Gage, Matilda Joslyn, 1826-1898

Matilda Joslyn Gage (b. Mar. 24, 1826, Cicero, NY–d. Mar. 18, 1898, Chicago, IL) was a prominent suffragist. Her father, Hezekiah Joslyn, was an abolitionist and his home was a station of the Underground Railroad. In 1845 she married Henry H. Gage, and had five children; her son-in-law was writer L. Frank Baum.

Gage became involved in the women's rights movement in 1852 when she decided to speak at the National Women's Rights Convention in Syracuse, NY. She served as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association (1875-1876). She wrote for various newspapers, reporting on the suffrage movement. In 1878, she bought the Ballot Box, a monthly journal of a Toledo(OH) suffrage association from Sarah R. L. Williams. Gage turned it into The National Citizen and Ballot Box.

In 1890, Gage established the Woman's National Liberal Union (WNLU) in reaction to the creation of National American Woman Suffrage Association. She wanted a more liberal and radical suffrage association and felt the merger of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association became too conservative. She later became the editor of the official journal of the WNLU, The Liberal Thinker.