Women’s Suffrage championed from the summit of Mt. Tamalpais
by Fred Runner, Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway Historian
As we near an important moment for the United States, with the first female presidential nominee in a tight race for president, it’s worth noting that 120 years ago — on September 16, 1896 — one of America’s first woman voters, Susan B. Anthony, brought the campaign for women’s suffrage to Mt. Tamalpais. This was just less than a month after the ceremonial last spike was driven for the Mill Valley and Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway, on August 18th.
On the East Peak of Mt. Tam, with a partially constructed Tavern of Tamalpais as a back-drop, Anthony spoke before two women’s groups: the California Women’s Suffrage League and the Pacific Coast Women’s Press Association. They had all ridden the new scenic railway to the summit courtesy of the Mill Valley and Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway, which hints at the political views of the Railway’s management.
Work halted on the tavern as Ms. Anthony addressed an audience of sixty elegantly-dressed ladies and the many workers who were constructing the Tavern.
Ms. Anthony was born a Quaker and believed in equal rights and peaceful protest. In 1872, she had been arrested for voting, then against the law for a woman. In 1896, she had come to Marin as part of a speaking tour she was doing in Northern California.
According to a story published on September 25, 1896, in the Topeka State Journal, Anthony spoke at Tamalpais’s summit not to the women from the women’s clubs but to the workmen building the Tavern:
The summit was reached a little after 4:30 and after a few minutes of rest and wandering on the very peak of the mountain the program of the afternoon was inaugurated in the unfinished shed of the station house of the new railway. Mr. Sargent introduced Susan B. Anthony as the first speaker. The veteran of the suffrage movement directed her remarks to the workmen about the unfinished building, saying the women present had heard all her arguments, but that they would be new to these men.
‘Under the old regime,’ she said, ‘the government of this country was in violation of the principle of equality in regard to men as well as women. No man could vote unless he had money. Then the government became a white male aristocracy. Next the qualification ‘white’ was struck out by national fire and the government became a male aristocracy. Now the sex line has been abolished in three states, and we are working to abolish it here. Nature has done everything she can for California. If all men vote the adjective ‘male’ out the women here will have equal chances with the men. This will be the best possible advertisement for California. It will bring the best emigrants here. You have climate, soil, gold and silver. When you have complete liberty you will have everything. When the third of November comes I expect every man of you to write ‘yes’ after the sixth amendment before he does anything else.’
The Journal concluded:
After many expressions of thanks for the delightful excursion they had enjoyed, the party left the summit, just as the sun was sinking in a blaze of glory in the west.
Women in California did not get the right to vote in that election. The issue languished for years and finally won voter approval in 1911, and nationally in 1920. Ms. Anthony did not see those victories. She died in 1906.
Susan B. Anthony was the first known celebrity to ride the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway. 120 years later, as the 2016 U. S. presidential election draws near, her trip to the summit of Mt. Tam takes on new relevance.
Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.
