Born Jane Yelvington in La Vernia, Texas, on December 30, 1877, Jane McCallum became a leader in the woman suffrage movement in Texas. After raising four children with husband Arthur Newell McCallum, Sr., McCallum began her career in politics working for woman’s right to vote. In 1915, members of the Austin Women’s Suffrage Association elected her president, and she later served as secretary of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association. McCallum worked exhaustively for passage of the state constitutional amendment allowing full suffrage, writing columns for newspapers, delivering speeches on the subject, and assisting with letter writing campaigns and visits to Texas by suffrage leaders from other parts of the U.S. In 1918, McCallum was present when Governor William P. Hobby signed a bill into law permitting women in Texas to vote in primary elections. Despite intense campaigning by McCallum and other members of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association, the full suffrage amendment did not pass in a 1919 election. Part of the same amendment was the removal of voting rights for aliens that were not full citizens. Because the aliens could vote in that election, but the women could not (it was not a primary election), women again lost their chance at full suffrage. Only when it appeared that the 19th U. S. constitutional amendment would carry the majority of states did Texas voters agree to grant women the right to vote in any election. Once the suffragists won the fight for the vote, they turned their organizational skills to lobbying the Texas Legislature. McCallum served as executive secretary of the Women’s Joint Legislative Council to lobby for education bills, prison reform, stronger prohibition controls, maternal and child health funds, and eradication of illiteracy and child labor. She also served at the helm of Daniel J. Moody’s campaign against Miriam Ferguson for governor of Texas in 1926. Once elected, Moody appointed McCallum Secretary of State, a post she held through Moody’s term and Ross Sterling’s two years later. One of her proudest accomplishments while Secretary of State was restoring and displaying a copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence that she found in a Capitol vault. During this time, a book of her essays on early American leaders, Women Pioneers, was published. McCallum’s later career included work on the first Austin City Planning Commission. She was the first woman to serve on a grand jury in Travis County. McCallum continued to write and participate in civic organizations in Austin. She died on August 14, 1957
From the guide to the Jane Y. McCallum Papers AR. E. 004., 1815-1967., 1914-1953., (Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, 810 Guadalupe, Austin, Texas, 78701.)
