Arizona: Creating Coalitions and Continuing Legacies

In this episode, Mary Melcher and Melanie Sturgeon discuss the suffrage battle at sites in Arizona.

We talk about the events and activists in the AZ voting rights campaign:

• Frances Willard Munds, suffragist leader, who said that it made her “blood boil” when women were told to stay in their domestic sphere and not get involved with voting.
• Sallie Davis Hayden passed on her convictions for women’s suffrage to her son, Carl Hayden, who voted for the 19th amendment as a U.S. congressman.
• Mary Kane and Amalia Valenzuela were women of Mexican descent who were early women voters at the schoolhouse in the town of Patagonia.
• Laura G. Cannon travelled around Arizona and spoke nearly every evening in a different town – often to crowds of working men who applauded her and “donated generously” to the suffrage cause.
• In 1912, Arizona women won the right to vote after 30 years of rejection after rejection by politicians.

About our Guests:

     Mary Melcher is a historian who specialized in western women’s history, and the twentieth century U.S. She has conducted numerous women’s public history projects in Arizona and recently served on the Statue Committee of the Arizona Women’s History Alliance which installed the statue of Frances Willard Munds in the memorial park next to the Arizona state capitol. 

   Melanie Sturgeon is the co-founder and Chair of the Arizona Women’s History Alliance and the Chair of the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. She served as the State Archivist of the Arizona State Archives for 16 years and has always been passionate about women’s history. 

Links to People, Places, Publications:

Arizona & the 19th Amendment (here)

Arizona Women’s Suffrage Timeline (here)

Frances Willard Munds Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Frances Willard Munds statue (here)

Sallie Davis Hayden Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Sallie Davis Hayden marker (here)

Visit the Patagonia marker where Mary Kane and Amalia Valenzuela voted (here)

Laura G. Cannon Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Laura G. Cannon marker (here)

Anna Howard Shaw Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the 1912 Anna Shaw speech marker (here)

CM Marihugh is a public history consultant and currently conducting independent research for a book on commemoration of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement. She has an M.A. in Public History from State University of New York, and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Learn more about:

• National Votes for Women Trail (here)
• National Votes for Women Trail - William G. Pomeroy historical markers (here)
• National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (here)

Do you have a question, comment, or suggestion? Get in touch! Send an e-mail to NVWTpodcast@ncwhs.org

Transcript

SPEAKERS

CM Marihugh, Earth Mama, Mary Melcher, Melanie Sturgeon

CM Marihugh  00:00

Welcome to her march to democracy, where we're telling stories along the National Votes For Women Trail. The trail chronicles the fight for voting rights for women. The suffragists, or suffs, as they were called, were the revolutionaries of their day, and they battled the powers that be. These foot soldiers cut across the lines of geography, race, ethnicity, class and gender, and numbered in the many 1000s over 70 plus years.

Earth Mama  00:36

We are standing on the shoulders
Of the ones who came before us. 
They are saints and they are humans. 
They are angels. They are friends. 

We can see beyond the struggles 
And the troubles and the challenge 
When we know that by our efforts, 
Things will be better in the end.

CM Marihugh  01:09

Each episode is a tour on the trail to the places of struggle, the cities, the towns where wins and defeats happened over and over again, our theme music is standing on the shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse and recorded by Earth mama. Join us on our travels to hear the stories along the National Votes For Women Trail. 

Today, we are going to the state of Arizona to hear stories along the National Votes For Women Trail. Now, Arizona has at least four historical markers commemorating suffrage, as well as a statue of a prominent suffragist, which is noteworthy, as we'll find out. I'd like to welcome two people, Mary Melcher and Melanie Sturgeon. 

Mary is a historian who specialized in western women's history and the 20th century U.S. She has conducted numerous women's public history projects in Arizona and recently served on the statue committee of the Arizona Women's History Alliance, which installed the statue of Frances Willard Munds in the memorial park next to the Arizona State Capitol. 

Melanie is the co founder and chair of the Arizona Women's History Alliance, as well as the chair of the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. She served as the state archivist of the Arizona State Archives for 16 years, and she's always been passionate about women's history. Melanie and Mary will focus on different sites throughout our talk. I want to thank you both for being here. 

