entire convention, and the nomination of Dr. Julia Holmes Smith was made unanimously. The other political parties then had to follow with the nomination of a woman or fall behind the Democrats in chivalry.
As the Chicago Woman's Club sent a strong representation to the Republican convention, and as pledges already had been secured from the delegates, the committee appointed by the suffrage association did not deem it necessary to attend. Mrs. Lucy L. Flower was nominated by this body.
The Prohibitionists nominated two women, one of them the secretary of the Illinois E. S. A., Prof. Rena Michaels Atchison.
This recognition from the different parties so encouraged the women that in 1894 they voted enthusiastically throughout the State, especially in Chicago where the candidates were well known. Before the election, however, a difficulty arose from an unexpected quarter. The men composing the Board of University Trustees became alarmed, and employed an attorney who gave an opinion that women neither could vote for trustees nor be elected to the office. He rushed into print; Mrs. McCulloch, who might have been worn to shreds by this time, patiently answered the young man, and "the women went right on voting."
Professor Atchison had the compliment of receiving about 3,000 votes more than the men on the same ticket as herself, and Dr. Smith likewise ran ahead of her ticket.[1] Mrs. Flower was the successful candidate, also leading the nominees of her party.
The Republican women organized by appointing a State Central Committee, and placed upon it a woman from each congressional district.[2] The Democratic women formed a Cornelia Club which worked for the interest of their party's nominee.
Office Holding: A statute of Illinois (1873) provides that no person shall be debarred from any occupation, profession or employment (except the military), on account of sex, and that
- ↑ Although Dr. Smith was defeated she was really the first woman who served as trustee of the State University, for Gov. John P. Altgeld appointed her to fill a member's unexpired term and she took her seat one month before Mrs. Flower, serving eighteen months. At the next election her name was again placed on the Democratic ticket, which was again defeated.
- ↑ They continued to hold delegate conventions every two years to nominate a woman for trustee, until the Primary Election Law, recently passed, provided that delegates to nominating conventions must be elected at the polls.
