S02 E15 Colorado: She Voted from the Mountaintop

In this episode, Andrea Malcomb discusses the suffrage battle in Colorado.

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

• Mrs. Margaret Brown (Molly Brown) was a staunch supporter of women’s suffrage and contributed her skills, time and funding to the campaign.
• Elizabeth Ensley and Ida Clark DePriest were African American activists who worked for women’s suffrage as part of the Colorado Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association as well as many organizations advocating for their communities. 
• Dr. Caroline Spencer, an ardent suffragist, went to the summit of Pike’s Peak in 1916 to plant a banner for the National Women’s Party.
• Agapito Vigil, a Mexican American stock raiser and farmer, was a delegate to the Colorado Constitutional Convention in 1875 where he voted to include women’s suffrage in the state constitution.
• The Every Word We Utter statue in Loveland features national suffragists including Susan B. Anthony who campaigned in Colorado.

About our Guest:

   Andrea Malcomb is Vice President of the organization Historic Denver and the Director of the Molly Brown House Museum. She is focused on elevating the house museum as a nationally recognized women’s history site while also expanding the museum’s education partnerships across Denver. Under her leadership, the museum has elevated its public history impact through programs and interpretation that superimpose feminized narratives of historical events onto contemporary place-based activities, prompting audiences to explore a new, woman-centered dynamic between past and present. She currently sits on the board of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, Museum of Denver, and Irish Network CO.

Links to People, Places, Publications:

Colorado & the 19th Amendment (here)

Molly Brown Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Molly Brown House Museum and historical marker (here)

Minnie Reynolds Biographical Sketch (here)

Elizabeth Ensley Biographical Sketch (here) 

Ida Clark DePriest Biographical Sketch (here)

Dr. Caroline Spencer Biographical Sketch (here)

Agapito Vigil Biographical Sketch (here)

Visit the Every Word We Utter statue here)

Visit the Olney and Mills historical marker (here)

Visit the Salida historical 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

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  00:58

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  01:10

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. 

 CM Marihugh  01:36

In this episode, we are going to the state of Colorado to hear stories about the women's suffrage movement along The National Votes For Women Trail. Colorado has 26 sites in the trail database, and it has at least six historical markers related to suffrage. Like every state, Colorado has unique elements and people, and we're going to hear about some of them today. I'd like to welcome Andrea Malcomb. She is the vice president of the organization Historic Denver and the director at the Molly Brown House Museum. She is on the board of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites. Welcome Andrea!

 Andrea Malcomb  02:23

Thank you so much for having me.

 CM Marihugh  02:25

 Could you start with giving us an overview of Colorado and the suffrage movement there?

 Andrea Malcomb  02:32

Of course. So what we today call Colorado is the ancestral homelands and hunting grounds of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute peoples. It was in their encounters with early traders from the east that they shared stories of gold. When Colorado became a US territory in 1861 native land use was restricted under the Treaty of Fort Laramie. And then in late 1861 US Army troops massacred 230 mostly women and children, Cheyenne and in Arapaho near Sand Creek, this was the deadliest day in Colorado's history, and is a generational trauma still held today. By 1876 the Arapaho had been forced onto reservations in other states, and the Ute after a series of conflicts, were pushed to the southwestern corner of Colorado and into Utah. It was a decade after the California gold rush that the Pikes Peak Gold Rush 1850 miners brought 1000s west then in a quest for this mineral wealth or this gold. It was New York newspaper man Horace Greeley, I think, who famously said, "Go west, young man." 

 Andrea Malcomb  03:35

And he really prescribed that manifest destiny that didn't necessarily coexist with the experiment in democracy that was shaping the American West. And the question I often ask is, what of the 1000s of women who came west as wives and as homesteaders and reformers, and how did they shape the land and build communities in these stretched out places in the West? Former territorial governor John Evans, who asked the territorial assembly for a law giving votes to women in 1868. At that point, the assembly refused. Evans had been forced to step down in 1865 in the wake of Sand Creek and his overall disregard for the territory's indigenous peoples, but he championed for women with this petition to the territorial assembly. In 1869 remember, the Wyoming territorial legislature did enfranchise women, and Utah territory followed suit in 1870 so this was a precedence in the west with territorial formation. 

