The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 132

Senator O. M. Barber, now State auditor, was the author, in the same year, of the law allowing a married woman to be appointed executor, guardian, administrator or trustee.

The father is the legal guardian and has custody of the persons and education of minor children. He may appoint by will a guardian even for one unborn. (Code, 1894.)

If the husband fail to support his wife the court may make such decision as it thinks called for, and the town may recover from a husband who deserted his wife and children, leaving them a charge upon it for one year previous to the time of action.

A married woman deserted or neglected by her husband "may make contracts for the labor of her minor children, shall be ent.i.tled to their wages, and may in her own name sue for and recover them."

In 1886 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years. In 1898 it was raised to 16 years. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than twenty years or a fine not exceeding $2,000, or both, at the discretion of the court. No minimum penalty is named.

SUFFRAGE: Women have the same right as men to vote on all questions pertaining to schools and school officers in cities, towns and graded school districts; and the same right to hold offices relating to school affairs. This law, which had been enacted in 1880 and applied to "school meetings," was re-enacted when the "town system" was established in 1892, and gave women the right to vote on school matters in the town meetings.

OFFICE HOLDING: Since 1880 "women 21 years of age" may be elected to the office of town clerk, and to all school offices.

In 1900 thirteen women were elected town clerks; six were serving as school directors, eighty-four as county superintendents and seventy-five as postmasters, according to the Vermont _Register_, which is not always complete.

Women sit on the State Board of Library Commissioners. In 1900 they were made eligible to serve as trustees of town libraries.

This year also a law making women eligible to the office of notary public was secured by Representative J. E. Buxton.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women.

EDUCATION: Equal advantages are accorded to both s.e.xes in all the colleges, except that the State University, at Burlington, does not admit women to its Medical Department.

In 1888, Dr. E. R. Campbell, president of the society, reported as follows: "The Vermont Medical Society opens wide its doors to admit women, and bids them welcome to all its privileges and honors, on an equal basis with their brother physicians."

In the public schools there are 509 men and 3,289 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $41.23; of the women, $25.04.

Progressive steps have been taken in the churches of most denominations. In 1892, for the first time, women were elected as delegates to the annual State Convention of the Congregational Churches. In 1900 there were fifteen accredited women delegates in the convention. The Domestic Missionary Society, an ally of this church, has employed sixteen women during the past year as "missionaries," to engage in evangelistic work in the State.

The Vermont Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, although it does not admit women to its members.h.i.+p, has pa.s.sed resolutions five times in the last ten years, indorsing equal rights, and has pet.i.tioned the Legislature to grant them Munic.i.p.al Suffrage. For this credit is due to the Rev. George L. Story and the Rev. L. L. Beeman.

The Free Baptist Church pa.s.sed a resolution declaring unequivocally for the Christian principle of political equality for women at its Yearly Meeting in 1889. That year, for the first time in its history, it sent a woman delegate to the General Conference.

A similar resolution was pa.s.sed at a meeting of the Northern a.s.sociation of Universalists, later in the same year. This church admits women to equal privileges in its conventions and its pulpits.

This is also true of the Unitarian Church.

The annual meeting of the State Grange in 1891 adopted this resolution: "We sympathize with and will aid any efforts for equal suffrage regardless of s.e.x."

All the political parties have been urged to indorse woman suffrage.

The Prohibitionists did so in their annual convention of 1888. At the Republican State Convention that year the Committee on Resolutions, through its chairman, Col. Albert Clarke, presented the following, which was adopted: "True to its impulses, history and traditions of liberty, equality and progress, the Republican party in Vermont will welcome women to an equal partic.i.p.ation in government, whenever they give earnest of desire in sufficient numbers to indicate its success."

FOOTNOTES:

[451] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Laura Moore of Barnet, who has been secretary of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation for seventeen years.

[452] The following have been presidents: Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden, C. W.

Wyman, Mrs. M. E. Tucker, the Hon. Hosea Mann, Willard Chase, Mrs. A.

D. Chandler, L. F. Wilbur, Mrs. P. S. Beeman, the Rev. George L.

Story, Miss Elizabeth Colley, A. M.

Among those who have served on the executive board are Mesdames L. E.

Alfred, A. F. Baldwin, F. W. Brown, A. M. W. Chase, E. L. Corwin, C.

