CHAPTER XXX.
CONNECTICUT.[1]
The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association was organized in September, 1869, after a memorable two days' convention in Hartford, under the call and management of Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker.[2] The Rev. Nathaniel J. Burton, D. D., was elected its first president and in 1871 he was succeeded by Mrs. Hooker, who has now held the office thirty years with unswerving loyalty and devotion to the cause. During the first fifteen years eight conventions were held, addressed by the most prominent speakers in the country.
In 1884 a State convention took place in Hartford, attended by Miss Susan B. Anthony and a large delegation of men and women from various parts of the State. But one other (1888) intervened between this and that which met in Meriden in 1892, when the society was reorganized under a broader constitution, with the name of Connecticut Woman Suffrage Society for the Study of Political Science. Mrs. Hooker was made president and Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon vice-president-at-large.[3]
Since then annual conventions have been held in Hartford (four), Meriden, Willimantic and Southington. Several executive meetings have been called yearly and the business of the association has been systematically arranged. Public meetings have been addressed by Miss Anthony, president of the National Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organi-
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon of Hartford, vice-president-at-large of the State Woman Suffrage Association.
- ↑ See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 321.
- ↑ County vice-presidents, Mesdames Ella B. Kendrick, J. H. Hale, Rose I. Blakeslee, Mary L. Hemstead, George Sanger, Mary C. Hickox, the Hon. Edwin O. Dimock, Miss Elizabeth Sheldon; recording secretary, Miss Frances Ellen Burr; corresponding secretary. Mrs. G. W. Fuller; treasurer, Mrs. Mary J. Rogers; auditors, Joseph Sheldon, Mrs. S. E. Browne; member national executive committee, Miss Sara Winthrop Smith. Among others who have served as State officers are Miss Hannah J. Babcock, Mesdames Jane S. Koons, Emma Hurd Chaffee, Annie C. S. Feaner, Ella S. Bennett, Ella G. Brooks, B. M. Parsons, Mary J. Warren.
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