Mamie Shields Pyle facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mamie Shields Pyle
Pyle, 1949
Born	Mary Isabella Shields (1866-02-28)February 28, 1866 Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	December 22, 1949(1949-12-22) (aged 83)
Nationality	American
Other names	Mary Shields Pyle Mrs. John L. Pyle
Occupation	Teacher Activist
Known for	Suffrage leader in South Dakota

Mary "Mamie" Shields Pyle (February 28, 1866 – December 22, 1949) was an important leader in the fight for women's suffrage (the right for women to vote) in South Dakota. She played a huge role in helping women in South Dakota get the right to vote in 1918.

After a vote to allow women to vote failed in 1910, Mamie Pyle became the head of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League. She led this group through several more attempts to pass laws allowing women to vote. Each time, they got closer to winning. Finally, in 1918, women's suffrage became part of a new law called the Citizenship Amendment, and it passed! Pyle stayed as president of the South Dakota Universal Franchise League until the state approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which gave women across the entire U.S. the right to vote) the next year. Later, she became the president of the state's chapter of the League of Women Voters. Mamie Pyle was also one of the first women to become a presidential elector in 1921. This meant she was chosen to cast a vote for president.

Besides working for women's voting rights, Pyle also supported the idea of an Equal Rights Amendment, which aimed to give equal rights to all Americans, no matter their gender. She strongly believed in education and helped create Huron College in Huron, South Dakota. She was a leader on the college's board for over forty years.

Early Life and Family

Mamie Pyle was born Mary Isabella Shields on February 28, 1866, in Orange, New Jersey. Her parents were Hugh P. and Jennie Shields. Her father, H.P. Shields, was a musician who served in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1863. Mamie had two sisters, but one of them passed away when she was young. When Mamie was seven, her family moved to Pleasant Grove, Minnesota.

Becoming a Teacher and Getting Married

In 1882, Mamie Pyle moved to Brookings City in the Dakota Territory. She started working as a teacher in a country school. After a year, she moved to Miller, where her parents lived. She kept teaching in Beadle County, South Dakota, until she married John L. Pyle in 1886. He was a lawyer and a politician.

Two years later, the couple moved from Miller to Huron, Dakota Territory. They had four children: John Shields, May, Nellie, and Gladys. The family lived in a home that John L. Pyle built in 1893. Both Mamie and John worked hard to bring Pierre University to Huron, where it was renamed Huron College. Her husband became the Attorney General of South Dakota in 1898. Sadly, he passed away in 1902.

Leading the Fight for Women's Vote

Mamie Pyle decided to join the movement for women's voting rights after she saw a local political leader bringing immigrant workers to vote on election day. At that time, men who were not even citizens could vote in South Dakota, but women could not.

Pyle became a well-known leader in the suffrage movement after a vote to give women the right to vote failed in South Dakota in November 1910. Unlike other suffrage leaders in the state, Pyle believed that the fight for women's voting rights should be separate from the temperance movement (which aimed to ban alcohol). She thought mixing the two issues would make it harder to win.

Seeing that a new approach was needed, Pyle called a statewide meeting in 1911. She changed the name of the Suffrage Association to the South Dakota Universal Franchise League. Under Pyle's leadership, the Franchise League stayed independent from larger national groups. However, Pyle was good friends with National American Woman Suffrage Association president Carrie Chapman Catt and shared many of her ideas.

Closer to Victory: The 1914 and 1916 Votes

In 1914, another vote on women's suffrage happened. It lost by about 12,000 votes, which was much better than the 22,000-vote loss in 1910. Because of this progress, the League chose her for a third term as president in November 1915.

With this improvement, Pyle and the League worked to convince the state lawmakers to pass another women's suffrage amendment. This new amendment would again be put to a public vote. The measure easily passed in the state legislature, with support from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

For the public vote, which was set for November 1916, Pyle changed her plans. Instead of using organizers for large districts, she focused on getting county leaders to contact every voter in the state. Even with all this effort, Pyle and the suffragists still lost the 1916 vote. But they cut the difference to only 5,000 votes, showing they were getting very close.

The Final Push and Victory in 1918

In January 1917, Pyle and other suffragists asked the South Dakota lawmakers about their support for a suffrage amendment. They found enough support and introduced the measure in both parts of the state legislature. The legislature passed a women's suffrage bill for the seventh and final time in 1917.

By March 1918, the United States had entered World War I. Governor Peter Norbeck was worried about how non-citizens would vote, especially since 22% of the state's population had German heritage. Norbeck called a special meeting of the legislature and asked Pyle to be there to help with an amendment to the women's suffrage law. This amendment would make sure that non-citizens could not vote.

This new amendment became known as the Citizenship Amendment. Pyle and the Universal Franchise League fully supported it and kept campaigning strongly. The National American Woman Suffrage Association sent more campaigners to South Dakota. Under Pyle's leadership, the suffragists collected petitions in every county. Then, they sent copies of these petitions and information booklets to every voter in the state. The Citizenship Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, passed on November 6, 1918, with 64% of the votes.

In November 1917, Mamie Pyle was a representative for South Dakota at the National Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C.. South Dakota approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women across the entire country the right to vote, on December 4, 1919. Pyle remained president of the League until 1920. After that, she became the president of the South Dakota League of Women Voters, a position she held until 1922.

Later Life and Legacy

In 1919, the Republican Party suggested Pyle as a presidential elector for the 1920 United States presidential election. She also served as an advisor for the Republican executive committee. She was elected as an elector in November 1920, becoming the first American woman to hold this important position. She was also given the honor of taking the electors' votes to Washington in January 1921.

Mamie Pyle was a leader in the efforts to pass the 1923 Equal Rights Amendment. She was a trustee (a leader on the board) of Huron College from 1902 until 1949 and was president of the college's Women's Association. In 1938, her youngest daughter, Gladys, became the first woman elected to the United States Senate without first being appointed to the position. After Gladys was elected, Mamie Pyle drove across the country with her daughter to Washington, D.C. In 1947, Pyle was named the "state mother" of South Dakota. In her later years, Gladys took care of Mamie in their family home in Huron.

Mamie Pyle passed away peacefully in her sleep on December 22, 1949, after being ill for some time. The Pyle family home in Huron has now been turned into a museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognizing its historical importance.