History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Margaret W. Campbell
MARGARET W. CAMPBELL was born in Hancock County, Maine, on the 16th of January, 1827, and received her education in the district schools. As early as 1850 her attention was called to the subject of woman suffrage by reading the proceedings of the first Woman's Rights Convention held at Worcester, Massachusetts. She soon became a firm believer in the reform but did not enter the field as a worker until 1863. She came to Iowa in 1857, locating in Linn County. During the War of the Re- hellion she was active in soldiers' aid societies and at this time made her first public speeches in the suffrage cause, writing also on the subject for the newspapers. In February, 1869, she attended an important suffrage convention at Springfield, Massachusetts, where a number of the national leaders were among the speakers. Here Mrs. Campbell made an eloquent address which attracted general attention. The same year she was sent as a delegate to the Convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association at Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1870 was a delegate to the State Convention of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. From this time Mrs. Campbell became one of the prominent public speakers in the cause, in New England and New York. For more than twenty years she was an officer of the American Woman Suffrage Association and for a long time was connected with the Woman's Journal. She was associated with Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and other national leaders in the reform, often speaking with them at conventions in various States. In November, 1879, Mrs. Campbell again settled in Iowa and was ever active in the suffrage cause, taking part in all of the State campaigns, in which she has been one of the ablest and most widely sought of the public speakers. She was four years President of the State Suffrage Association and for two years Corresponding Secretary. In 1901 she removed to Joliet, Illinois.