Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/853

 

In 1884 the idea of an organization devoted exclusively to the advancement of the "woman's cause" in Mississippi had not assumed tangible form, granting that even the audacious conception had found lodgment in the brain of any person. The nearest approach seems to have been a Woman's Press Club, which sprung into being about this time, but was short-lived, due to the fact, it is charged, that a little leaven of "woman's rights" having crept in, "the whole lump" was threatened.

To the Women's Christian Temperance Union the State is largely indebted for the existence of its Woman Suffrage Association, which was organized in Meridian, May 5, 1897, immediately upon the adjournment of a convention of the State W. C. T. U. The seed sown in 1895 by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, and in 1897 by Miss Ella Harrison of Missouri and Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado, now produced a harvest of clubs, and resulted in a roster of friends in twenty-four towns. Mrs. Nellie M. Somerville was elected president of the association, and Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson corresponding secretary.

The first annual convention was held in Greenville, March 29, 30, 1898. The second and third took place at Clarksdale, the former April 5, 6, 1899, and the latter in-May, 1900. At this meeting the report of the superintendent of press, Mrs. Butt, showed that twenty-two newspapers had opened their