Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/1054

 

In 1867 Samuel Young introduced into the Senate of West Virginia a bill to confer the suffrage on educated, taxpaying women, but it found no advocates except himself. In 1869 he presented a resolution asking Congress for a Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women, which received the votes of eight of the twenty-two senators.

No further step ever was taken in this direction until the spring of 1895, when Mrs. Annie L. Diggs of Kansas was sent into the State by the National Woman Suffrage Association but reported that the question was too new to make any organization possible. In the fall Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizer, arranged a two weeks' series of meetings with the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio as speaker, and several clubs were formed in the northern part of the State. A convention was called to meet in Grafton, November 25, 26, when an association was formed and the following board of officers was elected: President, Mrs. Jessie C. Manley; vice-president, Harvey W. Harmer; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Annie Caldwell Boyd; recording secretary, Mrs. L. M. Fay; treasurer, Mrs. K. H. De Woody; auditors, Mrs. M. Caswell and Mrs. Louise Harden.

The second convention was held at Fairmont in January, 1897, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, assisting. Everything was so new that her pre ence and instruction were an inspiration and a help, without which it is doubtful whether the work would have continued. Officers were elected as follows: President, Mrs. Fannie Wheat; vice-president, Mrs. Mackie M. Holbert; recording s retary, Mrs. Beulah Boyd Ritchie; auditors, Mrs. Mary Long