s of age and upwards, who own, in their own right,
over and above all incumbrances, property listed for taxation of
the value of $500 or upwards, or who, being widows, own jointly
with their own or their husband's children, property of said
value listed for taxation; or who are capable of teaching a
first-grade public school in this State, as prescribed by law,
and who never have been convicted, and shall not thereafter be
convicted of any crime or misdemeanor and not pardoned therefor,
to such extent and under such restrictions and limitations as it
may deem proper to prescribe.

All of these noble efforts resulted in no action whatever to
enfranchise women.

SUFFRAGE: Since 1880 a woman as a freeholder, or leaseholder, may vote
at a county election, or sign a petition for such an election to be
held, to decide as to the adoption or non-adoption of a law permitting
stock to run at large. She may also, if a widow and, as such, the head
of the family, manifest by ballot her consent or dissent to leasing
certain portions of land in the township, known as the "sixteenth
sections," which are set apart for school purposes. As a patron of a
school, which presupposes her widowhood, she may vote at an election
of school trustees, other than in a "separate school district," which
practically limits this privilege to women in the country.[349]

As a taxpayer a woman can petition against the issuance of bonds by
the municipality in which she resides (except where the proposed
issuance is governed and regulated by a charter adopted previous to
the code of 1892), but if a special election is ordered she can not
vote for or against issuing the bonds.

The Legislature in dealing with the liquor traffic may make the grant
of license depend upon a petition therefor signed by men and women, or
by women only, or upon any other condition that it may prescribe; and
it seems to be equally true that the Legislature may grant to women
the right to vote at elections held to determine whether or not local
option laws shall be put in force, but it never has done so.

OFFICE HOLDING: The constitution provides that "all qualified
electors, and no others, shall be eligible to office."

In the constitutional convention of 1890 Jordan L. Morris offered a
resolution "that the Legislature may make women, with such
qualifications as may be prescribed, competent to hold the office of
county superintenden