Ellen Alida Rose

Ellen Alida Rose (born June 17, 1843) was an American practical agriculturist and woman suffragist.

Rose was an active worker in the National Woman Suffrage Association, and in 1888, was appointed District President of that organization.

[1] Associated with her husband in an equal partnership, she has lived and worked with him in a companionship which was seldom in that time as other marriages were founded on the idea of masculine supremacy.

As a result of her efforts, assisted by two or three other members, a Grange store was organized, which was in successful operation many years and saved many thousands of dollars for the farmers of Green County, Wisconsin.

In 1888, when speculation in wheat produced hard times, Rose prepared and presented to her Grange the following resolutions:[2] Whereas, our boards of trade have become mere pool-rooms for the enrichment of their members, and whereas, by their manipulations of the markets they unsettle the values and nullify the law of supply and demand, so that producers do not receive legitimate prices for what they produce; and, whereas, by "cornering" the markets they are enabled to force up the prices of the necessaries of life, to the great distress and often starvation of the poor; therefore, resolved, that we demand immediate action by Congress, and the passage of such laws as shall forever prohibit gambling in the necessaries of life.Those resolutions were unanimously adopted and forwarded through county and State Granges to the National Grange, where they were adopted and placed in the hands of the legislative committee of the Grange in Washington, D.C. where they were urged upon Congress with such force that the Anti-Option Bill in Congress was the result.