Nellie Tayloe Ross Elected Governor of Wyoming
A mere four years after women won the vote, this woman, a Democrat in Republican Wyoming, made history.
Today is November 4, 2017, and on this date 93 years back in 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected Governor of Wyoming. She was the first female Governor in the history of the United States.
Nellie Tayloe Ross was born in 1876 in St. Joseph, Missouri. When she was eight, her family moved to Miltonvale, Kansas. Here, she graduated high school. After moving again, to Omaha, Nebraska, Nellie trained to be a teacher, and taught kindergarten for four years. During this time, when she was 20, two of Nellie’s brothers treated her to a trip to Europe.
Four years later, in 1900, Nellie met William B. Ross while visiting relatives in Tennessee. The two were married in 1902. William was a lawyer, and aspired to live on the western frontier. They soon moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming to begin their new life together.
William Ross soon aspired to politics, and ran for Governor on the Democratic ticket several times, but lost repeatedly in the Republican leaning state. That is until 1922, when he finally emerged victorious.
His victory was short-lived, however. Less than two years into his term, he came down with acute appendicitis, and was forced to have an appendectomy. Complications arose following the surgery, and Gov. William B. Ross died on October 2, 1924.
The Democratic Party selected his widow, Nellie Tayloe Ross, as their candidate for the special election the following month. Hesitant about the idea, she didn’t campaign for herself at all, by still won by a comfortable margin. In being sworn into office in 1925, Ross became the first female Governor in U.S. History, and the only female Governor in Wyoming history (as of 2017).
She lost her re-election bid, again declining to campaign for herself. Her loss is blamed in part because of her support of Prohibition, which was not popular amongst the ranchers and miners populating the state. Despite the loss, she stayed active in politics. At the 1928 Democratic National Convention, she received 31 votes to be nominated for Vice President, which wasn’t nearly enough, but quite a respectable number for a woman to garner less than a decade after ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment granting universal stuffNellie_Tayloe_Ross.jpgrage in the U.S.
Five years later, Ross would score another first for women, as she was appointed to be Director of the United States Mint by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ross ran the mint for 20 years before being retiring in 1953, aged 77.
During her time at the mint, Ross began the production of Franklin Half Dollars in 1948, featuring Ben Franklin on the front and the Liberty Bell on the back. She chose the design for no other reason than being a fan of Franklin, and believing that he deserved to be on a coin.
In her retirement, Ross traveled as much as she could, and wrote articles and essays for women’s magazines. In 1972 she made her final trip back to Wyoming. She died in Washington D.C. in 1977, aged 101.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check back tomorrow for one of Abraham Lincoln’s most unsung decisions. Seriously, there should be memorials to this decision in and of itself.
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