Wisconsin women were not given Full Suffrage (the right to vote) until 1920 and the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. But women did win Partial Suffrage to vote back in 1882, which allowed them to vote in issues of school matters. And this was thanks in part to the Schofield Suffragists like Almedia B. Gray.
A Sample Ballot for Women, c1910.Getting Started
In 1879, Susan B. Anthony came to Wausau and gave her famous “Women Want Bread” speech to a large crowd that gathered at Kolter’s Music Hall. The newspapers and later histories noted that she was applauded for her passion and command of the issues, but most of the attendees were unconvinced and were certainly not spurred to action. This was actually not the case, because the week following Anthony’s speech, a chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was formed in Wausau. And by 1881, a chapter of the Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage Association was established in Schofield, Wisconsin, with further groups then organized in Wausau, Mosinee, and Wisconsin Rapids.
Almedia B. Gray
Although people took up the cause across the region, probably the most important suffragist of the time was Almedia B. Gray of Schofield. In the 1840s, her family moved to Marathon County, where her father, Captain Simon Lombard, became the partner of William Scholfield in running a sawmill on the Eau Claire River. This made Almedia one of the very first residents of what would become Schofield, She married John Gray, a young lumberjack from Canada who would soon become a very successful lumbermill owner himself. And by the end of the 1870s, the Grays and their family were an important part of the community around the Schofield mill. From this community would come a number of important women for the cause of suffrage.