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The women's suffrage movement in Washington State was part of the broader Women's suffrage movement. Women gained and lost the right to vote repeatedly in Washington before it became the fifth state in the Union and the first in the 20th century to pass women's suffrage in 1910[1].

Territorial Suffrage History (1854-1870)
Washington Territory was able to enact voter qualifications by legislative action under its Federal Organic Act and six years after the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, house member Arthur A. Denny introduced a bill to the lower house of the territory in 1854, but it lost 8 to 9. Washington's first female teacher, Catherine Paine Blaine was present at Seneca Falls and signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Some postulate that Blaine and her husband may have influenced Denny's support of suffrage[2].

After the loss, the subject went silent until 1867 when the Washington Territorial Legislature passed a law giving the right to vote to "all white citizens above the age of 21". Early suffragists in Washington rallied around the term "citizen" citing the 14th Constitutional Amendment definition of being "all persons born or naturalized in the United States."

Bellingham’s Edward Eldridge stood on the house floor and stated that this interpretation included women. For a while many agreed with Eldridge's statement until Mary Olney Brown attempted to cast her vote in Olympia in 1869 and was turned away and told she was not a citizen. In 1870 she tried again and was again denied. At the same time that she was trying to cast her ballot, her sister, Charlotte Olney French and several other women in Grand Mound, Washington cast their ballots successfully.

Susan B. Anthony lectures (1871)
Prominent national suffragist Susan B. Anthony traveled to the Northwest with well-known Oregon suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, in 1871.

Anthony was met with controversy in Walla Walla when churches refused to host her, stating that she had sipped an alcoholic beverage while in Umatilla, Oregon. When she left Walla Walla, the local newspaper called the suffrage campaign "worse than the small-pox and chills and fever combined"

After regrouping in Portland and enduring a difficult stage trip from Monticello on the Cowlitz River to Olympia, Washington's territorial capital, Anthony spoke about the "Power of the Ballot" on October 17th to an audience at the Olympic Hall. Washington Standard editor and suffragist, John Miller Murphy, described her arguments as "graceful and elegant"

On October 18th, Anthony dined with Daniel R. and Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow at their home, now the Bigelow House Museum. Anthony wrote in her diary of the evening "Dined at Judge Bigelows—his wife splendid—met some members of the Legislature—voluntary vote invites me to address Legislature tomorrow at 2 p.m

The following day, Anthony became the first woman to address the Washington Territorial Legislature, praised the group “This was the first time in the history of our nation that a woman has been allowed the privilege of addressing the lawmakers in session."

The Olympia Transcript said of her speech: “Miss Anthony is a woman of more than ordinary ability, and the able manner in which she handled her subject before the Legislature, was ample warning to the members of that body who oppose woman suffrage to be silent.” 8

While the Territorial Legislature did not pass a "declaratory" suffrage bill in 1871, Anthony's visit inspired the creation of suffrage associations and more intense lobbying across the state. That same year, territorial legislators enacted a law that declared women could not vote until the suffrage became a federal law.

In 1875, Territorial Legislators introduced a women's suffrage bill, but the measure lost in the House by a vote of 11 in favor to 15 opposed.

Women vote in school meeting elections (1877)
In 1877, the Washington Territorial Legislature passed a law enabling tax-paying women to vote in school election after having been alternately allowed and restricted from participating in school district meetings throughout the 1850s and 1860s.

Harry Morgan of Tacoma was a saloon owner who wanted to make sure that women had no vote, because he feared what they would do for his type of business. He was the backer of the case Harland V. Territory which was the first to officially deny women the right to vote. George Turner (U.S. politician) was a powerful voice in this case, because he argued that women should not be allowed on a jury, and that suffrage allowed them to do so, and that they needed to reverse women’s suffrage to keep them off the jury.

Another case that kept the right to vote from Washington from was the Nevada Bloomer case. Nevada Bloomer was the wife of a Spokane saloon owner, who cared little about women's suffrage, but was a very dutiful wife. Her husband along with some local judges, devised a plan in which they would send Nevada to vote and then turn her away so that she could bring her case to the supreme court. The movement would do a lot to support the Bloomer case, although Nevada never had any intention of actually pursuing real action; the case was simply a diversion to keep the issue tied up in the courts and stop women from voting for prohibition.

Emma Smith DeVoe and the “Still Hunt”
During the 1909-1910 campaign, suffragists followed the “still hunt” strategy. The emphasis was not generally on public rallies but the personal, intensive work of wives, mothers and sisters to influence the men who went to vote at the polls. The suffragists distributed one million pieces of literature. The Washington State Grange, Labor Unions, the Farmer’s Union and other groups backed ratification as well.

The ballot measure to amend Article VI of the Washington Constitution won by majority of 22,623 on November 8, 1910, a favorable vote of nearly 2 to 1. Every county voted in favor of the amendment. Washington State joined the western states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho, that had already enacted women’s suffrage. Washington was the first state in the 20th century to pass women’s suffrage, helping to inspire the nationwide campaign and setting the stage for the eventual national suffrage constitutional amendment in 1920. The Washington law, however, allowed only those who could read and speak English to vote. Many women, including immigrant Asians and Native Americans, who were subject to other restrictive citizenship laws, were still denied the right to vote.