 Andrea Malcomb  04:33

So the Colorado Women's Suffrage Association formed and met in January of 1876 to draft a suffrage resolution to be included in the new state's constitution, and it was Dr Alita Avery of Denver who served as the first president. The CWSA brought in Susan B Anthony, Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell to help their cause. And although the women waged a good campaign, the Constitutional Convention found the topic too controversial. And the opposition on the part of the liquor interest, helped defeat the measure. Boulder was notably the only county in which it did pass. The convention did require, however, the state assembly to call for an election on the issue in 1877 then between 1877 and 1892 the women of Colorado continued to organize. 

 Andrea Malcomb  05:20

Like many other states, this happened through Women's Club work. Louisa Tyler and Mary Shields made the Women's Christian Temperance Union the most powerful organization in the state. And our own Hannah founded the fortnightly literary club, and Elizabeth Byers started the ladies Aid Society. You can visit the home of Elizabeth Byers at 1310 Bannock Street. Today, it's a historic house museum and home of History Colorado, Center for Colorado Women's History. My friend, historian Dr Marcia Goldstein, likes to relate that there was no small contingent of women's rights activists who came from the state's emerging labor and farm movements as well groups like the Knights of Labor and the Colorado farmers Alliance and Colorado State Grange all had women in leadership positions, and they all advocated for the right to vote for Coloradoans of all economic classes across the state. 

 Andrea Malcomb  06:13

And then, of course, you have the newspapers. Many were owned by men, but some were owned by women, and they connected the people of Colorado and helped form public opinion around women's rights to vote. In 1881 Carolyn Romney set up the Durango Record, and they were dedicated to "women's rights, law and order and the new wonder of the Southwest", they said. And then you had Emma Ghent Curtis, who edited the Royal Gorge in Canyon City that supported labor and women's issues and Grace Espy Patton published The Tourney in Fort Collins, beginning in 1893. And then we have famously, Caroline Nichols Churchill, who published The Antelope in Denver starting in 1879. Her mass had proclaimed its dedication quote, "to the interests of humanity, women's political equality and individuality", end quote. It was in 1882 though, that she decided to change the paper's name to The Queen Bee, and I love that name. 

 Andrea Malcomb  07:10

Churchill, while not an active member of the suffrage associations, still influenced public attitudes throughout the campaign and throughout the state. It was in 1892 then that Colorado voters elected populist Davis Waite as governor in a three way Governor's race, and this was the biggest victory the populist had yet achieved anywhere in the nation. The populist, or People's Party were committed to that notion of equal rights for all and special privileges to none, which did include suffrage. Unfortunately, Waites' election coincided with the silver market crash and the economic depression of 1893 and then when the Western Federation of Miners went on a five month strike, wait intervened on behalf of the Union, which is unheard of across the West, he ordered the deployment of state militia to support and protect the miners, and in subsequent decades, we'll see that is definitely not the case in Colorado's history. So it's this intertwining of pro labor and pro suffrage that can be seen throughout Western mining communities in Colorado in the West. 

 Andrea Malcomb  08:13

The Colorado General Assembly put the issue of suffrage to voters, finally through a referendum, and as Election Day 1893 drew closer, it was the Colorado equal Suffrage Association, their campaign flooded the state with 1000s of flyers. I love this story. Their office was in the Tabor Opera House in Denver, and it was a space donated by the now infamous woman, Baby Doe Tabor. She was second wife of pioneer Horace Tabor. Additional monies were given for this caused by Augusta Tabor, Horace's first wife. It really shows how two women unified for a greater cause despite their own personal history. So the opposition groups to suffrage were funded largely by the Brewers Association. They only sent out a limited number of anti suffrage leaflets however, perhaps sensing that this vote was inevitable. So on Tuesday, November 7, 1893 the men of Colorado went to the polls and voted in favor of suffrage after 25 years of effort. And it was Carolyn Churchill's paper that declared, quote, "Western women wild with joy over the Colorado victory", end quote. And today you can find a plaque near 1734 Curtis Street in Denver that marks this achievement, and it reads: Until 1911 Denver was the largest city in the nation where women could vote. Of course, like most states, this victory did not include all Western women, and although African American women did get the vote in Colorado, Asian American and indigenous women were left behind, of course, due to exclusionary citizenship and registration requirements. 

