vote for it, decided that the time was ripe for a
woman suffrage organization and wrote for advice to Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association,
who answered in part: "I cannot express to you how happy I am that you
are willing to begin the work in your State where very little has been
done for suffrage because of the great conservatism among the women of
the South. I am very glad if they are now beginning to realize their
absolutely helpless and unprotected position. We have the temperance
agitation to thank for arousing a great many women over all the
country...."

Shortly after the receipt of this letter Miss Partridge sent out a
"call" in the Selma papers and on March 29, 1910, Mrs. Frederick
Watson, Mrs. F. T. Raiford, Mrs. F. G. DuBose, Mrs. F. M. Hatch and
Miss Partridge met at the Carnegie Library and organized the
association. This action was reported to Dr. Shaw and she extended the
greetings of the National Association with "thanks and appreciation."

The Birmingham Equal Suffrage Association was the outgrowth of a small
group of women who had been holding study meetings in the home of Mrs.
W. L. Murdoch. The enthusiasm and earnest conviction resulting from
them found expression in a "call" for a woman suffrage organization
and on Oct. 22, 1911, the association was formed at a meeting held in
the Chamber of Commerce, where the following officers were elected:
President, Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs; first vice-president, Miss
Ethel Armes; second, Mrs. W. L. Murdoch; third, Mrs. W. N. Wood;
corresponding secretary, Miss Helen J. Benners; recording secretary,
Mrs. J. E. Frazier; treasurer, Mrs. A. J. Bowron.

Special mention is made of these two societies because they
constituted the nucleus on which the State organization was formed. An
urgent "call" was sent out by the officers of the Birmingham society
to "all men and women who wish to further the cause of woman suffrage
to unite in a State organization at a meeting in Birmingham Oct. 9,
1912." Selma sent six delegates who met with the Birmingham
suffragists at the Parish House of the Church of the Advent, where the
Alabama Equal Suffrage Association was organized and a constitution
and by-laws adopted. Mrs. Jacobs was elected president; Miss
Partridge, first vice-president; Mrs. Raiford, second; Mrs. Murdoch,
corresponding secretary; Mrs. Julian Parke, recording secretary; Mrs.
C. M. Spencer, treasurer; Miss Partr