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

 

Voting & Jury Duty- Chore or Privilege? by Zina Abbott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As if a recent book release, Christmas coming, and a host of other distractions were not enough, I had jury duty this week. Sometimes, people speak and act as though they consider voting, and--especially jury duty--to be a chore, something they would rather not. Yet, the right to those two civic responsibilities were denied women until within the last century and a half. We should not take these privileges lightly.

My experience reminded me of a scene from Marigold, my 2022 book in the Christmas Quilt Brides series. To set the scene, the school board in New Ponca, Oklahoma Territory, where Marigold is a schoolteacher, is trying to convince her to accept less pay than what she was offered and contractually agreed to the previous year. Here is part of the scene:

            “Miss Calloway, you are being paid as much as a male teacher. That is unreasonable.” Scowling, Chairman Duffy ran his palm across the top of his head of thinning hair. “Everyone knows, women only receive one-half to one-third of the pay, depending on experience. The board must also consider the costs of running two separate classes. To pay the salary you received this past year to teach the younger class—”

            “Although I am happy to teach younger students, there is no reason that I must be the one to teach the junior class. I successfully taught all grades last year, including graduating two at the high school level. If cost, not quality of instruction is your primary objective, I will be happy to continue to teach the older students. You can then find a less-experienced female teacher with more limited training to teach the younger grades at the salary you propose.”

            “Miss Calloway, please be reasonable. A man is better suited to teaching the advanced courses of the higher grades and to handle the discipline issues that arise among older students.” Mr. Duffy beat the side of his fist on the table.

            “According to whom, Mr. Duffy? I respectfully disagree with your short-sighted premise. Just because a teacher wears trousers instead of a skirt does not necessarily make that instructor more capable as far as knowing the subject matter. Neither does it make them more organized nor more capable of managing students. Regarding my abilities to handle the more advanced topics and maintain order in the classroom, my experience teaching all of the grades this past year should speak for itself.”

            “Chairman Duffy, I agree with what Miss Calloway said. She has done wonders for our two boys.” A woman in the audience quickly rose to her feet. “Tell them, Henry.” She turned to the man wearing work clothes who sat next to her.

            “Mrs. Smithers, please sit down. We have not opened the meeting to any discussion from the audience. Besides, it is your husband who votes for school board members, not you. You are to allow him to speak for your family.”

            “Sit down, Mabel. Don’t make a scene.” The man seated next to Mrs. Smithers placed his hand on her arm and tugged her downward.

            “Why did you drag me to this backward, uncivilized territory?” Mabel Smithers hissed as she faced her husband. "When we lived in Kansas, not only could I vote for school board members, but I voted for the city taxes and bonds that paid their salaries. The members of the school board were not so quick to dismiss us women.” She turned her head and glared at Mr. Duffy.

 Just like now, issues not covered by federal law were left to the states and territories to decide. So, why did Mabel Smithers claim she had more privileges when she and her husband lived in Kansas? It was because she did.

I wish to quickly review the dates women received certain rights and privileges in four states in which I have set many of my books. For much of this information, I usually refer to my 

well-used copy of The Hidden Half of the Family by Christina Kassabian Schaefer, written to assist in finding female ancestors. The following are some of the dates women received certain rights in Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Wyoming - Most who know even a smidgen of history are aware that Wyoming was the first state in which the territorial legislature gave women the right to vote. They were also given the right to be court justices and to serve on juries. The last two privileges were quickly taken away by that same legislature, due to complaints, mainly by husbands who objected to be left with the care of the children and household chores while their wives served. (Boo-hoo-hoo!) It might be all right for their wives to take over feeding the livestock or help with the plowing, planting, and harvesting, but ask a man to cook a meal or change dirty diapers? Absolutely not! (Again--boo-boo-hoo!) It took a long, long time before women were granted the right to serve on a jury again--anywhere.

Other rights and when they were granted in Wyoming:

1869 - A married woman's earnings are her separate property. (Before that, all money earned by a spouse or minor children were under the control of the husband/father. This came from England's common law and was typical throughout the U.S.)

1876 - A married woman's separate property is her separate estate, which she might devise by will.

1882 - A married woman is granted femme sole status to administer her separate estate.

1857 Kansas and Indian Territories Map

Kansas - 

1858 - A married woman may devise a will.

1859 - A woman's property rights are written into the territorial constitution. A married woman is guaranteed control over her separate earnings and separate estate.

1861 - Kansas drafts the first state constitution to give a married woman equal control of her children and marital property.

1861 - Women may vote in school elections.

1862 - In intestacy, a widow has the right to choose dower (1/3 of the estate not subject to paying husband's debt for duration of her life) or one half of her husband's estate, absoluteley, both real and personal.

1868 - A married woman may sue and be sued, "carry on any trade or business, and perform any labor or services, on her sole and separate account; and the earnings of any married woman, from her trade...shall be her sole and separate property, and may be invested by her in her own name. "The widow of a deceased husband, or husband of a deceased wife, are 'entitled to the same rights or portions in the estate of the other.'"

