Edwin Stokes
Politician. Born: 1824, Pennsylvania. Married: Madeline, 1852. Died:1880s.
One of Douglas County's seven delegates to the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, Edwin Stokes was born in Pennsylvania (ca. 1824) and married for a second time to Madeline (Malvina) ________ about 1852. They removed to Kansas from Indiana in 1856 and settled at Clinton. Although Stokes appears to have played a relatively minor role in the 1859 convention, he did offer one interesting motion on July 19: "Sec. 3. The right of suffrage shall be extended to females upon the following conditions: The Legislature may, at any regular session, provide for submitting the question of female suffrage," and if a majority of the electorate voted "'For female suffrage,' then at all future elections there shall be no distinction in the qualifications of electors on account of sex." The section was tabled. During the Civil War, Stokes served as quartermaster for the Second Kansas Colored Infantry, resigning that position at Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 22, 1865. The family moved to Pulaski County, Arkansas, after the war, where he worked as a carpenter and lived into the 1880s.
Entry: Stokes, Edwin
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: June 2011
Date Modified: June 2011
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