Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Alice Ames Hall, 1863 –1952
By Maddie Moran, and Layna Zahrt, students, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI
Alice Ames (later Mrs. A.T. Hall) was born in Minnesota on December 12, 1863 to John T. Ames and Ellen M. Clough. On December 12, 1887, she married Alden Taylor Hall, from Rhode Island. Alden and Alice had three children: Catherine, Margaret, and Herbert.
Alice Ames Hall played an important part in the Minnesota suffrage movement. She served as the second auditor, and then as the 10th president (from 1911-1913) of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association. She also defeated Miss Emily E. Dobbin in the Minnesota Equal Suffrage Association's 1911 presidential race, a race that the Minnesota Tribune called, "one of the liveliest rows that ever featured a political convention of any sort in the state." The Tribune noted that "all of Minnesota, and most of the country," supported Hall's election as president.
Hall gave numerous speeches in favor of women's rights. She also wrote letters to community leaders and other suffragists discussing and promoting women's suffrage. The Minnesota Historical Society holds some of this correspondence in their collection, Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association Records, 1984-1923. Hall died on August 29, 1952, in Orange, Florida. At a speech she gave at the Minnesota Federation of Women's clubs she urged the right of suffrage along the rights of the family pointing out that someone in a family should represent all questions pertaining to family life.
Sources:
State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics. Consulted through "Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations 2000." Accessed September 27, 2018 Record.
"Social Sundries: Men, Women and Events in Society —Hotel Arrivals," The Saint Paul Globe (Saint Paul, Minnesota) 12 December 1887. Page 3
"Woman Suffragists Clash at Election," The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) 8 October 1911. Page 14.
"Officers of the Association," Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) 23 October 1910. Page 27.
"Suffragists ask champion," Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) 1 February 1912. Page 7.
Other sources:
"Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association: An Inventory of their Records at the Minnesota Historical Society: Manuscripts Collection," Minnesota Historical Society. Accessed September 27, 2018. Record.
Hetzel, Susan. Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Vol 15: 1896 (Washington, D.C: Daughters of the American Revolution, 1902), p. 67