Description: Elizabeth J. Hauser, a leader in the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, wrote this letter to Lucille Atcherson, the executive secretary of the Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association on August 21, 1914. Hauser sends an emergency request that Atcherson find a speaker for the Wapakoneta Fair later that week, as the arranged speaker would not be able to make it on time. Hauser requested that Atcherson get Miss Medford to speak, and said that the state association would pay Miss Medford's expenses for the engagement. Hauser directed Atcherson that if they could not arrange for Miss Medford or another woman speaker, then a man would do. She also informed Atcherson that suffrage literature for use at the Democratic and Republican conventions was en route to Columbus, and sent directions on the best way to distribute the materials. The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1912, after the Ohio Constitutional Convention elected to bring to a vote the question of removing the words "white male" from the state constitution with regard to voting rights. Headquartered in the Chamber of Commerce building in Columbus, Ohio, the organization put out regular publications, organized public speeches and meetings, distributed literature and held parades in support of the suffrage movement. Women's suffrage in Ohio was defeated in a special election in 1912 and again in 1914 and 1916 before a resolution narrowly passed in 1917 allowing municipal voting by women in Columbus. In 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, extending the vote to women and prohibiting state and federal government from denying suffrage on the basis of sex. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS1025_B01F04_12_01
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association; Expositions and fairs
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Warren (Ohio); Trumbull County (Ohio);