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American National Biography Online Shuler, Nettie Rogers (8 Nov. 1865?-2 Dec. 1939), suffragist and clubwoman, was born Antoinette Rogers in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Alexander Rogers, a clerk for the American Express Company, and Julie Antoinette Houghtaling. Her father had emigrated from County Perth, Scotland. Her mother's family had been in America since the Revolution. Nettie Rogers graduated from Buffalo Central High School. In 1887 she married Frank J. Shuler, a bookkeeper. They had one child, a daughter named Marjorie. In her day Shuler was one of only two women to have served as president of both the New York State (1912-1914) and the New York City (1929-1931) Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1908, as president of the Western New York Foundation of Women's Clubs, she addressed the annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), meeting in Buffalo. In 1909 the 32,000-member Western Federation, the first chapter in the national federation to admit suffrage clubs as affiliates, passed a resolution in support of woman suffrage. That same year the New York legislature held hearings on the issue of woman suffrage, and Shuler was a member of the delegation that advocated on behalf of a suffrage amendment to the state constitution. After Shuler moved to New York City from Buffalo in 1917, she continued as honorary president of the Western Federation until her death. Although Shuler was an uncommonly active clubwoman, after her husband's death in 1916, she concentrated her efforts toward promoting the cause of woman suffrage, a movement embraced by her daughter as well. Shuler established a reputation as an organizer by leading the western New York campaign for the state suffrage party, a two-year campaign that led in 1915 to a referendum. The referendum was lost, but in 1917 Shuler was chosen by NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt to replace Hannah Jane Patterson of Pennsylvania as the association's corresponding secretary. Throughout the four years that she worked in the national office in New York City, Shuler continued to participate in the New York state campaigns, building up support that was fundamental to congressional passage of the suffrage amendment. As chair of Campaigns and Surveys for the national association, she helped to train field organizers, supplying them with information on the history of suffrage and the legislative process as well as teaching them how to organize, raise money, and publicize their activities. In January 1917 she was an instructor at the second suffrage school, sponsored by the NAWSA in Portland, Maine. Often assisted by her daughter, Shuler addressed countless public meetings and testified before committees of state legislatures, working tirelessly in Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Along with Catt, she spent many evenings addressing mass meetings and many days holding conferences with field workers. After the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in August 1920, Shuler and Catt continued to work together. Their coauthored book, Woman Suffrage and Politics, published in 1923, is a short narrative history of the suffrage campaign beginning with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. In addition to her club work, Shuler was a member of the Buffalo Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, president of the Erie County Political Equality Society, an honorary member of the Buffalo Society for Mineral Painters, an honorary member of the Teachers Educational League of Buffalo, and a member of the Woman's Investigating Club. Marjorie Shuler was a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor. Nettie Rogers Shuler, a Baptist for much of her life (and at one time a member of the woman's society of Delaware Avenue Baptist Church in Buffalo), later became a Christian Scientist, even serving for a time as second reader of the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, in New York City. A member of the Republican party, she actively supported enforcement of Prohibition and opposed passage of an equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution as first drafted by Alice Paul in 1923. Shuler died in New York City. Bibliography For additional information on Shuler's involvement in the suffrage movement see Ida Husted Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, 1900-1920, vols. 5 and 6 (1922; repr. 1969). Also see Angela Howard Zophy, ed., Handbook of American Women's History (1990), pp. 434-35. An obituary is in the New York Times, 3 Dec. 1939. Karen Venturella Citation: Karen Venturella. "Shuler, Nettie Rogers"; http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01062.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Copyright (c) 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Copyright Notice Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the American National Biography of the Day and Sample Biographies provided that the following statement is preserved on all copies: From American National Biography, published by Oxford University Press, Inc., copyright 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Further information is available at http://www.anb.org. American National Biography articles may not be published commercially (in print or electronic form), edited, reproduced or otherwise altered without the written permission of Oxford University Press which acts as an agent in these matters for the copyright holder, the American Council of Learned Societies. Contact: Permissions Department, Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016; fax: 212-726-6444.
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