Julia+Mills+Dunn

Original Author: Kristin Sylvester, ENG206 SP10 Revision Author:
 * Julia Mills Dunn **

Julia Mills was born in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, in 1837. After moving to Moline she became active in literary work. She was the author of “Saukenak,” an Indian story of the Black Hawk Watch Tower, also the writer of a history of Rock Island County, and of “Days We Celebrate.” She helped to organize the Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, of which she was president for a year and a half. In recognition of her work with this association her name was selected as one of the fifteen names of leading women of the State of Illinois to be on the roll of honor of the National League of Women Voters in 1931.



//Below is an excerpt from __History of Woman Suffrage__, Volume III (of III), edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Available: []//

The enthusiasm in this society branching out in so many practical directions, absorbed for a time the energies of the Illinois women. Our membership reached 400. This may account for the apparent lethargy of the Suffrage Association during the years of 1877-78. Caroline F. Corbin dealt an effective blow in her novel, entitled "Rebecca; or, A Woman's Secret." Jane Grey Swisshelm, with trenchant pen, wrote earnest strictures against the shams of society. Elizabeth Holt Babbitt wrote earnestly for all reform movements. Myra Bradwell persistently held up to the view of the legislators of the State the injustice of the laws for woman. Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn and Mrs. Hannah J. Coffee were doing quiet but most effective work in Henry county. Miss Eliza Bowman was consecrating her young womanhood to the care of the Foundlings' Home. Mrs. Wardner, Mrs. Candee, Mrs. George, and other women in the southern part of the State, were founding the library at Cairo, while in every village and hamlet clubs for study or philanthropic work were being organized. Mrs. Kate N. Doggett, as president of the Association for the advancement of Women, was lending her influence to the formation of art clubs. And all this in addition to the vast army of faithful teachers, represented by Sarah B. Raymond, Professor Louisa Allen Gregory and Mary C. Larned. Mrs. Louise Rockwood Wardner, president of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls, and the noble band of women associated with her, were earnestly at work in the endeavor to secure to the vagrant girls of the State an industrial education. Miss Frances E. Willard and the dauntless army of temperance workers were petitioning for the right to vote on all questions pertaining to the liquor traffic.

One of the most influential local associations has been that of Chicago, or Cook county. From 1870 to 1876 Mrs. Jane Graham Jones was its president, as well as the leading spirit in the State Society. She was the one to plan and execute the attacks upon the board of education, the common council, and the legislature, holding many meetings in Chicago, and at Springfield, the seat of government. Another flourishing association is that of Moline. We give the following from its secretary: In May, 1877, Mrs. Eunice G. Sayles, and Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn, secured Mrs. Stanton to give a lecture on woman suffrage in Moline, and at a reception given to her by Mrs. Sayles, a society with 22 members was organized, which has held meetings regularly since that time, with the reading of papers on topics previously arranged by the president. It is a matter of pride that not a failure has ever occurred, each member always cheerfully performing the duty assigned her. An evening reception is held annually to celebrate the organization of the society, to which two hundred or more guests are invited, each member being entitled to bring several outside of her own family. The meetings have been valuable, not only in promoting friendly relations between the members, but also in the mental stimulus they have afforded. Much of the success of this society is due to the literary culture and earnestness of Mrs. Anne M. J. Dow, who was our president for three years. We have sustained a great loss in the death of Mrs. Sarah D. Nourse, who for thirty-five years was an earnest friend of all reforms.

Soon after its organization, our society became auxiliary to the National Association. We have circulated petitions and forwarded them to Springfield and Washington, where they have met the fate common to all prayers of the disfranchised; we have circulated tracts, placed on file in the public reading room all the suffrage journals, and secured the best lecturers on the question. We are organizing an afternoon reading society, to have read aloud "The History of Woman Suffrage," and shall soon place it on the shelves of the public library of the village. While we cannot point to any wonderful revolution in public sentiment because of our work, we are nevertheless full of courage, and under the leadership of our State president, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, we shall go forward in faith and good works, hoping for the end of woman's political slavery.

The officers of the Illinois State Association are now, 1885; President, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Evanston; Vice-President-at-large, Mrs. M. E. Holmes, Galva; Secretary, Rev. Florence Kollock, Englewood; Treasurer, Dr. L. C. Bedell, 354 N. La Salle street, Chicago; Executive Committee, Hon. M. B. Castle, Sandwich: Mrs. E. J. Loomis, 2,939 Wabash avenue, Chicago; Mrs. Clara L. Peters, Watseka; Mrs. L. R. Wardner, Anna; Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn, Moline; Mrs. Helen E. Starrett, Lake Side Building, Chicago; Capt. W. S. Harbert, Evanston; Rev. C. C. Harrah, Galva.

From time to time we have had for president, Mrs. Eunice G. Sayles, Mrs. Anna M. J. Dow, Mrs. Flora N. Candee, Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn, Mrs. Nettie H. Wheelock; for secretaries, Mrs. C. W. Heald, Mrs. Lucy Anderson, Mrs. Kate Anderson; among those who have been active members of the society from its formation are, Harriet B. G. Lester, Ida Peyton, L. F. M'Clennan, Catharine H. Calkins, Dr. Jane H. Miller, Margaret Osborne, Harriet M. Gillette, Laoti Gates, Mary F. Barnes, Mary Wright, M. M. Hubbard, Emma Jones, Mary A. Stewart, Kate S. Holt, Mary A. Stephens, Abbie A. Gould, Mrs. M'Cord, Lydia Wheelock, Mrs. E. P. Reynolds, J. A. Tallman, Ann Eliza Reator, Dr. S. E. Bailey, Dr. E. A. Taylor, Lucy Ainsworth, Jerome B. Wheelock, M. A. Young, Mary Knowles, M. E. Abbot, Lois Forward, Mrs. Young.

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