In 1870, women in Grand Mound, Washington Territory, made history when seven local women successfully cast ballots in a general election, becoming among the first in the territory to vote.
Key Events
- 1867: The Washington Territorial Legislature removed the word “male” from the voting laws, allowing the interpretation that “all white American citizens” could vote.
- 1869: Suffragist Mary Olney Brown attempted to vote in White River but was rejected by election officials.
- June 6, 1870: Brown and her sister, Charlotte Emily Olney French (a Grand Mound resident), planned for women to test the law again in southern Thurston County. They organized a picnic dinner near the polling place in Grand Mound to win over election judges.
- The Vote: The strategy worked; seven women in Grand Mound successfully cast their ballots without issue. A rider on a “fleet horse” then galloped to nearby Black River (now Littlerock) to announce the success, where eight more women voted.
Aftermath
The victory was short-lived.
- In 1871, the territorial legislature acted to prevent women from voting in general elections again.
- Washington women temporarily gained and lost the right to vote several times over the next few decades due to legal challenges, often influenced by the liquor lobby which feared women voters would support temperance laws.
- Permanent suffrage for women in Washington was finally achieved in 1910 when the state constitution was amended, a full decade before the 19th Amendment granted women’s suffrage nationally.
Commemoration
The pioneering actions of the Grand Mound voters are commemorated with an interpretive panel near a Department of Licensing office in Rochester (Grand Mound area) and a marker outside Littlerock Elementary School.
