Territorial government, and gave to taxpaying women a vote on questions of taxation.
Legislative Action And Laws: In 1895 women secured an enactment that the commissioners of any county, at the request of a certain number of petitioners, must call a special election for a vote on licensing the sale of liquor. A two-thirds vote is necessary to prohibit this. Women themselves can neither petition nor vote on the question.
This year a bill was introduced by Representative John S. Huseby for a constitutional amendment granting suffrage to women. It was passed in the House, 45 yeas, 12 nays; indefinitely postponed in the Senate by a "rising vote," 14 yeas, 4 nays.
In 1897 a systematic effort was made to secure a bill for this amendment. Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, chairman of the State central committee, invaded the legislative halls with an able corps of assistants from the W. S. A. Petitions signed by about 3,000 citizens were presented, and it looked for a time as if the bill might pass. It was debated in the House and attracted much attention from the press, but lacked five votes of the required two-thirds majority. It was not acted upon in the Senate.
In 1899 Dr. Mary B. Atwater, then president of the State Association, with other officers and members, succeeded in having a Suffrage Amendment Bill introduced. Some excellent work was done, but the measure was lost in Committee of the Whole.
Dower is retained but curtesy abolished. If there is only one child, or the lawful issue of one child, the surviving husband or wife receives one-half of the entire estate, real and personal; if there is more than one child, or one child and the lawful issue of one or more deceased children, the survivor receives one-third. If there is no issue living the survivor takes one-half of the whole unless there is neither father, mother, brother, sister nor their descendants, when the widow or widower takes it all.
The wife may mortgage or convey her separate property without the husband's signature. He may do this but can not impair her dower right to one-third.
A married woman may act as executor, administrator or guardian. She may also sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name.