First women legislators
Washington’s first women legislators were Representatives Frances Axtell and Nena J. Croake. They were elected in 1912 and served in the 1913 State Legislature. On March 22, 1920, in a Special Session called by Governor Louis Hart, the Washington State Legislature ratified the 19th Amendment to U.S. Constitution, known was the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment,” enabling national suffrage for women. Representative Frances Haskell from Pierce County introduced the resolution and the only other woman legislator at the time, Representative Anna Colwell of Snohomish addressed the session along with suffragists Emma Smith DeVoe and Carrie Hill. Washington was the 35th of the 36 states needed to ratify the national amendment which became effective on August 26, 1920.

Timeline of women’s suffrage
1854: Arthur A. Denny introduces a bill to the lower house of the territory. It loses 8 to 9.

1867: Washington Territorial Legislature passes a law giving the right to vote to "all white citizens above the age of 21”

1869: Mary Olney Brown attempts to cast her ballot but was turned away and told she was not a citizen.

1870: Mary Olney Brown attempts to cast her ballot again. Brown along with her sister Charlotte Olney French and thirteen other women successfully vote in Thurston County.

1871: Renowned suffragist Susan B. Anthony travels through Washington Territory lecturing on women’s suffrage. She is the first woman to speak in front of the Washington Territorial Legislature.

1871: Territorial Legislators reject women’s intense lobbying by enacting a law declaring that women could not vote until the U.S. Congress made it the law of the land.

1875: Territorial Legislators introduce a woman’s suffrage bill, but the measure loses in the House by a vote of 11-15.

1877: Territorial Legislature passes a law enfranchising tax-paying women in school meeting elections, reflecting a prevailing belief that women’s ‘sphere’ was in the home and family matters.

1878: The Washington State Constitutional Convention held in Walla Walla excludes women’s suffrage from the proposed constitution by a vote of 7-8, despite a petition signed by 600 men and women demanding it be included. Washington male voters reject two separate ballot issues related to suffrage by a three to one margin as part of the vote on the State Constitution.

1881: Washington House of Representatives passes a women’s suffrage bill by a vote of 13-11, but the measure is lost in the Council by a vote of 5-7.

1883: Both houses of the Washington Territorial Legislature pass women’s suffrage. Governor William Newell signed the bill into law effective November 23, 1883. At this time in the U.S. only Wyoming and Utah territories had enacted women’s suffrage prior to this.

1884: The Territorial Supreme Court reaffirms women’s suffrage in a challenge relating to women as jurors.

1886: The Territorial Legislature clarified the wording of voting rights to state “[a]ll American citizens, male and female” could vote rather than the somewhat vague wording of 1883 legislation which stipulated that where “his” was used it was to be construed as “his” and “her.” The legislation is signed on November 26, 1886 by Governor Watson Squire.

1886: Using their voting rights, women voted for reforms in local elections, and helped to send a Democrat to Congress, a rarity in Washington Territory. Women’s votes played a role in enacting local option prohibition.

1887: Washington Territorial Supreme Court revokes suffrage due to a technicality in an enacting clause during a suit brought by a gambler indicted by a grand jury that included women stating that title of the 1883 Act and its amendatory version of 1866 did not reflect the content of the legislation. ????

1888, January 18: The Washington Legislature reenacts the suffrage law with an appropriate title. The measure excludes women from serving on juries. This same year the Washington Territorial Supreme Court decided another suffrage case. They ruled that the Federal government had intended to put the word “male” before “citizenship” in the Washington Territory Organic Act when establishing voter qualifications - taking away the right of Washington women to vote.

1889: The 1888 disqualification of women from voting weakened the cause of suffrage at the 1889 Washington State Constitutional Convention since women could not vote for electors to the conclave. Women’s suffrage was a separate issue on the state constitutional ballot in 1889, but lost by 19,000 votes. After statehood, enactment of women’s suffrage required a Washington State constitutional amendment. Women can vote in school elections.

1890: The legislature reinstates the limited right of women to vote in school elections

1897: The Fusionist and Populist reformers in the 1897 state legislature passed a bill for statewide vote to amend the Washington Constitution to grant women’s suffrage. Leading the efforts in the legislature was Laura Hall Peters who worked for the final passage of the legislature and in face had to rescue the bill. She discovered the true bill had been stolen and another substituted during a recess but with the help of supporters, she reverse the error and carried the correct bill to then Governor John Rogers for his signature. Despite work by suffrage groups statewide, the ratification vote on the amendment lost by a vote of 30,540 to 20,658 the following year.

1906: New, more organized efforts to win women’s suffrage began in earnest in Washington under the leadership of Tacoma resident Emma Smith DeVoe, who was a professional organizer for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and noted suffragist May Arkwright Hutton of Spokane.

1909: Organizers have enrolled suffragists throughout the state; by 1909 they were poised for an onslaught in Olympia to influence the legislature to pass a measure that would allow a vote to amend the State Constitution to enable women’s suffrage. Lobbying efforts by women influenced a coalition of Progressives in the legislature to pass legislation in February, 1909 amending the Washington Constitution to enable women to vote, pending a ratification vote of the male voters in November 1910.

1910: November 10th, male voters ratify women's suffrage in Washington State.