Melanie Sturgeon  02:57

Thank you very happy to be able to talk about such a fascinating topic. 

CM Marihugh  03:02

Melanie, could you start by giving an overview of the suffrage movement in Arizona?

Melanie Sturgeon  03:07

Yes, I'd be happy to. Like other states and territories in the West. The history of Arizona is really complex. I'll be giving an overview of three periods of suffrage activity, the first, between 1883 and 1889, the second, between 1900 and 1903 and the third, between 1909 and 1912 and throughout this episode, Mary and I will be talking about the importance of grassroots movements and the power of coalitions. It's clear from the history of Arizona suffragists that these women were aware of national organizations that promoted suffrage and that they reached out to and worked with them to understand some of the challenges faced by Arizona suffragists. 

It's important to understand something of the geography and topography of our state. Arizona consists of  113,623 square miles total land and topography of areas. To give you the an idea of the size, comparison with states on the East Coast, all five of the New England states, in addition to New Jersey, Delaware and four fifths of the state of New York could fit comfortably within the borders of Arizona, our 14 counties were sparsely populated during the active period of our Suffrage Movement, with males outnumbering females significantly. 

In 1890 the population was around 88,000 with approximately 28,000 Native Americans living on reservations. Most of the roads in Arizona were rough trails, and all there was a major railroad through the southern desert of the territory by the early 1880s and another through the northern high plateaus, by the mid 1880s suffragists often traveled for hours and days by wagon and buggy to visit isolated, far flung communities. Here they organized and encouraged suffrage groups and gave pro suffrage speeches. Arizona became a territory in 1863. 

The main activities at that time being mining, mostly copper, farming and ranching. Location of the territorial capital changed several times between 1864 and 1889 as different regions gained and lost political influence. This is the period of the first efforts to work with the legislature to pass a women's suffrage bill. Legislator Murat Masterson of Yavapai County introduced the first women's suffrage bill in Prescott, Arizona in February of 1883. The Arizona Sentinel Newspaper called him a Judas Iscariot, and within a month, the bill had been relegated to the trash can. 

The second suffrage bill was introduced in 1885 by a legislator from the southern part of the state, but this too, failed newspapers ridiculed and castigated this gentleman as well. Our first official effort to create a suffrage organization was started in 1890 by Josephine Brawley Hughes, who, at that time was serving as the territorial president of The WCTU. She was the co owner and editor of a Busan newspaper, and she used it to promote women's suffrage. She resigned as president from The WCTU in 1890 and worked with the newly organized National American Women's Suffrage Association, which I'll refer to as the NAWSA. 

In 1891 she and an NAWSA field worker, Laura Johns from Kansas, traveled throughout the territory organizing suffrage clubs. Many of the members of these clubs were also members of The WCTU. At that time, the territorial legislature met every other year, and Hughes was able to persuade several legislators to introduce the suffrage bill in 1891, 1893, 1895, 1897, and 1899. None of these bills made it out of committee and in 1899 she resigned as president. 

The second phase of Arizona's efforts to give women the vote began around 1899 Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the field organization of the NAWSA visited Arizona looking for more assertive, younger women to lead Arizona's efforts. She persuaded Pauline O'Neill and Frances Willard Munds, both of Prescott, to work on a new campaign. They once again visited Arizona's 14 counties, organized suffrage groups, actively lobbied the legislature for a suffrage bill, testified in legislative hearings and met with individual legislators in 1903 for the first time, both houses of the territorial legislature passed a suffrage bill and sent it to the governor for his signature. 

The governor vetoed the bill, much to the disappointment of the suffragists, and for the next few years, there was no active suffrage organization in the territory. The third period of Arizona suffrage movement began in 1909 Anna Shaw, president of the NAWSA, sent a field worker to work with Frances Willard Munds to help revive Arizona's suffrage efforts. They again established suffrage clubs throughout the territory, and at a 1909 suffrage convention, members elected Munds president of the Arizona equals Suffrage Association. She changed the direction of the Arizona suffrage campaign by appealing to male voters instead of legislators. 

