.
The second convention was held at Fairmont in January, 1897, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, assisting. Everything was so new that her presence and instruction were an inspiration and a help, without which it is doubtful whether the work would have continued. Officers were elected as follows: President. Mrs. Fannie J. Wheat; vice-president, Mrs. Mackie M. Holbert; recording secretary, Mrs. Beulah Boyd Ritchie; auditors, Mrs. Mary Long Parson and Mrs. Mary Butcher; member national executive committee, Mrs. Mary H. Grove. The corresponding secretary and the treasurer were re-elected.
In April, 1898, the annual meeting was held at Wheeling, in the Carroll Club Auditorium. Mrs. Chapman Catt and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National Association, made addresses each afternoon and evening, and both filled the pulpit of the large Methodist Church on Sunday. All the officers were re-elected except the treasurer, who was succeeded by Miss J. B. Wilson.
The next convention took place at Fairmont in the fall of 1899, Mrs. Chapman Catt again assisting to make it a success. The officers elected were: President, Mrs. Ritchie; vice-president, Mr. Harmer; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Boyd; recording secretary, Miss Clara Reinheimer; treasurer, Mrs. Holbert; auditors, Mrs. Georgia G. Clayton and Mrs. Belle McKinney; member national executive committee, Mrs. Wheat; press superintendent, Mrs. Manley.
Prior to 1895, the subject of the enfranchisement of women was practically unknown in West Virginia, but now there is no part of the State in which the injustice and ignominy of their disfranchisement has not been brought to the mind and conscience of the voters.
Legislative Action and Laws: In 1897 the Legislature appointed a committee to draw up a new State constitution, and the suffragists presented to it a petition, signed by about 600 leading men and women, asking that the word "male" be omitted from the suffrage clause. Individual appeals were made and literature sent to each member of the committee. Many signatures for the petition were obtained at the State Fair, held in Wheeling, where room for a suffrage booth in the Manufacturer's Building was given by the president of the board, Anton Reymann, while every other foot of space was rented out at a large price. The booth was decorated with portraits of the leaders, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and made as attractive as possible.
In 1899 the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw addressed a joint session of both Houses of the Legislature in behalf of the enfranchisement of women. Her expenses were paid by the Fairmont suffrage club.[462] The lecture was a decided success, many members of the Legislature expressing themselves as favorable to the cause she advocated. The clause striking out the word "male" was not, however, reported from the committee, and the whole matter of a new constitution eventually was dropped.[463]