SD Suffrage Advocates
For being a small state, South Dakota had several powerhouses working for the suffrage movement. Get to know some key players below, and visit this site for a more comprehensive list.
Mamie Pyle
Mamie Shields Pyle became the leaders of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League after a suffrage referendum failed in 1910 and served as its president through South Dakota’s ratification of the 19th Amendment during a special legislative session in December of 1919. She worked tirelessly, sometimes not sleeping, to move forward the League’s agenda. Her daughter, Gladys, was the first woman to serve in the state legislature, South Dakota’s first female Secretary of State and the state’s first woman to win election to the U.S. Senate.
Alice & John Pickler
They called him names in Congress, yet John Pickler and his wife, Alice, remained staunch women’s suffrage advocates. John, a lawyer in Faulkton, was elected as one of South Dakota’s first congressmen after statehood in 1889. Alice was one of our state’s most outspoken suffragists. She was the president of the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association and vice president of both the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the South Dakota Universal Franchise League.
The Picklers were united behind the cause of suffrage and hosted national leaders like Susan B. Anthony at their home. Jodi Moritz, a member of the Faulk County Historical Society, says “John was the only congressman who actually spoke for suffrage. A newspaper in Washington D.C. called him, ‘Petticoats Pickler,’ because they said he was hiding behind the skirts of his wife and daughter. Another article called him, ‘Susan B. Pickler.’ So he asked Susan B. at her birthday what she thought of that and she said, ‘I’m honored.’”
Read more about Alice and John Pickler.
Ruth Hipple
Ruth and her husband, John, were influential figures in Pierre. John founded Hipple Printing Company and in 1905 took over the Pierre Weekly and Daily Capital Journal, serving as its editor and publisher until his death in 1939. Ruth utilized her experience working at the family paper to edit the South Dakota Messenger, which was the voice of the suffrage movement in our state. She was also the chair of press and publicity during the state suffrage campaigns of 1916 and 1918. When South Dakota voters passed an amendment that guaranteed suffrage in 1918, Ruth wrote in a letter to Mamie Pyle, “It is almost too much to have suffrage and the end of the war come on the same day,” she wrote. “I feel more like crying than anything else. The cars are flying about town with flags waving and horns tooting and all the children are yelling their heads off. I have to go wipe my nose and eyes and thank God for it all every little while.”
Read more about Ruth Hipple.
Susan B. anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a national leader for the suffrage cause, and she spearheaded a 9-month suffrage campaign throughout South Dakota in 1889. She fostered an enduring friendship with John and Alice Pickler, and was a frequent guest at their “pink mansion” in Faulton. In fact, she had a favorite bedroom dubbed the rose room. After the Picklers passed away, volunteers cataloged 585,000 items in the mansion, including a copy of History of Woman Suffrage, signed by Anthony, who authored it with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Ida Husted Harper.
Rose bower
Bower, from Pennington County, was a suffrage lecturer, columnist, lobbyist and musician. She was the secretary of the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association from 1907 to 1909, and the state superintendent for the Franchise Department of Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Besides her work on the South Dakota suffrage campaign trail, she worked on the Ohio campaign in 1912 and New York State campaign with Carrie Chapman Catt in 1915.
Photo credit: Woman’s West of the River Suffrage Number, Rapid City Daily Journal(SD), October 26, 1914
matilda Joslyn Gage
Gage, a New York suffragist, is often mentioned in the same breath as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as national leaders of the movement. She embarked on a lecture tour of Dakota Territory in 1883. But she spent little time in South Dakota. However, the Dacotah Prairie Museum in Aberdeen features a recreation of the suffragist parlor in her Fayetteville, New York home. Her parlor was a lively meeting place for the suffrage movement after a law was passed that suffragists could not meet in public buildings. Her son, Thomas Clarkson Gage, was a pioneer of Aberdeen and eventually, her granddaughter, also named Matilda, donated several items to the museum including Gage’s chair, a straw-stuffed sofa, a grandmother clock, tea table, draperies and a chandelier that retracted into the ceiling.
HELP SAVE HISTORY
The ratification of the 19th Amendment was possible because activists of all kinds came together to work toward a common goal. Today, groups across the state are joining forces to preserve local suffrage history. Join the cause.
SOUTH DAKOTA SUFFRAGE
Women were spurring change and fighting for the right to vote even before South Dakota gained statehood. Learn about the local activists who led the charge and the journey that secured the right to vote in our state.
SHOP FOR A CAUSE
From campaign buttons to graphic tees, wear the Her Vote. Her Voice. message with pride. Each piece of merch sold helps preserve South Dakota history and honor the ongoing work of women’s right to vote. Plus, it’s all really cool stuff.