NAWSA field worker, Laura Gregg traveled throughout the territory for the next few years speaking on behalf of women's suffrage. Every movement has detours and brick walls. Leaders make mistakes in 1909 a field worker, Laura clay, she had encouraged racial politics to exclude black residents from voting in two suffrage campaigns in the south, she persuaded Arizona suffragists to support a bill in the legislature to exclude non English Speaking voters from voting by requiring an English literacy test, this effectively eliminated many Hispanic voters and immigrants from other countries. Their action reflected a common Western prejudice against the average Hispanic worker who they believed was illiterate and would vote against suffrage. 

In 1910 our population was 240354 of which slightly 25% were Hispanic. You can see that that is a large proportion. When we became a state in 1912 suffrage leaders again supported and the legislature again passed an English literacy test that resulted in a decrease of voters and other immigrant voters, who are citizens, but again, could not pass the difficult literacy tests. Munds' efforts to include women suffrage in the 1910 constitutional convention failed. 

When Arizona submitted our constitution to Congress for approval, Congress and President Taft objected, particularly to something called the initiative and referendum section of our Constitution, and would not approve it until that section had been removed. This section was really important to the suffrage movement in Arizona, because without the initiative and referendum Arizona, women would not have been able to force the legislature to put the rights of women to vote into our new state constitution. 

We became a state on February 14, 1912 and one of the first things the legislature did was to add back initiative and referendum into the state's constitution, but when they voted, they rejected a suffrage resolution by only one vote. Munds used the initiative and referendum to circulate petitions to get women's suffrage amendment on the November 1912 ballot, and on November 5, 1912 Arizona, women obtained the right to vote, and male voters approved the suffrage amendment, with 66% of voters supporting that amendment. 

CM Marihugh  11:18

So the suffrage battle in Arizona, took about 30 years, starting when the legislator, Masterson presented the bill for women's suffrage in what 1883 and not surprisingly, he was called a a traitor, a Judas, I suppose that means a traitor to men. Three decades these women spent fighting for this basic right. Again, this whole movement was so much longer than most of us realize, and this is just another example, but the grassroots work paid off in 1912.

Melanie Sturgeon  11:57

Yes, definitely it did. 

CM Marihugh  11:59

So Mary, can you tell us where we're starting first on our tour in Arizona? 

Mary Melcher  12:05

Yes, we're starting in the center of the state, in the city of Tempe, which is located just east of Phoenix. There is a historical marker at 1 West Rio Salado Parkway for Sallie Davis Hayden in front of the adobe building that was her home. It is mounted on a boulder, and the building currently houses the community organization. 

Sallie Davis Hayden was born in Arkansas in 1842 and although she was curious and wanted to learn, she was denied a formal education by her father. He didn't believe in education for girls. She left home early and educated herself to become a teacher. She taught in California, where she met her husband, CT Hayden. After marrying him in 1876 a couple moved to Arizona Territory. She was one of the first white women to live in central Arizona. She and her husband built an Adobe home by the Salt River near Phoenix. 

In the early years, the little settlement was called Hayden's ferry. The Haydens operated both a ferry across the Salt River and a flower mill. The ferry provided the only means to cross the Salt River in this area, and it was vital to the little community. Mr. Hayden was 17 years Sallie's senior, and he provided the intellectual companionship and challenge that she desired. Mrs. Hayden was embarking on a new life, and from her son's account, we know that she was, "terribly depressed", by what she found in Tempe. 

She hated the hot weather. Her new home had a dirt floor and was cheaply furnished. There were few companions for conversation, and Mr. Hayden was occupied with his business. The desert seemed desolate to her, so she sent away for Bermuda grass seeds, but the grass quickly spread and became a pest in the garden. She imported a cow to provide milk. In short, she set about to make this new place a home, and gradually she came to share her husband's dream of building a community along the Salt River and making it a place where she could raise her children. 

She became very active in her community and was post mistress to the town and mother to four children. She also served on the school board and established a library in her home. She served as vice president of the Arizona territorial Suffrage Association with the organization's President Josephine Hughes suffrage meetings were held in her Adobe home during the 1890s as Melanie said, they tried every year to convince the territorial legislature to pass a women's suffrage bill, but the legislative majority voted down every effort. 

