Introduction to the Culture Walks of Muncie Program 

Cultural Walks of Muncie 

Before 1920, the United States Constitution did not guarantee women the right to vote. In 1848, the first women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. There was a need and desire for change and social reform. It took almost 70 years from that first convention to the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution. Women across the country organized state franchise leagues to campaign for the right to vote.For decades suffragists around the nation had been divided on how to go about securing the right to vote for women. Some advocated for attempts to gain partial or full suffrage on local and state levels. They believed that victories in this manner would help create a stronger case for the federal government to pass a similar measure. Others felt strongly that suffragists needed to start at the top – demanding a federal amendment to the United States Constitution. At the same time, some suffragists believed amendments, whether at the federal or state level, were too difficult to get passed.Using a variety of approaches, in the last decades of the 19th century, women gained a scattering of suffrage rights in varying states, territories, and communities around the nation. Some were able to secure voting for local matters related to libraries and schools, while others found themselves with a voice in state government.To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Women’s suffrage, the DCHS developed the Notable Women of Muncie committee to highlight members of the community who contributed in notable and even infamous ways.This tour, In Their Shoes will take you on a walking tour through downtown Muncie, to highlight specific spots with connections to the suffrage movement in our community and some of the notable women of Muncie.

This is In Their Shoes audio walking tour which is a part of the Welcome to the Delaware County Historical Society Cultural Walks of Muncie program. The tour starts at the DCHS and will end at Courthouse Square. There are 6 stops along the way. This is an interactive tour that will provide visuals through your cell phone camera. There will be audio throughout the tour and you can advance to the next section by touching the next button at the bottom of your screen. Also, you can touch the back button to listen again if you wish.

In Their Shoes Walking Tour 

This is In Their Shoes audio walking tour which is a part of the Welcome to the Delaware County Historical Society Cultural Walks of Muncie program. The tour starts at the DCHS and will end at Courthouse Square. There are 5 stops along the way.

In 1913, the Muncie Woman’s Franchise League conducted events in the building and distributed pamphlets in support of women voting throughout the interior. In March of 1920, the rooms of the commercial club were the site of so-called voter or citizenship schools for women. Women were taught about casting a vote and basic civic lessons. Emogene Taft Lesh, a local franchise leader and Statehouse lobbyist, addressed the opening session, and Julia Nelson was the chair. (Julia Nelson would be elected to the state legislature that fall, the first Indiana woman at the Statehouse). The first morning session of the citizenship school was attended by about 50 women, but each successive session in the afternoon and evening were packed with “interested and enthusiastic women eager to be well-prepared to cast their vote.” Men also attended just to watch and, in some cases, meet the women.Garnet Warfel, a supposedly progressive and independent reporter, published a story about attending the suffrage school. At first, she was trying to impress her male coworkers by not going, thinking suffragists were in fact objectionable to the men:<blockquote>Came in the office the other day and met a friend just as he was leaving. He asked me if I’d been up to the school to learn how to vote—and knowing what men think of suffragists and wishing to leave a favorable impression with this particular friend—I lost no time in telling him that indeed I had not been to the school, and furthermore would never go to such a school for I was one of the kind that believed a woman’s place was in the home and not hanging around voting polls.</blockquote><blockquote>But my friend discouraged further conversation by passing me a bleak look, and murmured a faint farewell and was gone. Anyway I felt that I had at least impressed him with my feminism…</blockquote><blockquote>Unfortunately, it was the peer pressure of her male coworkers that forced Garnet to attend the school along with them, but she was converted successfully for life and wrote, “Just wait for Election Day!”</blockquote>Let's move on to the next stop on our tour

The first stop on the tour is the Commercial Club. The building was erected in 1903 at a cost of $60,000 (about $2 million today). The Commercial Club “constituted the civic center for the commercial, business, mercantile, and manufacturing interests of the entire community. It had an active membership of more than 400 men of the city’s business world.”

Commercial Club Building  

The hotel was built by Thomas Kirby who was not a native to Muncie, Indiana but became a successful business owner before the time of the famous Ball Brothers. Thomas’s son, Thomas (Hick) Kirby was a Lieutenant in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His daughter Edith attended Muncie High School and then went on to the Girls’ Classical school in Indianapolis under the respected educator May Wright Sewall. Edith was active in the Woman’s Franchise League of Muncie and campaigned for Women’s Suffrage. National suffrage leaders like Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony campaigned for suffrage in Indiana a number of times. In the fall of 1887, Susan B. Anthony organized meetings of the National Woman Suffrage Association in each of Indiana’s congressional districts. Anthony traveled around the state giving speeches with Helen Gougar, a feisty suffragist from Lafayette, Zerelda Wallace, former first lady of Indiana, and May Wright Sewall, a more conservative suffragist and educator from Indianapolis. The squad of suffragists arrived in Muncie just after Thanksgiving in November 1887. The distinguished visitors were escorted from the train station to the Kirby House Hotel for their stay in Muncie.Anthony appeared at the High Street Methodist Episcopal Church on the northwest corner of High and Adams Streets in an afternoon and evening program.The Muncie Daily Times encouraged attendance to its readers—both men and women. “Whether you are in favor of the cause in which they are interested or not, they are distinguished ladies with a national reputation and are worthy of a good hearing for the ability they represent,” adding that the lectures would be “brilliant, entertaining, and instructive.” Thomas Neely, Muncie city founder, wrote in his diary that his daughter Jennie attended a suffrage meeting at the High Street church.The day after the program the paper wrote, “Reverend Mr. Kemp, presiding elder of the church, opened the exercises by leading the large congregation assembled in singing ‘My Country Tis of Thee’ and in prayer. Susan B. Anthony was introduced and spoke from the subject ‘Disenfranchisement: A Degradation.’ She declared beggars always compelled not to be choosers, whether for bread or ballot.”“Miss Susan B. Anthony, in a most practical and pleasant manner, urged the women to organize an effort to secure this modicum of power, that is within the hands of the next legislature to grant.” Unfortunately, it would be 33 years before any of the women would vote in Indiana, and Anthony did not live long enough to see national women’s suffrage. After spending two days in Muncie, Anthony and her entourage headed for Anderson to present the same programs.

