Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People

Location

922 8th Ave S, Faulkton, SD 57438, USA

Lat/Long

45.027491, -99.124346

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

The Pickler Mansion in Faulkton, S.D. is the former home of U.S. Representative John Pickler and his wife, suffrage and temperance leader, Alice Pickler. Both were ardent advocates for temperance and women suffrage. Initially, John served as a Representative of the Dakota Territory and in 1885 submitted a women’s suffrage bill to the territorial legislature. Afterwards he went on to serve as  one of the first U.S. Representatives of South Dakota.  In an undated publication, of The Suffragist, further describes John’s support:

…the later Major Pickler, as member of the constitutional convention fought to have the state admitted to the Union as an equal suffrage state, and afterward was known in Congress, where he represented South Dakota as “Susan B. Pickler” because of his work for suffrage.

John’s wife Alice served as a leader in the South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union between 1885-1917. She was a persuasive speaker and gifted orator, as evidenced in an August 23, 1890 edition of The Watchman:

In the evening Mrs. Pickler delivered an able and persuasive address to a full house, at the close of which a paper was passed and 61 names enrolled as members of the Onida Equal Suffrage association, which is very encouraging for the cause, and Mrs. Pickler reports having had equally as good success in all parts of the county visited.

Through the efforts of men and women like John and Alice Pickler, women suffrage was made a reality for future generations.