id not read their
ballots, voted unthinkingly for the measure.

In the cities the school officers are elected at the regular
municipal elections usually held in the spring, while in the
rural districts and smaller villages they are chosen at school
meetings in the autumn. In East Minneapolis, Hon. Richard Chute,
chairman of the Republican nominating convention, having, without
their knowledge, secured the nomination of Mrs. Charlotte O.
VanCleve[435] and Mrs. Charlotte S. Winchell[436] as school
directors, called a meeting of the women of the city to aid in
their election. It was a large and enthusiastic gathering. Mrs.
Mary C. Peckham presided, Mrs. Stearns of Duluth, and Mrs.
Pillsbury, wife of the governor, made stirring speeches, after
which the candidates were called upon, and responded most
acceptably. When election day came, the names of Mrs. VanCleve
and Mrs. Winchell received a handsome majority of the votes of
their districts. A correspondent in the _Ballot-Box_ said:

The women of Minnesota are rejoicing in the measure of
justice vouchsafed them,--the right to vote and hold office
in school matters. Two hundred and seventy women voted in
Minneapolis, the governor's wife among others. Although it
rained all day they went to the polls in great numbers.

Including both East and West Minneapolis, fully 1,000 women
voted; and while the numbers in other cities and villages were
not so great, they were composed of the more intelligent. In St.
Charles, where Dr. Adaline Williams was elected to the
school-board, some of the gentlemen requested her to resign, on
the ground that she had not been properly elected. Her reply was,
"If I have not been elected, I have no need to resign; and if I
have been elected, I do not choose to resign." But to satisfy
those who doubted, she proposed that another election should be
held, which resulted in an overwhelming majority for the Doctor.

As the law says women are "eligible to any office pertaining
solely to the management of schools," one might be elected as
State superintendent of public instruction. There have been many
women elected to the office of county superintendent, and in
several counties they have been twice reelected,[437] and
wherever women have held schoo