The annual meetings of the State Union[1] have ever since been spoken of by the press as "suffrage conventions," because they always pass resolutions making the demand.
Mr. L. Bixby, editor of the State Temperance Review, gives several columns to the temperance and suffrage societies. Mrs. Helen E. Gallinger, the editor of these departments, is a lady of great ability and earnestness. Mr. Charles H. Dubois, editor of The Spectator, gives ample space in his columns to notes of women. Miss Mary C. Le Duc is connected with The Spectator. Other journals have aided our cause, though not in so pronounced a way. Mrs. C. F. Bancroft, editor of the Mantorville Express, and Mrs. Bella French, of a county paper at Spring Valley, Mrs. Annie Mitchell, the wife of one editor and the mother of another, for many years their business associate, have all given valuable services to our cause, while pecuniarily benefiting themselves. The necessity of finding a voice when something needed to be said, and of using a pen when something needed to be written, has developed considerable talent for public speaking and writing among the women of this State.[2]
All our State institutions are favorable to coëducation, and give equal privileges to all. The Minnesota University has been open to women since its foundation, and from 1875 to 1885 fifty-six young women were graduated with high honor to themselves and their sex.[3] Miss Maria L. Sanford has been professor of rhetoric and elocution for many years. The faculties of the State Normal Schools are largely composed of women. Hamline University and Carlton College are conducted on principles of true equality. At Carlton Miss Margaret Evans is preceptress and teacher of modern languages. Of the Rochester High School, Miss Josephine Hegeman is principal; of Wasioga, Miss C. T. Atwood; of Eyota Union School, Miss Adell M'Kinley.[4]
For many years Mrs. M. R. Smith was employed as State Librarian. Mrs. H. J. M'Caine for the past ten years has been librarian at St. Paul, with Miss Grace A. Spaulding as assistant. Among the engrossing and enrolling clerks of our legislature, Miss Alice Weber is the only lady's name we find, though the men holding those offices usually employ a half dozen women to assist them in copying, allowing each two-thirds of the price paid by the State, or ten cents per folio.
In this State the suffrage cause has had the sympathy of not a few noble women in the successful practice of the healing art; thus lending their influence for the political emancipation of their sex, while blessing the community with their medical skill. To Doctors Hood and Whetstone is due the credit of establishing the Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children, and training school for nurses, of which they are now the attend-
- ↑ The officers of the Minnesota State W. C. T. U. are: President, Mrs. H. A. Hobart; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. Mary A. Shepardson, Mrs. E. J. Holley, Mrs. R. C. C. Gale, Mrs. H. C. May, Mrs. L. M. Wylie; Recording Secretary, Mrs. D. S. Haywood; Corresponding Secretaries, Mrs. E. S. Wright, Miss M. E. Mclntyre; Treasurer, Miss A. M. Henderson. Editor W. C. T. U. department of Temperance Review, Mrs. Helen E. Gallinger.
- ↑ See Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note C.
- ↑ During the same decade 138 young men were graduated from the different departments of the University.
- ↑ For names of graduates and professors, see Appendix, Chapter XLVII., Note D.
