Ada McPherson Morley

Ada McPherson Morley (August 26, 1852 – December 9, 1917) was an American author, suffragist and rancher. Early in her time in New Mexico, she and her husband edited a newspaper and took on the Santa Fe Ring both in print and in business matters. Morley became involved with the New Mexico chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and later served as president. She was also involved in women's suffrage in New Mexico and helped recruit women into the Congressional Union (CU) later in her life. Morley owned a ranch in the Datil Mountains where she raised cattle and was able to host meetings.

Biography Ada McPherson was born on August 26, 1852, in Winterset, Iowa. Her father, Marcus L. McPherson, was a state senator. Ada McPerson started a New Mexico chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Thomas B. Catron who would become Ada’s nemesis, was part of the "Santa Fe Ring" which acquired land through dishonest dealings and exploitation. She became known as the "Cattle Queen of New Mexico."

Though blind from 1905 on, Ada organized and led the NMWCTU’s debate on women’s suffrage at the Chautauqua held in Mountainair, New Mexico, in August 1910. Her efforts, along with those of Nina Otero-Warren, Julia Brown Asplund, and others, were instrumental in getting very limited school suffrage into the New Mexico’s 1910 Constitution. After the New Mexico legislators failed to include full suffrage in the constitution, Ada ramped up efforts to get the federal amendment passed. She assisted suffragists, writers, and leaders around the country in promoting the women’s vote as a means of making social and moral reforms.

Ada joined the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (later known as the National Woman's Party) in 1914 and collaborated with national leaders on strategies to get Congress to pass the 19th Amendment. Despite facing poor health, she worked to recruit members to the CU in Magdalena, New Mexico in 1916. Declaring that “Disenfranchisement is a disgrace,” she organized suffragists from around the country to “bombard” Catron, New Mexico's state senator who headed the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. He sabotaged all efforts to let legislation advance out of his committee the Senate floor and suffragists publicly opposed him.

Over thirty-five years, Ada Morley wrote hundreds of letters to Congress advocating for the women’s vote. She wrote around 100 letters every month, and walked 3 miles to the closest post office to mail them. By the 1916 election, both parties in New Mexico were pro-suffrage, so Catron’s obstruction of the women’s vote lost him the primary. Undaunted, just days before leaving office, Catron railed on the Senate floor about the immense dangers to family life and societal norms if women were granted the vote. Fortunately, Ada lived long enough to see Senator Andrieus A. Jones of Las Vegas, New Mexico, replace Catron as Chair of the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage.

Morley spent her last years on her ranch in Datil, living with her sister, Lorraine Lavender. Ada MacPherson Morley died on December 9, 1917, and is buried in Datil, Catron County. The Evening Herald declared Ada Morley’s death a major loss to New Mexico, California, and Colorado.