Sallie was well known in her hometown of Tempe. She became ill in 1907 and died unexpectedly. Her obituary in the Arizona Republican stated that, "There's probably no woman in the territory better known and more highly regarded by all who have enjoyed her acquaintance". Although Sallie Hayden did not live to see the Arizona suffrage victory that occurred five years after her death, she did influence her son, Carl Hayden to be in favor of women's suffrage. 

Carl was sheriff of Maricopa County when she died. He went on to serve in the Tempe state Town Council and later as the state's first congressional representative in 1913 after Arizona achieved statehood. Carl Hayden continued to win elections, and he voted in favor of women's suffrage when the 19th Amendment came before the US House of Representatives.

CM Marihugh  15:25

When she first went to Arizona, it was not only trying to fight for votes for women, it was trying to make a habitable home for herself and her children.

Mary Melcher  15:38

Yes, she became not only involved in the suffrage movement, but in our whole community, post mistress and school board library.

CM Marihugh  15:46

Throughout the podcast, we've talked about suffragists who happen to be men. Some voted quietly for women's votes, and others were very public about it. Some were very prominent men, and we've seen a number of couples work together, and this has been gratifying to me, because we have often heard about the woman, the wife, but then to hear that her husband was involved is just gratifying. We haven't heard too many stories about sons of suffragists. 

So it's very interesting to hear how Carl Hayden carried on his mother's legacy, particularly because she didn't live to see the 19th Amendment pass. If that's really great that she was able to pass that on to her son, Melanie. Where are we going to next?

Melanie Sturgeon  16:43

Well, we're moving it just west to Phoenix. At Wesley Bolin Plaza, which is across from our state capitol, is a statue of Frances Willard Munds, located at Monument site number 13. Munds was a distant relative of the WCTU's Frances Willard, and she used that quite often, because people recognized that name, the Willard when she talked, Frances Willard Munds. She'd been active in the Arizona's Suffrage Movement for 17 years, when Arizona women won the right to vote. 

And as I mentioned earlier in my overview of the phases of the Arizona Suffrage Movement. She became involved in the suffrage leadership, beginning in 1899 when Carrie Chapman Catt visited Arizona. Catt traveled throughout Arizona Territory with Pauline O'Neill and Munds, organizing suffrage clubs and speaking at meetings and outdoor rallies. And during 1899 Munds and O'Neill organized the Arizona territorial Women's Suffrage Association and held the first territorial wide suffrage convention. 

This might not sound like much to those of you that live in places where towns are close together, but for those women to travel to Phoenix was pretty extraordinary. They began their aggressive campaign, and months went before the next three legislators, lobbying, testifying and working behind the scenes, she quickly learned to navigate the world of politics and a willingness to confront opponents with reasoned, articulate arguments. Although suffrage bills were defeated in 1899 and 1901 legislative sessions in 1903, 24 suffragists from around the territory attended the third territorial suffrage convention in Phoenix to strategize. 

That year, the Suffrage Association members lobbied the legislature to introduce a suffrage bill and testified before committees. They worked with a gentleman in the legislature to force the legislation, suffrage legislation to a vote, and for the first time in the Arizona suffrage movement, that bill passed in both houses. You can imagine their elation, the women. However, the governor Alexander Brody, who had appeared all along to support the bill, vetoed it, claiming that women's suffrage would violate Arizona's Congressional Enabling Act, even though four other territories had added equal suffrage to their constitutions without any legal issues. 

Rumors quickly circulated that the legislators knew that the governor would vote the bill long before he did, and that's why so many of them voted in favor of suffrage. The suffragists were devastated, as you can imagine. After that defeat, there were no new bills introduced in the legislature for the next few years, and the Arizona territorial Women's Suffrage Association dwindled. However, during this period, Munds began a regular correspondence with Anna Shaw continued for the next 10 years. It wasn't until 1909 that Munds emerged with a new strategy, with help from the National Organization. She reorganized, revigorated and renamed the association, calling it the Arizona Equal Suffrage Association and members elected her president at the 1909 territorial suffrage convention. 

