I am always on the lookout for nineteenth century history
near me, which can sometimes be challenging in the Pacific Northwest,
especially in the wilds where I live. That’s why discovering a house on the
National Register of Historic Places less than two miles away was such a
thrill, as was learning about the lady behind it.
Washington State had a rocky road to confirming the right of
women to vote. Seattle founding father Arthur Denny tried to convince the
territorial legislature in 1854, but the measure lost by a narrow margin. The
lawmakers rallied, however, and passed another measure some years later, only
to have a territorial court shoot it down! Because “woman’s suffrage” was not specifically
included in the title of the law, the court reasoned, the male legislators
might not have realized what they were approving. Undaunted, they changed the
title and passed the measure again. Women voted in Washington Territory
beginning in 1883. Unfortunately, another legal challenge upended the law, and
fears that the federal government would find women voting so offensive it would
never give the territory statehood kept the idea out of the state constitution
in 1889. By the turn of the twentieth century, suffragists in Washington State
were entirely disheartened.
Enter Emma Smith DeVoe. Born in Roseville, Illinois, in
1848, 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 for
women’s rights in Dakota Territory (although women couldn’t vote there until
1918), Idaho Territory (where she helped win the right in 1896), and Oregon
State (where the first measure lost, with women winning the vote in 1912). She
had also helped with campaigns in another 25 territories and states. When she
moved to Tacoma with her husband in 1905, she promptly set to work on
campaigning in Washington.
There were, apparently, several philosophies among the
suffragists. One group held that large rallies and sit-ins were the order of
the day. Others, notably in England, went so far as to smash windows on
abandoned buildings to draw attention to their cause. The ladylike Emma was
certain there was a more effective way. By being good-natured and cheerful, women
might persuade their male counterparts one-on-one. Her goal was to have women
ask every voter in the state to support the suffrage movement. She also sent
out postcards and put up posters. She even published a cook book, with Votes
for Women on the back cover. When the National American Woman Suffrage Association
met in Seattle in 1909, she organized a “Suffrage Special” train, with notable ladies
giving 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 Suffrage
Day. That was when a group of suffragists climbed Mt. Rainier to raise
awareness of the cause.
In 1910, the all-male Washington State legislature voted by
nearly two-thirds to extend the vote to women, 10 years before the nation would
follow suit. Emma had a little something to do with that too. For her work in
the state as well as at the national level, she was inducted into the National
Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. She died in 1927, at the age of 79, in her lovely
home near me.
And if you’d like to read about a fictional Washington State
pioneer, you might want to grab an ebook copy of
The Perfect Mail-Order
Bride, on sale for the first time this week for only 99 cents.
When a beautiful mail-order bride jilts her groom on the way
to meet him, her plainer sister Ada Williamson decides to continue the journey
and tell him the truth. Yet one look at Thomas “Scout” Rankin, and the truth
never comes out. Thomas can buy anything he wants, including the perfect
mail-order bride. But past betrayals left him wary, so he notices Ada is not
what she claims. When a stranger tries to take advantage of Ada’s secret, and
his, can they discover the truth, about their enemy, about their pasts, and
about the love they both yearn to share?
Reading is My Superpower called it “swoony, sweet, and full
of heart.”
Available
Directly from me
Smashwords
Amazon (affiliate link)
Barnes and Noble
Apple Books
Kobo
I’m delighted to report that the fourth book in my Frontier
Matches series, The Schoolmarm’s Convenient Marriage, is out in the
world!
