2018-11-17 06:44:13
WY NOW? While the nation rings in the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment in 2020, Wyoming celebrates its 150th anniversary of women voting. In fact, the Wyoming Territory approved the first law in U.S. history granting women the right to vote and hold office in 1869 — more than 20 years before the territory became the 44th state. WHERE TO CELEBRATE. Wyoming House for Historic Women in Laramie The Wyoming Women’s Suffrage Celebration runs December 2019 through September 2020 and includes a big event at The Wyoming House for Historic Women on Sept. 6, 2020, to commemorate the day Louisa Gardner Swain cast her vote. The museum also has a life-size statue of Swain and exhibits on other groundbreaking females, including Esther Hobart Morris, Nellie Tayloe Ross and Martha Symon Boies. Check thelouisaswainfoundation.com for more event details. The Wyoming Women’s Suffrage Pathway Drive the Wyoming Women’s Suffrage Pathway, a 19-mile segment of Highway 28 southwest of South Pass City — home to Esther Hobart Morris and William H. Bright, the representative who introduced the bill granting women the right to vote. South Pass City Tour many of this once-bustling mining town’s 23 original buildings, including the E.A. Slack structure, where Esther Hobart Morris’ son ran a newspaper. It now houses exhibits on the local and national history of suffrage. MEET 4 REMARKABLE WYOMING WOMEN. Aptly named the “Equality State,” Wyoming’s past and present is full of pioneering ladies, many of whom you’ll meet throughout this guide. Here are just a few who changed history. Louisa Gardner Swain On Sept. 6, 1870, in Laramie, she became the first woman in the world to cast a ballot under Wyoming laws that gave women the right to vote and hold office. Esther Hobart Morris Morris became the first woman to hold a political office in the U. S. when she served as South Pass City’s justice of the peace. Nellie Tayloe Ross America’s first female governor was elected to serve the state of Wyoming on Nov. 4, 1924, after her husband, Governor William B. Ross, died suddenly of appendicitis. She is known for continuing her husband’s progressive policies. Martha Symon Boies Boies became the first woman bailiff in the world when the first jury to include women was seated in Laramie in 1870. Learn more at TravelWyoming.com/wyoming-womens-suffrage.
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