Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/861

 passed away in 1894, an irreparable loss to the cause of woman suffrage.

In May, 1895, the Mississippi Valley Congress was called at St. Louis under the auspices of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and various other organizations participated. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, president and vice-president-at-large of the National Association, stopped on their way to California and made addresses. Just before Miss Anthony began her address, seventy-five children, some of them colored, passed before her and each laid a rose in her lap, in honor of her seventy-five years.

The preceding spring the National Association had sent Mrs. Anna R. Simmons of South Dakota into Missouri to lecture for two months and reunite the scattered forces. A State suffrage convention followed the congress and Mrs. Addie M. Johnson was elected president. At its close a banquet with 200 covers was given in the Mercantile Club Room, with Miss Anthony as the guest of honor. A local society, of nearly one hundred members, was formed in St. Louis. During October Mrs. Simmons again made a tour of the State at the expense of the National Association.

On June 15, 16, 1896, the annual convention took place in St. Louis with delegates present from seventeen clubs. Addresses were made by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado and others who were in the city trying to obtain some recognition for women from the National Republican Convention. Miss Ella Harrison was made president. Public meetings were called for November 12, 13, in Kansas City, as it was then possible to have the presence of Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt on their return from the suffrage amendment campaign in California.

In January, 1897, Mrs. Bradford spent three weeks lecturing in the State, and the president devoted a month to this purpose during the autumn. The annual meeting convened in Bethany, December 7-9, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. Hoffman being the principal speakers.