 Andrea Malcomb  09:47

In Colorado, Native Americans living on tribal lands like the Ute- Mountain Ute didn't have guaranteed voting rights until 1970, 5 years after the passage of The National Voting Rights Act. In recent years, though, our state has made substantial progress in voting access for Colorado tribes, including in 2019 voting reforms passed included one that tribal councils could request voting centers on tribal lands, and two that native residents could use their tribe headquarters or other tribe approved addresses when registering to vote. And then in 2023 the state passed legislation providing automatic voter registration for tribal nations, which is a first in the country. So there are still barriers to voting and basic services for Colorado tribes to be addressed. But again, Colorado leads the way. There's still more work to be done.

 CM Marihugh  10:36

Thanks for touching on that fuller history of this region, and it's a reminder that while we're talking about equal rights for women at the time, these other groups, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Chinese immigrants, so many that came to work were not included in that principle. So where are we going first on our tour?

 Andrea Malcomb  11:01

Well, we are going to head to the northern part of the state, to a city called Fort Collins, and that's where we find one of the earliest suffragists in Colorado. We go to the Heritage Courtyard in Library Park at 207 Petersen Street. We'll see the cabin of Elizabeth Stone. Stone was a well respected business owner, and she was a champion for the suffrage movement, as well as for the Women's Christian Temperance Union and we find a lot of amazing women business owners in early Colorado history. So in just a town of 1300 people, membership to the Fort Collins Equal Suffrage Association was originally low, but it grew very quickly. Stone was 80 years old at the time of forming the association, and according to a fellow activist, she was the most radical woman suffragist in the whole community, and likely a persuasive voice on behalf of the movement. Stone was able to vote for the first time in a municipal election in 1894 at age 93 and she said, I have waited a lifetime for this privilege, and then if we go to Loveland, Colorado, at the foot lagoon amphitheater, which is at 500 East Third Street, we'll find a statue. And it's named Every Word We Utter. And it was done by sculptor Jane DeDecker, and she says that quote, the concept of this proposed woman's monument was inspired by a letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Lucretia Mott, in which she wrote about the power of words and deeds. This letter stated that "every word we utter, every act we perform, waft into innumerable circles beyond." For DeDecker, the statue captures the collective energy from all women who have made this happen, and she says it acknowledges that we still need to keep moving as we strive for equality.

 CM Marihugh  12:44

I love that story about Elizabeth stone, hearing about these women who waited their entire lives. She's 93 and she's finally able to vote, even though she's been such a business leader and a community leader. It's wonderful to hear those kinds of quotes. I think it's so important to highlight the actual statues that commemorate women's suffrage movement, because there are relatively few of them scattered around thecountry. There are at least 20 states that do not have any statues or monuments to honor this movement, although they may have historical markers, but I know that this statue has national leaders, and a number of them national leaders traveled to Colorado to campaign. I think you're going to tell us about Susan B Anthony's trip at some point. So where are we going next on our tour?

 Andrea Malcomb  13:44

So we are going to head down the front range to Denver, and we're going to go to my institution, which is the Molly Brown House Museum. We have a Vote For Women Trail marker outside, and we're at 1340 North Pennsylvania Street. So this is the home of Margaret Brown, or Molly, as she became known in pop culture. She's most famously known for being the heroine of the Titanic. Margaret first became socially engaged outside the home during her early years while living in Leadville, Colorado. This is where she met and married her husband, James Joseph Brown. Margaret worked in soup kitchens and did other charitable Catholic work while living in Leadville, and when a chapter, the National American Women's Suffrage Association, was formed there in 1893 by Mary C C Bradford, it's likely Margaret attended those meetings. There was even one that Carrie Chapman Catt came and gave a speech at First Presbyterian Church on Harrison Avenue in September of 1893 in Leadville. 

 Andrea Malcomb  14:41

10 years later, Bradford and brown were both members of the Denver Women's Press Club. And living here in Denver. Bradford was also active in the Jane Jefferson Democratic Club, which is the oldest organized Women's Political club in the nation. After Margaret and JJ Brown moved to Denver in this house in 1894 Margaret became a charter member of the Denver Women's Club led by Sarah Platt Decker, and together, they were able to do such tremendous work in the city. All of these social organizations, these clubs and literary societies around the state, proved to be the breeding ground for the growing women's suffrage movement, and women of all classes here participated. I really think it's easy to picture Margaret hosting a group of her peers here in the house as they planned and prepared for these suffrage activities. And beyond Margaret's philanthropy and civic leadership, we like to use the museum and her story to demonstrate the significant involvement of women in the public and political spheres in the Progressive Era here in Denver in Colorado. 