The Kirby House Hotel was built in 1871 and in the final years was known as The Huron. The building was demolished in 1962 and has been a parking lot ever since.

Kirby House Hotel 

The Carnegie library took 1.5 years to build, due to shortage of labor. It was finally completed in December, 1904 and dedicated in January. In 1901,&nbsp;the Muncie Public Library board agreed to request an amount of $50,000 from Andrew Carnegie to build a new library. Carnegie agreed and donated an additional $5,000 after the opening. The library has undergone renovations over the years, the most notable of which was the addition of the mezzanine tier book stacks which increased the storage capacity significantly and many books in storage were then made available. The library remains in operation today.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Carnegie Library (titled Muncie Public Library in the National Register of Historic Places registration form) is one of the first buildings constructed with funds acquired from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Built in 1904, it was the first library of the Muncie Library system. It was designed by architect Marshall S. Mahurin in the Neo-Classical style. It was listed to the Register in 1976. It is the oldest public building in Muncie and one of the few Carnegie libraries still operating as a library in the country.

Carnegie Library (Muncie Public Library)

The Columbia Theatre opened September 1, 1913. It had a Moller pipe organ that impressed audiences.

Columbia Theater 

Since the creation of the Muncie league in 1912, the members continued to campaign for the right to vote. Letter writing campaigns, events, and continuing education were a focus of the league. In the state capital, legislators were fighting for both sides. In February of 1917, women in Indiana gained the right to vote in municipal, school and special elections. By November of that year, after thousands of women registered to vote, this right was taken away. Two junior state senators, Marion Hiram Maston, representative for Huntington and Whitley counties and the newly elected representative for Delaware County, Arthur McKinley, introduced Senate Bill No. 77 on January 16, 1917. It was a bill “for an act granting women the right to vote for presidential electors, certain offices and certain elections.”  After attempts from several anti-suffrage legislators in both the Senate and House of Representatives, the bill passed both houses on February 22, 1917. Governor James P. Goodrich signed Senate Bill no. 77 the “Women’s Suffrage Act of 1917”on February 28.In a Star Press article dated July 1st 1917, it was stated that about 850 voters had registered and fully one-half of these had been women. Roughly 400 Muncie women over the age of 21 had registered to vote. In October of 1917 Indianapolis businessman William W. Knight filed a lawsuit against the Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Indianapolis. Attorney C.J. Spencer presented Mr. Knight’s case to the Indiana State Supreme court, stating: “It is his contention, briefly, that under the Constitution of the state the right of suffrage may not be extended to womenKnight believed that the Indiana General Assembly, under the Indiana State Constitution, did not have the legislative right to extend voting rights to women. Unfortunately, the court ruled in favor of Knight, siding that the partial suffrage law violated Article II, Section 2 of the Indiana State Constitution. In late October of 1917, eight months after receiving partial suffrage, women in the state of Indiana lost their limited voting rights.Refocusing their efforts towards federal suffrage, the Woman’s Franchise League of Muncie, joined forces with the National American Woman Suffrage Association for a federal amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. In the meeting minutes of November 9, 1917, Mrs. Margaret H. Gill<blockquote>spoke of the need to bring pressure to bear on the legislators in order to secure the passage of the Susan B. Anthony amendment to the National Constitution. The State League has planned to carry out a systematic educational campaign for suffrage through the newspapers of small towns of the state.</blockquote>In June of 1919, the federal amendment passed in the United States Senate and on August 18, 1920, the amendment was ratified and women gained the constitutional right to vote. We will end our tour today with a full circle suffrage story. Julia Nelson was the first woman elected to the Indiana State Legislature the same year the 19th amendment was ratified to represent Delaware County. The Muncie Evening Press described election night as follows<blockquote>“The headquarters were packed, as well as the hall outside. Finally, the completed returns from Precinct 26 were telephoned from the poll, giving Mrs. Nelson a total of 431 votes. A rousing cheer went up for “Indiana’s first woman legislator.” </blockquote>While the crowd cried for a speech, Mrs. Nelson said, <blockquote>“I am thankful for the honor that has been conferred upon me. But more, I am happy at this great triumph for America.” </blockquote>

Since the creation of the Muncie league in 1912, the members continued to campaign for the right to vote. Letter writing campaigns, events, and continuing education were a focus of the league.  In the state capital, legislators were fighting for both sides. In February of 1917, women in Indiana gained the right to vote in municipal, school and special elections. By November of that year, after thousands of women registered to vote, this right was taken away.