Esther Hobart Morris: The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge

All women today reap the benefit of that winter day in 1870 when Esther Hobart Morris gathered her courage and walked down the South Pass City street to the saloon where she applied to be justice of the peace.

She became the first woman judge in the nation and the face of the Woman Suffrage movement in the United States. She struck the first resounding crack into the glass ceiling that for centuries had been "keeping women in their place" by denying them the right to hold public office and to vote.

How did Esther go from being the wife of a speculator in a rowdy mining town in Wyoming Territory to being the honored guest at a white glove reception at the 1872 American Suffrage Association Convention in San Francisco? What inspired newspapers from Maine to the Territory of Hawaii to call her "the mother of Woman Suffrage?"

This book examines the life of Esther Morris and clarifies her contributions to women's rights. Author Cummings also counters the myths that have grown around Esther, her "tea party," and her participation in the legislation which allowed women to vote in Wyoming fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave other U.S. women suffrage.

Esther's own words from archived family correspondence—plus Cummings's years of research—bring life to this notable and complex figure.

The 150th Anniversary of Women Suffrage in Wyoming will be celebrated December 10, 2019. The 100th Anniversary of the passageof the 19th Amendment granting the nation’s women suffrage will be celebrated June 4, 2020.

1133760986
Esther Hobart Morris: The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge

All women today reap the benefit of that winter day in 1870 when Esther Hobart Morris gathered her courage and walked down the South Pass City street to the saloon where she applied to be justice of the peace.

She became the first woman judge in the nation and the face of the Woman Suffrage movement in the United States. She struck the first resounding crack into the glass ceiling that for centuries had been "keeping women in their place" by denying them the right to hold public office and to vote.

How did Esther go from being the wife of a speculator in a rowdy mining town in Wyoming Territory to being the honored guest at a white glove reception at the 1872 American Suffrage Association Convention in San Francisco? What inspired newspapers from Maine to the Territory of Hawaii to call her "the mother of Woman Suffrage?"

This book examines the life of Esther Morris and clarifies her contributions to women's rights. Author Cummings also counters the myths that have grown around Esther, her "tea party," and her participation in the legislation which allowed women to vote in Wyoming fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave other U.S. women suffrage.

Esther's own words from archived family correspondence—plus Cummings's years of research—bring life to this notable and complex figure.

The 150th Anniversary of Women Suffrage in Wyoming will be celebrated December 10, 2019. The 100th Anniversary of the passageof the 19th Amendment granting the nation’s women suffrage will be celebrated June 4, 2020.

19.95 Out Of Stock
Esther Hobart Morris: The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge

Esther Hobart Morris: The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge

by Kathyrn Swim Cummings
Esther Hobart Morris: The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge

Esther Hobart Morris: The Unembellished Story of the Nation's First Female Judge

by Kathyrn Swim Cummings

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Overview

All women today reap the benefit of that winter day in 1870 when Esther Hobart Morris gathered her courage and walked down the South Pass City street to the saloon where she applied to be justice of the peace.

She became the first woman judge in the nation and the face of the Woman Suffrage movement in the United States. She struck the first resounding crack into the glass ceiling that for centuries had been "keeping women in their place" by denying them the right to hold public office and to vote.

How did Esther go from being the wife of a speculator in a rowdy mining town in Wyoming Territory to being the honored guest at a white glove reception at the 1872 American Suffrage Association Convention in San Francisco? What inspired newspapers from Maine to the Territory of Hawaii to call her "the mother of Woman Suffrage?"

This book examines the life of Esther Morris and clarifies her contributions to women's rights. Author Cummings also counters the myths that have grown around Esther, her "tea party," and her participation in the legislation which allowed women to vote in Wyoming fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave other U.S. women suffrage.

Esther's own words from archived family correspondence—plus Cummings's years of research—bring life to this notable and complex figure.

The 150th Anniversary of Women Suffrage in Wyoming will be celebrated December 10, 2019. The 100th Anniversary of the passageof the 19th Amendment granting the nation’s women suffrage will be celebrated June 4, 2020.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781937147198
Publisher: High Plains Press
Publication date: 10/15/2019
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kathryn Swim Cummings is well prepared to bring to life the story of Esther Morris. Her own story, plus her exhaustive research and interpretive abilities, combine to make her the perfect narrator of Esther's story.

With a life-long passion for history, Cummings spent over forty-five years doing genealogical and historical research. With her children grown, Cummings left the corporate world in San Diego and moved to the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

Her strong interest in western history focused on Esther Morris, leading to twenty-five years of research into the first woman judge in the nation. At her seventy-fifth birthday party, Cummings realized it was time to buckle down and write the book.

Table of Contents

Foreword Will Bagley xi

Preface xiii

Part 1 "The Origin of Things"

1 "She Wanted to be Herself" 17

2 "She Was a Great Favorite" 25

3 "Our Life is Made of Labor and Rest" 35

4 "I Had No Voice in the Matter" 47

5 "Difficult the First Time Trying" 61

6 "More Light She Craved" 69

7 "Land of Unbelievable Horizons" 75

Part 2 "The Higher Plain of Human Rights"

8 "Pleased with This Country" 85

9 "Like All the Liberal Papers" 93

10 "Suffrage Is No Child's Play" 105

11 "I Feel I Am a Citizen" 111

12 "Let Alone a Justice of the Peace" 117

13 "Only Lady at the Democratic Meeting" 129

14 "Labored in Faith and Hope" 141

Part 3 "I Do Not Withdraw from the Woman's Cause"

15 "I Am Recognised Wherever I Go" 153

16 "Times We Should Lean" 163

17 "Life is Like a Dream" 173

18 "Ready to Maintain Prerogatives" 181

19 "Emblem of Our Liberties" 191

20 "More Candid than Diplomatic" 199

21 "Needing a Heroine" 209

Afterword: "Far in Advance of What We Were" 223

Appendix A The Rest of the Story 227

Appendix B Family Tree 236

Appendix C In Memoriam 241

Notes 245

Bibliography 269

Index 279

Acknowledgments 285

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