Was brief, it was also impactful. History colorado hosted this event and provided the video. Here have dr. Judy gaughan. She has done a lot of work here with many different things, but dr. Judy gaughan is the associate of history at Colorado State university in pueblo and is one of the organizers of a valued partner in the womens post centennial in colorado in 2020. Dr. Judy gaughan is currently writing a book, surely the world moves. Fork you, dr. Judy gaughan, taking the time to be here with us today and tell this remarkable story. Gaughan thank you, mike. I want to say thank you to the center for colorado womens history for hosting what is a fascinating lecture series. Hopefully it will continue to be fascinating today. I also want to give a warning that there is a trigger topic. Only passed legislation statutory rape, so i will be talking about that peter later so i wanted people to be aware of that ahead of time. 2018, as i was happily strolling the streets of rome metaphorically speaking, i in the organization for suffrage. Pueblo arned that the significance of this did not strike me immediately. I began to do research to 125te the centennial years of women in colorado having the right to vote, 27 years before the nation. As i started to do more studying about that, i did more i became more intrigued about the person of Carrie Clyde Holly. In particular, i was intrigued by the notion that almost no one in the country, including people in pueblo, had ever heard of her. The first woman in the history of the United States a pass a law, or get a law passed. I left the streets of ancient rome, or more accurately, i want them to i walked down two paths. I decided her story needed to be told and so i am writing a book about her. Today, i intend to share with you what i discovered. A little outline because i am a professor and i know students like outlines and so i assume you do as well. I will start by talking about her colleagues in office and what little we know about her early life. The colorado suffrage boat of 1883, the campaign of 1884 campaign893, the of 1894. And the sexism that she faced. Then, i will talk about her life after her year in office as a lawyer, a states woman, and a separatist. And her impact and reputation. So lets start with her colleagues in office. First, we can turn to clara cressingham. Elected in the county that denver is a part of. She became secretary of the republican caucus. She tried to pass legislation and a bounty lot on the sugar beet industry. Colorado was just beginning to plant sugar beets and it was a relatively lucrative endeavor and she wanted to ensure its success. It was vetoed by the governor. She also claims to not be interested in what she referred to as sentimental legislation. And i will talk to you in a moment about what were talking about when we talk about whatmental legislation we are talking about when we talk about sentimental legislation. That same year, frances s. Klock was elected in denver in the city of denver. In the grand army of the republic. Civil war similar so, she is a member of the grand army of the republic and one newspaper credits oher win. Committe he chaired the committee and try to at the state to refund reformatory school. The legislature had already passed and created a school but did not provide funding for it so she was trying to get that funding. Her bill is not passed by the General Assembly. Mention a moment to joseph stewart. For the women, this was the first time women were in office. This was not the case for black men. He was not the first. Before women in colorado could vote about 11 years before that the minutes of the consultation prevent voting. The reason why i am including stuart here is because his agenda in protecting black people protect parallels the agenda in protecting the rights of women. There was more in common with him then the colleagues that she had that were women. Bills had one of his become a law. It made it illegal to exclude colored persons from hotels or theaters and there was a fine attached if you did. Holly, he proposed several bills that were not passed, including a bill on the intermarriage of different r aces, and also forbidding extortion and discrimination in disseminating telegraphs. Re black,y, if you we you had to pay more money for telegraphs and if you are than if you were white. Lets turn to holly. She grew up at the eldest. Not her family. If there were no selfies, so there are no pictures of the holt family. These are pictures from the 19th century. Probably pictures of people who were a bit wealthier than the holts, although they were uppermiddleclass at least. Lawyer and he a clyde,cended from samuel a revolutionary war hero. I expect he was proud of his heritage that she maintained the use of the clyde name all her life. We do not know a lot about her upbringing. The plan was to go to the archives in standard, but there was a there is a Global Pandemic that has hindered some of the research plans, so hopefully next summer i will make it to stanford, connecticut, and get a chance to look at archives and maybe find more information. We do not have much personal information about Carrie Clyde Holly. They were a family of some wealth, always having at least one maid. Not the actual one that was there. She married Charles Frederick holly, who had served as a part of the legislation in colorado and served as a Supreme Court justice in the state of colorado. At the time of the marriage, she was working as a lawyer he was working as a lawyer in new york city. Carrie was his second wife. He had a son that was her age. At the time of her marriage, she was 25 and he was 63. Together, they had two daughters. Emily and helen. Been two have additional children born on either the east coast or pueblo, survive didnt childhood. Asked the state censuses how many children have you had and how many are alive. The numbers were 4 and 2. Raised twoe holly daughters, emily