Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/595

556 The biography of every officer, great or small, in the nation's army would be a prodigious task, but hardly less is that of giving in detail the work of every American woman actively interested in reform movements. It would take volumes to give at length the work of all the women now interested in the enfranchisement of women and in the temperance field. There was a time in our history when the question of women's suffrage, unless it threatened the immediate community in which we lived, was a matter to which the majority of us in America, whether men or women, were, if not indifferent, still somewhat neutral. Now, I think it would be safe to say the majority have the most ardent convictions pro et contra. It is, therefore, with such deep regret that I find it possible to offer at length only the biographies of the pronounced leaders in suffrage and temperance, that I have appended merely a roll-call of notable names. Even this, I fear, can only approximate the number of women dedicating their lives to the work of their sex.

Among those who have done distinguished work for suffrage we find such names as these:

Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, successor to Lillie Devereux Blake as president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association.

Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Barbert, who succeeded in inducing the Republicans of Iowa to put into their state platform a purely women's plank, thus being the first woman to design a women's plank and secure its adoption by a great political party in a great state.

Mrs. Rebecca N. Hazard, who, as early as 1867, formed the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri.

Mrs. Eliza Trask Hill, one of the active leaders in the