CHAPTER XXXIV.
MAINE.
Women on School Committees—Elvira C. Thorndyke—Suffrage Society, 1868—Rockland—The Snow Sisters—Portland Meeting, 1870—John Neal—Judge Goddard —Colby University Open to Girls, August 12, 1871 Mrs. Clara Hapgood Nash Admitted to the Bar, October 26, 1872—Tax-payers Protest—Ann F. Greeley, 1872—March, 1872, Bill for Woman Suffrage Lost in the House, Passed in the Senate by Seven Votes—Miss Frank Charles, Register of Deeds—Judge Reddington—Mr. Randall's Motion—Moral Eminence of Maine—Convention in Granite Hall, Augusta, January, 1873, Hon. Joshua Nye. President—Delia A. Curtis—Opinions of the Supreme Court in Regard to Women Holding Offices—Governor Dingley's Message, 1875—Convention, Representatives Hall, Portland, Judge Kingsbury, President, February 12, 1876.
The first movement in Maine, in 1868, turned on the question of women being eligible on school committees. Here, as in Vermont, the men inaugurated the movement. The following letter, from the Portland Press, gives the iniative steps:
Hiram, March 15, 1868.
Mr. Editor: A statement is going the rounds of the press that the Democrats of Hiram supported a lady for a member of the school committee. I am unwilling that any person or party shall be ridiculed or censured for an act of which I was the instigator, and for which I am chiefly responsible. I am in favor of electing ladies to that office, and accordingly voted for one, without her knowledge or consent; several Democrats as well as Republicans voted with me. I have reason to believe that scores of Democrats voted for the able and popular candidate of the Republicans (Dr. William H. Smith), and but for my peculiar notion I should have voted for him myself, as I always vote with the Republican party. I am in favor, however, of laying aside politics in voting for school committees, and the question of capability should outweigh the question of sex. A few years ago we had a large number of boy schoolmasters, but agents are learning to appreciate teachers of tact, experience ami natural qualifications, as well as book-knowledge. Of eleven schools under the care of the writer the past year, but one had a male teacher, and by turning to the reports I find that of forty-nine schools in Hiram during the past two years, forty-two were taught by ladies. Four of these teachers of the past year have taught respectively twenty, twenty-one, twenty-three and thirty schools. I put the question, why should a lady who has taught thirty schools be considered less suita-