1887 - Women may vote in city and bond elections.

1912 - Kansas women receive complete suffrage.

 

What about the state in which my heroine, Varinia Jewell, lived: Colorado? It was actually one of the earlier states to receive complete suffrage.

Colorado - 

1874 - A married woman may devise a will.

1876 - (year of statehood) A married woman's separate estates is property that is held prior to and after marriage. Her separate earnings are also her separate estate.

1893 - Colorado women receive complete suffrage by amendment to the state constitution.

 

Now, let's take a look at Oklahoma, which became a territory separate from Indian Territory  May 2, 1890. Oklahoma did not  become a state until November 16, 1907.

Marigold was set in 1894. Beulah was set in 1896. The following was the timeline of rights granted to both Native Americans and women of other ethnicities in Oklahoma Territory/Oklahoma:

Oklahoma -

1890 -  Organized as Oklahoma Territory; the eastern portion of Oklahoma is Indian Territory under the jurisdiction of Arkansas; the Oklahoma Panhandle is opened for settlement.

- Oklahoma Territory law follows that of Nebraska.

- Indian Territory law followed that of Arkansas.

1918 - Oklahoma women receive complete suffrage.

Considering that Oklahoma Territory followed Nebraska law, here is what applied to women living there after Oklahoma Territory was separated from Indian Territory:

1867 - Women may vote in school elections.

1881 - All property owned by a woman at her marriage "shall be and remain her sole and separate property free from the disposal or debts of her husband."

Missed that when I researched Marigold. My resource is quiet regarding women's rights concerning their children or voting for school bonds, but, evidently, they could vote in school board elections. Maybe at the school board meeting dealing with trying to reduce Marigold's salary, Mr. Duffy should not have been so quick to dismiss Mabel Smithers. 

Beulah was released last Friday and is now available as an ebook and at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. It will soon be available in paperback. To find the book description and current purchase options, 

please CLICK HERE

 

 

My other Christmas romance for 2023 is  

Vinegar Pie by Varinia. 

It is available as an ebook, including at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is also available in paperback. To find the book description and purchase options,

please CLICK HERE

The Bloomer Women Who Walked to Wyoming Territory Part 2 by Zina Abbott

 

Last month, I shared a blog post about two early Wyoming Territory women which I learned about as part of my research for my recent book, Lauren, I came across an account of two women who made an impact on early Wyoming history. I saved their story for Women’s History Month, focusing on the mother, Alice Willing Bloomer. This month, I wish to finish with more details about the daughter, Mary Jane Bloomer Morey Stimpson Richardson. You may find the previous post by CLICKING HERE.

Mary Jane Bloomer’s three husbands were the following, the second two marriages taking place after her move onto the Wyoming Territory frontier:

Marriage to Charles Norman Morey 1857
Marriage to William G Stimpson 1869
Marriage to William Richardson 1880

At the end of the Civil War, Mary Jane Bloomer Morey, finding herself destitute after her husband suffered a disabling brain injury as a result of his war service, put him in a home for the insane and looked for a means to support herself and her family. Her mother, Alice Willing Bloomer, who was widowed because of the war, and Mary Jane’s three-year-old son, Frank Morey, traveled to Leavenworth, Kansas, where, for a time, they worked at the Dexter Hotel.

Mary Jane's mother, Alice, was suffering from consumption. At wars end, it was widely proclaimed that consumption could be cured by moving west to the high and dry climate. They walked with a hand cart to Grand Island Nebraska in the middle of February 1868.  The ladies then rode a train to the new town of Cheyenne near the end of the tracks.  They next rode the train to the Dale Creek Bridge construction site, then they walked about twenty miles to Fort Sanders, arriving on March 4^th. There, they stayed for a short time while the town of Laramie was platted out and started building.  As soon as the first hotel, the "Frontier", was completed, the ladies took over management of the eating establishment there.

In August 1868, railroad officials offered Mary Jane a job operating the services at Percy Station north of Elk Mountain. It was also the time when she married her second husband, William Stimpson, a merchant from England. They boarded the train to Cheyenne for the wedding. Percy Station was a loading point for ties from the Elk Mountain area. Mary Jane had Chinese employees in her kitchen, and she soon learned to speak Chinese and several Indian dialects. 

By 1873, business at the Percy Station had greatly decreased, so it closed. Mary Jane and William Stimpson purchased the old Overland Trail Stage Station at "The Crossings" on the Medicine Bow River, which thirty later became known the town of Elk Mountain. This location served as a way-point for early American settlers heading west along the Overland Trail and other routes.  There, Mary Jane operated a boarding house, toll bridge, supply store, and tavern. Local histories are full of stories about Indian fights, bandits trying to rob the store, and Mary Jane sitting on the bridge with a shotgun in order to "collect" the toll bridge charge from immigrants moving up the Overland Trail.

