CHAPTER XLIV.
VERMONT.[1]
The first convention to consider woman suffrage took place in Vermont in 1883, when a State association was formed, and others were held regularly to the end of the century, with the cooperation of the Massachusetts association. At the convention held in Waterbury Center June 12, 13, 1900, Henry B. Blackwell of Boston, editor of the Woman's Journal, was the chief speaker. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the new president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, sent a letter of helpful suggestions. Petitions for a Federal Suffrage Amendment were forwarded to Congress. During this and the following years the Woman's Journal was sent to members of the Legislature; a column prepared from that paper was sent to every editor in the State and much literature was distributed, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union assisting.
The convention of 1901 met in Rochester June 25, 26. The speakers were Mr. Blackwell, Professor W. L. Burdick, the Rev. George L. Story, Miss Eliza Eaton, Miss Blanche Dunham and Mrs. Laura Kezer, president of the W. C. T. U. The convention congratulated women of the Methodist Episcopal Church on their admission as delegates to the General Conference, the Vermont conference having voted for it unanimously.
In 1902 the convention met at West Concord June 18, 19, among the speakers being Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Suffrage Association, and Mr. Blackwell, who never missed a convention.[2] The State Baptist Association
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Annette W. Parmelee, State Superintendent of Press, State Secretary and State Historian for the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association.
- ↑ Among those who addressed the annual conventions during the years were the Reverends A. M. Smith, J. A. Dixon, F. E. Adams, Verdi Mack, J. Borden Estee, George B. Lamson, T. L. Massock, E. T. Matthison, E. M. H. Abbott, C. J. Staples, O. M. Owen, Eugene Haines, M. T. Merrill, Charles A. Pennoyer: Hon. James F. Hooker, Dr. M. V. B. Knox, Attorney E. B. Flynn, Colonel G. C. Childs, Professor
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