Wyoming and Women's Suffrage

The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West by Dee Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I give this book four starts for Chapter 13, Wyoming Tea Party.

While the entire book was interesting, particularly as how the westward movement of pioneer men and women liberated women in unexpected ways, the Wyoming chapter really brings it home.

Esther Morris, described as a self-reliant "55 year old lady of great charm, who enjoyed fierce battles and was accustomed to winning them", had a tea party on September 2, 1869. Esther invited 20 influential citizens to her party. Among her guests, two candidates for the legislature, Col. William H. Bright (Democrat)  and Captain Herman G. Nickerson (Republican). She asked each of them, if elected, to introduce a bill to give the women of Wyoming the right to vote. Both candidates agreed, even though at that time, no woman in the world had that right.

Bright won the election and kept his promise on November 9, 1869. Many saw the bill as a practical joke,or an opportunity to embarrass the governer. However the bill also passed the house, with the only change being to increase the age from 18 to 21. On December 10, 1869, Governor Campbell signed the bill. And for the first time anywhere on earth,women had won the legal right to vote. Additionally,Wyoming women could now be elected to office.

When Wyoming applied for statehood 18 years later (1889) the law was in danger of being repealed due to the woman's suffrage bill. Kudos to the Wyoming legislatures who sent a telegram stating

We may stay out of the union a hundred years, but we will come in with our women.

There are many more stories of our western women and how their lives changed, but this bit of history, of which I was unaware, made the book for me.

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