Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/771

702 many of the country districts have one, some two women on the schoolboard, and at one time all three members in one district were women. That they are honest, capable and efficient is the verdict in every case.

In the spring of 1881, Mrs. Emily J. Biggs organized the Stanton Suffrage Society, eight miles from Lincoln Centre, with a membership of over twenty, more than half of whom were gentlemen. Mesdames Mary Baldwin, N. Good, T. Faulkner, M. Biggs, Mrs. Swank and others were the leading spirits. All their meetings are public, and are held in the school-house. Through this society that portion of the county has become well leavened with suffrage sentiment. Failing health alone has prevented Mrs. Biggs from carrying this school district organization to all parts of the county and beyond its limits, as she has been urgently invited to do. "Instant in season and out of season" with a word for the cause, she has, individually, reached more people with the subject than any other half-dozen women in the society. Her pen, too, has done good service. Over the nom de plume of "Nancy," in the Beacon, she has dealt telling blows to our ancient adversary, the Register. In October, 1882, the writer went by invitation to Ellsworth and organized a society President, Mrs. Mary Maberly; Secretary, Miss Lillie M. Hull; Treasurer, Mrs. Emma H. Johns; and an able executive committee, of which Mrs. E. M. Alden, Mrs. Emma Faris, Mrs. Mattie McDowel and Bertha H. Ellsworth, who was then teaching there, were members. auxiliary to the National, composed of excellent material, but too timid to do more than hold its own until the summer of 1884, when Mrs, Gougar, and later, Mrs. Colby, lectured there, soon after which Mrs. Ellsworth canvassed the town with literature and a petition for municipal suffrage, which was signed by eighty of the eighty-five women to whom it was presented, showing that there was either a great deal of original suffrage sentiment there, or that the society had exerted a large amount of "silent influence.". In October, 1883, Mrs. Helen M. Gougar came to fill some lecture engagements in the southeastern part of the State. During this visit she organized several clubs.

In June, 1884, Mrs. Gougar again visited Kansas, lecturing for a month in different parts of the State. She drew large audiences and made many converts. A suffrage society was organized at Emporia, Miss M. J. Watson, president. The active friends availed themselves of her assistance to call a State Suffrage Convention, which met in the Senate chamber in Topeka, June 25, 26, and organized a State Association. Mrs. Gougar, by the unanimous vote of the convention, presided, and dispatched business with her characteristic ability. In view of all the circumstances, this