Rose

Mr. and Mrs. C. V. S. Wilson came to Sarasota, Florida from Manatee, Florida in 1899 to establish Sarasota's first newspaper, The Sarasota Times. After her husband's death in 1910, Rose Wilson continued publication of the paper until 1923. Rose was a community leader, and as publisher and editor of Sarasota's only newspaper (with the exception 1913 - 1916, when Rube Allyn published a second paper, The Sarasota Sun), she kept her readers informed of local issues. While she reported all sides of a controversial issue, Rose made clear her position.

Rose was a founding member of the Town Improvement Society in 1903 and its successor, the Woman's Club of Sarasota, in 1913. It was a time when women did not have the right to vote and women all over the country were influencing the character and development of their communities through the Woman's Clubs. Rose gave extensive press coverage to the activities of the Woman's Club and often placed these articles on page one. She kept a scrapbook for the early years of the club and served as recording secretary for several terms.

Rose Wilson was an advocate for children. When, after area woman's clubs had presented petitions to the January 1919 meeting of the county Board of Public Instruction for a compulsory school attendance law, and the Board agreed to call a referendum, Rose noted in an endorsing editorial, "Every child has the right to an education." A compulsory attendance law was a "vital necessity" to guarantee that education.

Wilson was a strong supporter of the effort to give women the right to vote. In 1917, she took the affirmative side, and won, in a Woman's Club debate on the merits of women's suffrage. Beginning in August 1920, when the affirmative vote by the Tennessee Legislature assured the ratification of the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution, Wilson covered the issue weekly. In an early editorial, she urged women to understand the voting process so they could intelligently use their new power "for the good of the nation and the home. "

The first two women to register to vote in Sarasota were Rose Wilson and Alice Guenther, president of the Woman's Club. The Times reminded women when the registration books would be open and that they would be required to register in their given names. (Thus, Mrs. C. V. S. Wilson registered as Rose Phillips Wilson). The paper noted that while they could register for any party, women should realize that if they did not register as Democrats they would not be able to vote in the next local primary. (In 1920 the Democratic Party was the only party to nominate candidates for county offices.)

In the next two issues, the paper gave front-page coverage to a mass meeting held at the Woman's Club for the purpose of educating women about the registration and election process. All women were encouraged to attend A reprint from the Tampa Tribune urged men to take advantage of such educational meetings or "the salvation of the country in the way of good government will rest with the women."

In the September 30th edition, the Supervisor of Elections reported that because of the high voter registration by women, he had appointed another deputy registration officer. Registration books would now be open every day but Sunday through October 9. The October 28 edition, the last before the election, listed all the candidates on the front page. The Democrats were marked with an "x." Since the presidential candidates were not listed, it was important for voters to know which presidential electors were associated with which candidate.

Election results headlined the November 4 issue of The Sarasota Times. Manatee County (of which Sarasota was still a part) and Sarasota experienced their largest voter turnout ever. There was no report on the number of women who voted or how that number compared with the number registered, but Rose Wilson can be credited with a major role in bringing Sarasota's women into the electoral process.

From the mid 1910's into the 1930's, a number of community leaders pulled together to improve the communities in the southern portion of Manatee County. They considered themselves the "progressives" and Rose Wilson counted herself among them. Issues of good roads, adequate schools, and political representation led, in the summer of 1920, to a call for separation from Manatee County for the areas between Sarasota, Englewood, and Myakka. Wilson carried full reports in the Times of the public meetings to become well-informed voters. After the state legislature passed the bill to create Sarasota County, it was to Rose Wilson that the telegram was sent to announce their success. After a local referendum endorsed the split from Manatee, Wilson changed the name of her paper to The Sarasota County Times.

Rose was active in area press circles. In 1914, she attended an organizational meeting of the South Florida Press Association and was elected treasurer. Three years later she presented a paper to the group, "A Woman's Advantages and Disadvantages in the Newspaper Business." Shortly thereafter, the Tarpon Springs Leader ranked the Times as "the best weekly paper in the state. " In her final column, after having sold the paper in 1923, Rose acknowledged the loss she felt in giving up the professional relationships she shared with newspapermen and women around the state. After 1923, Rose moved from public leadership to a more private participation in Sarasota's progress. She considered herself to have been a pioneer who "caught the vision and paved the way" for the new growth in the 1920's land boom brought to Sarasota.

She lived through that boom period, the depression, World War II, and Sarasota's second boom period of the 1950's. Wilson continued her work with Woman's Club into the 1940's and devoted much time as teacher and mentor for youth at First Presbyterian Church. She died in 1964 at the age of 88.
*I had the opportunity to view a copy of Rose Wilson's Will in March 2002. She had directed that when she passed away, her husband's body was to be exhumed from Rosemary Cemetery in Sarasota and moved to Manasota Burial Park, where she would be put to rest. She died October 23, 1964.
March 8, 1898 at the age of 20, Rose married Cornelius VanSantvoord Wilson. (Born July 1837 in New York) They,
as reported by the Sarasota Historical Society, moved to Sarasota, Florida from Manatee, Florida in 1899. Cornelius always referred to himself and was known by his colleagues as C.V.S. Wilson. He died in 1910 sometime after April.