Nineteenth Century Heroines: Making Sure the Ayes Have It
I am always on the lookout for nineteenth century historynear me, which can sometimes be challenging in the Pacific Northwest,especially in the wilds where I live. That’s why discovering a house on theNational Register of Historic Places less than two miles away was such athrill, as was learning about the lady behind it.Washington State had a rocky road to confirming the right ofwomen to vote. Seattle founding father Arthur Denny tried to convince theterritorial legislature in 1854, but the measure lost by a narrow margin. Thelawmakers rallied, however, and passed another measure some years later, onlyto have a territorial court shoot it down! Because “woman’s suffrage” was not specificallyincluded in the title of the law, the court reasoned, the male legislatorsmight not have realized what they were approving. Undaunted, they changed thetitle and passed the measure again. Women voted in Washington Territorybeginning in 1883. Unfortunately, another legal challenge upended the law, andfears that the federal government would find women voting so offensive it wouldnever give the territory statehood kept the idea out of the state constitutionin 1889. By the turn of the twentieth century, suffragists in Washington Statewere entirely disheartened.
Enter Emma Smith DeVoe. Born in Roseville, Illinois, in1848, she had supported woman’s suffrage since the day she heard Susan B.Anthony speak. She was only eight at the time. Since then, she’d campaigned forwomen’s rights in Dakota Territory (although women couldn’t vote there until1918), Idaho Territory (where she helped win the right in 1896), and OregonState (where the first measure lost, with women winning the vote in 1912). Shehad also helped with campaigns in another 25 territories and states. When shemoved to Tacoma with her husband in 1905, she promptly set to work oncampaigning in Washington.
There were, apparently, several philosophies among thesuffragists. One group held that large rallies and sit-ins were the order ofthe day. Others, notably in England, went so far as to smash windows onabandoned buildings to draw attention to their cause. The ladylike Emma wascertain there was a more effective way. By being good-natured and cheerful, womenmight persuade their male counterparts one-on-one. Her goal was to have womenask every voter in the state to support the suffrage movement. She also sentout postcards and put up posters. She even published a cook book, with Votesfor Women on the back cover. When the National American Woman Suffrage Associationmet in Seattle in 1909, she organized a “Suffrage Special” train, with notable ladiesgiving speeches from the rear platform at stops along the way. That same year,Seattle hosted the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and she set up a SuffrageDay. That was when a group of suffragists climbed Mt. Rainier to raiseawareness of the cause.In 1910, the all-male Washington State legislature voted bynearly two-thirds to extend the vote to women, 10 years before the nation wouldfollow suit. Emma had a little something to do with that too. For her work inthe state as well as at the national level, she was inducted into the NationalWomen’s Hall of Fame in 2000. She died in 1927, at the age of 79, in her lovelyhome near me.
And if you’d like to read about a fictional Washington Statepioneer, you might want to grab an ebook copy of The Perfect Mail-OrderBride, on sale for the first time this week for only 99 cents.When a beautiful mail-order bride jilts her groom on the wayto meet him, her plainer sister Ada Williamson decides to continue the journeyand tell him the truth. Yet one look at Thomas “Scout” Rankin, and the truthnever comes out. Thomas can buy anything he wants, including the perfectmail-order bride. But past betrayals left him wary, so he notices Ada is notwhat she claims. When a stranger tries to take advantage of Ada’s secret, andhis, can they discover the truth, about their enemy, about their pasts, andabout the love they both yearn to share?
Reading is My Superpower called it “swoony, sweet, and fullof heart.”
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