Celebrating the anniversary of women’s suffrage in South Dakota is more than only Susan B. Anthony, or even Iowa native Carrie Chapman Catt.
Many South Dakota women and men were instrumental in the long campaign to give women the vote in South Dakota. Some of those women are honored in a South Dakota Suffrage display created by the South Dakota League of Women Voters, and currently on display at the Huron Public Library.
Back in 2019, the idea for the display was conceived to be part of a conference on suffrage in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals states with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as keynote speaker. The three panel display was funded by donations from women lawyers and judges from across South Dakota.
The shipping costs for the display to travel South Dakota after the conference were covered by a grant from the Mary Chilton D.A.R. Then Covid happened. The conference was cancelled and Justice Ginsburg died.
However, the decision was made to send the display out to libraries and courthouses. Since August 2020, the display has traveled to Vermillion, Brookings, Aberdeen, Pierre (twice), Mitchell, Chamberlain, Rapid City, Hot Springs, and now Huron.
Not surprising to Huron residents, one of the women honored is Mary “Mamie” Shields Pyle. Born in 1866, just after the Civil War, Mamie became a schoolteacher, before marrying John L. Pyle, an attorney, in 1886. The Pyle family moved to Huron in 1889. Mamie soon joined and then became a leader in the suffrage movement, becoming President of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League in 1910. Mamie’s strategic approach to the suffrage battle included the recognition that the liquor industry, including beer-making German immigrants, were united in opposition to female suffrage, believing it would lead to prohibition. The First World War and accompanying anti-German sentiment helped the suffragists achieve their goal, with the help of Gov. Peter Norbeck.
Mamie continued as the leader of the organization until after the state passed women’s suffrage in South Dakota in 1919 and ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Mamie’s daughter, Gladys Pyle, benefited directly from suffrage, becoming South Dakota’s first female legislator and then first female U.S. Senator. Mamie died in 1949.
The display will remain in the Huron Public Library until March 31.
For more information about this display, stop by the Huron Public Library or phone 353-8530. You may visit the library’s webpage library.huronsd.com, or find us on Facebook and Instagram.
