and the passage of the Married Woman's Property Rights
Bill. In answer to the petition of the Fayette County society to Mayor
Henry T. Duncan and the city council of Lexington to place a woman on
the school board, Mrs. Wilbur R. Smith had been appointed. She was the
first to hold such a position in Kentucky. Mrs. Farmer gave an address
on School Suffrage, with illustrations of registration and voting,
which women were to have an opportunity to apply in 1895.[280]

In 1895 Richmond was again selected as the place for the State
convention, December 10-12, at which legislative work in the General
Assembly of 1896 was carefully planned. (See Legislative Action.)

The convention met in Lexington, Dec. 18, 1896. A committee was
appointed to work for complete School Suffrage in the extra session of
the General Assembly the next year.[281]

Covington entertained the annual meeting Oct. 14, 15, 1897. Mrs. Emma
Smith DeVoe of Illinois, a national organizer, was present, being then
engaged in a tour through the State. This convention was unusually
large and full of encouragement.

The eleventh convention was held in Richmond, Dec. 1, 1898, and the
twelfth in Lexington, Dec. 11, 12, 1899. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay,
secretary, assisted, the former giving addresses both evenings. It was
decided to ask the General Assembly to make an appropriation for the
establishment of a dormitory for the women students of the State
College.

Miss Laura Clay has been president of the State Association since it
was organized in 1888. Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick was the first
vice-president, but removing to Massachusetts the following year, Mrs.
Mary Barr Clay, the second vice-president, was elected and has
continued in that office. There have been but two other second
vice-presidents, the Hon. William Randall Ramsey and Mrs. Mary C.
Cramer, and but two corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer
and Mrs. Mary C. Roark. The office of treasurer has been filled
continuously by Mrs. Isabella H. Shepard.[282] During all these years
H. H. Gratz, editor of the Lexington _Gazette_, and John W. Sawyer,
editor of the _Southern Journal_, have been among the most faithful
and courageous friends of woman suffrage. The Prohibition papers,
almost without exception, have been cordial.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: During the General Assembly of 1890, a
committee of eight from the E