When esther morris headed west plot chart

In 1869, at the age of 55, a big woman with a big name—Esther Mae Hobart McQuigg Slack Morris—headed to Wyoming Territory. She believed a woman should be able to vote and to hold office and she set about to see to it that she could in South Pass City. Sure enough, on election day her doctor attested that “the operation of voting had no ill effects on a woman’s health.” She went on to become Justice of the Peace when her predecessor resigned over woman suffrage only to turn the job back over to him, once she’d proven herself. When the demise of gold fever caused South Pass City to dwindle, Esther Morris moved on to other places in Wyoming, but she had made a convert to the cause in a young lawyer named Ben Sheeks, who brought the message to Washington State and Utah. The story is told as the rollicking tale it is, and the brightly colored pictures feature the exaggerated facial expressions and golden exterior light of a fine Wild West, cartoon newsreel. Even the horses have big personalities. Wyoming was the first territory to grant women the right to vote, decades before American women in general could. This is a fun-loving look at one woman’s place in that history. An author’s note includes sources, Web sites, and places to visit. (Nonfiction. 6-9)

Women, Wyoming and the Right to Vote
By Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers

Named a “2002 Notable Social Studies Book”by the National Council for the Social Studies – Children’s Book Committee

Watch out, Wyoming! Esther Morris is coming to town! Esther Morris was a large woman with wide-open ideas that needed room to grow. So, in 1869, she headed out to Wyoming. There she came upon a man who shared her notions: Colonel William Bright thought women being able to vote made sense. Esther decided it was time to show that women could hold office, too. So, she became the first female judge in the United States. Not everyone liked her ideas, but Esther had the courage to show how an idea looked in the living of it – and change some minds along the way. This is the tale of a remarkable woman who was a pioneer in more ways than one.

The book includes an Author’s Note that provides historical context and a list of resources.

Excerpt

South Pass city was a place that sprouted out of nearly nothing at the mention of the world “gold.” The space around it was large and wide open. That was a good thing because Mrs. Morris was a large woman with wide-open ideas that needed more room than could be had in New York or Illinois, where she’d come from. You see, she thought a woman should be able to vote and hold office, the same as a man.

Reviews

“It is truly a duty to tell children what life was like before they were born…[This] fine picture book biography accomplishes the task in the best possible way: not by preaching or reciting facts but through [an] engaging story of extraordinary example.” – New York Times Book Review, Betsy Groban, November 18, 2001

“Spicing her prose with a down-home twang, Wooldridge pulls a plum out of the pie of American history. Rogers’s comic flair informs every inch of her expansive watercolors…” – Publ