Stewart, Ella Jane Seass, 1871-1945

Variant names

Hide Profile

Lecturer, Chicago, National Woman's Christian Temperance Union; President, Illinois Equal Suffrage Association; Recording Secretary, National American Women Suffrage Association

Elvira "Ella" Seass Stewart was born on February 22, 1871, in Arthur, Illinois, to F. Levi and Elizabeth Powell Seass. She attended Eureka College and received her A.B. in 1890 and her A.M. in 1893. As a student, she secretly became engaged to her classmate and future Illinois state senator Oliver Wayne Stewart. He introduced her to public speaking and to speaking on the topic of woman suffrage. She made the women's movement the subject of her senior address at Eureka. Oliver and Ella married on August 20, 1890. Oliver Stewart died on February 15, 1937, in Normal, Illinois. The 1940 census lists Ella Stewart as widowed and residing as a boarder in Chicago. She died in 1945.

After her marriage, Ella Stewart earned an A.B. in 1892 from the University of Michigan, where she heard her first speech on woman suffrage. She accompanied her husband on his own lecture tour and spoke at these meetings on the women's movement. When the Stewarts arrived in Chicago, Ella found the movement in disarray and worked to rebuild the organization at the state level. She organized twelve of the twenty-one suffrage clubs in Chicago. She additionally lectured for the franchise department of the National Woman's Temperance Union in Chicago from 1898-1908. In 1905, Stewart was elected president of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association after serving as vice president from 1902-1905. During her presidency, she also acted as the recording secretary for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

In 1910, she ran for the position of trustee for the University of Illinois on the Prohibition Party ticket. She was defeated but publicized her belief that alcohol was "inherently threatening" to women in an article titled "Woman Suffrage and the Liquor Traffic," which was published in 1914. She delivered the keynote address at the Twenty-third Annual Convention of the Kentucky Equal Rights Convention in Oct. 1912. The convention report described her speech "The Modern Basis of the Demand for Equal Suffrage" as "a brilliant discourse."

As a result of Stewart and her colleagues' efforts, Illinois obtained partial woman suffrage by 1913, and in October, Stewart embarked upon a two-week speaking tour of southern Illinois towns to continue organizing suffragists. She also addressed the Senate that year in which she likened the ballot to a tool of society. Stewart declared that it possessed a utilitarian purpose "to record the consensus of public opinion" and argued that women were capable of handling the ballot. She reminded the senators that women held opinions on governmental affairs which they indirectly expressed in their clubs. In addition to her suffrage work, Stewart herself was a member of the Chicago Woman's Club, the Woman's City Club, and the American Association of University Women among others.

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn Dillon, Mary Earhart,. Mary Earhart Dillon collection, 1863-1955 (inclusive). Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn Park, Maud Wood, 1871-1955. Papers in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1870-1960 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 1862-1945. Papers, 1877-1983 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn Papers of Mary Ware Dennett Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
creatorOf Stewart, Ella Jane Seass, 1871-1945. Papers, 1890-1933 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
creatorOf Stewart, Ella Jane Seass, 1871-. Series XII of the Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, 1895-1939 (inclusive). Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 1862-1945. Papers, 1877-1983 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 1862-1945. Papers in the Mary Earhart Dillon collection, 1869-1945 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 1862-1945. Papers in the Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, 1869-1945 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn Dennett, Mary Ware, 1872-1947. Papers: Series V, 1913-1945 (inclusive). Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
creatorOf Stewart, Ella Jane Seass, 1871-1945. Papers in the Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, 1895-1939 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
referencedIn Park, Maud Wood, 1871-1955. Papers in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1870-1960 Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America‏
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Addams, Jane, 1860-1935 person
associatedWith Anthony, Lucy Elmina, 1861-1944 person
associatedWith Avery, Rachel G. (Foster), 1858-1919 person
associatedWith Blackwell, Alice Stone, 1857-1950 person
associatedWith Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926 person
associatedWith Clay, Laura, 1849-1941 person
associatedWith Dennett, Mary Ware, 1872-1947 person
associatedWith Dillon, Mary Earhart, person
associatedWith Gardener, Helen Hamilton (Chenoweth), 1853-1925 person
associatedWith Gordon, Kate M., 1861-1932 person
associatedWith Grim, Harriet E. (Harriet Elizabeth), 1885-1967 person
associatedWith Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, 1843-1925 person
associatedWith Harper, Ida (Husted), 1851-1931 person
associatedWith Illinois Equal Suffrage Association corporateBody
associatedWith Iowa Equal Suffrage Association. corporateBody
associatedWith McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 1862-1945 person
associatedWith National American Woman Suffrage Association corporateBody
associatedWith Park, Maud Wood, 1871-1955 person
associatedWith Shaw, Anna Howard, 1847-1919 person
associatedWith Upton, Harriet (Taylor), 1853-1945 person
associatedWith Ward, Lydia Avery Cooney, 1845-1924. person
associatedWith Woman's Christian Temperance Union corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
Chicago IL US
Normal IL US
Illinois IL US
Subject
Suffrage
Temperance
Temperance
Women
Occupation
Suffragists
Activity

Person

Birth 1871-02-22

Death 1945

Female

Americans

English

Related Descriptions
Information

Permalink: http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kj1cw6

Ark ID: w6kj1cw6

SNAC ID: 85593651