 Andrea Malcomb  15:42

One example is during the summer of 1914, suffrage leaders, including Mrs. Brown, gathered from across the US for a conference of great women. It was held at the Newport Rhode Island, home of an Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. Notable leaders in social reform from across the country attended, but from Colorado, we had Senator Helen Ring Robinson. She stayed with Mrs. Brown in her Newport cottage. Brown hosted several events and speeches, including one by her friend Colorado juvenile court judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey, and they touched on topics like mining and labor reform and other women's rights issues. It also was a place where competing approaches that were splitting suffragists between the National American Women's Suffrage Association and its congressional union, or CU, really sort of began to coalesce around clear ideas about how to proceed. 

 Andrea Malcomb  16:36

Alice Paul and Lucy burns headed up the CU, and they modeled their approach after the British "punish theparty in power", tactic, so they decided they were going to try to oust all the Democrats in the forthcoming election for not supporting suffrage, and this Marble House conference committee work really solidified this decision for the congressional union, National Women's party, to really agitate for a constitutional amendment, and they would do that by flipping those congressional seats. However, here in Colorado, we have Senator Charles Thomas. He is pro suffrage. He served as chairman of the committee on women's suffrage, and so this punish the party in power tactic meant that his Democratic seat was being eyed by the CU and so for them, maybe there's an appealing female candidate, and Mrs. James J brown R Margaret Brown of Denver came to mind for many people. Mrs. Brown had already been in the news all spring of 1914 for an offer to lead a regiment of fighting women in the impending war with Mexico. She believed that women had a role to play in military service as well. She also responded to a minor strike that had turned deadly in southern Colorado, and she did speeches all over the state about these multiple issues. So cu leaders and friends supported her run for US Senate, and a conversation unfolded in newspapers across the country about the suitability of a woman for such an office. "A woman in the Senate?" they would ask. When asked if she would win as a woman candidate, Mrs. Brown said that, quote, "It is the most propitious time to send a woman to Congress. It will be a great service to women in the East," end quote. And when she was asked about the more militant English suffragists, she replied, quote, "Well, they have tried for 20 years to get what they want with sugar, and now they have adopted men's methods. There will be no mincing matters. There will be no pink tea politics," end quote. I love her, no pink tea politics. 

 Andrea Malcomb  18:32

So Eastern suffrage leaders, of course, inquired about Mrs. Brown's credentials. You had Maud Howe Elliott, leader of the Newport Suffrage League. You had Alice Stone Blackwell and they corresponded together in reference to a woman's journal article which came out that summer. And that article upheld Mrs. Brown as air quotes, sort of the "right kind of suffragist" who was willing to step up and take such a Senate seat. But in a letter to congressional union Doris Stevens, our own Ellis Meredith, known as our Susan B Anthony of Colorado, she replied by saying that, "Now Mrs. Brown, she's a good sort, but refrained from campaigning against Senator Thomas." Ellis Meredith understood the political situation back here in Colorado. And then you had Dr Anna Howard Shaw, who was president of NAWSA at the time, the National American Women's Suffrage Association. She told reporters that she thought that Mrs. Brown's bid was nothing short of treason, and that Miss Paul and Miss Burns had a great lack of political sagacity to campaign against Senator Thomas. So lots of political upheaval in the state about Mrs. Brown running for the US Senate. Ultimately, Mrs. Brown dropped her bid in the fall of 1914 based on the sort of political split, but I think her Senate run and her direct involvement in Marble House and the congressional union meetings demonstrated this pivotal role that Colorado women were already playing in what is really nuanced andsometimes competing approach to get the passage of the 19th Amendment.

 CM Marihugh  20:04

I just wanted to mention it's really something that at the same time, women were, you know, agitating for the vote, there were so many women that were ready to run for office, it wasn't as if, oh, first get the vote. Then 10 years later, women start running for office. Many of them are running prior to the 19th Amendment. So that's really incredible. Molly Brown just sounds like such a fascinating person, and I know she's known in pop culture as one of the people that survived the Titanic, but to hear about her work outside of that, I really would like to come to the house. I can imagine. It's a well, on your website, it's a beautiful Victorian structure, right? 

 Andrea Malcomb  20:54

It is. It's a beautiful Victorian house. It's in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, so it's just a couple blocks from the State Capitol, and I think Mrs. Brown, she represents this whole amazing cadre of women who are, you know, with Colorado already having women voting, they are also running for office. They're holding elections office positions, so they're intricately woven into the fabric of our city. 

