CHAPTER XXXVII.
ILLINOIS.[1]
The Illinois Equal Suffrage Association has had only four presidents in the past sixteen years. Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert retired from this office at the annual meeting of Sept. 25, 1884, and was succeeded by Mrs. Mary E. Holmes, who served until the autumn of 1889, when Mrs. Harbert again filled the presidency for one year. At the convention of 1890 Mrs. Holmes was re-elected, and held office until her resignation in 1897. In May of this year, Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn was elected. In 1899 Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch was made president, and in 1900 Mrs. Harbert resumed the position for one year. The other officers elected were: Vice-president, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mary Munn; recording secretary, Miss S. Grace Nicholas; treasurer, the Rev. Kate Hughes; chairman executive committee, Mrs. Elmina E. Springer.
As the work is divided into districts and counties, and as there are twenty-two districts and 102 counties partially organized, it will not be possible to name in this chapter the hundreds of quiet but very efficient workers, men and women, or to tell of their unselfish devotion, shown often in the face of fierce opposition.
The association has held a State convention each year, except 1893, the vear of tne Columbian Exposition in Chicago, when it was decided instead to attend the World's Congress of Representative Women, which met in May.[2] At many of these meetings national officers were present, among them Susan B. An-
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Mary E. Holmes of Chicago, who has been officially connected with the State Equal Suffrage Association since 1884.
- ↑ State conventions have been held as follows: Watseka, 1884; Geneseo, 1885; Sandwich, 1886; Galva, 1887; Rockford, 1888; Joliet, 1889; Moline, 1890; Kewanee, 1891; Aurora, 1892; Chicago (World's Fair), 1893; Danville, 1894; Decatur, 1895; Harvey, 1896; Waukegan, 1897; Springfield, 1898; Barry, 1899. The twenty-seventh annual meeting took place in Edgewater, Oct. n, it, 1900.
