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^ 177 American and state suffrage associations to raise money for the Organization Committee. For coverage of the event in Minneapolis on November 15, see Film, 37:389–91. Wendell, after working with his older brother Arthur in the insurance business in St. Louis, became an agent in Philadelphia and settled in Duluth as district agent of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Trust Company, the Employers ’ Liability Company, and Travelers Life and Accident Insurance Company. (Aldridge, Laphams in America, 156, 223; St. Louis city directories, 1879, 1880; Duluth city directories, 1890, 1891; Papers, 4:286–88; SBA diary, 17 April 1890, and Report of the Thirtieth Annual Convention, 1898, pp. 9, 32, Film, 27:679ff, 38:109ff. See also Papers 3.) 2. Enclosure missing. Mary Catherine Seymour Howell (1844?–1913) of Albany , New York, wanted a place on the program for the upcoming convention of the National-American association. Howell was a lobbyist and lecturer whose abilities were put to use by state and national suffrage associations as well as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In New York, where her husband’s job as state librarian enlarged her political connections, legislators consulted her about bills affecting women. As a national lecturer, she joined the campaign in South Dakota in 1890 and assisted the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association in its canvasses leading up to the amendment campaign of 1894. Three different birthdates for Howell circulated in her lifetime (1844, 1848, and 1850), and none appears on her gravestone. An obituary described her as born “sixty odd years ago.” (American Women; WWW1; “Mary Seymour Howell,” Rochester Regional Library Council website, Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote; History, 4:839–73; with assistance of Terry Mistretta, Mount Morris, N.Y. See also Papers 5.) 3. John Brown (1800–1859) was hanged for treason in 1859,after his raid against the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry to start a revolt among slaves. 4. Madison,Wisconsin,was the site for the next conference,to open on November 17. From there the troupe headed to Chicago (November 19), Grand Rapids (November 22), and Toledo (November 26). For coverage of the events, see Film, 37:398–400, 407–13, 425–30, 440. ••••••••• 75 • ECS to Elizabeth Root 1 26 W. 61st St., New York, Nov. 26, 1897. My Dear Miss Root: It gives me great pleasure to hear that the women of Geneva are forming a club for political study, and thus preparing themselves for their duties as citizens of a Republic. We have heard much of the rights of women as citizens; it is equally important to consider their duties. 16 november 1897 178 & Rev. Samuel J. May used to say: “The State is suffering a condition of half orphanage, as the mothers take no interest in its affairs, and the family is also in a condition of half-orphanage, as the fathers take so little interest in the care and education of the children.” 2 The innumerable wards of the State, in our jails, prisons, in charitable institutions, swarming in tenement houses in poverty and ignorance and vice,in their dumb appeals,summon the mothers of the race to the consideration of all this misery, and the remedy in better laws and more generous public action. Women are equally responsible with men for all the wrongs of society; that they are awakening to this fact is one of the most promising signs of the times. The study of the State and municipal laws, in their political equality clubs, is the first step in the coming revolution for equal rights to all. With best wishes for the success of your club. Sincerely yours, U Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Y Woman’s Journal, 1 January 1898. 1. Elizabeth Root (1845–?) lived in Geneva, New York, with a brother and her widowed mother, all of them friends of Elizabeth and Anne Miller. Root was a signer of the invitation to meet on 30 November 1897 for the purpose of organizing the Geneva Political Equality Club,and she served as corresponding secretary during the club’s first year.(Federal Census,1900 and 1910; Embers from Fossenvue Backlogs, 1875–1900 [New York, 1901]; Scrapbooks of Elizabeth Smith Miller and Anne Fitzhugh Miller, vol. 3, pp. 14, 34, NAWSA Collection, Rare Books, DLC.) 2. The idea of states in a condition of half-orphanage recurs in Samuel J. May’s writings about woman’s rights. See his early sermon The Rights and Condition of Women; A Sermon, Preached in Syracuse, Nov...

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