Henrietta Hay's Column

THE GRAND JUNCTION DAILY NEWS, Edwin Price, Publisher, November 11, 1893:

"EXTRA - EXTRA - By a vote of 35,798 to 29,451 the men of Colorado have extended the privilege of voting to the lovely ladies of the fair state.

"INFORMATION FOR LADY VOTERS. They are entitled to vote at all elections both state and national.

"The voters of Colorado have very cordially and gallantly extended to the ladies the same privileges which they themselves have enjoyed with the ballot, and as soon as Governor Waite issues the proclamation announcing this fact, the ladies will be entitled to have their say as to how we shall be governed.

"Special tribute must be paid to the gallant men of Mesa County who voted overwhelmingly for their ladies. The vote was 794 for equal suffrage, and 219 against."

Edwin Price tended to get a bit flowery, but he was outclassed by the Denver newspaper, The Queen Bee, which started life as The Antelope. Caroline Nichols Churchill, its owner and a maverick among women of her time, recorded the victory. "WESTERN WOMEN WILD WITH JOY OVER COLORADO'S ELECTION. Come ye disconsolates, wherever you languish, come to Colorado and cast in your lot, here the sun shines brightest and there is hope for all women...Come ye sinners poor and needy, come to Colorado now, this shall be the land for women..."

THE DENVER REPUBLICAN, November, 1983, as quoted by Edwin Price, takes up the story:

"Now that equal suffrage has been approved...many women who worked hard in the campaign and many more who only watched with more or less indifference--many women of many minds are framing this question, "What about it?" Many inquiries have reached this office from those who will soon be on an equal footing with men, so far as the right to vote is concerned, and they want to know if it is really a fact or will they still be limited in the use of the ballot.

"The executive committee of the Equal Suffrage association met yesterday afternoon and plans were discussed for getting a thorough grasp of the new conditions made by the success of the suffrage movement. Systematic study of political subjects is to be taken up. For this purpose a committee was appointed to arrange a programme of study. Various governments will be taken up and studied with a view to getting a thorough knowledge of civil and social problems.

"The ladies decided to postpone any celebration to November 25, when some of the pent-up joy will be let loose in jollification." The editor did not elaborate on what the jollification would be on the 25th of November, but we know they were "wild with joy."

So now these wonderful western women could vote. I met a few of them in the extensive records of the time, and I stand in awe of them. They were mostly highly intelligent, well educated, religious women who were concerned about their state, their community, their homes and their rights as individuals and after their victory they took their new status very seriously.

One lady wrote to the paper, "In common with many ladies, I rejoice today in the right of the franchise. But many of us who have taken no active interest before in politics, will need some instructions on the subject. Would the Republican be so kind as to tell us when we may first exercise our prerogative?" Mrs. John L. Routt, president of the Denver City League, a woman of queenly presence, said the day after the election, "I never felt so weak in all my life." She was the first woman in the state to register. The Monday Literary Club of Denver "voted to go to the polls for the first time as a group. Others asked, "Now that I have received this new right, what books shall I get to teach me how to exercise it?"

The day after the election a woman recently arrived from Germany accosted one of the members of the suffrage association saying, "Ach, Jan, he feel so bad; he not vote any more; me, I vote now." She was relieved to find that Jan could continue to vote.

Colorado women had created a social reform movement and they were truly "wild with joy." I wish I could have been part of the jollification in Grand Junction that November a hundred years ago.