Steve Test

Items

• "The Flying Squadron" Speakers Group
• West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association Letterhead
• Julia Ruhl
  Julia Walker Ruhl was born in Connecticut in 1861 and graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in 1881. She taught at Broaddus College in West Virginia before her 1890 marriage to John Ruhl. Ruhl was active in the YMCA auxiliary and helped found both the Clarksburg Woman's Club and the Clarksburg Public Library. Ruhl served as president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association from 1917 to 1920 and was the first president of the West Virginia League of Women Voters from 1920 to 1922. She later served on the Clarksburg City Council. Ruhl died on June 2, 1956, in Washington, DC.
• Izetta Jewel Brown Miller
  Izetta Jewell Brown Miller was born in New Jersey in 1883. After becoming a well-known stage actor, she married West Virginia Congressman William G. Brown in 1914. They lived on his farm in Preston County. After William’s death in 1916, Izetta turned the farm into a modern dairy farm and was hands-on in the operation of the business. At the same time her involvement with the suffrage movement increased as a member of the National Women’s Party. Izetta corresponded often with the West Virginia representatives in both the US Congress and the West Virginia state legislature, campaigning for the enfranchisement of women. After the passage of the 19th amendment, Brown Miller was the first woman to run for the US Senate south of the Mason-Dixon line. She battled Matthew Neely in 1922 for the state Democratic Party nomination and lost by only 6,000 votes. She tried again in 1924, this time losing another close race to W.E. Chilton. A 1924 sample ballot displayed here shows the vote tally in the 9th precinct in Monongalia County for that election. Izetta Brown handily defeated Chilton in that precint. In 1927 Izetta Brown married Hugh Miller, a dean of engineering at George Washington University. They moved to New York where Izetta stayed active in politics and public service. She died in California in 1978.
• Dr. Harriet B. Jones
  Harriet B. Jones was born in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Terra Alta, Preston County, West Virginia from the age of seven. She attended Wheeling Female College in Wheeling, West Virginia, with a focus on music and art, graduating in 1875. Soon thereafter she concluded four years of Chautauqua courses. Despite completing the traditional training for middle class women of her day, Jones was discontent. She recognized the need for female physicians and pursued a medical degree at the Women's Medical College of Baltimore. She graduated in 1884 and later finished post-graduate studies to specialize in gynecology and abdominal surgery. In 1886, she opened a medical office in Wheeling making her the first licensed female physician in West Virginia. She left private practice to be the assistant superintendent of the West Virginia State Hospital for the Insane in Weston in 1888. She returned to Wheeling three and a half years later to found a hospital for women that operated for the next twenty years. Dr. Jones regularly traveled the state and gave talks on health and hygiene issues. She successfully lobbied for state sanitariums for tuberculosis victims, a state children's home, and a girl's reformatory. She served as secretary of the West Virginia Anti-Tuberculosis League and was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the West Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs. Jones also advocated for the admission of women to West Virginia University and other state colleges. Despite her attention to many causes, Dr. Jones fiercely advocated for woman suffrage. For more than 30 years she was an enthusiastic supporter of the West Virginia suffrage movement and held numerous positions within the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA), serving as President in 1906. In 1907, along with National Association president Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, she addressed West Virginia lawmakers during a legislative hearing on resolutions for a suffrage amendment. The resolutions, however, did not pass in either house. The West Virginia Legislature of 1915 brought the question of full suffrage to the voters in the 1916 election. In preparation, the activities of the WVESA accelerated. For her part, Dr. Jones arranged a speaking tour around the state for Mary E. Craigie, chairman of church work for the National Woman Suffrage Association, and two suffragists from Ohio. She also organized a questionnaire and sent it to 150 newspaper editors, receiving 53 positive responses for suffrage. Leading up to the vote, she spoke frequently for the campaign in West Virginia. Still, the 1916 amendment failed by a wide margin. After ratification of the federal suffrage amendment in West Virginia in 1920, Dr. Jones continued her life of public service becoming active in the League of Women Voters. In 1924, she was first elected to West Virginia House of Delegates as a Republican representing Marshall County and served two terms. She was President of the Board of Directors of the West Virginia State Industrial Home for Girls for twelve years and a member of the State Board of Examiners for Nurses for several years as well. She is credited for writing the history of the suffrage movement in West Virginia in the History of Woman Suffrage published by the National Association in 1922. She died in Glen Dale, Marshall County, West Virginia, in 1943.
• Harvey W. Harmer
  Portrait of Harvey W. Harmer.
• Hallie Davis Elkins
  Portrait of Hallie Davis Elkins.
• Grand Semi-Centennial Celebration
  Back of the program for the West Virginia Golden Jubilee Celebration in Wheeling. The "rubberneck suffragette" parade is listed in the schedule of events.
• West Virginia's Golden Jubilee
  Front of the program for the West Virginia Golden Jubilee celebration held in Wheeling, West Virginia.
• "When National Suffragists Assemble for Emergency Convention" Cartoon
  Cartoon in the the Clarksburg Daily Telegram newspaper comparing George III and George V and their treatment of the American colonists and Canadian women.
• "Keep Cool" Suffrage Fan
• "Exploded" Cartoon
  Cartoon from the Clarksburg Daily Telegram.
• "Rubberneck Parade" Newspaper Article
  News article in the Wheeling Daily News describing suffragists' rejection of the idea of a rubberneck suffragette parade.
• Clarksburg College Girls
  Article in the Clarksburg Daily Telegram Woman Suffrage special edition on local college age women engaged in efforts to pass the suffrage referendum in West Virginia.
• "Ballot Box" Cartoon
  Cartoon from the Calhoun Chronicle newspaper.
• "Mother's Busy Now" Cartoon
  Cartoon in the Fairmont West Virginian newspaper.
• "The Ostrich" Cartoon
  Cartoon in the Clarksburg Daily Telegram newspaper.
• The Advance Guard Cartoon
• "The Ways to Go" Cartoon
  Cartoon in the Wheeling Sunday Register newspaper depicting a "sweet girl graduate" making a choice between suffrage and a career and love, marriage, and happiness.
• Proclamation by Governor Governor Cornwell for a Special Session
  Proclamation from Governor John J. Cornwell calling for a special session to consider several issues including ratification of the 19th amendment.
• Suffrage Roll Call House of Delegates
  Roll call sheet listing votes on the ratification of the 19th amendment.
• Sample Ballot 1922
• I Love My Husband, But
• The Constitution of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association Cont.
• The Constitution of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association