Margaret W. Campbell (January 16, 1827-November 5, 1908) was an American women's suffrage advocate.

Personal life

Campbell was born in Hancock County, Maine, on January 16, 1827.[1][2] She attended the district schools there.[1] She moved to Iowa in 1857, locating in Linn County.[1] During the American Civil War, she was active in soldiers' aid societies.[1][2]

Suffragist

As early as 1850, her attention was called to the subject of women's suffrage by reading the proceedings of the first Woman's Rights Convention held in Worcester, Massachusetts.[1][2] She soon became a firm believer in the reform but did not enter the field as a worker until 1863.[1] It was at this time made her first public speeches in the suffrage cause, writing also on the subject for the newspapers.[1]

In 1869, she was sent as a delegate to the convention of the American Woman Suffrage Association at Cleveland, Ohio.[1] From this time on, Campbell became one of the prominent public speakers in the cause in New England and New York.[1] For more than 20 years she was an officer of the American Woman Suffrage Association and for a long time was connected with the Woman's Journal.[1] She was associated with Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Susan B. Anthony, and other national leaders in the reform, often speaking with them at conventions in various states.[1][3][4]

As she toured the country working for the cause, her husband, a painter, often painted portraits to cover their expenses.[2]

Massachusetts

In February 1869, she attended a suffrage convention at Springfield, Massachusetts, where a number of the national leaders were among the speakers.[1] Here Campbell made an eloquent address which attracted general attention.[1] At one point in her life, she lived in Springfield.[2]

In 1870, Campbell was a delegate to the state convention of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association.[1] She organized women's suffrage societies in Berkshire, Essex, Hampden, Plymouth, and Worcester Counties.[2]

Iowa

In November 1879, Campbell settled in Iowa and continued active in the suffrage cause, taking part in all of the state campaigns.[1] She was four years president of the State Suffrage Association and for two years corresponding secretary.[1]

Michigan

She worked with American Woman Suffrage Association to attempt toamend the Michigan Constitution to allow women to vote, in 1874 but it was defeated, 136,000-40,000.[5]

Colorado

In 1875, it became increasingly likely that the United States Congress would admit Colorado as the 38th state.[6] Campbell moved to the territory, spending much of 1875 and 1876 trying to convince the Colorado constitutional convention to give women the right to vote.[7] On January 10, 1876, she helped organize a women's suffrage convention at Unity Church in Denver.[6] It was timed to coincide with the convention drafting a constitution for the territory, and was publicized with pamphlets placed on the desks of territorial legislators and delegates to the constitutional convention.[6] The convention established the Territorial Woman Suffrage Society, the precursor to the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association.[6]

The convention did not grant women the right to vote, but it did agree to hold a referendum on the issue in 1877.[7] Campbell returned to work on that campaign, giving lectures to drunken miners in small schoolhouses and on the banks of rivers.[7] To get to some locations, she traveled up the sides of mountains on a "sure-footed little burro" along dangerous trails where they could have plunged thousands of feet to their deaths.[7] Despite her efforts, the referendum failed by a margin of nearly two-to-one.[7][6]

Other states

Campbell spent much of 1872 in Maine, organizing the Maine Women Suffrage Association.[2] She then spent two years organizing in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado.[2] She then returned to work in New England before focusing her attentions on Iowa, Indiana, and Nebraska.[7]

Later years and death

In 1901, she removed to Joliet, Illinois.[1] She died there in 1908, with the funeral services held at the home of her son, George.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Gue, Benjamin F. (1903). History of Iowa from the earliest times to the beginning of the twentieth century. The Century history company. pp. 41–42. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Berenson 2018, p. 63.
  3. ↑ Berenson 2018, p. 65.
  4. 1 2 "Club Events". The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. November 13, 1908. p. 5. Retrieved February 9, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  5. ↑ Berenson 2018, pp. 63–64.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Wroble, Susan (January 24, 2020). "Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association". Colorado Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Berenson 2018, p. 64.

Works cited

Berenson, Barbara F. (9 April 2018). Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers. History Press. ISBN 978-1-4671-1862-0. Retrieved 9 February 2020.

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