Tennessee's pioneer period was from 1885-1911, for during those years the educational and organization work carried on by a few intrepid women was as difficult as was the same work in other parts of the United States thirty or more years before that time. Woman suffrage was in the stage of ridicule and abuse and with a few exceptions the press of the State was opposed and lost no opportunity to disparage it.
The State Equal Suffrage Association was reorganized in Memphis in 1906 and there was increasing activity each year afterwards. In 1907 the suffragists held a convention and reported their membership trebled. They secured a suffrage article in the News Scimitar through the courtesy of Mike Connolly, its editor. In 1908 Dr. Shaw spoke at the Goodwin Hall in Memphis under the auspices of the State association and a return engagement was secured by the Lyceum Course the following winter. The third annual convention was held Dec. 15, 1909, in Memphis at the home of the State president, Mrs. J. D. Allen, and the officers were re-elected. It was reported that a petition had been sent to Congress for a Federal Amendment and more than 400 letters written, one to President Taft asking him to declare for woman suffrage and local work had been done. Mrs. E. S. Conser, assisted by Mrs. Allen and the suffrage club, prevailed upon the Memphis University Law Department to open its doors to women and Mrs. Conser became its first woman student. Mrs. Allen attended the national convention at Seattle, Washington. Mrs. Ittie K. Reno delivered the first woman suffrage address in Nashville, at the Centennial Club, and the first one in Chattanooga was given by Miss Margaret Ervin at the university where she was a student.
In 1910 a league was organized in Knoxville by Mrs. L. Crozier French, who became its president. In the summer a suffrage debate, affirmative taken by Mrs. Ford, was held in the Methodist church at Kingston, the first time the question was discussed in that part of the State and people came from neighboring towns. Miss Catherine J. Wester, a Kingston suffragist, had a six weeks' newspaper debate in the Chattanooga Times. A booth was maintained at the Appalachian Exposition, and 590 names of visitors from Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi were registered in the suffrage booth at the Tri-State fair in September at Memphis.
The fourth State convention was held at Memphis in the Business Men's Club Feb. 18, 1911, and the president, Mrs. Allen, reported suffrage trips to Little Rock, Ark., and Jackson, Miss. Addresses were given by Attorney Robert Beattie and by H. P. Hanson, vice-president of the Southern Conference on Child and Woman Labor, who brought word that the Memphis Typographical Union was on record for woman suffrage. Mrs. Beattie was elected vice-president and Dr. Madge Patton Stephens secretary. The Nashville club was organized September 28, with Mrs. Guilford Dudley president; one at Morristown November 3, with Mrs. Hannah Price Hardy president; one at Chattanooga December 9, with Mrs. E. W. Penticost president.
By 1912 a new era had dawned with five of the largest cities organized and affiliated with the State association. It held its annual convention at Nashville January 10-11. Governor Ben W. Hooper addressed it and stated that he was "on the fence" as to the suffrage question. Mrs. Allen was elected honorary president and Miss Sarah Barnwell Elliott president. Miss Elliott spent two months of this year speaking in the State and she also spoke in Birmingham, in New York and the Mississippi Valley Conference in Chicago. In December a suffrage club was organized in Jackson with Mrs. C. B. Bell president. J. W. Brister, State Superintendent of Schools, gave a suffrage address at Nashville.
The State convention was held again at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Jan. 6, 7, 1913. The principal speakers were ex-Governor John I. Cox, U. S. Senator Luke Lea, Misses Laura Clay of Kentucky and Mary Johnston of Virginia. Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton, as president, sent greetings from the Huntsville, Ala., league, reorganized after a lapse of thirty years with the same president. The main discussion was whether to introduce a suffrage bill in the Legislature. Mrs. Margaret Ervin Ford urged it, saying that, though it had small chance, it was well to accustom the Legislature to the idea. The matter was placed in the hands of Miss Elliott, Mrs. French, Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Scott, who recommended that no bill should be introduced. Mrs. Allen and Miss Elliott were re-elected and Mrs. James M. McCormack was made vice-president-at-large; Miss Clay and Miss Johnston spoke on the 10th at a large meeting in Chattanooga and Miss Clay the following Sunday in the Universalist church. On April 7 Miss Elliott and Mrs. Dudley marched in Washington in a parade to the Capitol to interview the Tennessee representatives in Congress on the Federal Amendment. This year Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana, an organizer for the National Association, came to assist. By October the State membership was 942 and fifteen newspapers were reached regularly with suffrage matter. Booths were conducted at many of the county fairs and a "suffrage day" was given at the Memphis Tri-State fair, when the outside speakers were Miss Clay and Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana. The News Scimitar issued a suffrage edition.
A second convention met in Morristown, October 21, 22. Miss Sue S. White was elected secretary, Mrs. Hardy State organizer and the other officers continued. At the national convention in Washington in November Miss Wester and Mrs. Ford represented Tennessee on the "committee of one hundred," which, led by Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the National Congressional Committee, called upon President Wilson to enlist his assistance. That year and each succeeding year letters, telegrams and petitions were sent to the President and to the Tennessee Representatives in Congress urging their support of the Federal Amendment. One petition from Chattanooga bore a thousand signatures.
By 1914 the six largest cities in the State were organized and the majority of the clubs celebrated National Suffrage Day, May 2, with parades and open air meetings to the amazement and interest of the people. The Chattanooga parade, with a brass band, ended at the Court House where the steps of that building were aglow with yellow bunting. Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Washington, D. C., was the principal speaker and Mrs. Ford, the local president, read the following resolution: "We, citizens of Chattanooga, voice our demand that women citizens of the United States be accorded the full right of citizenship." The silence was breathless as the sound of the "ayes" died away and not a voice was raised to say "no." Other speakers were Mayor Jesse M. Littleton, L. P. Barnes, Attorney J. J. Lynch, the Reverends Charles H. Myers, L. R. Robinson and Dr. Daniel E. Bushnell. The State Federation of Women's Clubs in convention at Pulaski voted down a suffrage resolution, though the president, Mrs. George W. Denney, favored it.
From March to May 13 there was a spirited controversy as to whether the annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association should meet in Chattanooga, which city had invited it, or in Nashville, which had not. Miss Elliott, who was ill, resigned and Mrs. McCormack took charge of the State work. Chattanooga won the convention on the first vote of the State board but after balloting by the clubs through telegrams for several weeks and much misunderstanding it met in Nashville the next November. The annual convention was held in Knoxville October 28-30, when there was a separation of the State forces, Mrs. Crozier French and her following leaving the convention, taking three clubs with them and organizing the "Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association Incorporated," with Mrs. French president. Mrs. McCormack was elected president of the original Equal Suffrage Association, of which this chapter is the history.
The Southern States Suffrage Conference, Miss Kate M. Gordon, president, met in Chattanooga, November 10-11, just before the national convention. A special suffrage edition of the News, with Mrs. Frances Fort Brown editor-in-chief, was issued and the conference was a great success. Many prominent women from outside the State attended and all except Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New York and Miss Christabel Pankhurst of England, who was with her, went on to the national convention at Nashville. Here a special edition of the Tennesseean was issued, many street meetings were held and suffrage arguments filled the air. Both State delegations were seated.