t of 1884 took place in Des Moines,
November 27, 28, Mrs. Narcissa T. Bemis presiding. The report of the
vice-president, Mrs. Jane Amy McKinney, stated that Miss Matilda
Hindman of Pennsylvania had been employed two months of the year,
besides working several weeks upon her own responsibility. She had
delivered seventy-two lectures, formed about forty organizations and
obtained many hundreds of names to pledges of help. Mrs. Helen M.
Gougar of Indiana had given fifteen addresses, distributed 3,000
tracts and secured 500 subscribers for her paper, _Our Herald_. Mrs.
Mariana T. Folsome, financial secretary, had gone from town to town,
arranging her own meetings and visiting many places where no suffrage
work ever before had been done. Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell, State
organizer, had addressed 139 meetings and assisted in organizing ten
counties. Letters urging a Sixteenth Amendment to the Federal
Constitution had been written to all the Iowa members of Congress.

The convention met Oct. 21, 22, 1885, in Cedar Rapids, and elected
Mrs. Campbell president. Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell delivered
evening addresses, while among the delegates was Mrs. Carrie Lane
Chapman (Catt). Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, chairman of the executive
committee, reported that each of the eleven congressional districts
had been given in charge of a vice-president of the State association,
local societies had been formed, numerous public meetings held and
seventeen counties organized. Petitions were in circulation asking the
Legislature to amend the constitution of the State so as to
enfranchise women, and others that women be excused from paying taxes
until they had representation. About forty weekly papers had columns
edited by the press committee. At the State Agricultural Fair this
committee had, as usual, a large amount of literature in a handsomely
decorated booth, which was crowded with visitors from all parts of the
State.

In the autumn of 1886 the annual meeting convened in Ottumwa. During
that year funds had been raised and a permanent cottage erected on the
State Fair grounds to be used as suffrage headquarters. There was also
established in Des Moines a State paper, the _Woman's Standard_, with
Mrs. Coggeshall as editor and Mrs. Martha C. Callanan as business
manager. This paper, an eight-page monthly, issued its first number in
September.[259]

The State Convention of 1887 was held in Des Moines, and that of 1888
in Ames. At the la