7:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv. >> the c-span cities tour is exploring the american story. join us the first and third weekends of each month as we take book tv and american history tv on the road. and to watch videos from all of the cities we visited go to c-span.org/citiestour and follow us on twitter at c-span cities. we continue our feature on laramie as we take you to the laramie plains museum which features a special exhibit on wyoming women's suffrage. >> we are in the women's hallway of the laramie plains museum in the mansion. in this hallway we begin to tell you the story of why wyoming was so unique. granting women this right to vote, hold property, and elected office. december 10th of 1869 our

wyoming territorial legislature dictated this and it was signed by governor campbell, granting women this act. really so remarkable that we have a copy of this they do have it at the capitol, but we have this copy that is so extraordinary to see that fanciful writing that said what was happening in the west. because of this act, december 10th 1869, giving full rights alongside men, we had the first woman voter in the world. we had the first woman bailiff. we had the first women on a jury. we had all of wyoming's women able to be in the legislature. this was mary bellamy. we had ester morris who was the first woman justice of the peace out of south pass city. we had nellie tayloe ross, first woman governor in the world. all of these were the cavalcade fallout from the beautiful suffrage act of december 10th

of 1869. here we just have a few more mentions of our women who were important. and here we have a great thing. her friends were so worried she's out in the west caught in this suffrage act idiocy. and she writes about it. she says oh, yes, some of my friends are eastern girls who judge women's suffrage by the english suffragettes reports and think that any woman who votes must be dreadful while a woman who holds office must be beyond hope. i told them about a friend of mine who had recently bine elected to a county office and assured them that she was as nice and modest and womanly as any of them and probably much shier. they had to take my word for it but they assured me that you couldn't possibly stay so. you would undoubtedly become bold and mannish in a very short time. and when we leave this hallway we're going to go out into the foyer and into the salon which

has been set up as a defense of suffrage. come with me, we're going to go into the drawing room or the withdrawing room in the age where they withdrew for special events. we are here showcasing a defense of the suffrage act. we have the exhibit set up here in the withdrawing room and here are the ivansons. jane and edward and their adopted daughter maggie. this home is the largest artifact we have and their place of residence after 24 years when they first came to laramie. they arrived on that first train may 10th of 1868 when there was nothing here. made their fortune and built this house 24 years later. we have salvaged this house and in here we tell laramie's history like this suffrage act so 1869, we've got december 10th 1869, the wyoming territorial legislature passing

this law that disgruntled a lot of people. why is that happening in the west? why is it happening in wyoming territory? and at the time, we had just become wyoming territory from dakota territory so we were here and that's legislature, one of the reasons they did it we believe is they needed to attract women to the west. this was a place of adventures and cowboys and railroad workers hammering out a railroad, you know. we had the central pacific coming in from california. the union pacific. and it was fast and furious. and we had crazy living conditions out here. and the legislature wanted to attract those women, women to come, be part of this adventure. and so they gave them full rights. full rights. i am telling you it was full voting rights, it was full holding property rights. it was full political office rights. there's no other state that could claim that, no other territory that could claim that. you know, north dakota and utah

liked to believe that they had the first woman voter and they may have, but they voted in restricted elections. wyoming women never had to do that. they were on the same terms with men, which is quite extraordinary. so in here, we have maybe elizabeth katie staten coming to the ivansons' salon to listen to the defense of suffrage. it was passed in 1869. in 1871, wyoming was getting so much grief that the legislature was saying maybe we should rescind this act. steven downey and this is an exhibit of steven speaking about this possibly in this salon speaking about the defense of the act because in 1871 people were giving wyoming territory such grief about having an act where women had the same rights as men.

and downey stood there write wrote a very remarkable speech and spoke to the wyoming public about how important this was, that we keep this, that we retain this and it was retained in 1871 by one vote in the legislature. then fast forward, let's fast forward, 17 years. wyoming territory is wanting to become a state. washington d.c. says no one else in the world or in the united states is giving women these kinds of rights. you need to rescind that act and then we'll let you become a state. wyoming said huh don't care. then we'll remain a territory. we will not become a state unless we can hold all of these rights that our women have had. so when you talk about that wyoming had the first woman voter in the world in 1869, that you had the first women on a jury in 1870, first women bailiff, first woman bailiff. first woman justice of the

peace, all of those could happen because wyoming had given women that right so it is remarkable. it's a fact that nobody ever knows about. and how great is it that we can tell this story. this is our 150th anniversary of that gift to women and to men by the men of wyoming territory. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to laramie wyoming to learn about its rich history. to watch more video from laramie and other stops on our tour, visit c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> this is american history tv. exploring our nation's past every weekend on c-span 3. next our weekly series the civil war. dan welch discusses the 1862

battle of secessionville, a union attempt to wrest control of nearby charleston an indispensable confederate port city. mr. welch is a school teacher and is the co-author of the last road north. we have three hours of interviews and viewer phone calls from the newseum in washington, d.c. joining us earlier today were -- at 10:00 p.m. eastern on our weekly series reel america a series of nbc news special reports covering the breaking story of the fall of the berlin wall on november 9th 1989. and at 11:00 p.m. eastern 8:00 p.m. pacific. james baker who was secretary of state to president george h.w. bush when the wall came down talks about his experience from the perspective of the white house. and that's what's coming up here on american history tv. >> i