Pocahontas County Presbyterian Minister Fought for Women's Right to Vote

 

One hundred years ago, women won the right to vote.

As early as 1867, Samuel Young, a minister and state senator from Pocahontas county, introduced a resolution to give West Virginia Women the vote. It failed. In the early 1900s, West Virginia women organized suffrage clubs and, in 1916, tried to pass a state-wide referendum on the vote. When it failed miserably by a three to one margin, Julia Ruhl, president of the state suffrage association, acknowledged, “Our organization is in a demoralized condition.”

In 1917, West Virginians shifted their attention to support the US effort in World War I. After the war, the National American Women’s Suffrage Association proposed an amendment to the US Constitution giving women the right to vote. On June 3, 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment stating that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.”

By August 1920, thirty-six states had ratified it, including West Virginia. In November of that year, women were finally able to vote for the first time in a national election.

This message is produced­­­­ by the Kanawha Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

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First Attempts in WV

In 1867, State Senator Samuel Young, a minister from Pocahontas County introduced a resolution to strike out the word male from Section 1, Article 3 of the West Virginia Constitution which addresses the requirements to vote in West Virginia. The resolution was tabled and never brought to a vote. Young tried again in 1869. This time the resolution was voted on but defeated.  Had it passed, it would have opened the door for woman suffrage.

During the 1895 legislative session, Harvey Harmer, Delegate from Harrison County, proposed an amendment to the state constitution enfranchising women. The resolution was defeated. Twenty-five years later Harmer, an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage, would be a stronghold during the 19th amendment ratification fight in the state senate.  

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Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two-thirds of all the members elected to each House agreeing thereto:

That the following is hereby proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia: Strike out section one of article four of the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, and insert in lieu thereof, the following:  

    The citizens of this State, both male and female, shall be entitled to vote at all elections held within the counties in which they respectively reside; but no person who is a minor or of unsound mind, or a pauper, or who is under conviction of treason, felony or bribery in an election, or who has not been a resident of the State for one year and in the county in which he offers to vote sixty days next preceding such offer, shall be permitted to vote while such disability continues; but no person in the military, naval or marine service of the United States, shall be deemed a resident of this State by reason of being stationed therein.  

On motion of Mr. Hill of Boone, the House at 12 o'clock P.M., took a recess until 6 o'clock P.M.