Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920
Biography of Madeline MacWhorter Traver Stockton, 1874-1951
By Linnea Zintman, student, University of Wisconsin Green Bay.
Vice President, Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association; Third District Chairman Minnesota League of Women Voters; Vice President, Third District League of Women Voters.
Madeline Stockton was born to Harvey and Mary Traver in November 1874, in Saratoga Springs, New York. She had three sisters: Hope, Grace, and Helen. She married Charles Murry Stockton on June 23, 1904. Together, Charles and Madeline had two sons. Their first, Charles Murry Traver Stockton, was born in 1908 but died in 1910. Robert Traver Stockton was born in 1913. The family spent most of their lives in Faribault, Minnesota, but lived briefly in Big Timber, Montana, from roughly 1910-1912. The family of three moved to Walton, Florida, sometime in between 1940 and 1945. Madeline passed away in 1951 in Walton, Florida.
In November 1917, Madeline Stockton was elected the fifth Vice President of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association. The Minnesota Association supported the policies of the national association. As a Vice President, she assisted with the 37th annual convention in December 1918, and would stay on the board until the organization ended in 1920. In March 1918, Madeline was elected President of the Faribault Political Equality Association, and it appears that she remained president until the association disbanded in December 1919. In February 1919, Madeline was elected President of her local Faribault Suffrage Association. At the same meeting, the group resolved to stand against the proposed amendment to the State Constitution for a woman suffrage, in order to support the passage of the federal amendment. In October 1919, after the Nineteenth Amendment passed the House and Senate, but before it was ratified, the Minnesota League of Women Voters was formed to take the place of the Minnesota Women Suffrage Association. Madeline Stockton was named the chairman of the third congressional district through the state league, as well as the vice president of her district league. Through the League of Women Voters, she and her husband took citizenship classes so they could help relay information to the new women voters the league supported. Her main work as district chairman was in running a conference on January 23 and 24, 1920, for all women in the third district. At this conference, she spoke about the future of the League of Women Voters organization in the district, and successfully made the third congressional district the first district in the state to have organized women voters. After this conference, there is at least one record of her speaking on behalf of the League of Women Voters, but subsequently there are no public records of her activism.
Madeline was an educated woman. She attended Vassar College for her undergraduate education, and continued to the University of Minnesota for some post-graduate education. At Vassar, Madeline was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa sorority, and at the University of Minnesota, she was involved in the Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity and the Woman's Suffrage Association. From 1900-1904 Madeline worked as a teacher at East High in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After she married, she left her teaching position and her only job after appeared to be her activism and raising her son.
Sources
“3rd District Women Voters Organize,” Northfield News, Jan. 30, 1920, 1. http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016829/1920-01-30/ed-1/seq-1
“East High Notes,” The Minneapolis Journal, May 6, 1904, 13. http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83045366/1904-05-06/ed-1/seq-13
“Faribault Equality Association Has Disbanded,” The Faribault Journal, December 3, 1919, 1. http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90060474/1919-12-03/ed-1/seq-1
“Here and There City and County,” The Faribault Journal, March 6, 1918, 8. http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90060474/1918-03-06/ed-1/seq-8
“Is Highly Favored Above All Others,” The Big Timber Pioneer, March 31, 1990, 3. http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn84036123/1910-03-31/ed-1/seq-3/#
“League of Women Voters Formed,” The Evening Tribune, October 29, 1919. https://access.newspaperarchive.com/us/minnesota/albert-lea/albert-lea-evening-tribune/1919/10-29?tag=Stockton+faribault&rtserp=tags/faribault?psi=56&pci=7&pl=stockton&psb=relavance
“League of Women Voters to become Factored in Minnesota Members of Nominating Board,” The Minneapolis Morning Tribune, October 30, 1919, 8. http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016772/1919-10-30/ed-1/seq-8
“Many Delegates From Here,” Northfield News, January 23, 1920, 1. http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016829/1920-01-23/ed-1/seq-1
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Florida Death Index, 1998.
Florida State Census, 1945.
R. L. Polk and Company, General Catalogue of the University of Minnesota, 1916. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951p011395510
The Fourth General Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Vassar College. 1910. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101068580123
United States Census, 1880.
United States Census, 1900.
United States Census, 1940.
United States City Directories, 1822-1995.
Vassar College, Vassar College Bulletin; The Fifth General Catalogue of the Officers and Alumnae of Vassar College, May 1920 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015075933161
Women Citizen Corp, “Across Country With the Conventions,” Woman's Journal, December 1, 1917, 15. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:gerritsen&rft_dat=xri:gerritsen:articlerec:Gerritsen-GP205.1_Volume_2_Issue_1-5
