(O.) and Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizers. Several public sessions were held.
The annual meeting of 1899 took place in Madison, September 5, 6. The tenth convention met in Brookings, Sept. 5, 1900. Mrs. Simmons having removed from the State, Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler was elected president. Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson was made vice-president.[1]
Among the prominent friends of woman suffrage may be mentioned the Hon. Arthur C. Mellette, first State Governor; U. S. Senators Richard F. Pettigrew, James H. Kyle‘and Robert J. Gamble; Lieutenant-Governor D. T. Hindman; members of Congress J. A. Pickler, W. B. Lucas and E. W. Martin; the Hons. S. A. Ramsey and Coe I. Crawford; Attorney-General John L. Pyle, Judge D. C. Thomas, General W. H. Beadle, Professor McClennen, of the Madison Normal School, and ministers of many churches. The Hon. J. H. Patton and the Hon. W. C. Bowers paid the expenses of the legislative committee of the suffrage association while they were in Pierre during the winter of 1897 to secure the submission of an amendment. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court A. J. Edgerton, was a pronounced advocate of woman suffrage and appointed a woman official stenographer of his judicial district, the best salaried office within his gift. Associate Justice Seward Smith appointed a woman clerk of the Faulk County district court.[2]
Laws: Neither dower nor curtesy obtains. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving only one child or the lawful issue of one, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the separate estate of the other; or one-third if there are more than one child or the issue of more than one. If there are no children nor the issue of any, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the estate and the other half goes to the kindred of the deceased. If there are none the survivor takes all. A homestead of 160 acres, or
- ↑ Others who have served in official position are vice-president, Mrs. Emma A. Cranmer; corresponding secretaries, Mesdames Kate Uline Folger, F. C. Bidwell, Hannah V. Best treasurers, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wardall, Mrs. Marion L. Bennett, Mrs. Clara M. W. Williams; auditor, Mrs. John Davis; superintendents of literature, Mrs. Jane Rooker Breeden, Mrs. Della Robinson King.
- ↑ The list of men and women who are not so widely known but who have stood faithfully for woman suffrage would be a long one. Among them are S. H. Cramner, Rev. and Mrs. C. E. Hagar, Mrs. Alice Gossage, Mrs. C. E. Thorpe, Mrs. Ramsey, Mrs. Ruby Smart, Kara Smart and Floy Cochrane.
