Sustenance, Social Bonds, and PoliticsA Food History of the South Dakota Suffrage Movement Liz Almlie (bio) On July 21, 1890, Emma Smith DeVoe traveled about eighty miles from her home in Huron, South Dakota, to the town of Warner, to hold an afternoon suffrage meeting at the home of Margaret J. Cook. Cook gave a banquet for the fifty women who attended. According to news reports, the women "all said it was the very first time in all their lives that a banquet had been prepared for them. They had prepared many banquets for men, but this was a new order of business."1 Looking at the intersection of food and equal suffrage in South Dakota brings forward stories that speak to the lived experience of the suffrage movement, as well as changes and continuities in women's roles as they claimed expanded political voice. The experiences of South Dakota suffragists also reflect the unique situation of women who functioned within the agricultural economy of the Great Plains Midwest. In long travel across the drought-prone plains between newly settled towns and rural schoolhouses, South Dakota suffragists used local food products for sustenance, socialization, direct appeals to voters, and fundraising. Food also featured in commentary about gender roles and, in the 1910s, became a subject for political action. The suffrage movement had a dramatic history in South Dakota, with the state going through six organized public campaigns between 1890 and 1918 for a state amendment to remove the word "male" from voting qualifications.2 Though few South Dakota suffragists sought to overturn traditional gender roles and activities, they nonetheless did significant work to claim public space and become active in political and civic affairs. In the course of this work, a fundamental use of food was sustenance, with the accompanying benefit of building social relationships. By 1890, homesteaders and town-builders had begun forming communities, but [End Page 65] as suffragist Marietta Bones of Webster reflected in her 1884 report to the National Woman Suffrage Association, "the country being so sparsely settled, and such wide distances between towns, … the settlers are comparatively strangers to each other."3 For long or distant events, having hosts schedule time for food was a practical necessity but also an incentive that made attendance more feasible or more appealing. Supporters of suffrage had to invest time to travel to and attend meetings, lectures, or conventions. In most South Dakota homes, women of the household had responsibility for preparing meals. Incorporating meals into a suffrage event facilitated the participation of women and their families. In September 1890, suffragists in Jerauld County held a convention in Wessington Springs with a keynote address by Matilda Hindman—a suffrage organizer from Pennsylvania. The invitation in the paper included: "Come early tomorrow morning; bring your lunch basket and dinner in the park, and leave things at home in such a condition that you can stay all day, and to the lecture in the evening."4 In February 1890, Emma Smith DeVoe and other suffragists in Huron held a local convention for Beadle County. The invitation urged attendees to come early enough to eat lunch together if they brought their own provisions, noting that their Huron hosts would provide coffee. It suggested attendees stay for dinner as well. Afterwards, the newspaper reported that "many were there from the outside townships who came early with baskets well filled with provisions."5 The Beadle County convention was the culmination of weeks of daily speeches and meetings at rural churches and schoolhouses. Having convention attendees bring picnic baskets filled a logistical need but also provided an opportunity for socialization, getting to know one another, and building confidence to work better together for equal suffrage. Suffragists commonly offered receptions, social hours, and hors d'oeuvres for higher-profile events with national speakers. While on her way to the state convention in Pierre in 1895, Carrie Chapman Catt of New York was scheduled to speak at the opera hall in Hurley, and locals served "refreshments after the lecture, giving a short time to social chat."6 In November 1909, the Ladies History Club in Sioux Falls hosted a reception and "dainty luncheon" for Anna Howard...
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Mar 1, 2024
Gina Jiménez 
Open Access