CHAPTER XLII.
TEXAS.[177]
For many reasons Texas was slow in entering the movement for woman suffrage. There was some agitation of the subject from about 1885 and some organization in 1893-6 but the work done was chiefly through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In February, 1903, a meeting was called at Houston by Miss Annette Finnigan, a Texas girl and a graduate of Wellesley College. Here, with the help of her sisters, Elizabeth and Katharine Finnigan Anderson, an Equal Suffrage League was formed with Annette as president. The following month Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, lectured in Houston under its auspices. During the summer Annette and Elizabeth Finnigan spoke several times in Galveston and secured a suffrage committee of twenty-five there. With this nucleus a State Woman Suffrage Association was organized at a convention held in Houston, in December, which lasted two days and was well attended. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president of the National Association, was present at all the sessions, spoke at both evening meetings and took a deep interest in the new organization. Annette Finnigan was elected State president and during the following year made an effort to organize in Beaumont, San Antonio and Austin but the women, although interested, were too timid to organize for suffrage. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman spoke under the auspices of the league.
The second State convention or conference was held in Houston in December, 1904, Galveston and La Porte being represented. Reports were given and officers elected, Annette Finnigan remaining president. The Houston league had a paid up membership of one hundred, regular meetings were held and the subject of woman suffrage was kept constantly before the public. An effort was made to get a woman on the school board but the Mayor refused to appoint one. Among those active in the work were Althea Jones, Miss Mary W. Roper, Mrs. E. F. and Miss Ruby McGowen of Houston; Mrs. A. Adella Penfield of La Porte, Mrs. C. H. Moore and Miss Julia Runge of Galveston. The Finnigan sisters were the leaders and the league prospered for several years until they left the State. The movement became inactive and the society formed in Austin in 1908 with twenty-five members was the only one that continued.
In 1912 through the efforts of Miss M. Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio and Miss Anna Maxwell Jones, a Texas woman residing in New York, suffrage clubs were organized in San Antonio, Galveston, Dallas, Waco, Tyler and San Marcos. Miss Finnigan returned to Texas and the Houston league was revived. The third State convention was held in San Antonio in March, 1913. Miss Brackenridge was elected president, Miss Finnigan honorary president. The convention was spirited and showed that the suffrage movement was well launched. This was just ten years after the first club was started. Miss Brackenridge possessed large means and a wide acquaintance and gave much prestige to the association. A number of notable speakers were brought to the State and the subject was introduced in women's organizations. This year through the San Antonio league a bill was introduced in the Legislature but never came to a vote.
In April, 1914, the State convention was held in Dallas and Miss Brackenridge was made honorary president and Miss Finnigan again elected president. During the year State headquarters were opened in Houston and the clubs were increased from eight to twenty-one. Miss Pearl Penfield, as headquarters and field secretary, organized the State work. The president sent letters to all the legislators asking them to pledge themselves to vote for a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution. None of them had an idea that any of the others would agree to support it and a considerable number in a desire to "please the ladies" wrote charming letters of acquiescence. When in January, 1915, they confronted a large group of women lobbyists, experiences were hurriedly compared and consternation reigned among them. "Uncle" Jesse Baker of Granbury, of honored memory, introduced the resolution to submit an amendment to the electors. The Legislative Committee were inexperienced but they worked with such zeal that it received a vote in the House of 90 to 32. It was not considered by the Senate.
Among those who worked with Miss Finnigan during the three months in Austin were Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association; Mrs. Tex Armstrong of the Dallas association; Mrs. J. O. Creighton of the Austin association; Mrs. Ed. F. Harris and Mrs. J. H. W. Steele of Galveston; Mrs. David Doom, Mrs. Robert Connerly, Mrs. L. E. Walker, Mrs. A. B. Wolfe and Mrs. R. H. Griffith, all of Austin; Mrs William H. Dunne of San Antonio; Mrs. Elizabeth Herndon Potter of Tyler; Mrs. W. E. Spell of Waco.
On Sunday afternoon, March 28, Dr. Shaw, the guest of Miss Brackenridge, delivered a great speech in Beethoven Hall under the auspices of the San Antonio Equal Franchise Society, accompanied on the stage by its president, Mrs. Dan Leary; J. H. Kirkpatrick, president of the Men's Suffrage League, the Rev. George H. Badger and Miss Marie B. Fenwick, a veteran suffragist. Many converts were made. In April the State convention met in Galveston and reports showed twenty-one auxiliaries. Mrs. Cunningham was elected president, alert, enthusiastic and bringing to the cause the valuable experience of work in it for the past two years. The president and new board prosecuted the work so vigorously that during the year there was a 400 per cent. increase in organizations. Miss Kate Hunter, president of the Palestine league, gave her entire summer vacation to field work.