On October 20, 1894, the New Republic, a Prohibition Party newspaper published in Lincoln, Nebraska, introduced its party’s candidates for the approaching November election. Among them were Belle G. Bigelow, nominated for lieutenant governor, and F. Bernice Kearney, nominated for superintendent of public instruction. Their candidacies represented a significant challenge to Nebraska’s established political order. Although women remained excluded from voting in most elections, the Prohibition Party placed women on its statewide ticket, creating the unusual circumstance of female candidates seeking offices whose occupants would be chosen almost entirely by male voters.
The Prohibition Party had maintained an organized presence in Nebraska since 1874, when it first nominated candidates for statewide office. Although primarily associated with opposition to alcoholic beverages, its political platform embraced several additional reforms, including civil service reform, public ownership of railroads, direct popular election of United States senators, and voting rights regardless of sex or race. These positions distinguished the party from Nebraska’s dominant political organizations and provided opportunities for reformers whose priorities extended beyond alcohol regulation.
The 1894 gubernatorial ticket paired Bigelow with E. A. Gerrard of Monroe, editor of the Monroe Looking Glass. Bigelow was an active member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), an organization that mobilized women around temperance, moral reform, and public affairs. Her involvement reflected the connections between organized temperance work and women’s political participation. Her husband, George E. Bigelow, a Lincoln real estate broker, had been the Prohibition Party’s gubernatorial nominee in 1888. The family’s political involvement therefore preceded her own nomination by several years.
Bigelow was neither the party’s first female candidate nor an isolated example. In 1891, Ada Cole Bittenbender, one of Nebraska’s earliest women attorneys and a prominent suffrage advocate, had sought election to the Nebraska Supreme Court on the Prohibition ticket. She received nearly five percent of the votes cast, demonstrating that a woman could attract measurable electoral support despite lacking the general right to vote herself.
F. Bernice Kearney’s nomination for superintendent of public instruction placed another WCTU activist before Nebraska voters. The office carried responsibility for statewide educational administration, making her candidacy particularly relevant to debates concerning women’s participation in public education. Although Nebraska women possessed limited voting rights in certain school elections, those rights did not extend to choosing the state superintendent. Kearney consequently pursued an elected position that Nebraska women generally could not vote to fill.
The party also nominated Mrs. C. M. Woodward, a WCTU member involved in the Chautauqua movement, for Congress from Nebraska’s Fourth District. Nebraska then had six congressional districts. Woodward’s candidacy extended female political participation beyond statewide offices into federal representation. Meanwhile, George W. Woodbey, an African American minister and temperance lecturer from Omaha, received the party’s congressional nomination in the Second District. Woodbey had previously sought the lieutenant governorship in 1890 on a ticket headed by B. L. Paine.
These nominations occurred against a history of repeated suffrage defeats. In 1882, Nebraska voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment extending voting rights to women by 50,693 votes to 25,756. The campaign had followed legislative efforts initiated by Erasmus M. Correll of Hebron and extensive organizing by suffrage associations. National reform organizations held conventions in Omaha, while Lincoln became an important center of suffrage publishing through the Western Woman’s Journal. Despite these efforts, constitutional restrictions remained in place during the 1894 election.
None of the Prohibition Party candidates identified in the October 20 account won election. Nevertheless, the party continued nominating women. In 1895, Anna R. Woodbey, wife of George W. Woodbey, became its candidate for university regent. The Lincoln prohibition newspaper Our Nation’s Anchor described her nomination as an unprecedented distinction for an African American woman on a statewide political ticket.
Nebraska’s suffrage movement continued into the twentieth century. The Legislature approved limited voting rights for women in 1917, and Nebraska ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in August 1919. Nationwide ratification followed in 1920. Viewed within this longer history, the October 20, 1894, New Republic announcement documents an important distinction between political candidacy and electoral citizenship. Bigelow, Kearney, and their fellow reform candidates participated directly in electoral competition before women gained full voting rights, demonstrating that political participation in nineteenth-century Nebraska extended beyond the boundaries of the legally recognized electorate.
References / More Knowledge:
1. Nebraska State Historical Society. “Prohibition Party Candidates.” Nebraska History, Historical Publications. https://history.nebraska.gov/publications_section/prohibition-party-candidates/
2. Nebraska State Historical Society. “Woman Suffrage.” Nebraska History, Historical Publications. https://history.nebraska.gov/publications_section/woman-suffrage-2/
3. Nebraska State Historical Society. “Woman Suffrage.” Nebraska History, Historical Publications. https://history.nebraska.gov/publications_section/woman-suffrage/
4. Nebraska State Historical Society. “Nebraska Woman Suffrage Association [RG1073.AM].” Manuscript Collection Finding Aid, Records, 1888–1920. https://history.nebraska.gov/collection_section/nebraska-woman-suffrage-association-rg1073-am/
5. Nebraska State Historical Society. “Nebraska Next: The Fight to Enfranchise Nebraska Women.” History Nebraska. https://history.nebraska.gov/nebraska-next-the-fight-to-enfranchise-nebraska-women/
6. University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “The Struggle.” Nebraska Studies: 1900–1924, Votes for Women. https://nebraskastudies.unl.edu/en/1900-1924/votes-for-women/the-struggle/
7. National Park Service. “Nebraska and the 19th Amendment.” U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/articles/nebraska-and-the-19th-amendment.htm
8. Anthony, Susan B., and Ida Husted Harper, editors. The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. 4. Rochester, NY: Susan B. Anthony, 1902. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29870/29870-h/29870-h.htm