Women’s suffrage is a story older than North Dakota’s statehood, dating back to territorial times. It was a political and progressive issue, viewed as important to some, but a joke to others. And only men could decide it.
Perhaps the first milestone was in 1883 when women of Dakota Territory were allowed to vote in school elections. In 1889, women also gained the right to vote for the state superintendent of public instruction. North Dakota’s legislature nearly passed a women’s suffrage bill in 1893, but it lost in a bitter drama on the last day of the session.
Suffragists in North Dakota had a leader in Elizabeth Preston Anderson. As president of North Dakota’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union, she closely followed events in the Legislature. Without her records, history may have forgotten the failed 1893 women’s suffrage bill.
In the early 1880s, there was no organized group in the state promoting women’s suffrage. But a meeting in Grand Forks in the spring of 1888 set the wheels in motion. A crowded convention was held at the Grand Forks County Courthouse. Those in attendance heard lectures and letters of support from men and women alike. More public meetings followed, and other clubs formed around the state.
On this date in 1895, North Dakota’s first statewide suffrage convention was held. It was called to order by local suffragist Dr. Cora Smith Eaton – the first woman doctor in North Dakota. The convention heard letters from Susan B. Anthony, North Dakota Senator Henry Hansbrough and others. Anthony’s letter outlined how to organize support for suffrage on the local level.
Other conventions followed, with meetings in Fargo, Larimore, Devils Lake, Hillsboro and Lakota. The women’s suffrage movement snowballed in the early 20th century. Every legislative session from 1901 to 1911 included a bill about women’s suffrage. None were made law.
In 1914, North Dakota voters – all men – voted on a referred measure for women’s suffrage. It failed, getting about 45% of the vote. In 1916, North Dakota’s Nonpartisan League took up the challenge as a champion of women’s suffrage. The effort would eventually grant women the right to vote for presidential electors, county officials, township officers and most city officials. Full suffrage came in 1919 with passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-iii-waves-development-1861-1920/lesson-4-alliances-and-conflicts/topic-8-suffrage/section-3-woman-suffrage-1912-1920
ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-iii-waves-development-1861-1920/lesson-4-alliances-and-conflicts/topic-8-suffrage/section-2-woman-suffrage-1870-1893
ndstudies.gov/gr4/early-settlement-north-dakota/elizabeth-preston-anderson
nps.gov/yell/blogs/suffragettes-in-yellowstone-dr-cora-smith-eaton.htm
ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-iii-waves-development-1861-1920/lesson-4-alliances-and-conflicts/topic-8-suffrage/section-1-introduction
Anthony, S.B., Harper, I.H. (eds.) 1902. The history of women’s suffrage. Susan B. Anthony: Rochester, NY
