ed and worked for equal suffrage are
the Hon. John Hooker, Judge Joseph Sheldon, Judge George A. Hickox,
the Hon. Radcliffe Hicks, the Rev. John C. Kimball, the Hon. Henry
Lewis, Judge M. H. Holcomb, ex-Speaker John H. Light, ex-Gov. Charles
B. Andrews, the Hon. George M. Gunn, Miss Emily J. Leon and Mrs. Susan
J. Cheney. Honorable mention might be made of many others who have
spent time and money without stint in efforts to advance this cause.

[199] In 1902 a revised State constitution was submitted and only 15
per cent. of the electors voted on it.

CHAPTER XXXI.

DAKOTA.

The Territory of Dakota was created in 1861, but in 1889 it entered
the Union divided into two separate States, North and South Dakota. As
early as 1872 the Territorial Legislature lacked only one vote of
conferring the full suffrage on women. The sparsely settled country
and the long distances made any organized work an impossibility,
although a number of individuals were strong advocates of equal
suffrage.

In 1879 it gave women the right to vote at school meetings. In 1883 a
school township law was passed requiring regular polls and a private
ballot instead of special meetings, which took away the suffrage from
women in all but a few counties.

At the convening of the Territorial Legislature in January, 1885,
Major J. A. Pickler (afterward member of Congress), without
solicitation early in the session introduced a bill in the House
granting Full Suffrage to women, as under the organic act the
legislative body had the power to describe the qualifications for the
franchise. The bill passed the House, February 11, by 29 ayes, 19
noes. Soon afterward it passed the Council by 14 ayes, 10 noes, and
its friends counted the victory won. But Gov. Gilbert A. Pierce,
appointed by President Arthur and only a few months in the Territory,
failed to recognize the grand opportunity to enfranchise 50,000
American citizens by one stroke of his pen and vetoed the bill. Not
only did it express the sentiment of the representatives elected by
the voters, but it had been generally discussed by the press of the
Territory, and all the newspapers but one were outspoken for it. An
effort was made to carry it over the Governor's veto, but it failed.

In 1887 a law was passed enlarging the School Suffrage possessed by
women and giving them the right to vote at all school elections and
for all school officers, and also making them eligible to any
elective s