Notable Early Women of Wyoming Territory by Zina Abbott

With this being Women’s History month, I wish to draw attention to the women of early Wyoming Territory. Although many claim they were granted suffrage—something positive—for the wrong reasons, the truth is, in 1869, the Wyoming Territorial legislature did give Wyoming Territory women the right to vote. In spite of opposition from those who still believed a woman’s place was limited to her home, the following women were among the forerunners who proved this was a wise decision.

The suffrage bill was passed through an all-male legislature with help from women of influence behind the scenes. William Bright introduced the suffrage bill. It is believed that his wife, Julia Bright, was the driving force behind his decision. Since the bill also granted suffrage to all males regardless of race, he is known to have given the reason that, if black and Chinese men could vote, his wife should be able to as well.

In 1902, while attending a national convention on women’s rights, Mr. Bright was asked to speak about what had happened in Wyoming. He stated that the bill regarding women’s suffrage was not introduced “in fun.” He supported women’s suffrage because he believed “his wife was as good as any man and better than convicts and idiots.”

Louisa Swain of Laramie City, about age seventy, is on record as being the first woman to have voted in a general election in Wyoming Territory on September 6, 1870. According to the Laramie and Cheyenne newspapers, Swain beat Augusta C. Howe, the 27-year-old wife of the U.S. Marshall Church Howe of Cheyenne, to the polls by 30 minutes.

About 600 women were eligible to vote in the 1870 election. Unfortunately, there is no record of exactly how many women took advantage of this privilege. It is believed at least 289 total voted. According to the newspapers, 171 women voted in Cheyenne, 93 in Laramie, eight in South Pass City, eight in Atlantic City and nine in Miner's Delight—the last three being the gold-mining towns near South Pass. This would suggest that women voted in these towns at approximately the same rate as men in Cheyenne and Laramie.

The notion that women would follow their husbands’ leads and vote the same way they did was dispelled. According to the Laramie and Cheyenne papers in 1870, the women's vote skewed heavily in favor of Republican candidates—much to the disgust of the Democrats, who brought about the right for women to vote. Louisa Swain of Laramie, the first documented woman voter in Wyoming, reportedly voted a straight Republican ticket.  

Esther Hobart Morris became the first woman to hold the office of justice of the peace in the United States. This came about when, to protest the Wyoming Territorial Legislature granting women suffrage in December 1869, James W. Stillman resigned from his role as justice of the peace in Sweetwater County.

In 1870, Esther Hobart Morris, then age 55 and an imposing six feet tall in stature, was appointed by the Sweetwater County Board. During that era, justices of the peace held more power than modern-day judges since their courts covered every type of case. She presided over everything from assault cases to debt disputes.

Morris commanded her courtroom and, according to the American Journal of Legal History, spoke in a manner that was more “candid than diplomatic.” As a working woman in the late 1800s, she lacked both legal experience and formal education. She judged legal issues “on the broad principles of justice and right without regard to technicalities or quibbles of law.”

By the end of her eight-and-a-half-month tenure, Morris had a solid grasp on sophisticated legal proceedings. Out of her forty rulings, none were overturned upon appeal. 

In March 1870, six women in Laramie City, Wyoming Territory, were the first to be called to sit on a formal grand jury, to be composed of up to nine men and six women, presided over by Judge John Howe. The women were Eliza Stewart, Elizabeth (Amelia) Hatcher, Sarah Pease, Mary Jane Mackle, Annie Monaghan, and Mary Hilton. Another woman, Martha Boies, was selected as a bailiff. For more about this jury, please read my post on a different blog by clicking HERE

 

1880s recreation of first women serving on a jury, Laramie City

A grand jury has the power to investigate potentially criminal conduct and decides whether criminal charges should be brought against a defendant or group of defendants. Women had never served on grand juries or trial juries before.

Amalia Post grew up believing that women were supposed to be the center of the household, and limited to that position. Her life did not allow her the luxury of pursuing that course. After her husband deserted her twice without funds—the second time with another woman—she filed for divorce and moved far from family. She became financially independent by raising chickens and loaning money to be repaid with interest. She remarried and moved with her husband to Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, but—as was allowed by the married woman’s property laws in Colorado and Wyoming Territories—kept her personal property separate from his. She showed no signs of interest in the women’s suffrage movement until after she was selected as the foreman of the first female jury in the United States.

