Mary Jane Whitely Coggeshall
"Mary
Jane Coggeshall's goal of Women's suffrage has been attained,
and
another one of her hopes realized:... that the next generation
of women may find their work made easier because we have trodden
the path before them.'”
—Jean
Lloyd-Jones, 1990
Mary
Jane Whitely Coggeshall, born in 1836, promoted woman suffrage
for 41 years. Carrie Chapman Catt called her "The Mother
of Woman Suffrage in Iowa" and "my greatest inspiration." In
1870, Coggeshall became a charter member of the Iowa Woman Suffrage
Association and continued as its president in 1890 and
1891 and again from 1903 to 1905. Coggeshall was the first editor
of the Women's Standard, the monthly newspaper of the
Iowa Woman Suffrage Association, and was a continuing contributor
to that publication as well. She served as secretary of the Polk
County Woman Suffrage Society during its early years. She often
acted as spokeswoman for woman suffrage, addressing the Iowa
House and Senate committees and innumerable woman suffrage meetings.
Of the early Iowa woman suffrage workers, she was the only one
active on the national level. She wrote articles for national
newspapers and served on the Board of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association beginning in 1885. Her longtime dedication
to the woman suffrage cause in Iowa and the nation provided a
strong source for continuity and inspiration to other women suffrage
workers. She died in 1911. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's
Hall of Fame in 1990.
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