Nebraska's Rural Citizens

More than three-quarters of Nebraska's 1882 population lived outside of large cities or towns and campaign organizers worked to reach those potential supporters. Because many supporters feared the anti-suffrage influence of brewing and other interests in larger towns and cities, reaching Nebraskans in small towns and rural areas was particularly important.

In the Ord Quiz, on June 29, 1882, Ada Bittenbender reminded suffragists:
I will impress upon the attention of our workers the importance of a “school house campaign.” To the country must we look for our main strength. For various reasons the vote in the cities will be light. Let every schoolhouse in Nebraska be reached by all means...

Erasmus Correll recieved many subscription requests and lists for the Western Woman's Journal, including this one from Mrs. D. H. C. Stone, near Syracuse: "I should be glad to see the circulation of your paper extended through this part of the country; and for the benefit of the cause I shall try to raise a club of ten subscribers within a month. I live in the country or I might get them sooner. I give subscribers benefit of club rates."

The Western Woman's Journal appealed to the sentiments of rural voters:
The rural voters of Nebraska are in the majority over all others combined, and as industrious, intelligent citizens are certain to look more favorably upon the suffrage reform the the towns where so many idlers congregate and where class distinction of every shade prevails far more manifestly than in the county. (Western Woman's Journal, June 1882, 243)

In September of 1882, J.N. Martin, a correspondent from Tecumseh, wrote to the Western Woman's Journal about a woman's rights to the fruits of her labor:
Now, if there is a woman who does not want to vote, or who as all the rights she wants, I cannot think she is a farmer's wife, one who has helped with her labor and her children's labor, to pay for the farm, because if so, she must feel that a share of it ought to be hers, absolutely, and for all time, but the right she now has is that she may have the use of a share of it during her lifetime…

Ada Bittenbender recommended readers of the Western Woman's Journal have "a stand for the distribution of suffrage literature at every agricultural fair held in the state this fall, to be presided over by the ladies of energy and tact. Thousands of signatures to the petitions and as many votes may be gained in this way. I will see that plenty of suffrage literature is forwarded to all associations who will notify me in time of the adoption of this plan." (Western Woman's Journal, June 1882, 251)

Clara Chapin of Riverton, Nebraska, detailed her experiences far from the centers of Omaha and Lincoln and offered important suggestions for readers in similar situations. "Perhaps organization is not quite so rapid as it is in eastern counties, but you must remember that we do not have the many able workers here that are found in older and more populous counties, and those women who are willing and anxious to handle a laboring oar have their hands tied by family duties." After trying and failing to gain supporters with public meetings, Chapin and her group began "parlor" meetings that proved successful, inviting women to "come and bring their knitting and their babies and discuss suffrage in a conversational way." She continued, "I think now we have hit upon the right plan for Riverton, and I would like to suggest the same plan to women in other small western towns who think they can not do anything." (Western Woman's Journal, February 1882, 172).

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