Her name, by this time, was well known throughout the territory, and she quickly rallied those around her field workers traveled throughout the territory, organizing suffrage groups and educating the public about the value of women's suffrage, trying to persuade the legislature to pass an equal suffrage bill had failed in the past, so Munds and her organization turned their efforts to male voters. Josephine Brawley Hughes had been leader of the suffrage effort between 1890 and 1899, disliked Mormons intensely because of the practice of polygamy, and she refused to work with them, despite the fact the Mormon church supported women's suffrage. 

Munds, however, recognized their importance to the cause, and she worked closely with Mormon settlements throughout the territory. Under her direction, the AESA created a powerful coalition of minors, labor leaders, farmers, ranchers, Democrats and Republicans. Munds tied women suffrage to statehood, and she and other suffrage leaders appeared before the 1910 constitutional convention advocating that women suffered to be included in the new constitution. However, it was not to their disappointment in 1910 when the new state legislature defeated a suffrage resolution by one vote. 

Munds did an end run around the legislature and used the newly reinstated initiative and referendum to get a suffrage amendment on the November 5, 1912 ballot. If you've ever suffered to an Arizona summer, you can understand that suffragists worked tirelessly through the impressive summer heat. This was a really difficult thing for them to do in every part of the state, to convince male voters to sign a petition to put the suffrage initiative on the November ballot. They were successful, but after completing this task, they then had to persuade the male electorates to vote and support that constitutional amendment. 

They organized suffrage meetings and rallies in even the most isolated communities, working to convince the male residents to vote yes in the November election. They faced stiff opposition from saloon owners and liquor lobbies, because many of them believe that if women got the vote, they would vote in favor of prohibition, so they were lobbying against this bill. 

On September 1, 1912 Munds set up a central suffrage headquarters in downtown Phoenix and she launched a media campaign and worked with newspaper editors- editors to write editorials and articles in support of suffrage. She invited Anna Shaw to tour the state and give suffrage presentations in the first few weeks of October. 

Two weeks before the election, she sent a press release to a number of newspapers appealing to quote, these are her words, "women, individually and collectively, to work untiringly for the amendment during the remaining days of the campaign." On november 5, 1912 they were successful, with 66% of male voters approving women's suffrage. Her efforts, and those of the suffragists who worked with her led to sweeping social, economic and legal transformations in the lives of Arizona women, something I think we take for granted today, and really don't understand how important this was. 

In 1913 Munds, ran for Senate from Yavapai County, and she won, becoming the third woman in the United States to hold that position. Rachel Berry, a suffrage leader from Apache County, became the first woman elected to the Arizona House of Representatives.

CM Marihugh  23:39

When you were talking about the 1903 loss and how it devastated the suffragists, I was thinking, how many times the suffragists across the country, that's not the first time they felt betrayed, particularly by those legislatures or male voters who said they supported women's suffrage, but for various reasons, political expediency or whatever it was, actually ended up voting it down. 

I think the detail that you're giving us as far as how many times they went back to the legislature and it just couldn't pass, excuse me, it just didn't pass again expresses the constant disappointment and hopes of suffragists throughout this movement that went on for decades, so they had to get used to those losses as much as they hoped for support. 

The other thing about Munds is she was a wife and mother. I read a quote by her in response to the arguments by the antis that women should stay in their "sphere". She said, "when I think of the narrow limits of the so called Women sphere, my blood boils." And she continued to say that "women attempting to step out of this sphere were shamed and disgraced by society." I thought that quote really gave some insight into very strong willed women trying to break out of the sphere that society had put women into.

Melanie Sturgeon  25:22

Yes, I think that is a wonderful description of her. 

CM Marihugh  25:26

So, Mary, where are you taking us next?

Mary Melcher  25:28

We're going to Bisbee, which is in the southeastern corner of the state. It's not far from the border with Mexico. At six main street is a historical marker for Laura Cannon and for the Arizona Equal Suffrage Association. Laura Gregg Cannon was an NAWSA field worker as well as an effective and experienced speaker. She traveled around Arizona Territory from 1909 to 1912 garnering support for women's suffrage. She married labor leader Joseph cannon during this time, and the two sometimes traveled together, speaking in favor of women's suffrage during the fall of 1912 when the suffragists were rallying men to vote in favor of the suffrage initiative, Laura Cannon spoke nearly every evening in a different town, traveling throughout the territory on September 26 Laura Cannon spoke in the large mining town of Bisbee. 

