Rowena
Edson Stevens
"She
possessed an analytic mind that could dissect false argument and
show up its inconsistencies. She saw, as if by intuition, where
error had been given the semblance of truth and she knew how to
hit it and hit it hard."
—Dean E. W. Stanton, The Alumnus, May 1918
Rowena Edson
Stevens, born near Columbus, Wisconsin in 1852, graduated from
Iowa State College in its second class. She taught school in
Iowa and Nebraska. In 1876, she married John Stevens, a graduate
of Iowa State College’s first class. The family lived in
Ames and later in Boone. Stevens became socially and politically
active, founding and supporting charitable organizations, as
well as playing a prominent role in the struggle for woman suffrage.
She organized the Political Equality Club in Ames, serving as
its president. She also served as president of the Boone Equality
Club and organized chapters in other cities. Stevens was president
of the Benevolent Society in Ames for 12 years, Worthy Matron
of the Order of Eastern Star in Ames, state Regent of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, and on the board of the first hospital
in Boone. She held various offices in the Iowa Equal Suffrage
Association, including president in 1894, in which capacity she
addressed the Iowa Legislature on behalf of the suffragist movement.
As president of the Boone Equality Club, Stevens organized the
first woman suffrage parade in the United States for the annual
convention of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association in Boone in
1908. Stevens was honored by the League of Women Voters in 1931
as one of the 24 “women in Iowa whose courageous work opened
the opportunities of complete citizenship to all women in the
state.” Stevens died in 1918. Stevens was inducted into
the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.
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