When women in Wyoming were granted suffrage, the question of jury duty was brought up. If juries were selected from voter rolls, then women ought to participate. And so Post was selected as the foreman of the jury for a murder trial in Cheyenne in 1871.

Men of the time thought that women didn’t have the capacity to justly rule on cases involving such high emotions. Some historians say allowing women on juries was an attempt to discredit suffrage or prove that it was a joke.

Nevertheless, Post, along with other female jurors, sat in the courtroom to hear pleas. In the end, they sentenced the murderer to be hung. In reality, the women of the time reportedly dished out higher fines and stricter rulings.

 

In my upcoming release, The Bride Who Step Dances, My heroine and her brother arrived in Laramie City after the women in Wyoming Territory were no longer being called for jury duty. This book is not on pre-order, but is scheduled for release on March 20, 2026.

The best way to be notified of the release is by following me by newsletter HERE

 

 

Sources:

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/who-cast-first-vote

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/women-jury-wyoming-makes-history-again

https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/suffrage/the-forces-behind-the-suffrage-movement-in-wyoming/article_1ca0a678-88a9-5f9d-9f97-0cb9a7b6bdfe.html

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/amalia-post-defender-womens-rights

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/right-choice-wrong-reasons-wyoming-women-win-right-vote

https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/suffrage/the-forces-behind-the-suffrage-movement-in-wyoming/article_1ca0a678-88a9-5f9d-9f97-0cb9a7b6bdfe.html

 

Celebrating Women's History Month with Gene Stratton-Porter

To celebrate Women’s History Month, I wanted to share about a woman in literature who has touched my life (and writing) — Gene Stratton-Porter.

Gene was an Indiana native who became a self-trained American author, nature photographer, and naturalist, and pioneer in the film industry.

Born August 17, 1863 near Lagro in Wabash County, Indiana, Geneva Grace Stratton was the twelfth and last child born to Mary and Mark Stratton at the family’s Hopewell Farm. Mart was a Methodist minister and farmer of English descent. Mary was a homemaker of German-Swiss ancestry.

In 1874, when Gene was 12, she moved with her parents and unmarried siblings to Wabash, Indiana. Initially, they resided with her married sister, Anastasia, and her husband, Alvah Taylor, a layer. Gene’s mother died just a few months after the move to Wabash. After that, Gene boarded with various relatives for the next twelve years.

Her early years had not been conducive to schooling, but she developed a strong interest in nature, especially birds. As a young girl, Gene’s father, and brother Leander (whom she called Laddie) taught her to appreciate nature as she roamed around the family farm, observing animals and caring for pets. After the move to Wabash, Gene regularly attended school and became an avid reader. She also began music lessons in banjo, violin, and piano from her sister, Florence, and receive private art lessons from a local instructor. Gene was failing her classes and quit school in her final term of her senior year, later claiming she’d left school to care for Anastasia, who was terminally ill with cancer.

During a trip to Sylvan Lake, Indiana, in 1884, Gene met Charles Porter, a druggist who was thirteen years older than her. After ten months of regularly exchanging letters, they met at another gathering at Sylvan Lake in 1885. They became engaged and wed in 1886. Gene kept her family surname and added her husband’s name after they wed.

Gene and Charles had one child, a daughter named Jeannette, born in 1887 when the Porters lived in Decatur, Indiana. In 1888, Gene persuaded her husband to move to Geneva, Indiana, where he would be closer to his businesses. He initially purchased a small home within walking distance of his drugstore, but when oil was discovered on his land, they built a larger home. At one time, more than sixty oil wells were drilled on their land. The Limberlost Cabin served as their home from 1895 to 1913. Charles traveled while Gene remained at home. Charles had numerous business interests and became a successful businessman. In addition to owning drugstores, he owned farms, a hotel, and a restaurant. Porter invested in the Bank of Geneva in 1895, and Trenton Oil Company.

