Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

People, Site

Location

403 Henson St, Lake City, CO 81235, USA

Lat/Long

38.029288, -107.314789

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

On the evening of September 20, 1877, Susan B. Anthony spoke on the question of women’s suffrage at the newly constructed courthouse in Lake City, Hinsdale County, Colorado. The September 22, 1877 edition of the Silver World gave the following account of the event:

The popularity of the speaker attracted a large assembly, the largest, without doubt, ever witnessed in Lake City. The court house had been secured for the occasion, and half an hour before the time for which the lecture was announced, every available seat and every inch of standing room in the hall was occupied, as many more were outside unable to gain admittance, and the speaker was utterly unable to get through the crowd to the rostrum. It was, therefore, deemed advisable to hold an outdoor meeting. The announcement to that effect was greeted with applause by the crowd outside and within the hall.

At the close of Anthony’s address, it was announced that another meeting would be held at the courthouse the following evening to organize a local women’s suffrage association. Anthony delivered an address at this meeting as well, after which local supporters of women’s suffrage formed the Woman’s Suffrage Association of Hinsdale County. Listed among the members of the newly formed group were husband and wife Henry and Eugenie Olney, and attorney J. W. Mills, prominent local women’s suffrage supporters.

In 1893, a referendum for women’s suffrage was held in Colorado and citizens of the state voted in favor of women’s right to vote. Colorado’s 1893 referendum was the first time women’s suffrage was successfully secured through popular referendum, a significant achievement in the fight for women’s right to vote across the country.