1. Early life

2. Early career and marriage

3. Suffrage leader

4. Later life and death

5. Notes

6. References

7. External links

Mary "Mamie" Shields Pyle (February 28, 1866 – December 22, 1949)^[1] was a women's suffrage leader in the U.S. state of South Dakota. She was instrumental in the state's enactment of women's suffrage in 1918. After a failed 1910 referendum on women's suffrage, Pyle became the leader of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League. She led the organization through several failed referendums, narrowing the margin of defeat over time until finally passing the Citizenship Amendment in 1918. Pyle remained President of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League through state's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment the following year and later became President of the state's chapter of the League of Women voters. Pyle was one of the first women to become a Presidential Elector in 1921.

Beyond suffrage, Pyle supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. She was committed to education. She worked to establish Huron College and was a trustee of the college for over forty years.

Early life

Mary "Mamie" Isabella Shields was born on February 28, 1866, in Orange, New Jersey.^[1][2] During her childhood, her family moved to Pleasant Grove, Minnesota, before settling in Brookings City and Miller, Dakota Territory.^[2]

Early career and marriage

Early in her career, Shields worked as a teacher in Beadle County.^[1][6] Shields married attorney and politician John L. Pyle in 1887.^[3][4] The couple moved from Miller to Huron, Dakota Territory two years later. They had four children: John Shields (1887-1948), May (1888-1974), Nellie (1889-1961), and Gladys (1890-1989).^[4][5]{{Rp|222}} The family lived in a John L. Pyle built in 1893.^[6] He and Mamie worked to bring Pierre University to Huron, where it was renamed Huron College.^[7] Her husband died in 1902 during his term as Attorney General of South Dakota.^[4]

Suffrage leader

Pyle rose to prominence in the suffrage movement after the defeat of the South Dakota women's suffrage amendment in a referendum in November 1910.^[3]{{Rp|208}} Unlike other suffrage leaders in the state, Pyle had not been active in the temperance movement, and stressed that suffrage and temperance should remain separate issues.^[3]{{Rp|208}}{{efn|There was a significant overlap between the suffrage and "temperance" movements. Much of the opposition to womens' suffrage came from brewers and distillers, who feared that if women got the vote, they would use it to enact prohibition.^[8] Opposition to the two was particularly strong among German Americans.^[9][10]}} Seeing the need for a new direction, Pyle called a state suffrage convention in 1911 rebranded the suffrage association as the South Dakota Universal Franchise League (Universal Franchise League).^[3]{{Rp|208}} Under Pyle's leadership, the Franchise League kept its independence from national organizations, although Pyle shared many similarities, and a friendship with National American Woman Suffrage Association president Carrie Chapman Catt.^[3]{{Rp|209-10}}

A 1914 referendum on women's suffrage lost by approximately 12,000 votes, an improvement from the referendum in 1910 that had lost by 22,000 votes. With the progress made, Pyle and the Universal Franchise League lobbied the legislature to pass another women's suffrage amendment, which would once again be put to a public vote. The measure easily passed the legislature, with support from the Republican and Democratic parties in the state.^[3]{{Rp|215}} The Universal Franchise League elected her to a third term in November 1915.^[11] For the public vote, scheduled for November 1916, Pyle changed strategies from using district organizers to mobilizing county leaders to contact every voter in the state.^[3]{{Rp|216}} Pyle and the suffragists still lost the 1916 vote, cutting the margin of their loss to 5,000 votes.^[3]{{Rp|218}}

In January 1917, Pyle and other suffragettes polled the South Dakota legislature to determine the support for a suffrage amendment. The proponents gauged sufficient support and introduced the measure in both houses of the state legislature.^[12] The South Dakota legislature passed a woman's suffrage bill for the seventh and final time in 1917. By March 1918, the United States had entered World War I and Governor Peter Norbeck was concerned that South Dakota allowed non-citizens to vote, which included a population with more than 22% of people claiming German heritage.^[3]{{Rp|223}} Norbeck called a special session of the legislature and requested Pyle to be present to consult on an amendment to the woman's suffrage clause to exclude non-citizens from voting.^[3]{{Rp|223-24}} The amendment became known as the Citizenship Amendment. Pyle and the Universal Franchise League gave their full support to the amendment and continued to campaign aggressively. The National American Woman Suffrage Association sent additional campaigners to the state. Under Pyle's leadership, the suffragists gathered petitions in every county then sent copies of those petitions and pamphlets to every voter in the state. The Citizenship Amendment, enfranchising women passed on November 6, 1918 with 64% of the vote.^[3]{{Rp|224}}

In November 1917, she was a delegate for South Dakota to the National Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C.^[13] South Dakota passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving franchise to women across the country, on December 4, 1919.^[3]{{Rp|225}} Pyle remained president of the Universal Franchise League until 1920.^[1] Pyle then became the President of the South Dakota League of Women Voters.^[14]

Later life and death

Pyle was chosen as an elector in the 1920 presidential election,^[41] the first American woman to be named an elector.^[15] She was also given the honor of bringing the electors' votes to Washington in January 1921.^[16] Pyle was also a leader in efforts to pass the 1923 Equal Rights Amendment.^[17] Pyle was a trustee of Huron College from 1902 until 1949 and was president of the college's Women's Association.^[1] In 1938 her youngest daughter, Gladys, became the first woman elected to the United States Senate without first having been appointed.^[17][18] After Gladys was elected to the Senate, Pyle drove across the country with her daughter to Washington, D.C.{{efn|Gladys was elected in a special election to fill a two month term. Congress adjourned before Gladys' term began, although she did work on behalf of her constituents during her time in Washington.}}^[18] In 1947, Pyle was named state mother of South Dakota.^[1] In the later years of her life, Gladys was Pyle's care taker in the family home in Huron.^[19]

Pyle died on December 22, 1949.^[1] The Pyle family home in Huron has been turned into a museum^[20] and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[19]

Notes

References

External links

• {{Find a Grave|42016858}}

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