Gene took pride in her family and home, but opposed the traditional roles of marriage of her era. She maintained her independence through pursuits of lifelong interests in nature. She began writing about these subjects to earn her own income and eventually became a wealthy novelist, nonfiction writer, and film producer. In the early 1900s, Gene was as popular then as J.K. Rowling is today. She wrote 26 books that included novels, nature studies, poetry collections and children’s books. During the years of 1895-1945, only 55 books sold more than a million copies each. Of those, five belonged to Gene. Nine of her novels were made into films, five by Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, one of the first movie and production companies owned by a woman. Gene also wrote for magazines like Good Housekeeping and McCall’s.

Her books were published during a pivotal time in America. The frontier was rapidly fading away. Small communities were turning into industrial centers connected by railroads. And the wilderness she’d loved during her childhood years was all but disappearing. Gene spent her life capturing the landscape before it was nothing more than a distant memory. In later years, her impact on conservation was later compared to the work down by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Her career really began in 1895 when she sent nature photographs she’d made to Recreation magazine. Her first published article, “A New Experience in Millinery,” appeared in the publication’s February 1900 issue. The article highlighted her concerns about harming birds in order to use feathers as hat trims. At the magazine’s request, Gene wrote a photography column called “Camera Notes.” She began doing similar work for natural history magazine Outing in 1901. Soon, she regularly submitted short stories and nature-related material to magazines. Her first story, “Laddie, the Princess, and the Pie,” was published in Metropolitan magazine in September 1901. To garner a wider audience, Gene decided to include fictional elements in her writing and began penning novels. Bobbs-Merrill published her first, full-length attributed novel, The Song of the Cardinal (1903), about a red bird living along the Wabash River. The story featured how birds lived in the wild and Gene’s photographs were included. Gene’s publisher believed nature stories would not become as popular as romance novels. Her second novel, Freckles (1904), combined nature and romance and become a bestseller.

In 1909, A Girl of the Limberlost, released and became her best-known work. In the story, Elnora Comstock, a lonely, poor girl living on a farm, goes to the Limberlost Swamp to escape from her troubles. She lands on the idea of collecting and selling moth specimens to pay for an education when her mother refuses to help her. 

 Literary critics called the novel a “well written” and “wholesome story.” 

I call the story a brilliant combination of desperation, hope, struggle, truth, and the unstoppable power of love. 

This book was one I read when I was an impressionable teen and it made such an impact on my life. It so beautifully written with a setting that felt so real I could almost smell the loamy fragrance of the swamp or taste the disappointment on Elnora’s tongue. The vivid details not only brought the place to life, but also the characters. What I learned from Gene and this incredible story definitely influences my writing style, challenging me to write characters and settings that feel real and true, and aren’t easily forgotten.

After years of strenuous work outdoors, battling with the Indiana state government to protect the state’s wetlands, concerned over the events of World War I, Gene checked into a sanitarium in New York for a retreat. She recuperated there for a month before returning to her home at Wildflower Woods. In 1919, after recovering from influenza, she decided to move to Los Angeles. From her California home, Gene continued to write. She founded Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, Inc., one of the first female-owned studios, and worked with film director, James Leo Meehan (her son-in-law), to create films based on her novels.

In 1924, she passed away from injuries sustained in a traffic accident, leaving behind a rich legacy, full of beautiful written stories that continue to touch our hearts even today.

Are there any women who wrote stories that touched your life in a particularly poignant way?

USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield grew up on a farm where her childhood brimmed with sunshine, hay fever, and an ongoing supply of learning experiences.

Shanna creates character-driven romances with realistic heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

When this award-winning author isn’t writing or testing out new recipes (she loves to bake!), Shanna hangs out at home in the Pacific Northwest with her beloved husband, better known as Captain Cavedweller.

Look What Our Authors Published in February!

Our authors have been busy writing your next favorite story.

A little late, but you do not want to miss what was published in February!

