 The organization served as a counterpart to the Women's Suffrage Association of Missouri (founded in 1867 as the first organization in history dedicated specifically to women's suffrage) which had affiliated with the more conservative American Womens' Suffrage Association in 1871.Partially due to the loss of local St. Louisan and noted suffragette Virginia Minor, who had petitioned all the way to the United States Supreme Court in 1874 in the case of Minor vs. Happersett to guarantee womens' right to vote through the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, no petitions to the Missouri legislature were made between 1901 and 1911 and there were no woman suffrage conventions in the state.A few women kept a State suffrage organization going, but there was a general sense of apathy among women about the cause.