Jane Rooker Smith Breeden

(November 15, 1853 – August 7, 1955)

Wife of James Knox Breeden (Class of 1871); suffragette leader

As the daughter of English immigrant parents (James Rooker Smith and Sarah McCann Smith), Jane Rooker Smith came to the United States first arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the most common point of arrival before Ellis Island, and then moving to the farming community of Arcola, Illinois. She married James Knox Breeden in 1883.

James Knox Breeden was an alumnus of Eureka College (Class of 1871) who had become an attorney and served for several years as the judge of Probate Court in Douglas County and later served as state’s attorney for the region. Once the Breeden family moved to the new state of South Dakota in 1890, James became involved in politics there and eventually served two terms in the South Dakota state legislature.

Jane Rooker Smith Breeden served the traditional roles of wife and mother. She raised three children—Marjorie (b. 1885), Harold Rooker (b. 1886), and James Reuel (b. 1896), but like many other leading suffragettes of her time, she found it possible to fulfill the societal expectations of her day while also being an impassioned activist for causes that were vital to women of her day. From the time that Jane arrived in South Dakota, she found a variety of means to advance the role of the pioneer women who were vital to the region’s growth and success.

The Breedens lived on a ranch in Stanley County where they raised sheep. As both James and Jane became more involved in causes of the day, they eventually moved to the state capital of Pierre.

Jane Rooker Smith Breeden became very active within the woman’s suffrage movement in South Dakota and eventually served as chair of the State Equal Suffrage Association. Recognizing that there was power in organization and that activism could be born from common interests, Jane organized a literary club for women in Pierre that was called the Dickens Club, and she served as “perpetual vice president” of this organization. She would also help found the State Federation of Women’s Clubs in South Dakota.

Jane Rooker Smith Breeden wrote a letter to the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie arguing the need for a public library in Pierre and requesting his support. After having obtained this, she was also instrumental in organizing a Woman’s Book Club that furthered the cause of developing the city’s first public library.

In the 1890 referendum campaign for woman’s suffrage in South Dakota, Jane worked with Emma Smith DeVoe (MODELS, March 6) to try to obtain the right to vote for women. That campaign failed. (South Dakota voters weakly supported enfranchising women with only 35 percent voting in the affirmative; on the same ballot 45 percent of the state’s voters indicated a willingness to extend the vote to the state’s Indian population.) Women in South Dakota would eventually receive the right to vote in 1918, two years before the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect.

Jane Rooker Smith Breeden was a model to many, but especially to her daughter. Marjorie Breeden became the first woman to graduate as a lawyer from South Dakota State University.

James Knox Breeden died in 1937. Jane Rooker Smith Breeden continued to be a woman of distinction within the Pierre community until her death in 1955. She is the only centenarian to be featured in this month’s series.