Bisbee was the third largest city in Arizona in 1910 with a population of over 9000 made up of immigrants from many European countries as well as people of Mexican descent. The newspaper The Arizona Republican reported on the suffrage event. "It has been a banner week for suffragists in good old Cochise County.Laura Gregg Cannon, who in touring that county, started the ball rolling with a meeting in Bisbee that exceeded in attendance and enthusiasm any public gathering that has been held there in years. 

A permit was secured and a platform was erected in front of the post office, and for more than an hour, Mrs. Cannon discussed equal suffrage." The majority of the audience of approximately 500 was comprised of working men who remained for the collection of funds and donated generously. This event was very successful, given the size of the crowd and the donations that were collected. 

Generally, miners were strong supporters of women's suffrage, but leaders of the mining companies such as Phelps Dodge did not support equal voting rights for women. E.E. Ellinwood, a legislator and attorney for Phelps dodge, said that women should not get the vote because politics was, "modified war, and that woman in strife becomes hard, harsh, unlovable and repulsive." 

Sometimes miners had to keep their support of suffrage quiet for fear that their employers would penalize them in some way. Fortunately, their votes were private matters, and they helped Arizona women win suffrage. Laura Cannon's work, traveling around the territory was an important component of the suffragist victory in November 1912.

CM Marihugh  28:03

Let me repeat that quote. "Woman in strife becomes hard, harsh, unlovable and repulsive." Lovely. This was the type of demeaning rhetoric that women were subjected to in newspapers and speeches, not only in Arizona, but across the country. It was constant. It's the type of argument that was made that women should stay out of the dirty world of politics, that it would change them. 

They would become hard and unlovable. And of course, the suffragists also countered with, well, women's influence would clean up politics that that didn't necessarily turn out to be the case, but of course, they felt like they had to argue against this claim that their natures would be changed. 

Also, we've heard about miners supports for the women's vote in other states, like, for example, Nevada, but you're raising the important point that they often feared for their jobs. They often felt like they had to keep quiet because the owners did not and like other states, owners of mines, textiles, factories, liquor distilling, they all feared legislation. For miners, particularly maybe child labor laws, because it would affect their business, and they supported anti suffragist groups financially. Melanie, where are we headed to next?

Melanie Sturgeon  29:41

We're moving north to Flagstaff in northern Arizona, the historic Coconino courthouse at 200 North San Francisco. And inside is is a historical marker for Anna Howard Shaw. In 1912 Anna Shaw then president of the National American women Suffrage Association worked closely with Frances Willard Munds to do a whirlwind tour of the state. In the first weeks of October came, and while in Phoenix, she met with Munds and other members of the Arizona suffrage leadership for two days to help them strategize. 

The title of her lecture was "A Humorous Discourse On Women's Suffrage" and audiences of men and women thronged to packed opera houses, Elks clubs and theaters, parks, a church and even a courthouse to hear her. Arizona newspapers consistently commented on a presentation filled with passion, irresistible logic, humor and even sarcasm. 

Shaw said that "A true democracy is one that is ruled by the people, and now only half the people, the men people, make the laws that rule the other half."Anna Shaw gave her speech in Flagstaff in the Coconino county courthouse on October 18, 1912. The Coconino Sun newspaper said of her, "she is a fluent talker with a fund of wit and sarcasm that keeps all alike entertained." 

Her visit to our state helped to highlight Arizona's suffrage move arguments in the last few weeks before the November 5, 1912 election, and the male voters approved the suffrage amendment.

CM Marihugh  31:20

I was looking at Anna Howard Shaw again and the impact of her many, many trips to speak over 30 years to promote women's suffrage. And she, as well as some other national leaders, made constant country wide trips to Oregon. She went to the annual rodeo. Here, she came to speak at the courthouse. It illustrates that national leaders played such a role in grassroots work, as well as keeping track of the strategy across the whole nation. 

