The 13 Honored Women

The Wyoming House for Historic Women contains displays of the thirteen honored women and is the site to various conferences and lectures pertaining to women's history and issues.

Louisa Gardner Swain: The first woman in the world to cast a ballot under democratically enacted laws granting women equal political rights with men.  Her historic ballot was cast on September 6, 1870.

 Eliza Stewart:  The first woman subpoenaed to serve on a court jury. She was Laramie's first school teacher and her notice for jury duty was delivered in March of 1870. Eliza Stewart went on to establish Laramie's first library.

 Martha Symons Boies:  She arrived in Laramie, Wyoming in a horse drawn cart with her children in 1868. She became the first woman in the world appointed as a bailiff. Her appointment took place in March of 1870 in Laramie, Wyoming.  Her appointment was necessitated by the fact that women had been chosen to sit on a jury and a woman bailiff was needed to guard their hotel room doors after the jury was sequestered for the evening.

 Lynne Cheney:  Wyoming's first "2nd Lady".  Noted author and wife of the former Vice-President of the United States.

 Barbara Cubin:  First woman elected to federal office from Wyoming.  She served the US House of Representatives from 1995-2009.

 Verda James:  First woman elected speaker of the Wyoming House in 1969.

 Marilyn S. Kite:  First woman justice of The Wyoming Supreme Court. She was sworn in on June 2, 2000.

 April Brimmer Kunz:  First woman elected President of The Wyoming Senate. She served as a Wyoming State Representative from 1985-1992. She served as a state senator from 1992-2004.

 All Woman Council of Jackson: The election was held on May 11, 1920 and the final count was certified with the swearing in of the officeholders on June 8 at a regular Town Council meeting. The mayor and four council members, all five of them women, were not, however, simple domestics. Both as individuals and with their husbands they assumed positions of civil leaders, movers and shakers, citizens with minds of their own and mouths to express themselves articulately.

 Edith Miller:  First licensed nurse in Wyoming, 1909.

 Esther Hobart Morris:  First woman to hold judicial office in the world, (Justice of Peace), in 1870. (South Pass)

 Estelle Reel:  First woman elected to statewide office in the nation, 1894, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Education. First woman to hold a position requiring confirmation by the U.S. Senate, 1899, National Superintendent of Indian Schools.

Nellie Tayloe Ross:  First woman elected Governor in the United States, in 1925. First woman Director of the U.S. Mint.