Woman of the Century/Ellen Alida Rose

ROSE, Mrs. Ellen Alida, practical agriculturist and woman suffragist, born in Champion, N. Y., 17th June, 1843. She is the youngest daughter of John C. and Lumeda Fowler Rudd. She is of English descent. The district school, with a few terms in the village academy, furnished her education. On 5th December, 1861, she became the wife of Alfred Rose. In 1862 they moved to Wisconsin, where her life has been spent on a farm near Brodhead. Associated with her husband in an equal partnership, that accorded to her that justice and recognition which is not secured by the laws of the land, she has lived and worked with him in a companionship which is seldom seen in homes that are founded on the idea of masculine supremacy. They have one child, a daughter, who has become quite well known as an artist In conjunction with her husband, Mrs. Rose oversees all the work of the farm and takes a part in all. She is a careful, conservative, successful farmer, and in her life vindicates woman's right to labor. She is also a reader, thinker and reformer. She takes notes of every bill that passes the legislature, and watches every act of Congress. Her reform work has been chiefly in connection with the Woman Suffrage Association, and in the ranks of the Labor party. Both causes have found in her an efficient worker and an able speaker. As a farmer, she saw at an early day the great wrong done to the laboring classes by the present financial system, and was led to associate herself with those who were seeking the emancipation of labor. In 1873, near her home in Brodhead, she joined the Grange, and for seventeen years was an active member of that organization, holding many offices, among them county secretary and a member of the State committee on woman's work. As a result of her efforts, assisted by two or three other members, a Grange store was organized, which has been in successful operation many years and saved to the farmers of Green county many thousands of dollars. In 1888, when speculation in wheat produced hard times, Mrs. Rose prepared and presented to her Grange the following resolutions: "Whereas, our boards of trade have become mere pool- rooms for the enrichment of their members, and whereas, by their manipulations of the markets they unsettle the values and nullify the law of supply and demand, so that producers do not receive legitimate prices for what they produce; and, whereas, by 'cornering' the markets they are enabled to force up the prices of the necessaries of life, to the great distress and often starvation of the poor; therefore, resolved, that we demand immediate action by Congress, and the passage of such laws as shall forever prohibit gambling in the necessaries of life." Those resolutions have remained the best statement yet formulated of the demand of the Labor party. They were unanimously adopted and forwarded through county and State Granges to the National Grange, where they were adopted and placed in the hands of the legislative committee of the Grange in Washington, where they have been urged upon Congress with such force that the Anti-Option Bill in Congress was the result. She is now a prominent member of the Patrons of Industry, being one of the executive committee of the State association, and by voice and pen is doing much to ELLEN ALIDA ROSE. educate the farmers in the prominent reforms of the day, of which the advancement of women is one which claims her first interest From her earliest recollection she has been an advocate of woman suffrage, although she did not join any organization until 1886, when she became a member of the Wisconsin Woman's Suffrage Association and was instrumental in forming a local club, becoming its first president. In 1887 she assisted in organizing a county association and was appointed county organizer. In 1888 she was appointed district president, which office she still holds.