 CM Marihugh  21:18

Now, you mentioned the important role of the suffrage newspapers in Colorado, like they there were in so many areas and there was a women's Press Club?

 Andrea Malcomb  21:30

Yes, absolutely. So just a block from my museum at the Denver women's press club at 1325, Logan Street, we find Minnie J Reynolds. She was a political writer for the Rocky Mountain News, and she founded the Denver women's press club with 19 other professional women friends in 1898 so already a huge core of women working in the news. Minnie played a leading role as press secretary of the Colorado Nonpartisan equal Suffrage Association, and she was able to convince virtually every newspaper editor, almost all of the men, to support the state referendum in 1893. And then during the early decades of the 20th century, Reynolds traveled across the nation as a suffrage organizer as part of the National American Women's Suffrage Association, and she worked tirelessly alongside other leaders like Jeannette Rankin and Carrie Chapman Catt until they finally saw the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920. 

 Andrea Malcomb  22:23

Another of those Denver women Press Club members was Ellis Meredith. I mentioned her earlier in conversation with Mrs. Brown's Senate run. She was a regular columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. She was also vice president of the Colorado Equal Suffrage Association. She's really said to be the architect of Colorado suffrage efforts. She was a very savvy woman. After 1893 she was elected as a delegate to the Denver City charter convention, and she served on the Colorado Democratic Party State Central Committee, and she was the first woman president of Denver City Election Commission from 1910 to 1915.And then in 1917 she moved to Washington, DC to work at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. So she's a force in sort of women working within the election sphere.

 CM Marihugh  23:14

That's amazing to hear about the different positions that she- positions of leadership that she took on this topic of suffrage newspapers, it was so critical for the public, particularly both those interested in suffrage and probably the anti suffragists, to know what would the public status of what was going on within the State and then nationally. Because, of course, the mainstream papers did not necessarily carry that probably most of what they were talking about with women was social aspects. But then also you mentioned the importance of the Press Club in campaigning among the mainstream newspapers. That was also critical, because they often took sides on the issue. So where are we going next? Are we staying at Denver?

 Andrea Malcomb  24:08

Yeah we're staying in Denver and going to the historically black neighborhood of five points. We're going to meet the women involved in the Colorado nonpartisan equal Suffrage Association, two amazing women, Elizabeth Piper Ensley and Ida Clark de Priest. Colorado Suffrage Movement really was more integrated than in other states, and Ensley was one of 28 original members of the non partisan equal Suffrage Association when it was created in 1893. Ensley noted the power of the African American women voters in their clubs in Colorado in An article that she wrote entitled "Election Day" in December of 1894 for a publication called The Women's Era. It was the official publication of the National Association of colored women's clubs, and the first national newspaper written by and for African American women. She wrote in it that "The readers of The Era will be interested to know what special part of the colored women have taken in this election. Most of them have done admirable work in the interests of the Republican Party", she said. "They also formed clubs of their own and heroically helped their brothers to elect a representative to the legislature." In 1904 Ensley would call for the African American Women's clubs of the state to organize, and she founded the Colorado Association of Colored Women's clubs, which she was later vice president of. The association, had a song even written by Eva Carter Buckner, that I think encapsulate Ensley's lifelong mission to fight for the rights of women and African Americans. So if I may, I'm going to not sing, but say the first few lines. 

 Andrea Malcomb  25:43

It says: We're Colorado's colored women struggling for a place. We're loyal to our country and we're loyal to our race. We're holding high the banner in the dust. It must not trail as we go marching on, onward upward to the summit, onward upward to the summit, onward, upward to the summit, were advancing step by step. Ensley was also instrumental in establishing the George Washington Carver day nursery, and it still exists today in Denver. Unfortunately, Ensley died in 1919 just before the National Women's Suffrage Amendment was ratified. So she didn't get a chance to vote in that sort of sphere of national women voting, but could vote in Colorado, of course. Her likeness is included in a mural at the Blair Caldwell African American Library at 2401 Welton Street. 

