we are in the women's hallway of the laramie plains museum in the evanston mansion in. this hallway we begin to tell you the story of why wyoming was

so granting women this right to vote, hold property and. our elected office, december 10th of 1869, our wyoming legislature dictate it this and it was signed by governor granting women this really so remarkable that we have a copy of this they have it at the capitol but we have this copy that is so extraordinary. see that writing that fanciful writing said what was happening in the west because of this act december 10th 1869. giving women full rights alongside men. we the first woman voter in the world, louisa gardiner swain. we had the first woman bailiff, martha simon's boys. we had the first women on a jury we had all of wyoming's women able to be in the legislature. this was mary gadot bellamy. we had esther hobart, 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 fallout from beautiful suffrage act december 10th of 1869. here we just have a few more mentions of our women who were and here we have a great thing for thora via nicholson, where her friends were so worried. she's out in the west court in the suffrage act idiocy and she writes about it. she says, oh yes, some of my friends 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 apparently beyond hope. i told them about a friend of mine had recently been elected to a county and assured them that she was as nice and modest and womanly as any of them and probably much they had to take

my word for it. but they assured me that you couldn't possibly stay. so you undoubtedly become bold and mannish in a very short time. and when we leave this hallway, we're going to go out into foyer and into the salon which has been set up as defense of suffrage. come with me. going to go into the drawing room or the withdrawing room in the age where they withdrew special events. we are here a defense, the suffrage act. we have the exhibit set up here in the event since withdrawing in room and herere the events since jane and edward i haven't seen in their adopted daughter maggie. this home is their the largest artifact we have their place of 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 this house and in here we tell our ms. 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. what's why is that happening in the why is it happening in wyoming? and at the time we had just become wyoming territory dakota territory. so we were here and that's. one of the reasons they did it. we believe is they needed to attract women to the west. this was a place of adventurers and cowboys and railroad workers hammering out a railroad. you know, we had the central pacific coming in from california, the union, and it was fast furious and we had crazy living out here. and the legislature wanted to attract those women, women to be part of this adventure. and so they gave them full

rights. full rights? i'm 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, you know, north dakota and utah to believe that 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 cady stanton coming to the events salon to listen about the defense of suffrage because. what happened it was passed in 1869. in 1871. why was giving getting so much grief that the the legislature was saying maybe we should rescind this act. stephen downey and this is a is a an 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 the same rights as men and downey stood there wrote a remarkable speech and spoke to wyoming public about how important was that. we keep this that we retain this and it was retained 1871 by one vote in the legislature then fast forward let's fast forward 17 years wyoming territory is wanted to to become a state washington d.c. are no one else in the world or in the united states is giving women these kind 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're we're mainecare. we will not become a state unless we can hold all of these rights that our women have had.

so when you talk that wyoming had the first woman voter in the world, 1869, that you had the first women on a jury in, 18/71 women bailiff, first woman, baylor, first women, justice of the peace. all of those could happen because wyoming had given women that right. so it is remark checkable. it's a fact that nobody ever knows about. and how great is that 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