Timeline of women's suffrage in Illinois

1855

• Alonzo Jackson Grover gives the first women's suffrage speech in Illinois.[1]
• Susan Hoxie Richardson creates the Earlville Suffrage Association.[2]

1869

• Mary Livermore organizes a women's suffrage convention in Chicago.[3]
• During the convention, the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association (IWSA) is created.[4]
• Livermore starts the women's suffrage newspaper, The Agitator.[5]

Suffrage question in state constitutional convention, April 17, 1870

1870

• February: Frances Willard and the IWSA petition the Illinois Constitutional Convention to include women's suffrage in the state constitution.[3]
• February: Annual meeting of IWSA held at the Opera House in Springfield, Illinois.[6]

1871

• Annual convention of IWSA held at Farewell Hall in Chicago.[7]

1872

• Annual convention of IWSA held in the Opera House in Bloomington, Illinois.[8]

1873

• School offices are opened to women in Illinois.[9]

1874

• Ten women are elected to County Superintendent of Schools.[10]

1876

• Elizabeth Boynton Harbert becomes president of IWSA.[10]
• IWSA affiliates with the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA).[10]

1879

• Frances Willard brings a petition to the General Assembly for women to have suffrage rights over alcohol-related issues in Illinois.[11]

1884

• The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) holds their annual convention in Chicago.[12]

1885

• Susan B. Anthony addresses the Cook County Woman's Suffrage Society.[13]

1887

• Mary Holmes becomes president of IWSA.[10]

1888

• The Decatur Women's Suffrage Club is formed by Sophie Gibb and 100 other women in Decatur, Illinois.[9]
• The Naperville Equal Suffrage Club is created.[14]

1890

• IWSA changes their name to the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA).[10]

1891

• April 6: Fifteen women led by Ellen Martin legally vote in Lombard, Illinois using a loophole in their city charter.[15]
• June 19: Women gain the right to vote in school elections with a School Suffrage law.[15]

1892

• The Illinois Supreme Court decides that the School Suffrage law is constitutional.[16]

1893

• A bill for Township suffrage for women is introduced in the state Senate, but is not successful in the House.[17]
• A bill to repeal the School Suffrage Law is defeated in the state House.[17]
• March: Carrie Chapman Catt tours the southern part of Illinois.[18]

1894

• The Chicago Political Equality League (CPEL) is created.[10]

1895

• A bill for Township suffrage is again introduced in the Senate, but fails.[17]
• April: IWSA holds their annual convention in Decatur.[9]

1897

• Caroline Fairfield Corbin creates the Illinois Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women.[9]
• Bills for Township and Bond suffrage are introduced in the state legislature, but do not pass.[19]

1898

• Women's suffrage groups lobbied for women to be exempt from taxation since they did not vote, but the legislature did not act on the idea.[20]

1899

• Again, bills for Township and Bond suffrage are introduced in the legislature, but do not pass.[21]

Suffrage club meeting in Chicago in 1905

1900

• October: The Illinois Equal Suffrage Association (IESA) holds their annual convention in Edgewater, Chicago.[22]
• Elizabeth Boynton Harbert becomes president IESA.[22]

1901

• Elizabeth F. Long becomes IESA president.[22]

1902

• IESA holds their annual convention in Jacksonville, Illinois and Kate Hughes is elected president.[23]

1903

• Hughes is elected president of IESA for a second term.[23]

1904

• Catharine Waugh McCulloch is elected president of IESA.[23]

1905

• IESA holds their annual convention in Chicago and Ella S. Stewart is elected the president.[23]

1906

• Stewart is re-elected as IESA president.[10]

1907

• The IESA convention is held at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.[24]

1908

• June: IESA works with NAWSA to lobby delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago.[24]

1909

• A municipal suffrage bill goes to the Chicago City Council, but does not pass.[10]
• November 19: Emmeline Pankhurst and Ethel Snowden speak in Chicago at the IESA annual convention.[25]
• The Chicago Men's Equal Suffrage League is formed.[24]

"Why Not Let Mother Vote" postcard, 1910

1910

• Grace Wilbur Trout becomes president of the Chicago Political Equality League (CPEL).[10]
• July: Suffragists begin automobile tours around Illinois, speaking on women's suffrage.[26]
• October: IESA holds their state convention in Elgin, Illinois.[27]
• Mrs. Willis S. McCrea creates the North Side Branch of IESA.[27]

1911

• CPEL moves their headquarters to the Fine Arts Building.[10]
• October 31-November 1: IESA holds their annual convention in Decatur.[9] Elvira Downey becomes the president.[9]

1912

• October: Trout becomes president of IESA.[10][28]
• October 2: The IESA state convention is held in Galesburg, Illinois.[28]
• December 12: Suffrage mass meeting takes place at the same time as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) convention in Chicago.[10]

1913

• January: Alpha Suffrage Club is formed.[26][10]
• March: Ida B. Wells, Grace Wilbur Trout and other Illinois suffragists march in the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C.[10] Wells refuses to be segregated in this parade.[10]
• May 7: The presidential and municipal suffrage bill for women passes the State Senate.[10]
• June 11: The presidential and municipal suffrage bill passes the state House.[10]
• June 13: Suffragists hold a "Victory Banquet" at the Leland Hotel in Springfield.[10]
• June 26: Women's suffrage bill for Presidential and local elections signed by governor into law.[26]
• July 1: Jubilee car parade takes place on Michigan Boulevard.[29]

Rainy suffrage parade with Janet Ayer Fairbank in Chicago, June 7, 1916

1914

• May 2: Suffrage parade takes place in Chicago with 15,000 marchers along Michigan Ave.[10]
• June: The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) holds their biennial convention in Chicago where they formally support women's suffrage.[30]
• June 13: The Illinois Supreme Court upholds women's right to vote in School officer elections in Plummer v. Yost.[31]
• August 15: Self-Denial Day to raise money for suffrage efforts.[32]

1915

• IESA holds their annual convention in Peoria, Illinois.[33]

1916

• June: During the Republican National Convention, 5,000 women marched for women's suffrage.[26]
• June: The National Woman's Party (NWP) is formed in Chicago.[34]

1917

• The IESA convention is held in Danville, Illinois.[35]

1919

• June 10: Illinois is the first state to vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.[36][37]
• June 24: Suffragists hold a celebration of the ratification at the La Salle Hotel.[38]

1920

• January: The Illinois Constitutional Convention discusses adding women's suffrage to the state constitution.[10]
• February 14: The League of Women Voters (LWV) is formed at the Pick Congress Hotel in Chicago.[36]

• Anthony, Susan B. (1902). Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted (eds.). The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press.
• Harper, Ida Husted (1922). The History of Woman Suffrage. New York: J.J. Little & Ives Company.
• Janu, Bruce D.; Venet, Wendy Hamand (1996). "Mary Livermore and the Illinois Women's Suffrage Movement". Illinois History Teacher. Illinois State Historical Society. 3 (1) – via Illinois Periodicals Online.
• Sorenson, Mark W. (2004). "Ahead of Their Time: A Brief History of Suffrage in Illinois". Illinois Heritage. Illinois State Historical Society. 7 (6) – via Illinois Periodicals Online.
• Trout, Grace Wilbur (July 1920). "Side Lights on Illinois Suffrage History". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 13 (2): 145–179. JSTOR 40194491 – via JSTOR.