Very impressive, how they were able to do that in an era when communication was difficult and slow, and yet they could have such an impact as she did, for example, here in Arizona before the referendum, I think too, the way the newspaper described her as entertaining, that's a long way from the public and newspapers claiming that the suffragists were boring and old women who had nothing to say. So that's that's encouraging, too, to hear that. Mary, where are we headed to next?

Mary Melcher  32:36

Our final stop is in the town of Patagonia. It's also in southern Arizona, where Bisbee is at 100 School street in front of the Patagonia Schoolhouse Museum, is the historical marker, because Hispanic women began voting there shortly after women won the vote in Arizona. Patagonia was a small town that depended on mining and ranching. Is just about 18 miles from the border with Mexico. 

During the early 20th century, this border was easily crossed, and there was a lot of movement back and forth from Mexico to the US. As Melanie mentioned, Mexican Americans were approximately 25% of the Arizona population in the early 20th century. African Americans were only one to 2% of the population. During the suffrage movement, suffragists reached out to the Mexican American community and published some suffrage literature in Spanish. 

However, suffragists favored an English literacy test for new voters in 1909 Laura Clay, a field worker from the NAWSA, encouraged Frances Munds and other members of the Arizona Equal Suffrage Association to support this English literacy test. Clay came from a prominent Kentucky family and had worked in two southern suffrage campaigns where she encouraged racist policies to exclude African American women voters. 

This English literacy test for new voters did become law in 1909 and it was directed at immigrants, and specifically those from Mexico. But despite this legislation, women of Mexican descent did begin voting once women gained the vote in 1912 by researching census records and voting rolls, I found women of Mexican descent in the little town of Patagonia who voted in 1914 two years after Arizona women's suffrage victory. Hispanic women also voted in other towns and cities. 

One of the women, Mary Kane, was originally from Mexico. She married James Kane, and the couple had eight children together. Mary Kane was a housewife, and it appears she did not work outside of the home. Amalia Valenzuela is another early voter. She was a single woman of Mexican descent who lived with her widowed father and worked as a clerk. The fact that these women registered to vote demonstrated that the English literacy law did not affect all women. 

Some Hispanic women were bilingual and could read and write in English. The women may have learned about their voting rights from members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union who worked to educate women voters following the suffrage victory in 1912. As I mentioned earlier, there is a National Votes For Women Trail marker in front of the Patagonia Schoolhouse Museum. When it was dedicated, about 20 descendants of Mary Kane came for the dedication ceremonyand that was great fun.

CM Marihugh  35:14

That's wonderful to hear about the descendants of these suffragists seeing their forebears being honored. That's happened in a couple of cases, and I'm sure there are many more out there. What's great about the National Votes For Women Trail is that the research that people are doing, both historians and history enthusiasts, are finding the stories like you did, Mary, that have not yet been uncovered, so descendants may not even know who in their past family worked on this issue. To close our discussion, Mary, could you give an overview of what happened in Arizona during the ratification process of the 19th Amendment and then after 1920?

Mary Melcher  36:02

I'm also going to be talking about some of the work that the suffragists were doing after they won the vote. As Melanie mentioned, they began to run for public office, and Frances Munds became the first female state senator in 1914. Rachel Berry, also a suffragist, ran to serve in the State House and won. As the next few years passed, other suffragists joined Munds and Berry in the State House and Senate. In 1918 the Arizona Senate and House passed joint resolution number one that said the following quote, "this legislature for the state of Arizona is now ready and anxious to adopt the woman's suffrage Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 

Furthermore, Arizona believes its position on this question wise because it has found women's suffrage an unqualified success, and believes it finds evidence in this effort, in the unequal record it has made in all branches of our activities". Governor Campbell invited the state legislature to attend the special session in February 1920 to vote on the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The governor stated, "women have demonstrated their ability to participate in politics without defeminization being a consequence, and have likewise demonstrated in a remarkable manner their grasp of Governmental Affairs". 

