Annie Nowlin Savery

Annie Nowlin Savery (* 1831 as Annie Nowlin in London , † April 14, 1891 in New York City ) was an American suffragette and philanthropist from Des Moines , Iowa . She began to get involved with the suffragettes in the 1860s , donating money for the city library and helping to finance the city's first public hospital. Savery was posthumously inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1997 .

Early life

As a young woman, she married on January 20, 1852 in Saratoga the businessman and real estate speculator James C. Savery of Massachusetts. The couple moved to Des Moines, Iowa, then a town of 1,500 people, where they bought a log home for $ 3,000 and converted it into a hotel they owned. In the meantime, they built a modern hotel that opened as the Savery Hotel in 1862. The husband invested proceeds from the hotel and by 1870 the value of her property had increased from $ 10,000 to $ 250,000 as the town developed and grew in size. For decades, Des Moines was an important stopover on the settlers' journey west and flourished in trade.

Annie Savery's formal schooling was not extensive, but she was known to read extensively and deeply and to be self-taught in many areas. So she was the center of intellectual life in Des Moines and she supported the city's culture. In The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa is said to have the French language taught itself.

Further life

Savery donated money to the Des Moines Public Library and started a scholarship for women at what was then Iowa College, now Grinnell College . She improved conditions in the county jail and partnered with a beekeeper to promote economic independence for women.

In the 1860s, Savery began to get involved in the movement to enforce women's suffrage . She gave her first speech on women's suffrage in January 1868 in Des Moines. In 1870 she founded the first suffragist group in Polk County .

In the 1870s, Annie Savery served on the executive committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association . Savery worked closely with movement leaders Lucy Stone , Isabella Beecher Hooker , Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony . When Stanton and Anthony began working with Victoria Woodhull , who advocated free love, the movement garnered bad opinion, especially in conservative Iowa. Savery tried to counter this by continually emphasizing that women can stand up for women's suffrage, no matter what their opinions on minor issues.

In 1870 a bill on women's suffrage had been passed in Iowa, and if it had been passed the second time, the people would have voted on it in a referendum. It was debated in the Iowa Houses of Parliament in 1872, but the controversy surrounding Woodhull on the one hand and the women's movement itself on the other led to the bill being rejected. Afterwards, many who had stood up for women's suffrage withdrew in disappointment. Discouraged by the defeat, Annie Savery turned to other areas. It was not until 1916 that Iowa proposed reintroducing women's suffrage.

Later life and death

Savery Mausoleum at Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines

She died in New York City on April 14, 1891 and was buried in Des Moines, where her husband had a mausoleum built in Woodland Cemetery . Her husband died on August 27, 1905 and was also buried in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines.

Afterlife

Over a century after her death, Savery was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1997.

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Rachel Bohlmann: Savery, Annie Nowlin ( English ) University of Iowa Press. 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
2. ^ Louise Rosenfield Noun: Annie Savery: Pioneer Feminist (English) . In: Des Moines Register , Aug. 4, 1996, p. 1C. Archived from the original on January 14, 2019. Accessed January 13, 2019.  Continued below A free-love advocate hurt women's movement (English) . In: The Des Moines Register , Aug. 4, 1996, p. 2C. Archived from the original on January 13, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019. 
3. ↑ Iowa Women's Hall of Fame ( English ) Retrieved on February 14 of 2019.