Mary Jane (Whitely) Coggeshall (January 17, 1836–December 22, 1911) was an American suffragist known as the "mother of

woman suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

in Iowa". She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.

Early years and education

Mary Jane Whitely was born January 17, 1836, in

Milton, Indiana Milton is a town in Washington Township, Wayne County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 490 at the 2010 census. History Milton was laid out and platted in 1824. The community was named for the presence of several watermills in t ...

, to Isaac Whitely (a farmer) and Lydia (Gunderson) Whitely, who helped support the family by taking in sewing. The family were

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

, and Isaac kept a station on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. Whitely attended public schools in Milton. In 1857, she married John Milton Coggeshall, with whom she had three children, two of whom survived: Clair and Anna. The couple moved to

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

, in 1865.

Career as activist

In 1870, Coggeshall became a charter member and secretary of Iowa's Polk County Woman Suffrage Society and was later (1898) president of the Des Moines Equal Suffrage Club. Her most influential suffrage activity, however, stemmed from her involvement with the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA), of which she was a charter member. She served as its president (1890, 1891, 1903–05) and then as honorary president (1905–11). In the latter capacity, she marched in America's third-ever women's suffrage parade, which took place in Boone, Iowa, in 1908. Coggeshall was the first editor (1886–88) of the IWSA's monthly ''Woman's Standard'', Iowa's main suffrage newspaper, founded by Martha Callanan. She returned to edit the paper again in 1911. She frequently wrote for the paper after her first editorship ended, as well as for national newspapers. In 1895, Coggeshall was elected to the board of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...

(NAWSA), becoming the first woman from west of the Mississippi River to join the NAWSA board and the only one of the early Iowa suffragists to be active at the national level. She spoke at the NAWSA national conventions in 1904 and 1907. Coggeshall not only lectured and wrote on suffrage, she got involved in a major lawsuit. In 1894, the state of Iowa had passed a law allowing women to vote in city bond elections. In 1908, when the city of Des Moines defied this law and denied women ballots in just such an election, Coggeshall brought a lawsuit against the city. The Iowa Supreme Court held that the election was void because women, as a class were barred from voting. Coggeshall died of pneumonia on December 22, 1911. Although she did not live to see American women get the vote, fellow suffragist

Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt (; January 9, 1859 Fowler, p. 3 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt ...

dubbed her "the mother of woman suffrage in Iowa".

Legacy

Following Coggeshall's death, the IWSA and the Men's League for Woman's Suffrage together set up the Mary J. Coggeshall Memorial Fund, whose mission was to support activities leading to the passage of a suffrage amendment to the Iowa Constitution. In 1977, the State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Transportation set up a roadside marker honoring notable people from Des Moines, among whom Coggeshall was included. In 1990, Coggeshall was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame. An archive of Coggeshall's papers—mainly speeches and writings—is held by the

Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director ...

of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Notes and references

External links

Mary J. Coggeshall Papers, 1880-1911
A-13; M-133. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Mary J. Coggeshall Additional Papers, 1867-1912
MC 911. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. {{DEFAULTSORT:Coggeshall, Mary Jane 1836 births 1911 deaths American suffragists People from Wayne County, Indiana Deaths from pneumonia in Iowa American newspaper editors Women newspaper editors Activists from Indiana Journalists from Indiana 19th-century American women journalists 19th-century American journalists Activists from Iowa Journalists from Iowa People from Des Moines, Iowa