The annual meeting took place in Lexington, Oct. 24-26, 1894. The most encouraging successes of any year were reported in the extension of School Suffrage and the passage of the Married Woman's Property Rights Bill. In answer to the petition of the Fayette County society to Mayor Henry T. Duncan and the city council of Lexington to place a woman on the school board, Mrs. Wilbur R. Smith had been appointed. She was the first to hold such a position in Kentucky. Mrs. Farmer gave an address on School Suffrage, with illustrations of registration and voting, which women were to have an opportunity to apply in 1895.[1]
In 1895 Richmond was again selected as the place for the State convention, December 10-12, at which legislative work in the General Assembly of 1896 was carefully planned. (See Legislative Action.)
The convention met in Lexington, Dec. 18, 1896. A committee was appointed to work for complete School Suffrage in the extra session of the General Assembly the next year.[2]
Covington entertained the annual meeting Oct. 14, 15, 1897. Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe of Illinois, a national organizer, was present, being then engaged in a tour through the State. This convention was unusually large and full of encouragement.
The eleventh convention was held in Richmond, Dec. 1, 1808, and the twelfth in Lexington, Dec. 11, 12, 1899. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay, secretary, assisted, the former giving addresses both evenings. It was decided to ask the General Assembly to make an appropriation for the establishment of a dormitory for the women students of the State College.
Miss Laura Clay has been president of the State Association
- ↑ In the congressional contest of the Seventh District, between W. C. P. Breckinridge and W. C. Owens, in 1894, the women took such a share in defeating the former that their action became an instructive part of political history. Mrs. F. K. Hunt, president of their Owens Club, which did such distinguished service for public morality, after wards became a member of the Equal Rights Association, this campaign having convinced her, as she said, that "there is a place for women in politics."
- ↑ In the Presidential campaign of 1896, Mrs. Josephine K. Henry and Miss Margaret Ingals spoke for the Silver Democrats, and Mrs. Frances E. Beauchamp for the Prohibitionists, under the auspices of the party committees. In June, 1898, Mrs. Beauchamp, president of the State W. C. T. U., was elected permanent chairman and presided over the State Prohibition Convention held in Louisville—the first time a woman ever filled such a position in Kentucky. She was also elected a member of the National Central Committee of the Prohibitionists in 1899. This party has retained the woman suffrage plank in its State platform since 1889.
