Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/564

CHAPTER XLI.

MICHIGAN.

Women's Literary Clubs and Libraries—Mrs. Lucinda II. Stone—Classes of Girls in Europe—Ernestine L. Rose—Legislative Action, 1849–1885—State Woman Suffrage Society, 1870—Annual Conventions—Northwestern Association—Wendell Phillips' Letter—Nannette Gardner Votes—Catharine A. F. Stebbins Refused—Legislative Action—Amendments Submitted—An Active Canvass of the State by Women—Election Day—The Amendment Lost, 40,000 Men Voted in Favor—University at Ann Arbor Opened to Girls, 1869—Kalamazoo Institute—J. A. B. Stone, Miss Madeline Stockwell and Miss Sarah Burger Applied for Admission to the University in 1857—Episcopal Church Bill—Local Societies—Quincy—Lansing—St. Johns—Manistee—Grand Rapids—Sojourner Truth—Laura C. Haviland—Sybil Lawrence.

Traveling through the State of Michigan, sufficiently at leisure to make acquaintances, one would readily remark the unusual intelligence and cultivation of the women. Every large town can boast a woman's literary club, a reading-room, nicely furnished, with a library containing, in many cases, one and two thousand volumes, a choice collection of scientific, historical and classical works. This may be attributed in part to the fact that the population is largely from New York and New England, partly to the many institutions of learning early opened to girls, and partly to the extensive social influence of Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone,^[1] whose rare culture, foreign travels and liberal views have fitted her, both as a woman and as a teacher, to inspire the girls of Michigan with a desire for thorough education. Mrs. Stone has traveled through many countries in the old world with large classes of young ladies under her charge, superintending their reading and studies, and giving them lectures on history and art on classic ground, where some of the greatest tragedies of the

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1. Having made many lyceum trips through Michigan, I have had several opportunities of meeting Mrs. Stone in her own quiet home, and I can readily understand the wide influence she exerted on the women of that State, and what a benediction her presence must have been in all the reform associations in which she took an active part. I always felt that Michigan would be a grand State in which to make the experiment of woman suffrage, especially as in Mrs. Sto ne we had an enthusiastic coadjutor. In paying this well-deserved tribute to Mrs. Stone, I must not forget to mention that Mrs. Janney of Flint, a woman of great executive ability, started the first woman's reading-room and library many years ago.—[E. C. S.