branch were present and, with unanimous consent, a union of
two bodies into one State organization was effected. Although
receiving a majority vote, Mrs. Sewall, Miss Cardwill and Mrs. Harper,
for personal reasons, refused longer to serve. The election finally
resulted: President, Mrs. Gougar; vice-president-at-large, Mrs.
Wallace; secretary, Mrs. Caroline C. Hodgin; treasurer, Mrs. Hattie E.
Merrill; chairman executive committee, Mrs. E. M. Seward;
superintendent of press, Mrs. Georgia Wright. A resolution was adopted
mourning the death of Dr. Mary F. Thomas.

State meetings were held for several years afterward, but the records
of them are not available.

In 1899, the State association having been apparently defunct for a
long time, a conference of the officers of the National Association
was called to meet in Indianapolis, at the earnest request of
Mrs. Sewall and a committee. There were present on December
7, 8, Miss Anthony, president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw,
vice-president-at-large, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, treasurer, Miss
Laura Clay and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, auditors, and Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the organization committee. Mrs.
Sewall gave two receptions to enable the people of the city to greet
them; a large one was given by Mrs. Lucy McDowell Milburn, wife of the
Rev. Joseph A. Milburn, of the Second Presbyterian Church; and a
luncheon at the handsome residence of Mrs. Alice Wheeler Peirce by the
committee.

Business meetings were held at the Denison Hotel. The evening
meetings, in Plymouth Church, were large and enthusiastic. A new State
association was formed and also a new local club for Indianapolis,
while the staunch and steadfast old societies of Kokomo and Tipton
were aroused to new activity.[250]

At the State meeting in Indianapolis in November, 1900, the old board
of officers was re-elected, except that Mrs. Mary Shank was made
vice-president and Mrs. Ethel B. McMullen, treasurer.

A very considerable sentiment in favor of woman suffrage exists
throughout the State and many well-known individuals advocate it,
among them U. S. Senator Albert J. Beveridge and most of the
Congressional delegation, State officials, judges, clergymen and
prominent members of the women's clubs, but there is so slight an
organization that little opportunity is afforded for public expression
or action.

From 1884 down to the present women have appeared many times in person
and by petitio