and helen. Hollys movedhe to pueblo, colorado. Dont know which one. Almost certainly took a train to pueblo. They settled on a ranch or a fruit orchard in vineland in butler county. Carrie wrote poetry, raised her two daughters and took a leadership role by serving on the district in vineland. After elected to the school district, she was elected by other members to the presidency of the Pueblo School board. She was in Pueblo County in night 1893. Had worked foro suffrage in new york city, was happy to move to colorado on that day. When the governor made the proclamation that womens suffrage became the law in colorado. It took a few days for the registration documents to make their way to the county or the state. Thehursday, december 7, first woman in Pueblo County registered to vote. And joanna sperry, whose image we have in the courthouse in pueblo today. Morenday december 11, women registered, including the lulu lincolnomen, and eudora logan. The issuesoverstate around voting and race and we know that black women in pueblo were active in the suffrage movement. You it is anyone tell a simple story because it is not. That is a story for another day and possibly a different speaker. I want to focus on Carrie Clyde Holly. In pueblomens groups and throughout colorado no time at all to transition from working suffrage to working to be educated voters. In fact, working to elect women to office. In september of 1894, the Pueblo CountyRepublican Convention met. According to the chieftain, one of the local newspapers, admit at the courthouse you see pictured here. The accommodations of that place were entirely inadequate. It was moved to the theater. There were twice as many voters now that women could vote. There were many lady delegates in the convention. The chair asked for nominations for representative to the Colorado State house and was gratified that there were 16 nominations for four positions. Mrs. Carrie c. Holly. The chieftain article goes on. Mrs. Holly is escorted by the mayor and convention went fairly wild. You have to applaud yourself. Everyone was very excited about the nomination of a woman and they elected holly herself, so the convention went fairly wild when she got up on stage. A neat made she made little speech when accepting office. Just as aocs speech had to be fiery because she is in office and a la tuna a latina. She said she would do everything in her power to redeem states from populist misrule. Partyt time, the populist was powerful in colorado. There were still republicans and immigrants, but the populists had taken control of the government of state. The chieftain was a republican paper and holly was a republican candidate. Let me go back. So. Of the nominees that were published in the newspaper, we read about holly that she came from new york a wild ago, she lives with her husband, she has two daughters, and the last two sentences are important. A very pleasant lady with a sweet voice and an attractive personality who will win votes wherever she appears. Lovely, but she was also president of the school board and that is not mentioned in her convention, although with the previousidates, political activity was mentioned. It is striking to read hollys story alongside the sketch of her and the men running for office. She is identified by her pleasantness and the help of her friend that is going to get her elected as opposed to she is a Competent Person who should be represented. So. She and her campaign in 1894 little about suffrage. She did not have to argue in favor of suffrage, but she argued about the importance of suffrage. In her First Campaign speech in were october, campaigns blissfully shorter than. In her first speech, she said she thought the clause in the declaration of independence that equalll men are created included her sex as well as men. She wanted to pay respects to the western men, his respect for women. The chance that every one of them showed in every way the respect for women through vote littlefrage is maybe a bit inaccurate, especially in pueblo were suffrage did not pass, although it passed in the state of colorado. Those men have to live with it had to live with it. She talked about womens suffrage and the importance of womens voting as part of her campaign activity. A great dealspoke about the Republican Party in she credits the Republican Party and she credits the republican a party correctly with bringing about the abolition of slavery. Credits the party with the equal suffrage move in the state. It made it possible for the question to be brought up with the women. This is a point of contention actually because the Republican Party was the most powerful party when the state was created. The it was created, constitution was written in such a way that made it easier for the elective franchise in colorado than it was in any other state. But, the populists had worked very hard in 1893 on the campaign and so they were quite ter when republicans beyond the state in 1894 because they had thought the women owed them. And the women voted the way they wanted to vote. Women are annoying that way. Was, another major theme the question of silver and how important silver coinage was. This was a complicated story too and i will not get into details, but basically, at one point both old and silver gold and silver with a standard by which american money was measured. Changed to the gold system and went back. Colorado is a big silver mining it was noto particularly contentious for an er, iigner to say prosilv am prosilver in colorado because it was financially beneficial to the entire state. House of representatives in colorado was not going to have any say or direct say in the question of silver, but what they did have direct say in what the election of senators. Prosilver the house who thete got to choose u. S. Senator was going to be and one richard would be prose over candidate, which it was. She also argued in her Campaign Speeches about