Relationship of Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow, both along Medicine Bow River -  courtesy of Google Maps

 

In 1874, a daughter the Stimpsons named Mary Alice was born. In 1876, four years after Mary Jane's mother’s death, William Stimpson also died. He had been growing progressively weaker, and it was suspected he had cancer. This forced the family to move to Carbon, where Mary Jane worked at a boarding house. The only record of his death is the listing in Mary Jane’s family Bible.

Not long after William Stimpson’s death, the Trabing Brothers, who already owned a store in Rock Creek along the Union Pacific Railroad line, which was located about twelve miles north of present day Rock River, decided to expand their mercantile empire by  purchasing the store at "The Crossings" from the widow, Mary Jane. More details about the Trabing Brothers businesses may be found in a post I wrote for another blog. Please CLICK HERE.

The summer after Custer's battle at Little Big Horn, the Bozeman trail re-opened. The Trabing Brothers decided to be the first to open a store in northern Wyoming and chose a site at Crazy Woman Creek.  August Trabing hired Mary Jane to be the store manager. 

 

Not Mary Jane, but, yes, women did drive ox teams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Jane drove two wagon loads of supplies with her fifteen-year-old son, Frank Morey-Stimpson, and five-year-old daughter, Mary Alice Stimpson, . Again, with no protection and traveling alone, Mary Jane headed to Fort Fetterman and on up the Bozeman Trail to the Trabing Trading Post Store on Crazy Woman Creek, arriving in good order while the store was still under construction in the fall of 1877.

While at Crazy Woman Creek, Mary Jane's daughter died of scarlet fever in 1878. She was probably buried somewhere near the old store site.

While working at the Trabing store at Crazy Woman Creek, Mary Jane was also robbed by a gang, which was later identified as the Big Nose George gang. This could have been around the same time as the attempted railroad derailment outside of Medicine Bow in August, 1878, which was thwarted by an observant section crew foreman.

Mary Jane also acted as the area doctor, housed Moreton Frewen, the Englishman who brought the first cattle to northern Wyoming, and dealt with freighters and stage coach drivers, including Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock.

Mary Jane operated the store at Crazy Woman Creek for just over a year, before the Trabing Brothers moved the location to what would soon be the town of Buffalo.  In the 1880 census there are only five families in northern Wyoming who were not connected with the military. Among those five families was Mary Jane and her son, Frank Morey.

William Richardson, a coal miner in Carbon and a good friend of William Stimpson, received the news of Mary Jane’s daughter’s death. Richardson,was an immigrant coal miner from West Auckland, Durham, England. He rode north to Buffalo and brought Mary Jane back to Carbon. There they were married. Mary Jane then had three more children while she was between the ages of forty and forty-four: Thomas Darrow Richardson, Edward Richardson, and Willing Gay Richardson.

Eventually, the family moved back to Elk Mountain. Several incidences of Mary Jane’s life include fighting off three renegade Indians and killing one in hand-to-hand combat at the ranch, "engineering" the irrigation for the Medicine Bow River Valley, building a post office, and challenging a neighbor to a gunfight when he threatened the family.

A newspaper article states that "the first irrigation ditch was built out of the Medicine Bow River by (Mary Jane) Mrs. Richardson and is still known as the "Garden Ditch". She also owned a toll bridge, store, hotel and saloon at Medicine Bow Crossing Station, today known as the town of Elk Mountain."   We do not believe this date could be correct as she did not move to "the crossing" until after 1870. A more reliable date for the garden ditch at Elk Mountain would be 1878.  A quote from the same article, "From a reliable source it was learned that it was a fact that Buffalo Bill, for some reason or other was ejected from the hotel by Mrs Richardson."

Mary Jane Bloomer Morey Stimpson Richardson died at the age of sixty-nine on December 21, 1910 in Elk Mountain, Carbon County, Wyoming. Elk Mountain played a crucial role in supporting the coal mining and timber industries vital to the Union Pacific Railroad's success. Many families settled here, immigrating from Finland, Sweden, and other European countries, bringing with them a rich diversity of cultures and traditions. She was buried in Elk Mountain cemetery.

 

Lauren, Book 2 in the Rescue Me (Mail-order Brides) series, takes place several years after, some of these incidences. However, Mary Jane was still alive and active in that general region of Wyoming Territory during the timeframe of this book. The incident with Big Nose George robbery would have taken place at the same time as Lauren’s story. To read the book description and find the purchase options, please CLICK HERE.  

Mary Jane Bloomer Morey Stimpson Richardson was still in the region at the same time as my story, Ellie, from the Runaway Brides of the West series. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

Sources:

http://genealogytrails.com/wyo/carbon/bio3.html

https://www.familysearch.org/service/records/storage/das-mem/patron/v2/TH-904-69401-62-33/dist.txt?ctx=ArtCtxPublic

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142211768/mary-jane-richardson

https://www.wyomingcarboncounty.com/places-to-visit/elk-mountain