Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/308

, both in England and America, may be dated from this World’s Antislavery Convention.”

The suffrage movement in Iowa began in the summer of 1854 when Frances Dana Gage of Ohio delivered a series of lectures in the southwestern part of the State on temperance and woman’s rights. In 1855, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer of Council Bluffs gave several lectures on the Martha H. Brinkerhoff, a talented and eloquent young woman, traveled through the chief towns of northwestern Iowa speaking on suffrage and awakening deep interest in that section as the pioneer advocate of equal rights, organizing many societies. In 1868-9-70 Annie C. Savery of Des Moines lectured on the subject in various localities.

On the 17th of April, 1869, the first organization was made in Dubuque, called the “Northern Woman Suffrage Association.” Mary N. Adams was one of the leaders of the movement; she lectured in many places in that part of the State and wrote able articles for the press. The Polk County Suffrage Society was organized on the 25th of October, 1870. In the fall of the same year a society was established in Burlington, through the efforts of Mary A. P. Darwin, who delivered a series of lectures through the southern part of the State. Mattie Griffith of Davenport was a pioneer in the cause in that city and vicinity as early as 1868. In 1870 Mrs. Bloomer and Mrs. Hannah Tracy Cutler lectured at Oskaloosa where a society was soon after organized. During the year 1870-71-72-73, lectures were given by Nettie Sanford, Lizzie B. Reed, Mrs. A. M. Swain, Susan B. Anthony and others who carried on an active campaign for the cause, and many societies were established.

On the 17th of June, 1870, a State Convention of advocates of woman suffrage was held at Mt. Pleasant where was organized the “Iowa Woman Suffrage Society.” The following officers were elected: president, Henry