When the last volume of the history of woman suffrage was written in 1900 Missouri was one of the blackest spots on the suffrage map and there was little to indicate that it would ever be lighter. The able and courageous women who inaugurated the movement in 1867, Mrs. Virginia L. Minor, Mrs. Beverly Allen, Mrs. Rebecca Hazzard, Miss Phoebe Couzins and Mrs. Sarah Chandler Coates, were no longer living or past the age for strenuous work. A few women kept up a semblance of a State organization, met annually and in 1901 Mrs. Addie Johnson was elected president; in 1902 Mrs. Louis Werth and in 1903 Mrs. Alice Mulkley, but there was great apathy among women in general. From 1903 to 1910 no State convention was held. In St. Louis, which comprised one-fourth of the inhabitants of the State, there was no visible organization working for woman suffrage. The largest and most influential woman's club refused to allow the subject on its programs. During the decade to 1910 only one speaker of national prominence came into the State—Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association—and evidently at the national headquarters Missouri was considered too hopeless to consider.
The movement was only smoldering, however, and needed but a spark to burst into flame and that spark came from afar—from the torch held high by the "militant" suffragists of England. In no State perhaps was there more bitter invective hurled at them than by the press and people of Missouri but the conscience of the convinced suffragists was aroused. Stirring addresses in St. Louis by Stanton Coit of London and John Lovejoy Elliott of New York in defense of the English "militants" brought matters to a crisis and a few bold spirits decided to reorganize the scattered suffrage forces.
In March, 1910, Mrs. Florence Wyman Richardson, Miss Marie R. Garesche and Miss Florence Richardson (later Mrs. Roland R. Usher) barely out of her teens, renounced society and invited twenty or twenty-five women, whom they thought might be interested, to meet in Miss Garesche's home. Only five responded, Miss Bertha Rombauer, Miss Jennie M. A. Jones, Mrs. Robert Atkinson, Miss Lillian Heltzell and Mrs. Dan Knefler. Not at all daunted it was decided as a first step to engage a prominent lecturer. Miss Ethel Arnold, the well-known Englishwoman, a suffragist but not a "militant," was then touring this country and before the meeting adjourned a telegram was sent to her and the eight women present guaranteed the sum to cover her charge and the rent of a hall. As her itinerary would bring her to St. Louis about the middle of April it was thought best to organize immediately, so that the publicity which would undoubtedly be given to Miss Arnold would be shared by the infant society. A circular letter outlining the project was sent broadcast and April 8 about fifty women gathered at the residence of Mrs. Richardson and effected an organization. Thus came into being the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League, which was destined to play the principal part in winning the vote for the women of the State. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Richardson; first vice-president, Miss Garesche; second, Mrs. Atkinson; corresponding secretary, Miss Rombauer; recording secretary, Miss Heltzell; treasurer, Mrs. Knefler; auditor, Mrs. Leslie Thompson.
Miss Arnold's lecture took place April 11 and her charm, culture and cogent reasoning won many friends to the cause and disarmed many of its opponents. Branch organizations were soon formed in the northern and southern parts of the city with Mrs. Atlanta Hecker and Miss Cecilia Razovsky as presidents. Meetings were held in the Cabanne Branch Library and before the end of the year the members had increased to 275.[103] During the first year the league brought a number of lecturers to the city, realizing that this was the most valuable form of propaganda in a community so entrenched in conservatism. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England; Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of Minnesota; Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead of Boston; Professor Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell and Professor Earl Barnes of Philadelphia.
On Nov. 3, 1911, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, at the invitation of the league, lectured in the Odeon, the largest hall in the city, to an audience that taxed its capacity. Her charming personality set at rest all fears as to the ill effect of suffrage, even of the "militant" variety, on feminine grace and refinement. Soon afterwards the Mary Institute Alumnae Association invited Miss Sylvia Pankhurst to lecture and the result was most gratifying to the friends of suffrage.