 Andrea Malcomb  26:34

The Other Woman, Ida Clark DePriest organized the Colorado Colored Women's Republican club with Ensley really to teach African American women how to be educated voters. She co founded the Colorado women's Republican club with Ensley, and in its initial years, the club helped campaign for and later elected black lawyer Joseph Stewart to the Colorado State Legislature again, talking about sort of the importance of helping their brothers elect representatives to the legislature. DePriest also served as a clerk under the Colorado secretary of state until resigning in 1909 DePriest faced many instances of racial bias while working under Secretary of State, Timothy O'Connor, and had to work despite this adversity to elevate her status as a colored person and as a woman. In addition, she worked in the office of the Election Commissioner in Denver on voter registration in 1916 and throughout these jobs, she actively educated voters on the issues in different campaigns by holding parlor meetings across the five points neighborhood. 

 CM Marihugh  27:38

I learned that Elizabeth Ensley, as you said, she joined the state suffrage organization, and she served as the treasurer who helped raise significant funds, and she was apparently one of the few black women nationwide who worked within an integrated suffrage organization. Really amazing, and I'm glad that you shared that song, because, as we've noted in other episodes, particularly in Missouri, music was such an important tool that the suffragists use both to motivate each other and then as a communication tool to try To get advocates for their cause. So Denver, as you've described, was the seat of so much suffrage work. But can you talk more about the people and the work in the counties of the south and west? 

 Andrea Malcomb  28:32

Absolutely. So if we head south along the front range to Colorado Springs, there, we'll find Dr CarolineSpencer. She was a retired physician who really became a force in The National Women's Party. She was one of those Silent Sentinels who picketed President Woodrow Wilson's White House alongside Natalie Gray and Bertha Arnold, also from Colorado. Spencer was actually arrested three times and twice imprisoned as a Sentinel. I love this quote from Spencer, where she said, "The tyranny of half the race over the other half is the first wrong to be righted, and it's overthrow the greatest revolution conceivable." I think Dr Spencer knew the power of a good sort of quote, and she knew the power of a good banner. She was the one who unfurled a national women's party banner atop Colorado's Pikes Peak. 

 Andrea Malcomb  29:21

The year before her Washington DC arrest as a Sentinel. Newspapers proclaims that, quote, "Suffragists have reached dizzying heights, planting a glorious purple, white and gold banner to flutter the message of women's freedom." end quote. I love that, and I love the idea of seeing her atop Pikes Peak with that- with that banner, she was one of those intrepid Colorado women. And then if we imagine ourselves at the top of Pikes Peak, we look south towards Lake City, Colorado, there's another historical marker there at 403 Henson Street, and it honors Henry and Eugenie Olney and Jared Warner Mills. It was in 1875 that Eugenie Mary Wilde married journalist Henry C Olney. He had purchased interest in Lake City civil world newspaper. So again, the importance of these newspapers ahead of the 1877 election, Colorado Women's Suffrage Association organized an extensive speaking campaign that included, if you remember, Susan B Anthony and Lucy Stone. 

 Andrea Malcomb  30:22

Between September 11th and Election Day on October 2, 1877 Anthony spoke in towns across central and southern Colorado, including Lake City. They spoke outside the Hinsdale County Courthouse, which is a vote through a women trail site at 317 Henderson street. She spoke outside because there were too many people for everyone to be seated indoors. It was Henry Olney's Silver World's Newspaper that printed editorials in support of women's suffrage. And Olney and wife, Eugenie, along with J Warner Mills, reportedly entertained Anthony during her visit. It was the 1893 suffrage legislation bill that was authored by Mills. Actually, he was a lawyer who was called one of the staunchest friends of equal rights to all and special privileges to none. So he was a true populist, and we can thank him for drafting that legislation. And then, if we go to nearby Salida Colorado, you can find another Votes For Women Trail marker at a former Baptist Church where The Salida Equal Suffrage League was formed by Carrie Chapman Catt in support of Colorado's 1893 suffrage referendum.

 CM Marihugh  31:28

I love that story about Dr Spencer planting her banner atop Colorado's Pikes Peak. I read about the speech with Susan B Anthony. I think it was the coverage in the Silver World. And it wrote that quote, the popularity of the speaker attracted a large assembly, the largest, without doubt, ever witnessed in Lake City. And it went on to say that every available seat and standing room was taken and they had to move the lecture outside, as you mentioned, where are we heading to next?

 Andrea Malcomb  32:03

We're going to Pueblo, where you can see the Eighth Street Baptist Church located at 600 West Eighth Street. And that's where African American women of Pueblo worked for the suffrage movement. And then directly after the 1893 victory, Carrie Clyde Holly of Pueblo County was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1894 along with two other women, this made her one of the first three female legislators in the United States. And then in 1895 Holly became the first woman to get a bill she drafted made into law. The Holly Law would raise the age of consent. 