J. Clark, L. D. Dyer, P. R. Edes, M. W. Foster, C. D. Gallup, S. F.

Leonard, Emma J. Nelson and Julia A. Pierce; Misses Clara Eastman, O.

M. Lawrence, Laura Moore, Julia E. Smith and Mary E. Spencer; the Hon.

Chester Pierce, Col. Albert Clarke, Dudley P. Hall and G. W. Seaver.

[453] Some of those who have rendered excellent service to the cause are Mesdames Clara Bailey, Lucia G. Brown, M. A. Brewster, Inez E.

Campbell, H. G. Minot, G. E. Moody, Harriet S. Moore, Emily E. Reed, Clinton Smith, Mary H. Semple, Anna E. Spencer, L. B. Wilson and Jane Marlette Taft; Misses Caroline Scott, Eliza S. Eaton and I. E. Moody; the Rev. Mark Atwood, L. N. Chandler, Editor Arthur F. Stone and ex-Gov. Carroll S. Page.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

VIRGINIA.

As early as 1870 and 1871 Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage of New York and Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis of Rhode Island lectured on woman suffrage in Richmond. There has been, however, very little organized effort in its behalf, although the movement has many individual advocates. Since 1880 the State has been represented at the national conventions by Mrs. Orra Langhorne, who has been its most active worker for twenty years. Other names which appear at intervals are Miss Etta Grimes Farrar, Miss Brill and Miss Henderson Dangerfield. A few local societies have been formed, and in 1893 a State a.s.sociation was organized, with Mrs. Langhorne as president and Mrs. Elizabeth B. Dodge as secretary and treasurer. Its efforts have been confined chiefly to discovering the friends of the movement, distributing literature and securing favorable matter in the newspapers. The Richmond _Star_ is especially mentioned as a champion of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women. In 1895 Miss Anthony, president of the National a.s.sociation, on her way home from its convention in Atlanta, addressed a large audience at the opera house in Culpeper.

Later this year Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine spoke in the same place. Mrs. Ruth D. Havens of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., lectured on The Girls of the Future before the State Teachers' Normal Inst.i.tute.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: Pet.i.tions have been sent to the Legislature from time to time, by the State a.s.sociation and by individuals for woman suffrage with educational qualifications, the opening of State colleges to women, the appointment of women physicians in the prisons and insane asylums, women on school boards, proper accommodations in jails for women prisoners and the separation of juvenile offenders from the old and hardened. None of these ever has been acted upon.

In 1898 a bill to permit women to serve as notaries public was vetoed by the Governor as unconst.i.tutional.

Dower and curtesy both obtain. The wife inherits a life interest in one-third of the real estate. If there are children she has one-third of the personal property absolutely; if none, one-half. The husband inherits all of the wife's personal property whether there are children or not, and the entire real estate for life if there has been issue born alive. If this has not been the case he has no interest in the wife's separate real estate. The homestead, to the value of $2,000, is exempted for the wife.

By Act of 1900, a married woman may dispose as though unmarried of all property heretofore or hereafter acquired. She can sell her personal property without her husband's uniting. He has the same right. She can sell her land without his uniting, but unless he does so, if curtesy exist, he will be ent.i.tled to a life estate. Unless the wife unites with the husband in the sale of his real estate, she will be ent.i.tled to dower.

By the above Act a married woman may contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, in the same manner and with the same consequences as if she were unmarried, whether the right or liability a.s.serted by or against her accrued before or after the pa.s.sage of the act. The husband is not responsible for any contract, liability or tort of the wife, whether the liability was incurred or the tort was committed before or after marriage.

There has been no decision as to the wages of a married woman since the above Act; but it is believed they would be held to belong to her absolutely, even if not engaged in business as a sole trader.

The father is the legal guardian of the minor children, and may appoint a guardian for such time as he pleases.

The husband is liable for necessaries for the support of the family, and can be sued therefor by any one who supplies them.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 12 to 14 years in 1896. The penalty is death or imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than five nor more than twenty years.

SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.

OFFICE HOLDING: No offices are filled by women except that there is one physician at the Western Insane Asylum and, through the efforts of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a matron in the woman's ward of the State prison.

Women are employed as clerks in various county offices. They can not serve as notaries public.

OCCUPATIONS: Under the ruling of the courts, a woman can not practice law. No other profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women.