Spring Gardening Begins

Saturday April 11, 1925: Dad, Ma & I went to town this afternoon. There was a meeting of the young people of the church at the Pres. Church today. Vada and Lester drove in and Aunt Dora came along. Raymond, Leon and Alvina were in also. Said they would stop here on their way home, but they didn’t. Naomi was in also. Friday we were busy baking. Also made a little more garden.

Thursday, We made a little more garden. Cleaned Dad’s and Ma’s room today. Len and Ruby went to town this afternoon. Wednesday, We made a fence around a plot out west of the house for a early garden. Also spaded some and planted onions seed and tomatoe and radish seeds. Roads are very dusty.

Tuesday, we ironed and baked bread. Also oatmeal drop cakes. Election Day! Dad, Len, Ruby and I went over to Guilford, but Ruby and I didn’t vote*. Bert Weis was on the township ticket for school trustee. We had green onions of our own raising for supper. We sowed the seeds last year. Monday was another beautiful day. I never saw the weather as beautiful and clear and warm and dry for so long this time of year. Need rain badly to start grass and etz. Washed today. Len & Ruby went to Scales Mound this evening.

*Although by 1920 all women had the right to vote in United States, in 1913 Illinois was on the cutting edge, allowing some voters’ rights to women. According to Wikipedia; “In 1912, Grace Wilbur Trout, then head of the Chicago Political Equality League, was elected president of the state organization. Changing her tactics from a confrontational style of lobbying the state legislature, she turned to building the organization internally. She made sure that a local organization was started in every Senatorial District. One of her assistants, Elizabeth Booth, cut up a Blue Book government directory and made file cards for each of the members of the General Assembly. Armed with the names, four lobbyists went to Springfield to persuade one legislator at a time to support suffrage for women. In 1913, first-term Speaker of the House, Democrat Champ Clark, told Trout that he would submit the bill for a final vote, if there was support for the bill in Illinois. Trout enlisted her network, and while in Chicago over the weekend, Clark received a phone call every 15 minutes, day and night. On returning to Springfield he found a deluge of telegrams and letters from around the state all in favor of suffrage. By acting quietly and quickly, Trout had caught the opposition off guard. U.S. women suffragists demonstrating for the right to vote, February 1913. After passing the Senate, the bill was brought up for a vote in the House on June 11, 1913. Trout and her team counted heads and went as far as to fetch needed male voters from their homes. Watching the door to the House chambers, Trout urged members in favor not to leave before the vote, while also trying to prevent "anti" lobbyists from illegally being allowed onto the House floor. The bill passed with six votes to spare, 83 to 58. On June 26, 1913, Illinois Governor Edward F. Dunne signed the bill in the presence of Trout, Booth and union labor leader Margaret Healy.

Women in Illinois could now vote for Presidential electors and for all local offices not specifically named in the Illinois Constitution. However, they still could not vote for state representative, congressman or governor; and they still had to use separate ballots and ballot boxes. But by virtue of this law, Illinois had become the first state east of the Mississippi River to grant women the right to vote for President of the United States.”