b'(Searls Historical Library)High-powered California women gather at a luncheon on June 28, 1895, to honor suffragist Susan B. Anthony, center, seated next to Ellen Clark Sargent, right.Pictured are, standing, from left, Louisa Marriner-Campbell, an internationally renowned singer and vocal instructor; Hester A. Harland, lecturer and secretary of the California Womans Suffrage Association; hostess and California Womans Suffrage Association President Nellie Holbrook Blinn; and Annie Kennedy Bidwell, wife of Gen. John Bidwell. Seated, from left, are journalist, lawyer and racial equality advocate Mabel Craft; the Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; Susan B. Anthony; Ellen Clark Sargent; and Rachel Andrews, a popular travel writer who published under the pen name of Lillian Leland. At the time of this photo, Anthony was president and Shaw was vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.Continued from Page 7 Continued from Page 7 during his early days traveling across Panama to California. had become friends with the Sargents now-Sen. SargentThroughout his life, he had been a strong proponent for introduced the language that eventually would become the 19thwomens rights and consistently spoke for womens right to Amendment into Congress on Jan. 10, 1878. The right of citizensvote while in political office.to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or any StateTAX PROTESTERon account of sex. The bill was rejected, though it would be re-introduced every year for the next 41 years. After her husbands death, Ellen Sargent dedicated herself In a letter to Ellen Sargent in 1881, Anthony wrote, Howcompletely to the suffrage movement. She became the treasurer pleased I am to know that Mr. Sargent will continue to introduceof the National Woman Suffrage Association and represented a bill granting women the opportunity to voteWhile theCalifornia at the womens convention in Washington in early Senator is ever and ever so much to ushe without his wife1888. She was also one of the speakers at that convention. wouldnt be but the halfwould he? As a woman of means, Sargent, then 74, filed suit against the GOLD RUSH ROOTS San Francisco County Board of Supervisors for collecting taxes from her, but not giving her the right to vote on anything for Ellen Sargent and Anthony visited and worked together manywhich she was paying those taxes. Her son, George Sargent, times during the period the Sargents lived in the nations capital,represented her. She lost the case. Nevertheless, it inspired as well as in other periods of their lives. In Enss article in Cowgirlwomen in the same circumstances to join the suffrage magazine (June 6, 2016), she shared a letter Ellen Sargent wrotemovement, and the northern California suffrage groups saw a to Mrs. Alice L. Park, a famous campaigner for womens rights,substantial increase in membership.in which she recalled her life in Washington. I have many verySargent continued to work diligently to gain the right to vote pleasant memories of the place and the people I have met there.in California. She believed that if California gave women the Mr. Sargent and myself, with our family, lived there twelve years. Ifranchise, the more conservative East would follow suit.The learned a great deal while there; dined at the White House manyCalifornia Woman Suffrage Amendment was on the ballot on times with distinguished people; visited at the Public Buildings;Nov. 3, 1896.It lost by a vote of 80,000 for to 95,000 against.met Miss (Susan) Anthony, (Elizabeth Cady) Stanton, IsabellaSargent did not give up. As honorary president of the California Beecher Hooker, all the other great lights of those times: love toEqual Suffrage Association, she challenged women to educate think it over and appreciate the privilege more as time goes on. themselves about how government worked.She urged followers After one term in the Senate and a stint in Germany asto be informed citizens once the right to vote was granted.The U.S. ambassador, the Sargents resettled in San Francisco inamendment was once again on the ballot for Oct. 13, 1911.This 1884. On Aug. 14, 1887, Aaron Sargent died at home fromtime, it narrowly passed. But Sargent did not see her victory; she complications of an old malarial fever he had contractedhad died in July at the age of 85.8Business 2020'