The old State organization having ceased to exist the St. Louis league with its branches and the recently formed Webster Groves Suffrage League, Mrs. Lee Roseborough, president, met in St. Louis Feb. 14, 1911, and organized a State Woman Suffrage Association, which affiliated with the National American Association. The officers were: President, Mrs. Atkinson; vice-president, Mrs. Morrison-Fuller; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Boyd; recording secretary, Miss Rombauer; treasurer, Miss Jane Thompson; auditor, Mrs. R. D. McArthur. Owing to various causes this board was in a few months reduced to three working members, Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Miss Rombauer. Realizing that it must enlist the support of the press they sent out letters to a long list of the State editors and favorable replies were received from twenty-six, who promised to give a weekly column in their papers for suffrage news and propaganda. All the libraries were written to and a number of them induced to procure the four large volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, generously offered by the National Association. The librarians, who were often women, were asked to keep on hand a supply of suffrage literature. The St. Louis public library, at the suggestion of the board, made a special exhibit of this literature, much of which was new. In the center of the exhibit was a large picture of William T. Harris, former superintendent of schools in St. Louis and later U. S. Commissioner of Education, with his strong testimony in favor of woman suffrage.
Mrs. Atkinson was permitted to make an address on suffrage before the State Federation of Women's Clubs at Sedalia but no action was taken. She also addressed a large audience at the dedication of the Woman's Building which had been erected by the Legislature on the State Fair grounds near that city and Mrs. Walter McNab Miller of Columbia also made an address. The board paid a lawyer to compile the State laws for women under the direction of E. M. Grossman. Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. John L. Lowes of St. Louis and Mrs. Virginia Hedges of Warrensburg went as delegates to the convention of the National Association in 1911 at Louisville, where much satisfaction was expressed that Missouri had at last come into the fold. The Kansas City League was organized this year with Mrs. Henry N. Ess, president; Miss Helen Osborn, secretary; and Mrs. Helena Cramer Leavens, treasurer. The women of Warrensburg, under the leadership of Miss Laura Runyon, organized a club of fifty members. There was the State Normal School, to whose faculty Miss Runyon belonged, and through her the support of the students was obtained and suffrage propaganda extended gradually to every section of the State. Mrs. Knefler, president of the St. Louis Women's Trades Union, organized a league among its members, which, under the leadership of Mrs. Sarah Spraggon and Miss Sallie Quick, did excellent work in the campaigns that followed.
In 1912 a Business Woman's Suffrage League was formed in St. Louis under the leadership of Miss Mary McGuire, a graduate of the St. Louis University Law School, and Miss Jessie Lansing Moller, which starting with 50 members, eventually numbered 250. The same year the Junior Branch of the St. Louis League was organized, which included many of the younger society girls and matrons. Miss Ann Drew (later Mrs. James Platt) was president. In Kansas City in the autumn the Southside Equal Suffrage League was formed with Mrs. Cora Kramer Leavens, president, and Miss Cora Best Jewell, secretary. A Men's Equal Suffrage League was also organized with D. H. Hoff president; J. H. Austin, vice-president; David Proctor, secretary, which did a large work in securing the big vote given to the suffrage amendment in Kansas City and Jackson county in 1914.
In 1912 the first State convention was held in September at Sedalia, where Mrs. George Gellhorn was elected president and Mrs. John W. Barringer vice-president, both of St. Louis. They went to Jefferson City in September and tried to get a suffrage plank into the platform of the Democratic State convention. Though unsuccessful it was the initial step in bringing the subject out of the parlor and lecture-room into the sphere of politics, the arena where the battle ultimately had to be fought. Twenty-eight leagues were formed this year. Miss Amelia C. Fruchte, member of the St. Louis Central High School faculty, went before the State Teachers' Association and secured its endorsement of woman suffrage.
In 1913 at the State convention held at St. Louis in September, Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, formerly of Ohio, was elected State president. She had been the leading spirit in work for suffrage in Columbia, the seat of the State University, where her husband was a professor, and in November, 1912, an organization was formed with Dr. R. H. Jesse, former president of the university, at its head. Though the State in general was still apathetic the women in the large places, especially in St. Louis and Kansas City, were alert and active. Mrs. Richardson, after two strenuous years, had been succeeded by Mrs. David O'Neil as president of the St. Louis League. She was followed in October by Mrs. John L. Lowes, who had to resign from exhaustion and Mrs. O'Neil was again elected.