Timeline of women's suffrage in South Dakota

1868

• Enos Stutsman proposes a women's suffrage bill in the Dakota Territorial House.[1]

1872

• The Territorial Legislature nearly passes a full women's suffrage bill, losing by one vote.[2]

1879

• The Dakota Territory gives women the right to vote in school meetings.[2]

1881

• Women are allowed to become county superintendents of public education.[3]

1883

• A change in the way people would vote on school issues disenfranchised many women voters in the territory.[2] The Territory wanted women to use separate ballots for school issues.[1]
• Summer: Matilda Joslyn Gage lectures on women's suffrage in the territory.[4]
• September 6: A women's suffrage petition signed by 1,000 people was presented to the Sioux Falls convention that was deciding whether or not to split the territory.[4]

1884

• The South Dakota Republican Party adopts universal suffrage in their party platform.[3]

1885

• Activists in the southern part of the Dakota territory, working with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), work on petitions to influence the territorial legislature to support women's suffrage.[3]
• John Pickler proposes a women's suffrage bill in the Territorial House, which passed. It is vetoed by Governor Gilbert A. Pierce.[2]
• Marietta Bones starts a suffrage organization in Webster.[3]

1887

• A school suffrage bill expanding the rights of women to vote for all kinds of school issues passes.[2]
• A full women's suffrage bill is proposed, but does not pass the territorial legislature.[5]

1888

• A call for a women's suffrage group was put out in Grand Forks.[6] On April 12, a meeting was held to form a women's suffrage group that had a packed crowd.[6]

1889

• After the Dakota territory is admitted as two states, two distinct women's suffrage movements emerge.[5]
• October 21: The South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association (SDESA) is formed in Huron by Emma Smith DeVoe and her husband, John.[7][8]
• November 11: Susan B. Anthony starts a lecture tour in South Dakota.[9]

1890

• February: The Picklers and Alonzo Wardall ask NWSA for organizers and funds for the upcoming suffrage campaign.[7]
• June: Sophia M. Harden and other activists speak for women's suffrage at the state Democratic Party convention at Aberdeen.[7]
• July 7–8: The SDESA holds a state suffrage convention in Huron.[7]
• August 25–26: SDESA holds a second women's suffrage convention in Mitchell in order to strategize for the upcoming women's suffrage referendum vote.[7]
• August 27: Suffrage leaders are able to speak at the Reuplican party convention in Mitchell.[7]
• August: A suffrage convention was held in Grant County. The Grant County Equal Suffrage Association is formed.[10]
• November 4: The women's suffrage amendment is defeated.[11]
• The Athol Equal Suffrage Association is created.[10]
• The Grant County Equal Suffrage Association is formed.[10]

1892

• The Prohibition Party passed resolutions for equal suffrage and equal pay.[12]
• State suffrage convention was held in Huron.[12]

1893

• A women's suffrage amendment bill is lobbied for and passed in the state legislature.[13]
• July 4: Suffragists in Onida raise money for campaigns in Colorado, Kansas, and New York.[12]
• September: SDESA holds its annual meeting in Aberdeen.[12]

1894

• November: The state women's suffrage amendment is defeated.[13]

1895

• September 16–17: WCTU and SDESA hold annual conventions in Pierre.[12]

1896

• December 3–4: SDESA holds their annual convention in Salem.[12]

1897

• October: The Union County Equal Suffrage Association is formed.[10]
• Suffragists work towards influencing the state legislature to pass another state amendment bill.[13]

1898

• July: Anna Simmons and Enma Cranmer lead the Equal Suffrage Day at Lake Madison Chautauqua.[14]
• November: The state women's suffrage amendment was defeated.[13][14]

1899

• September: SDESA holds a joint convention with the state WCTU in Madison.[15]

1900

• January 15: U.S. Senator, R. F. Pettigrew presents a petition for a federal suffrage amendment to the U.S. Senate.[15]
• September: SDESA holds their annual meeting in Brookings.[15]

1901

• The South Dakota Political Equality Association (SDPEA) is formed.[16]
• February 1: State WCTU members, Luella Ramsey and Philena Everett Johnson lobby for a state suffrage amendment.[15]
• Spring: SDESA organizes local Political Equality Clubs to help distribute literature and better reach more women.[15]

1902

• Women's suffrage convention called to be held in Watertown in October.[16]

1903

• Women's suffrage petition for a state suffrage amendment is rejected by the secretary of state.[17]

1904

• The South Dakota Prohibition Party's platform includes equal women's suffrage.[15]

1906

• Suffragists petition the state legislature to consider women's suffrage.[17]

1907

• March: The business committee of SDESA meets in Highmore.[15]
• September 17–18: SDESA holds its annual meeting in Pierre.[15]

1908

• SDESA raises money by the foot, literally asking people to send them enough pennies to fit on twelves inches of cardboard.[15]

1909

• Suffragists petition the state legislature to pass a women's suffrage amendment referendum.[17]
• June 18: SDESA holds their suffrage convention in Aberdeen.[18]
• November 3–5: The state suffrage convention is held in Sioux Falls.[18]

1910

• The Philip Suffrage Club is organized in Philip.[10]
• A major suffrage campaign is enacted, bringing in activists from around the state and country, including Anna Howard Shaw.[18]
• November: The women's suffrage referendum is defeated.[19][20]

1911

• January: Activists lobby the state legislature on women's suffrage.[21]
• February: Suffragists put forward the idea that the state constitution already allowed state and county offices.[21]
• The South Dakota Universal Franchise League is formed by Mamie Shields Pyle.[8]

1912

• January: Pro-suffrage newspaper, South Dakota Messenger, is first published.[22]
• July: A state suffrage convention is held in Huron.[23]

1913

• The women's suffrage amendment bill is the first to pass the legislative session.[24]
• March: South Dakota is represented in the Woman Suffrage Procession by marchers and a golden chariot.[25]
• July: SDUFL holds their annual meeting in Huron.[25]

1915

• Winter: A women's suffrage amendment is passed by the state legislature and will go to a voter referendum.[26]

1916

• Anti-suffragists become an auxiliary of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS).[27]
• August 7: Suffrage Day is celebrated in South Dakota.[26]
• October: The South Dakota Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage began an anti-suffrage campaign that included Minnie Bronson.[26]
• November: Voter referendum on the women's suffrage amendment does not pass, but more people support women's suffrage this time.[28][26]

1918

• November 6: Women's suffrage passes with the passage of the Citizenship Amendment.[29]

1919

• December 4: South Dakota ratifies the Nineteenth Amendment.[8]

1924

• The Indian Citizenship Act is passed, but South Dakota refuses to follow the law and allow Native Americans, as U.S. Citizens to vote.[30]

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Easton, Patricia O'Keefe (Fall 1983). "Woman Suffrage in South Dakota: The Final Decade". South Dakota History. 13 (3): 206–226 – via South Dakota State Historical Society.
• Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
• Robinson, Doane (1904). "History of Woman Suffrage in South Dakota". History of South Dakota Together With Personal Mention of Citizens of South Dakota. B. F. Bowen & Co. ISBN 9780598276575.
• Schroedel, Jean; Aslanian, Artour (2015). "Native American Vote Suppression: The Case of South Dakota". Race, Gender & Class. 22 (1–2): 308–323. JSTOR 26505340 – via JSTOR.
• Wittmayer, Cecelia M. (Summer 1981). "'The 1889-1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign: A Need to Organize'". South Dakota History. 11 (3): 200–225 – via South Dakota Historical Society.