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144 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION.
say a few words from the platform. Nineteen of the twenty-eight aux-
iliary societies were represented by delegates, and much enthusiasm was
manifested throughout. . Two new societies have arisen from the inspira-
tion of this convention, both organized by Dr. Sarah Brooks in the vicinity
of her home in Stark County. A full report of this convention was prepared
by the recording secretary and two thousand copies were published by the
president, with advertisen.ents enough to cover the expense and turn into
ihe treasury the proceeds from the sales. A. woman’s day was sectired at
the summer assembly at Hiram College. The State president made the
opening address and introduced the speakers, Mrs. Elwell. Professor Mary
B. Jewett, and Mrs. Upton. In the evening the Rev. Anna I. Shaw gave her
most powerful suffrage lecture, which was received with marked apprecia-
tion and enthusiasm. An outward and visible sign of the impetus given
by this woman's day, the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association counts one of
the three auxiliary societies afterwards organized in the Nineteenth Dis-
trict. :
A district convention was held in April in south Cleveland by Mrs.
S. M. Perkins, then vice president for the Twenty-first Congressional Dis-
trict, and another in Cuyahoga County in September. In October the
Nineteenth District met in convention at Akron. Seven of the nine
societies it then contained sent delegates and gave satisfactory reports of
their work. A temporary district organization was effected. The sessions
were well attended. Enough money was taken at the evening lecture by
Rey. Anna lI. Shaw to pay the expenses of the convention and put a few
dollars into the hands of the district treasurer, and enough enthusiasm was
aroused by the convention to form two new societies and throw fresh life
into some that were growing weary. There are rumors of more societies
for this district and a pressing invitation has been given and accepted fora
convention at Geneva, Ashtabula county, in the spring. <Activity is also
reported from the ninth district under Mrs. Ellen Sully Fray. This district
boasts two strong societies in Toledo, the Woman Suffrage Association, of
which the presidentis Mrs. Rosa L. Segur, has made itself felt in the —
formation of public opinion for twenty-four years, and the Political
Equality Club, has, under the leadership of Mrs. Claude Q. Murphy, trebled
its membership in its first year, and arranged a course of public lectures, in
which Mrs. Meriwether, Carrie Lane Chapman and Clara B. Colby have
already appeared.- Che enrollment work has been pushed on by Mrs.
Louisa Southworth with characteristic energy. It now numbers 24,588
names. (A copy of the record giving the number of signatures obtained
in each county has been sent to the Recording Secretary, from which
many interesting results may be gleaned for future work.) The roll of:
societies shows a total of 38. Of these 27 have paid their dues, and on°
the 582 members they contain, with 42 State members, making a total of
624, the delegation for the State is based. The six missing socicties will,
doubtles, be heard from before the next State convention. Three of them
reported at the last an aggregate membership of 61, and the other three
with 28 members between them are not beyond the reach of hope. The
Ohio Woman Suffrage Association wishes to acknowledge the direct help
given, last winter, by the franchise department of the W. ©. T. U. in the
circulation of the petitions for school suffrage and the indirect help con-
ferred by the legislature itself, in two acts important to the interests of
women. One of these places a woman physician in every insane asylum
in the State. The other brings 264 women into public work by making
it mandatory on every judge of Common Pleas to appoint in his county
a Board of Visitors to theinstitutions consisting of three men and three
women. * These boards act also as guardians to children indentured from
the Children’s Ifomes and those threatened with Reform Schools. The
Ohio Woman Suffrage Association must also recognize the wave of en-