Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/82

 

In 1901 the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association had been in existence for thirty-two years, and, except for the first two years, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, who had led the movement for its organization, had been its president. Closely associated with her during all these years was Miss Frances Ellen Burr, who was recording secretary from 1869 to 1910. Under her leadership and with the aid of her husband, John Hooker, an eminent lawyer, legislation had been secured giving mothers equal guardianship of their children and wives full control of their property and earnings. The only concession that had been made to the steady demand of the women for suffrage was the grant of the School franchise in 1893 and eligibility to the school boards. Interest in woman suffrage was at a low ebb when the new century opened. The membership of the association had decreased and at the State convention in Hartford in 1901 the treasurer's report for the year showed an expenditure of only $21.75. The report of the president and secretary said: "The work of the association is confined to the annual fall convention and the legislative hearing."

A convention for the revision of the State constitution was to meet in Hartford at the opening of 1902, whose delegates from the towns and cities were chosen in the fall of 1901. Little was done to secure pledges from the candidates but the association obtained the concession of a room at the Capitol for its use. The National American Woman Suffrage Association sent an organizer — Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell of New York  — into the State and paid her salary for four weeks and she spent seven weeks in Hartford, living with Mrs. Hooker and giving her time