59, by a little coterie of twenty-five men and women, with
the object of securing suffrage for women from the convention which
was to meet in July to form a constitution for Statehood. They did not
succeed in this but to them is largely due its remarkably liberal
provisions regarding women.[264]

Afterwards local suffrage societies were formed but there was no
attempt to have a State association until 1884. In the winter of that
year Mrs. Bertha H. Ellsworth was sent to the National Convention at
Washington by the society of Lincoln, and she returned enthusiastic
for organization. After some correspondence the first convention was
called by Mrs. Hetta P. Mansfield, who had been appointed
vice-president of Kansas by the National Association, and it met in
the Senate Chamber at Topeka, June 25. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, who was
making a lecture tour of the State, was invited to preside, and Mrs.
Anna C. Wait, president of the five-year-old society at Lincoln and
for many years the strongest force behind the movement, acted as
secretary.[265] Telegrams of greeting were received from Lucy Stone
and Henry B. Blackwell, editors of the _Woman's Journal_. At the
evening meeting Mrs. Ellsworth recited an original poem and Mrs.
Gougar delivered a fine address to a large audience. Professor W. H.
Carruth, of the University of Kansas, assisted, coming as delegate
from a flourishing suffrage society at Lawrence, of which Miss Sarah
A. Brown was president and Mrs. Annie L. Diggs secretary. A
constitution was adopted and Mrs. Mansfield was elected president;
Mrs. Wait, vice-president; Mrs. Ellsworth, corresponding secretary.

In the fall of 1884 Mrs. Ellsworth and Mrs. Clara B. Colby of
Nebraska, made an extended lecture and organizing tour. At Salina they
met and enlisted Mrs. Laura M. Johns, and then began the systematic
work which rapidly brought Mrs. Johns to the front as the leader of
the suffrage forces in Kansas. In addition to her great ability as an
organizer, she is an unsurpassed manager of conventions, a forceful
writer, an able speaker and a woman of winning personality.

On Jan. 15, 16, 1885, the State association held its annual meeting in
Topeka, during the first week of the Legislature. Its chief business
was to secure the introduction of a bill granting Municipal Woman
Suffrage, in which it succeeded. Mrs. Gougar was an inspiring figure
throughout the convention, addressing a large audience in Assembly
Hall. A Committ