So he's saying they are not defeminized, responding to all those anti suffragists. February 12, 1920 in a special session of the four state legislature, four female legislators introduced the resolution to ratify the 19th Amendment. They were Nellie Hayward, Rosa McKay, Pauline O'Neill and Anna Westover. It passed both houses unanimously that same day. Arizona became the 31st state to ratify the amendment. In addition to spearheading the state's approval of the 19th Amendment, suffragists and women's club members were also working on other issues, including the eight hour work day for women mothers, pensions and to raise the age of sexual consent. 

Soon after women won the vote, the Arizona Federation of women's clubs lobbied the legislature to pass legislation concerning these issues, and they were successful. Legislation raised the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 for females and age 18 for males. New law also set in place mother's pensions and the eight hour work day for women. Women took an active role in state and county government after gaining the vote in 1918 there were 12 women in the elective office in the state, serving in the legislature, as well as county recorders and county school superintendents. 

Frances Munds served in the State Senate and then ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State in 1918 during these years, she was outspoken regarding those who had not supported women's suffrage. In 1914 she wrote an editorial in the newspaper Mojave County minor castigating Reese Ling, a Democratic Party official and candidate for the US Senate because he had provided no support to Arizona suffragists. In his campaign for the Senate, as he traveled the state, he was claiming that he had supported women's suffrage. 

Munds detailed Ling's effort to stop suffrage and wrote in the newspaper, "the women of Arizona are under no obligations to Mr. Reese Ling for their enfranchisement, and if he has elected the US Senate, I firmly believe that he will be dangerous to the national suffrage bill as well as other legislation affecting women." Munds was mad and she didn't mind showing it. The suffragists in Arizona celebrated when the 19th Amendment made it possible for many women to vote all over the US. But we know that some laws, as well as discrimination, stopped women of color from voting in different states. 

In Arizona, African American women did begin voting as soon as suffrage became law. We've discussed the literacy law, which discriminated against non English speaking citizens. We also know that Native Americans in the state were denied the vote until 1948 even though Native Americans became citizens in 1924 Arizona did not grant them the right to vote until 1948. Chinese nationals could become citizens and register to vote in 1943 and Japanese nationals in 1952. 

The suffrage story was complicated in Arizona, as it was in other states, it was led by strong women who had faults, including ethnic and racial prejudice. Like most history, it demonstrated both human excellence and failure in 2018 as the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, grew closer, the Arizona Women's History Alliance decided that the work of Francis Willard Munz and hundreds of other Arizona suffragists who worked with her was a significant but largely unknown piece of Arizona history. 

We decided to commission the Frances Willard Munds suffrage statue. After a nationwide search, we chose a young female Arizona sculptor to create this monument. We have spent the last six years giving programs about months in the Arizona women's suffrage movement around the state, and fundraising. We finally broke the bronze ceiling when we dedicated the statue on May 4, 2024.

CM Marihugh  41:12

The statue of Munds is an incredible achievement, and as anyone who has sought permission for funding and being able to place a statue or even a historical marker, can attest to the difficult process. It's long, laborious, and it seems like you needed the kind of persistence that the suffragists showed. So I really salute you.

Mary Melcher  41:40

Yeah we talked about that during the long years of fundraising, as Melanie can attest.

CM Marihugh  41:46

Well, I hope that this inspires other states, because the research that I've done shows how few actual statues there are of suffragists. But we have to start somewhere, so I'm really glad you were able to do that. I want to thank you very much for being with us today, Melanie and Mary, we greatly appreciate it. 

Mary Melcher  42:08

You're welcome. Thank you.

CM Marihugh  42:10

Thank you for joining us this week. We hope you contact us with comments or questions. The National Votes For Women Trail Project is a work in progress, please click on the support the project link to contribute to our ongoing work. 

The trail is a project of the National Collaborative For Women's History Sites, a non profit organization dedicated to putting women's history on the map. Our theme is Standing On The Shoulders by Joyce Johnson Rouse and recorded by Earth Mama. Be sure to join us next time. 

Earth Mama  42:47

I am standing on the shoulders 
Of the ones who came before me.
I am honored by their passion 
For our liberty. 

I will stand a little taller. 
I will work a little longer. 
And my shoulders will be there to hold 
The ones who follow me. 

My shoulders will be there to hold 
The ones who follow me.