The Rancher on a Pennsylvania Farm

By Marisa Masterson

Who really inherited the farm?
     Jack Poston believes he has found a safe haven for his pregnant wife, Caroline, on a farm in Pennsylvania. But when Caroline's stepmother refuses to leave, Jack begins to question if he truly belongs on this unfamiliar land.
     As mysterious accidents start to occur, Jack must fight to protect his wife and uncover the truth behind the dangers. Will he be able to keep his family safe and hold onto their new home, or will they be forced to leave once again?
     Set against the backdrop of the quaint farms of Pennsylvania following the Civil War, "The Rancher on a Pennsylvania Farm" is a gripping tale of love and survival. Note: While this is a continuation of the story begun in The Bride on the Shawnee Trail, it can be read as a standalone story.

Release date: February 10, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/Rancher-Pennsylvania-Farm-Marisa-Masterson-ebook/dp/B0FW53SC6L

Apple Blossom Blunder (The Sister's Mail-Order Bride Company Book 3)

By Kit Morgan

A lonely woman that speaks her mind
A farmer afraid to love again
And one meddling sea captain...

     Mail-order bride Teddy Winslow came to Apple Blossom expecting to walk straight from the train to the altar. Instead, her intended checked her into the hotel. No vows. No preacher. Just a storm moving in and an arrangement that suddenly feels far less certain. Now she finds herself in a tender in-between. Not quite a wife. Not quite a stranger. And wondering whether her groom is shielding his heart…or simply afraid to risk it again.
     Elias Rowan sent for a sensible bride to help steady his home and care for his children. What he didn’t expect was Teddy. A warm, quietly steadfast, and far more capable of stirring a guarded heart than he’s prepared for. With Captain Stanley taking an enthusiastic interest, the town watching closely, and two hopeful children caught in the middle, Teddy must decide whether she’s brave enough to stay. After all, love was never guaranteed.
     But in Apple Blossom, a blunder might just be the beginning of something meant to bloom.

Release date: February 27, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQCRRBBJ

     Not all of our authors make their books available on pre-order. For those who do, those advance sales go a long way to help their book ratings.

Below are some future books.

 March Releases:

No Finer Dream

by Jo-Ann Roberts

“Your journey doesn’t have to end in disappointment.”
      Lila Hartley had waited for hours on the frozen train platform, a mail-order bride no one came to claim, her trunk beside her like a tombstone. The man who'd promised her marriage, a home, and a future, left her stranded two thousand miles from Boston with nothing but the clothes on her back and a heart full of shattered dreams.
      Just when hope was fading, a man cowboy emerged from the white curtain of snow like an apparition, took off his coat, and changed her life.
      Clay McCallister viewed every woman who had taken a chance on the frontier as the sister he’d failed…a woman who’d risked everything for the possibility of something better, much like the woman standing on the platform in the bitter cold.
      Sometimes warmth doesn’t always come from fire — sometimes it comes from the heart.

Release date: March 6, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY12R2SX

Verna Kate Rocky Mountain Bride

By Angela Raines

      Set in 1914 against the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park, two people struggle with their feelings for each other as they vie to realize the different dreams each has for the region.
      Verna Kate Keys fell in love with the Rocky Mountains at fourteen, when a visit to her aunt in Denver opened her eyes to their wild beauty. Now living in Estes Park, she is determined to help preserve the land she loves. As a guide, she shows visitors the majesty of the peaks, forests, and valleys, hoping to inspire them to protect what others want to exploit.
      Harry Clayton Moore has been sent west by his powerful father to secure logging rights in the very region Verna Kate is fighting to save. A Yale-educated forester, Harry, knows the value of conservation, but will family duty and pressure push him toward decisions that could destroy the land and the community around it?
     As tensions rise, Verna Kate and Harry must choose between duty, ambition, and love.

Release date: March 27, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GL1BGQTB

 

Brady's Burden: Mountain Men - Echoes of Thunder

By Kimberly Grist

       Where storms end, and thunder falls silent, could love find its beginning?

       Haunted by battlefield memories and sleepless nights, former Union officer Brady Holt carries scars he can’t name or outrun. Now guardian to children who have already lost too much, he lives in a state of vigilance—cautious, alert, and convinced that peace ended the day his hope did.

       He is silence, storms, and sharpened edges.
She figures he’s more stubborn than a mule and not nearly as friendly.

      A spirited bootlegger’s daughter from the South, schoolteacher Eden Murphy has nowhere left to run. With danger close on her heels, she heads west with only faith, grit, and a fragile hope    for a new beginning.

