No Shrinking Violets!

The women on the frontier took up the causes of the Victorian age like temperance and feminism with actual success.  Females were in short supply on the frontier, so when a man sought a wife he had to agree to such things as abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, bad language and gambling.  There was a popular ditty among pioneer women:
    
The man who drinks the red, red wine,
Will never be a beau of mine.
The man who is a whiskey sop,
Will never hear my corset pop!

The temperance movement grew on the frontier in the 1870s and 1880s as the female population grew.  The temperance crusade had its roots on the western frontier as Kansas' Carry Nation became world renown for her hatchet wielding visits to the salons on the Plains.

Women's rights were recognized on the frontier - women could own and control their own property and engage in trade without their husband's consent.  Wyoming lead the way in women's right starting in 1869, and was the first state to grant women the right to vote fifty years before it was added to the US Constitution.  When it was finally adopted in 1920, all but four of the western states had already allowed women's suffrage, while only two of the eastern states had recognized the right of women to vote.

Next time.  The Story of Sarah Sim
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 13, 1814,  Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem.   The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

The Suffrage Question

Two of the frontier badges that women wore were Education and Suffrage.

The question of suffrage in Oregon came to vote 6 times after 1859 but despite all the energy and time devoted to the issue, suffrage did not pass until 1911.  After 1867, 17 referendum on suffrage were held in 11 states and of those 11 states only 2 won victories. In Washington the suffrage bill was defeated twice in 1854 and again in 1869.  Men gave the right to vote to teenagers instead of to the women that wanted it and were knowledgeable as to how to use it. 

When freedom finally came to the frontier woman, it had not changed the thinking of men enough to grant full political rights.  But the frontier woman did organize for religion and charitable causes, joined temperance organizations far more readily than they did  for the suffrage cause.

Suffrage leaders were well-educated, prosperous, Protestant, and married.  They argued that woman should vote because their moral perspective and domestic responsibilities helped them understand the problems of the increasingly complex world.

next time..the conclusion of Frontier Women

First in the Heart's of Women

While western states led the nation in women's suffrage, Wyoming was the very first to grant that right.  The reason however is not simply because women deserved the right to vote.  In is true that some men recognized a woman's importance on the frontier settlement, others simply supported the idea in order to bolster the strength of conservative voting blocks.

In Wyoming, men were motivated by sheer loneliness.  In 1869 the territory have over 6000 adult males and only 1000 adult females.  Men hoped that women would be more likely to settle in the rugged and isolated country if they were granted the right to vote.

William Bright was a territorial legislator who had a persuasive young wife who convinced him that denying women the right to vote was a gross injustice.  So he, of course, supported the movement.  Edward Lee, the territorial secretary, had supported the idea for years and argued that it was unfair for his mother to be denied a privilege granted to most African American males.

Most Wyoming legislators supports the bill because they thought it would win the territory free national publicity and might attract more single marriageable women to the region.  Governor of the territory, John Campbell, appreciated the publicity and power of the policy, so he signed the bill into law in 1869, making Wyoming the first territory state in the history of the nation to grant women this fundamental right of citizenship.