Mary Simpson Sperry
American suffragist (1833-1921)
Mary Elizabeth Simpson Sperry (died 1921), was a leading California suffragist. She served as president of the California Woman Suffrage Association in 1900-1907.
Suffrage work
Mary Sperry was one of the leading suffragists in the state of California, specifically San Francisco, and was personally supported by noted suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Mary Sperry also worked alongside Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Shaw. According to suffrage scholar Rebecca Mead, Anthony believed Sperry "links the old people to the new" and endorsed Sperry as leader of the California Woman Suffrage Association which as affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Her work as treasurer was recognized in the History of Woman Suffrage published by Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In volume VI of that publication it was noted that Sperry participated in a major suffrage conference in San Francisco in 1902.
Sperry also corresponded about the suffrage movement with philanthropist Phoebe Hearst. In a letter dated September 30, 1911, Sperry wrote to Hearst saying, ""I wish to acknowledge the pleasure it gave me at our recent Club meeting, when you told me that you favored 'Votes for Women.' Perhaps you do not realize how much it means to me, who have worked for it so long, to know that women like you are on our side."
1896 campaign for women's suffrage
Mary Sperry was actively involved in the failed 1896 campaign for women's suffrage in California. While serving as treasurer to the state suffrage association, for seven years, Sperry wrote opinion articles advocating for the passage of what was known as Amendment 6.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mary Simpson Sperry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.