Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/647

TEXAS 63 1 of one hundred, regular meetings were held and the subject of woman suffrage was kept constantly before the public. An effort was made to get a woman on the school board but the Mayor refused to appoint one. Among those active in the work were Althea Jones, Miss Mary W. Roper, Mrs. E. F. and Miss Ruby McGowen of Houston ; Mrs. A. Adella Penfield of La Porte, Mrs. C. H. Moore and Miss Julia Runge of Galveston. The Finnigan sisters were the leaders and the league prospered for several years until they left the State. The movement became inactive and the society formed in Austin in 1908 with twenty- five members was the only one that continued. In 1912 through the efforts of Miss M. Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio and Miss Anna Maxwell Jones, a Texas woman residing in New York, suffrage clubs were organized in San Antonio, Galveston, Dallas, Waco, Tyler and San Marcos. Miss Finnigan returned to Texas and the Houston league was revived. The third State convention was held in San Antonio in March, 1913. Miss Brackenridge was elected president, Miss Finnigan honorary president. The convention was spirited and showed that the suffrage movement was well launched. This was just ten years after the first club was started. Miss Brackenridge pos- sessed large means and a wide acquaintance and gave much prestige to the association. A number of notable speakers were brought to the State and the subject was introduced in women's organizations. This year through the San Antonio league a bill was introduced in the Legislature but never came to a vote. In April, 1914, the State convention was held in Dallas and Miss Brackenridge was made honorary president and Miss Finni- gan again elected president. During the year State headquarters were opened in Houston and the clubs were increased from eight to twenty-one. Miss Pearl Penfield, as headquarters and field secretary, organized the State work. The president sent letters to all the legislators asking them to pledge themselves to vote for a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution. None of them had an idea that any of the others would agree to support it and a considerable number in a desire to "please the ladies" wrote rharming letters of acquiescein r. When in January, 1915, they confronted a large group of women lobbyists, experiences were