The Wyoming tea party that never happened: How a politician invented the Mother of Woman Suffrage

The South Pass City Myth That Fooled a Nation

A bronze statue of Esther Morris stands in the U. S. Capitol calling her the “Mother of Woman Suffrage. ” But the famous tea party story that earned her this title is a myth.

Herman Nickerson, a politician who lost to William Bright in 1869, invented the tale fifty years later. He claimed Morris convinced both candidates at her cabin to support women’s voting rights.

Modern historians found no evidence this ever happened, and Morris herself always gave full credit to Bright.

Here’s the real story behind Wyoming’s suffrage myth.

William Bright, Not Morris, Gave Wyoming Women the Vote

William Bright pushed through the women’s voting bill in Wyoming Territory in December 1869, a full year before Esther Morris became justice of the peace.

Morris never took credit for this groundbreaking law. She always pointed to Bright as the true champion of women’s voting rights.

He served in the territorial legislature from South Pass City and led the Territorial Council.

No records from that time link Morris to the law. Many historians now think Julia Bright, William’s wife, actually inspired him to support women’s voting.

The Valentine’s Day Appointment That Made History

On February 14, 1870, Sweetwater County officials picked Esther Morris as justice of the peace. This Valentine’s Day choice came after the previous justice, R.S. Barr, quit to protest Wyoming’s new women’s voting law.

Morris worked for eight and a half months, handling nearly thirty cases. The county clerk quickly sent out a press release by telegraph about this historic choice.

At 55 years old, Morris became the first female judge in American history, breaking new ground in a field full of men.

Her Husband Landed Behind Bars for Courtroom Antics

John Morris hated his wife’s new job. He fought against Esther becoming a judge and caused such trouble in her courtroom that she threw him in jail.

She later arrested him for assault and battery, showing she wouldn’t take disrespect, even from her husband. Wyoming official Edwin M.Lee praised Morris’s court for its “gravity and decorum rarely seen in border towns. ”

Lee also noted better public behavior during her time as judge. Morris hired her sons as court clerks to help run things in the rough mining town.

Tough Justice Earned Her the Nickname "Terror of Rogues"

Judge Morris handled 27 cases during her eight months, including nine criminal matters. Records at the Wyoming State Archives show none of her rulings got overturned.

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, read across America, called her the “terror of all rogues” for her strict approach to justice.

Despite her good record, neither the Republican nor Democratic parties picked her again in 1870. After her time as judge, Morris left both South Pass City and her husband in 1871, moving to Laramie to start fresh.

She Died Without Ever Claiming Credit for Suffrage

Morris kept fighting for women’s rights through the 1890s and proudly held the Wyoming state flag at the statehood celebration in July 1890.

She lived to 87, dying on April 2, 1902, in Cheyenne. Throughout her life, Morris never once claimed any part in bringing or passing Wyoming’s voting bill.

Her obituaries mainly talked about her work as a female judge rather than any link to voting laws. This silence about the voting bill from Morris herself makes later claims about her role seem fishy.

Family Members Started Spinning Tales After Her Death

Some researchers think Morris’s oldest son, who ran a Cheyenne newspaper, might have started the myth about his mother’s role in Wyoming voting rights.

Melville C.Brown, the first Laramie mayor, made early claims about Morris’s involvement without proof. Morris’s son Archy Slack joined in, calling his mother the “Mother of Suffrage” in the Cheyenne Sun newspaper.

These family stories lacked any proof or records from when the voting bill actually passed. The family story grew despite no old records backing their version of events.

A Tea Party Tale Appears 50 Years After the Fact

H. G.Nickerson wrote to the Wyoming State Journal on February 14, 1919, claiming he went to a tea party at Morris’s home some 50 years earlier.

He said about forty people gathered as Morris made legislative candidates promise to bring women’s voting laws. Nickerson’s timing seemed political, coming just 18 months before women nationwide won voting rights.

As a big Republican, Nickerson may have wanted to boost his party by tying it to the early voting rights movement, creating a story that would soon take off.

University Professor Turns Fiction Into Required Reading

Nickerson’s tea party story got huge traction after his friend, University of Wyoming historian Grace Raymond Hebard, published it in her 1920 pamphlet “How Woman Suffrage Came to Wyoming (1869).”

This pamphlet became required reading in Wyoming schools, cementing the myth for generations of students.

Hebard spent years promoting Morris as both the starter and co-writer of Wyoming’s voting law, despite lack of proof.

Nickerson and Hebard had worked together for years marking historic sites across Wyoming, their friendship possibly making Hebard accept Nickerson’s shaky account.

Turning Myth Into a Voting Rights Monument

In 1920, Hebard and Nickerson built a rock pile near Morris’s South Pass City cabin as a rough memorial to her supposed voting rights work.

Hebard wrote about hauling stones on July 6, 1920, to create this marker.

Later, a more lasting granite marker replaced the rock pile, with words that clearly named Morris as co-writer of Wyoming’s voting bill.

This physical monument gave the made-up story a real presence on the landscape, making the story seem more true simply because it was set in stone.

The memorial created a tourist spot that spread the myth to visitors.

Schoolchildren Learned Fiction as Historical Fact

Hebard’s 1920 pamphlet became must-read material in all Wyoming public schools. The story stuck around despite going against better sources that Hebard seemed to ignore.

Several generations of Wyoming students learned the fake tea party account as real history. The school system’s use of this story gave it an official stamp that made questioning it seem unpatriotic.

Teachers showed the Morris myth as a point of state pride, making it hard for anyone to challenge what became accepted as Wyoming’s part in women’s rights history.

Capitol Statue Permanently Enshrines the Falsehood

In 1960, Wyoming donated a life-sized bronze statue of Esther Morris to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U. S. Capitol rotunda.

Vice President Richard Nixon himself officiated at the ceremony alongside Richard Arnold Mullens. As recently as 2019, the Architect of the Capitol’s official website still repeated the tea party story as the reason for Morris’s statue being placed in this prestigious location.

This bronze monument permanently enshrined the fabricated narrative in America’s most hallowed space for state heroes, giving national legitimacy to what began as a politically motivated tale from 1919.

Visiting The Esther Hobart Morris Statue

The Esther Hobart Morris statue is in front of the Wyoming State Capitol in Cheyenne.

This bronze figure honors a woman long credited as America’s first female justice of the peace and a key suffrage advocate.

The statue was created in 1960 to celebrate a story that began with a 1919 political speech claiming Morris hosted a tea party where she extracted promises for women’s voting rights.

Historians now know this tale was fabricated, but the monument remains as a fascinating example of how political myths become accepted history.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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