 Andrea Malcomb  32:37

And then if we go a little south in the counties along the border with New Mexico, we learn the story of another important figure to Colorado suffrage, and that's Agapito Vigil. He was born in about 1833 in Taos, which was then in the Mexican Province of New Mexico. So the Hispano people have occupied this land since the 17th Century in early communities in what was northern New Mexico, and is now southern Colorado. Were subjects first of Spain and then later Mexico, after it gained independence in 1821 after the end of the Mexican American War in 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded more than a third of Mexico's territory to the United States, including all or parts of Colorado, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming and this treaty guaranteed, in Word, if not indeed, full citizenship rights for those as Americans today, many Hispano Colorado families with this multigenerational history say that they did not cross the border. The border crossed them. 

Andrea Malcomb  33:40

Vigil was a stock raiser and farmer, and he was a delegate to the Colorado constitutional convention in 1875 representing Los Animas and Warefano counties. He was also a member of the state's first General Assembly, representing Kanye House County. Colorado's Constitutional Convention, which opened in Denver on December 20, 1875 consisted of 39 members, and Vigil was one of only three hispanos and spoke only Spanish, so an interpreter translated throughout the entire convention. Fun fact, the final Colorado constitution was printed not only in English, but also in Spanish and German. At the convention, V Hill was appointed to a five member Committee on the Rights of suffrage in elections, and his committee split three two in its decision on women's suffrage, with Vigil and Henry Bromwell making up the minority. This is despite Vigil representing a conservative Catholic constituency that was largely opposed to suffrage. The minority report that they created was printed in the proceedings, and it read quote, "The truth is, we are a human race. Part of us are men. Part of us are women, both equal, each superior and inferior. Each of us is part and parcel of the same humanity. If either is to tread on the other, why must women be the victim?" end quote.

CM Marihugh  35:00

And that's an incredible quote, "if either is to tread on the other why must women be the victim". To me this is a reminder that there truly were fair minded men during this time. They tend to get lumped all together as anti suffragists. But in truth, women could not have achieved getting the vote without all the men that helped them. So that's an incredible quote.

Andrea Malcomb  35:29

Yeah, I'm gonna say absolutely not without Mills drafting legislation, without Shafroth and Senator Thomas. We have these incredible men working towards suffrage in the state.

CM Marihugh  35:40

So can you tell us what happened in Colorado after it gained the right to vote? Women gained the right to vote in the state. And then after the 19th Amendment?

Andrea Malcomb  35:51

absolutely so, after the 1893 referendum passed, the women of Colorado really set out to become registered and well educated voters. We learned about Ida Clark DePriest, sort of efforts to get African American women educated. In January of 1894 the first issue of The Women Voter was published. It was a Denver based newspaper that really served as the official arm of the Colorado Women's Political club. The newspaper aimed to present matter of general interest to women voters throughout the city and state, and its first issue represented calls to register at once, women like Holly were elected to various offices. However, no women held office in the state senate until Helen Ring Robinson, who was a former Colorado College instructor and writer, she became Colorado's first female state senator in 1912. 

Andrea Malcomb  36:40

We then have Margaret Brown's 1914 campaign for US Senate, followed by Agnes Riddle of Glendale, who was elected as the second female senator in 1916 after serving as a representative. And then no other woman will hold office in the state senate until 1940 but Colorado and other western states became role models, I think, in symbols of hope for states that we're still awaiting suffrage. There's a perfectly emblematic illustration that's titled The Awakening, and it was done by cartoonist Henry "Hy" Mayer. It first appeared in Puck Magazine's suffrage issue, which was published February 20, 1914. It's an iconic illustration which shows this torch bearing female, and her gown is labeled votes for women, and she really symbolizes this awakening of the nation's women to the desire for suffrage. In this image, she is striding across the western states, where women already have the right to vote, and she's moving towards the east, where there are women reaching out to her from darkness and desperation, and this image is really speaks to the power of Colorado in the West. 