the importance of the age of consent. The age of consent was part of the partys platform and i have much more about this in a moment so we will move on. Hollyhey got cash when and klock and cussing him out m goted cressingha elected, there were long stories that came out talking about them and getting most things right, but not everything. Seats inen will occupy the next legislature of colorado. They are clara cressingham, Carrie Clyde Holly, and frances klock. Moves. The world we take it for granted now that women can take hold political office. This was a revolution. Ry revolution seems to holly in her first wasaign speech, she also complaining about how she was campaigned fore office. Noticed among the warmest friends of equal suffrage a feeling of uneasiness as to the advisability of electing a woman to office. They seem to think the women would legislate themselves a large collection of on its or some equally foolish measure. But, we will go back there in just a second. Ironically, when they got elected, one of the first things the women worked out was what to do with their hats. Bonnets was an issue, although not a legislative one. The rules of the General Assembly of colorado required legislators to remove their hats. While it was customary for men to remove their hats indoors, is not customary for women. The women talked among themselves to figure out best plan would be to do their hats. They decided to wear their hats into the room, take them off and placed them on the desk. Humorous just found it that they were making jokes about hats and in that had to be a decision that the women m ade. Holly actually writes a report of how she passed her legislation and that gets published. I will show you that in a little while. In this report, she talks about her feelings when she is in the assembly. By the way, you will notice that while that is Carrie Clyde Hollys head in the picture, it is not her body. I stuck somebody elses body on the image from the getty, b ecause i want to show her seated. Taking part in legislative or any other public assembly, i felt no small embarrassment in seating myself with only two others of sex. Among 62 men in the 10th General Assembly of the state of colorado, which commenced its regular session on the second day of january 1895, being the first to meet in its new measure hasnt his and 2 milliondollar capital. That was exciting, too. , Carrie Clyde Holly seems a little bit uncomfortable with stepping onto the floor of the ng andand with writi passing legislation. I lost my page. I will be there in a moment. However uncomfortable to read of the uncomfortable she does itve been, she from day one. , three women 1895 entered a Capital Building as legislators. It was customary for male members, but Carrie Clyde Holly was stopped at the door by the sergeant and arms said that the members of her family must sit elsewhere. She promptly demanded, by what right and this is a direct quote from akron, ohio, by what right several men were allowed to accept their wives if she was not allowed to introduce her husband . The doorkeeper succumbed helplessly. Victory,her first reported as her first victory in various newspapers around the country. Lets turn now to her legislation. Her age of consent bill that became known across the country as the holly bill. Before we look at which he had to do to get it passed, lets consider why she wanted to pass it and how it was perceived as beneficial to women. Age of consent is basically statutory rape. According to her original bill and the wording is here the could have sex with a man was 21. When i first started conducting research on holly, being an expert on ancient rome and not 20 century america, she was one of the first women elected to a legislature and was reconciled with the bill that took authority strongly to lizegelize her infanti her. I began to research the age of consent issue. On this slide, you will already see yellow outlines are my primary sources and black are my secondary sources, or modern scholarship. Among the primary sources is the journal i mentioned for. Holly wrote about how she got law passed in the arena the magazine the arena, running a yearlong series on the age of consent. Holly wrote for a part of that. Age of consent legislation . Why is that important . We will go back in time now. The Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s. It brought with it the proliferation of cities. This meant that women, who used to be working at home or at farms, were now in the big, scary city. The Purity Movement wanted to protect young women from the dangers of urban life. One significant danger was generally efficient as men seducing younger, usually white, innocent women. If families cannot protect them, it was the job of the government to make sure they were protected. As led to dramatic action when women realized that in america, the age of consent was in many places, colorado included, 10 years old. This meant that if you were 11 years old and had sex with a man , that was considered consensual. Even before women could vote in colorado, they organized, mostly of the offices the of the womens temperance union. The womens christian temperance union. This was a national countrywide movement. The Colorado Branch successfully in 1891 to raise the age of consent from 10 to 16. That was not enough for holly. Or for the Republican Party. The republican platform in 1894 included what was called sentimental legislation, that is legislation looking after women. The Republican Party platform was to raise the age of consent to 21. When holly was trying to pass the laws, she was doing it in conjunction with the republican platform. The republican platform was probably that way because of the influence of women on that platform t 94. In 1894. As is pointed out in regulating desire, women of the purity Reform Movement asserted power even before women have the right to vote or hold office. Was an assertion