Esther Hobart Morris

Esther Hobart Morris (August 8, 1814 – April 2, 1902) (Most sources state that Morris was born in 1814.) A biography published in 2019 states that she was born in 1812. The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners appointed Morris as justice of the peace after the previous justice, R. S. Barr, resigned in protest of Wyoming Territory's passage of the women's suffrage amendment in December 1869.

Popular stories and historical accounts, as well as by state and federal public monuments, point to Morris as a leader in the passage of Wyoming's suffrage amendment. However, Morris's leadership role in the legislation is disputed. Morris herself never claimed any credit, ascribing the bill entirely to William H. Bright, who was member of the territorial legislature from South Pass City and President of the Territorial Council.

Early life Esther Hobart McQuigg was born in the village of Spencer, Tioga County, New York, on August 8, 1814. It has been incorrectly reported she was orphaned at an early age. She actually grew up in a large family. Her mother died when Esther was fourteen, but she continued to live with her father, grandmother and siblings until age twenty-one. Esther then moved to the town of Owego and set up a millinery business. either left the camp for the winter or faced extreme isolation during the long winters. Both John Morris and Archy purchased interest in mining properties soon after their arrival, including the Mountain Jack, Grand Turk, Golden State, and Nellie Morgan lodes, according to historian Michael A. Massie. It took some "prodding" but Morris subsequently completed an application for the post and submitted a required $500 bond. The Sweetwater County Board of Commissioners in a vote of two to one approved her application on February 14, 1870. However, according to author Lynne Cheney writing in American Heritage, the county board appointed Morris to complete the term of Judge J. W. Stillman. Her appointment was challenged, but ultimately, her tenure was upheld. Just two of Morris's rulings were appealed, but both were affirmed by the appellate court according to records at the Wyoming State Archives. The challenges in the court dealing with a rough constituency were compounded by her husband, John, who had a reputation as "a brawler, an idler, and a drunk." 1896: Attended as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, which nominated the William McKinley-Garret A. Hobart ticket. (She was not related to Vice President Hobart, who died in office in 1899.)

Death and legacy Esther Hobart Morris died in Cheyenne on April 2, 1902.

Role in women's suffrage Evidence suggests that the public record celebrating Morris's role as a suffrage leader is largely fabrication. The legislation had been written a year before she became a justice of the peace, by Civil War veteran and South Pass City resident William H. Bright.

Many commenters opposing the women's suffrage movement viewed Morris's appointment as a "dangerous" sign of things to come. Some newspaper columns even opined that more women holding office would cause women to become a "third sex" and unsettle gender expectations. Other research leads to Morris's friend Melville C. Brown, who was president of the 1889 Constitutional Convention in Cheyenne, who claimed that she had presented the suffrage bill to the legislature. Morris's son Archy Slack followed suit and subsequently referred to his mother in the Cheyenne Sun newspaper as the "Mother of Suffrage". later served as a territorial legislator for Lander. He wrote a letter published on February 14, 1919 in Wyoming State Journal, in which he recounted the tea party and his attendance as a legislative candidate, some 50 years after the event had taken place. In a tip of the hat honoring Morris, Nickerson notes:To Mrs. Esther Morris is due the credit and honor of advocating and originating woman's suffrage in the United States. Officiating at the Statuary Hall ceremony were Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Richard Arnold Mullens (1918–2010), the president at the time of the Wyoming State Society.

In 1963, Wyoming officials placed a replica of the same 9 foot sculpture at the state capitol building in Cheyenne. An inscription thereon hails Morris as the "Mother of Woman Suffrage". In 2006, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, inducted Morris, as a suffrage pathbreaker. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame claims that her "influential efforts made it possible for women to vote in the Wyoming Territory in 1869."

On Death Valley Days Actress Bethel Leslie portrayed Morris in an episode of the television anthology series Death Valley Days titled "A Woman's Rights" that aired on May 1, 1960.

Hall of fame In 1973, she was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.