Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920

Biography of Margaret "Madge" Quin Fugler, 1881–1964

By Kathelene McCarty Smith, Instruction and Outreach Archivist, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Woman Suffrage Activist

Margaret "Madge" Quin Fugler was born September 15, 1881, in McComb, Mississippi. She was one of four children born to Oliver Benton Quin and Sophia Weston Clark Quin. Oliver Quin was a physician and served several times as mayor of McComb.

Madge grew up and became a teacher, working in the McComb public school system from 1899 until 1903, when she married Pearly Magruder Fugler. They had one daughter, Mary Margaret. The family settled in McComb, Mississippi, where Pearly became a prominent dentist. Madge was an active member of the Baptist Church and local women’s clubs, and she became the secretary of the Mississippi Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1909. She was a charter member and Organizing Regent of the Judith Robinson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and later served two more terms as Regent. She also was President of both the Delphian and Crescite clubs.

Madge built a reputation as an ardent women’s rights advocate and as early as April of 1910, she was an officer of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association (M.W.S.A.). She also held the position of Superintendent of Educational Work in the organization. That same year, Madge attended the annual M.W.S.A. Convention in Greenville, featuring the famous English suffragist Miss Ray Costello. It was at this meeting that the organization’s president, Nellie M. Somerville, officially authorized the Institutional Work Committee to "make recommendations in regards to the management of state education and benevolent institutions." Madge was listed as the chairman of the committee. She continued to put a great deal of time and effort into the Suffrage Movement, writing numerous articles to be published by the state’s newspapers that supported the women’s rights. Madge was considered "a star of the galaxy," having 150 articles published within seven months.

Her enthusiasm for the cause remained strong and she became a superintendent of the M.W.S.A. in 1911, continuing to write pro-suffrage articles. Her paper, "Women as School Trustees," was published in several newspapers, as well as in leaflet form. In April of 1912, Madge attended a meeting of the M.W.S.A. in Flora, Mississippi, where she gave the report for the Educational and Institutional Work committee. The following year, she joined other suffragists at the state convention in Jackson. At this 1913 Convention, she reported on the progress of the Institutional Work committee.

As the country began to mobilize for World War I, Madge shifted her energy toward the war effort. She became a member of the national committee of the women’s section of the Navy League of the United States in 1915. She also penned impassioned articles asking for "enthusiastic help of every patriotic woman in the state" to help raise and conserve food and to volunteer to be stenographers and bookkeepers. Her involvement grew beyond the written word and she became a member the Mississippi Division of the Woman’s Auxiliary of the National Defense Council.

After the war, she remained active in women’s clubs, and in 1931, she became a member of the District No. 3 Business and Professional Women. In the 1930s, Madge followed her father’s footsteps into a political career. She always had an interest in politics, becoming a member of the Democratic Executive Committee in McComb and president of the town’s League of Women Voters from 1922 until 1926. In 1932 she was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives.

While still serving in the office, Madge had a paralytic stroke in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1934. She recovered but was not re-elected in 1935. Madge remained involved in women’s clubs and eventually moved to Greenville, Mississippi, to be with her daughter. On November 4, 1964, she died in Greenville of a cerebral hemorrhage. She is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in McComb, Mississippi, next to her husband, who died in 1949.

 

Madge Quin Fugler from The Enterprise Journal, McComb, Mississippi, July 26, 1935, p. 2, available via newspapers.com.

SOURCES:

"A Call for Mobilization," The McComb City Enterprise, McComb, Mississippi, May 10, 1917, p. 4. Available via newspapers.com.

"A Suffragette Coming," Jackson Daily News, Jackson, Mississippi, March 28, 1910, p. 8. Available via newspapers.com.

"Columbus Gets State Defense Headquarters," The Commercial Dispatch, Columbus, Mississippi, June 21, 1917, p. 1. Available via newspapers.com.

"Eighth Annual Report: Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association," Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, April 1912.

Email message from Joy O’Donnell, Daughters of the American Revolution representative, to Nancy Simmons, May 14, 2018.

Madge Quin Fugler, Find A Grave, database and images, https://www.findagrave.com: accessed 22 September 2018.

"Minutes of the Ninth Annual Convention: Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association," Jackson: Tucker Printing House, 1913.

"Program: Eighth Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association," Greenville: Greenville Times Print, 1912.

"Sixth Annual Report of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association," Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, 1910.

"Suffrage Convention Will Complete its Labors Today," Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, April 17, 1913, p. 5. Available via newspapers.com.

"Suffragist Press Department: Encouraging Results Shown by Annual Report," The Weekly Democrat-Times, Greenville, Mississippi, April 29, 1910, p. 1. Available via newspapers.com.

"Woman’s Suffrage Meeting," Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, April 9, 1912, p. 5. Available via newspapers.com.

back to top