CHAPTER XLVII.
WEST VIRGINIA.[202]
In 1895 when the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association was organized through the effort of the National American Association, with Mrs. Jessie G. Manley president, nine clubs were formed in the northern part of the State but only those in Fairmont and Wheeling remained in existence after 1900. The first president of the Fairmont Club was the mother of Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Margaret J. Grove, who with her sisters, Mrs. Corilla E. Shearer and Miss Ellen D. Harn, all still living, aged 89, 90 and 92, led in the early suffrage work in the State, and Mrs. Mary Reed of Fairmont also was a pioneer. Little public work was done until an active suffrage movement was inaugurated in Virginia and in 1912 Miss Mary Johnston came to Charleston and organized a club. One was formed in Morgantown and these four constituted the State association until the amendment campaign of 1916.
The following have served as State presidents: Mrs. Beulah Boyd Ritchie, 1900-1903; Mrs. M. Anna Hall, 1904; Mrs. Anne M. Southern, 1905; Dr. Harriet B. Jones, 1906; Mrs. May Hornbrook, 1907-1910; Mrs. Allie Haymond, 1911-1912; Miss Margaret McKinney, 1913; Mrs. J. Gale Ebert, 1914-1915; Mrs. Lenna Lowe Yost, 1916; Mrs. John L. Ruhl, 1917-1920.[203] Annual meetings were held as follows: 1900, December 1, Fairmont; 1904, August 11, Moundsville; 1905, October 27, Fairmont; 1906, October 26, Wheeling; 1907, November 8, Wheeling; 1908, October 29, Fairmont; 1909, October 30, Wheeling; 1911, October 27, Fairmont; 1913, October 24, Wheeling. During these years practically all that was done was to have speakers of note from time to time and a resolution for woman suffrage introduced in the Legislature whenever possible.
In 1904 a new city charter was prepared for Wheeling and an effort was made to have it provide for a municipal vote for women. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national president, gave a week to speaking in the city and Miss Kate Gordon, national corresponding secretary, spent three weeks there, addressing many organizations. The question was submitted to the voters with the charter but on a separate ballot. Both were lost, the suffrage amendment by 1,600. More votes were cast on it than on the charter itself.
In 1910 an amendment to the State constitution permitting women to be appointed notaries public, clerks of county courts, probation officers and members of boards of State institutions went to the voters. The State Bar Association also had an amendment and kindly printed the literature for the former and sent it out with theirs. It received the larger number of votes—44,168 ayes, 45,044 noes—and was lost by only 876.
With the submission to the voters by the Legislature of 1915 of an amendment to the constitution conferring full suffrage activity was stimulated. Miss Ida Craft of New York, in cooperation with the women of Charleston, held a suffrage school there January 28-February 3 and at that time Mrs. J. E. Cannady, vice-president of its Equal Suffrage League, obtained permission from Governor Henry D. Hatfield to put the "suffrage map" in the lobby of the Capitol. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, chairman of church work for the National Association, addressed the Woman's Club of Parkersburg April 5 and afterwards spoke in many cities and towns through arrangement by Dr. Jones, as did Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren and Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of Girard, Ohio. In May Mrs. Ebert of Parkersburg, president of the State association, addressed a letter to the clergymen urging them to use as a text on Mothers' Day, May 9, The Need of Mothers' Influence in the State, and Dr. Jones sent a questionnaire to 150 editors, receiving answers favoring suffrage from 53. Mrs. Desha Breckinridge, president of the Kentucky Equal Suffrage Association, spent a week in the State speaking and Miss Craft, who kept her promise to return in May, organized many new suffrage groups, as did Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Washington, who campaigned principally in the mining towns. In the summer a Men's Advisory Committee with Judge J. C. McWhorter as chairman was appointed by the State board; the State Educational Association in convention endorsed woman suffrage; and after an address by Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston of Maine, who was on a tour of the State, the Methodist Episcopal Conference passed a favorable resolution. Later on Governor's Day at Middlebourne with thousands of people present Mrs. Ebert spoke with Governor Hatfield, both making appeals for votes for women. At the annual Fall Festival at Huntington a suffrage float designed by Mrs. E. C. Venable was in the parade. At Parkersburg suffragists addressed an immense crowd at Barnum and Bailey's circus.
In October the number of small subscribers was increased by "dollar day," when many persons sacrificed or earned a dollar and gave it to the association. Window displays were arranged in many cities with especially elaborate ones in Wheeling, Parkersburg and Huntington. At the State convention held in Huntington Nov. 16, 1915, a "budget" of $25,000 was authorized, $5,000 of which was quickly subscribed by the delegates, Dr. Irene Bullard of Charleston and Mrs. Helen Brandeburg of Huntington pledging $1,000 each for their branches. Mrs. Frank Roessing of Pittsburgh, national first vice-president, who was one of the speakers, pledged $400 for the Pennsylvania association. For the first time there was an automobile parade.