Alice Crawford Baily President 1901-1902

Alice Crawford Baily was the 15th president of DMWC from 1901-1902 and her portrait hangs in the Deets Room at Hoyt Sherman Place. She and her husband William H. Baily were both very active in the suffrage movement. Her husband along with Club member and attorney Grace Ballantyne defended Mary Coggeshall who successfully sued for her right to vote in a city bond issue in 1908. William Baily’s portrait, also painted by C. A. Cumming was commissioned by the Club and presented to the family in gratitude for his work for women’s suffrage. The painting now hangs in the Alhers law firm in Des Moines.

Alice Crawford was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin in 1854 and moved to Des Moines after marrying William Bailey in 1878. William Baily died in 1910. Alice Baily married Dr. Charley Gorst in 1917 and moved back to Wisconsin.

She was active in women’s clubs in Des Moines and Wisconsin. She was president of the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs and in Madison Wisconsin she was active in Women’s Club AAUW and D.A.R. Alice was a progressive social reformer who promoted reforms to public health, education, municipal beautification, care for the elderly, children and young women in need. She helped to initiate the introduction of child labor legislation in the Iowa General Assembly, and she was responsible for establishing institutions that cared for the aged and infirm in Des Moines.