Andrea Malcomb  37:48

For 27 years, Colorado suffragists became national leaders. They spoke across the country in support of women's enfranchisement. Women Voters in these suffrage States held real political power with 1/5 of the Senate, 1/7 of the house and 1/6 of the electoral votes, those were coming from suffrage states. Alice Paul believed that such leverage really could make possible speedy passage of this federal suffrage, a movement to have such political power. It was the summer of 1915 that Dr Spencer had persuaded Alice Paul that Colorado Springs was a superior place for the National Women's party state headquarters. So she worked with Paul and Doris Stevens, and Spencer really was the primary organizer of all the National Women's party recruitment and events for the four state region. They had a suffrage train that ran across the country from DC to the enfranchised western states, that was known as the Suffrage Special. And it made a stop in Colorado Springs, where the suffragists collected signatures on a petition for a national amendment. 

Andrea Malcomb  38:52

And then, after the passage of the 19th Amendment, it was December 15, 1919, that Colorado became the 22nd state to ratify. Some suffragists left public life at that point, but Alice Paul, as we know, really believed the true battle for equality had yet to begun. So in 1923 the National Women's party had an equal rights pageant here in Colorado Springs at the Garden of the Gods. The pageant celebrated the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention and that fight for women's suffrage. This pageant included a scene of women pioneers coming over the Overland Trail, and it was also a kickoff campaign for this new constitutional amendment that would solidify the equal rights for women. And Alice Paul initially named it the Lucretia Mott amendment. And Lillian Carer of Colorado Springs was a co author with Paul on the amendments first draft, we would come to know it as the Equal Rights Amendment. And while the Equal Rights Amendment has been passed by two thirds of each house of Congress and approved by three fourths of the states, it's yet to be registered after 102 years, I think constitutional scholars agreed that the ERA is part of the Constitution, but that final step has not been taken, to publish it in the in the Federal Register. If that were to happen, it would certify its ratification as the 28th amendment. So there's more work to be done there, too. And I think really, what we can learn from Margaret Tobin Brown and Colorado suffrage and women's rights movement is that they're just this whole part of a cadre of Progressive Era reformers. They're really striving to fulfill an experiment of freedom and democracy and equality for all. That was Mrs. Brown's motto, really was equal rights for all. I think Margaret Brown represents the hundreds of Colorado women who played these key roles in labor and in public health and in education reform, really building cities like Denver and the West to be more equitable and healthy for everyone who lived here and they set the stage for women today serving in elected positions and drafting legislation. 

Andrea Malcomb  40:55

One of my favorite stories about Mrs. Brown is that in an interview on the train home to Denver in 1912 after the Titanic disaster, she told reporters about her frustrations with the wealthy survivors who had refused to help her aid Titanic's immigrant and crew survivors. Margaret was really quick to dismiss the idea like that a tragedy like the Titanic makes all humans equal across social classes, and the press really latched on to her notoriety as a survivor, and they eventually proclaimed her heroine of the Titanic. Suffragists really used the Titanic disaster as a platform in 1912 Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell's the women's journal, along with Colorado's Ellis Meredith contributing, used the Titanic disaster and Mrs. Brown's heroism as evidence for why women should be enfranchised. In the article, they go on to say that most of Titanic's crew had no votes. Some of the women were voters, like Mrs. JJ Brown of Denver, and that she wrote one of the books for seven hours.

 Andrea Malcomb  41:56

There's a great illustration in this article of a sort of a boat and debris floating in the water. And the illustrations caption reads, quote, when women cannot vote, the ship of state is like the steam Titanic with only half enough lifeboats. End Quote, so Margaret Brown herself once said, There is something in the atmosphere of Colorado that inspires you, and I would say, and I hope everyone listening agrees that it was most certainly not pink tea politics, that one woman the right to vote, but was that tireless fight of generations of unsinkable women like Mrs. Brown and other women in Colorado who learned how to create a more level playing field. And I think that's what's made the West and Colorado a model? It's where women learned how to lobby and campaign and march and protest for their rightful place in democracy. So us Coloradans proudly claim the status of being the first state where women achieve the right to vote and a full 27 years before the rest of the country, and it's where we proved the suitability of women as voters and women as representatives. And I think today, Colorado continues to lead the way in voter access laws and initiatives, including our successful and secure mail in ballot process. And I think Colorado thankfully has enough lifeboats just like that illustration.

CM Marihugh  43:19

That's an incredible quote, yeah, it's also so interesting that that disaster got linked to the suffrage movement in some writings. Andrea, I want to thank you so much for such an interesting discussion about Colorado. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Andrea Malcomb  43:43

Of course, thank you. We are very Colorado proud.

CM Marihugh  43:46

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  45:07

I am standing on the shoulders 

Of the ones who came before me, 

I am honored by the 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.