      She is warmth, wit, and wildflowers, with a soft Southern drawl that stirs up memories he’s spent years trying to bury.
He’s confident she’s just another burr working its way under his saddle.

      He wants solitude. She needs a fresh start. Could this unexpected connection calm the storms within and lead them to redemption?

Release date: March 31, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2NRSBZK

April Releases:

Ardith Yosemite Bride: National Park Brides, Book 23

By Zina Abbott

      Once school was out for the summer, Ardith Cleary loved nothing better than to ride next to her father on his stagecoach runs to Yosemite National Park. There she met and became friends with several young people who live in the park full-time, including the Leonard sisters. However, as she closes in on adulthood, she realizes another form of transportation is threatening to make her father’s job obsolete. Her dismay over the coming of the Yosemite Valley Railroad conflicts with her growing friendship with one of the assistant rail company engineers.

      After the death of his father, J. B. “Mack” McManus was forced to quit college without earning his degree in engineering. To help support his family and earn money toward the final year he needs to graduate, he accepts a job as a foreman overseeing grading rail bed and constructing the bridges needed to complete the rail line between Merced and El Portal, just outside of Yosemite National Park. The last thing he needs is the distraction provided by a cute and quirky redhead and her interest in how the railroad construction is progressing.

Releases: April 6, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GPGW3C7G   

Bringing in the Sheaves: Sweet Historical Romance

By Marisa Masterson

     Kristin Gundersen's heart is torn in two. On one hand, she knows her father's crop is their only hope for survival. But on the other, she can't bear to see the threshers return, not after one of them hurt her. And when she meets Archie, the struggling pastor of a Swedish-speaking church, she can't deny the strong pull she feels towards him.

       But life is never that simple. As Archie puts all his faith in an excellent harvest to save his struggling church, he becomes entangled with Kristin. And as their relationship deepens, disapproval grows within his congregation. How can he follow his heart's desire when it goes against the beliefs of his church? And can a bountiful harvest truly solve the troubles within his congregation and within himself?

      If you enjoy heart-tugging stories of love and faith, you won't be able to put down this novel.

Release date: April 8, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4WMQZPC

The Bride Who Shoot Arrows: The Bride Who series Book 16

By Linda Carroll-Bradd

       Mayde Shelley has completed everything her parents asked: finish teachers’ seminary, make applications for a respectable post, and prepare to settle down. But what she really wants is to teach archery and maybe enter competitions— a pursuit no proper lady should love as much as she does. When a plea for help arrives from an uncle in Colorado, Mayde sees her chance for adventure before duty sets in.
       Life on the McPherson Ranch is rougher than she imagined—and so is Garek Rowland, a brooding horse tamer who’s never stayed anywhere long enough to call it home. He’s itchy to ramble and considering where to head…until he finds Mayde practicing her sport beneath the wide western sky. She’s stubborn, spirited, and everything he’s sworn not to want.
       But when drought and wildfire threaten the ranch—and whispers about their friendship spread through Spur Springs—Mayde must choose between her family’s future, her dream of teaching, and a man who won’t stop running. Can love blossom in a heart that refuses to put down roots?
Release date: April 9, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GKQTR45D

May Releases: 

Rigby's Roar: Mountain Men-Echoes of Thunder

By Marisa Masterson

      Rigby had a dream job studying plant life in the beautiful Colorado mountains, but when the river turns yellow and the plants start dying, he knows something is wrong. Determined to uncover the truth, he heads to the nearby mine to investigate. But what he finds there is chaos and tension bubbling beneath the surface.
      As a professor from New York, Rigby is already a target for the angry miners, and now he must navigate the dangerous waters of a polluted river and a potential marriage to a stranger. Will he be able to protect his beloved mountains and his own future?
      Join Rigby on this thrilling journey filled with western romance and rugged adventure. Fans of action-packed stories and heartwarming love will not want to miss this captivating tale. And for those who enjoyed "Heart of the West" by Penelope Williamson, this book is a must-read. Don't miss out on the excitement.

Release date: May 12, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G4XTWLZZ