My Trails into the Past

My grandmother, Anna Marie Sullivan, lived in Montana until about 1922. She turned twenty-one on 15 October 1913. Did she vote in the next election? The women’s suffrage movement worked hard to the vote for women in Montana, beginning when it was still a territory. Women were allowed to vote for school board elections and on tax issues since 1887 and that right continued after Montana became a state. In 1913, the Montana Legislature passed a bill that led to a referendum for the vote in 1914. There was many speeches and campaigns, including letters to individuals and contacts with newspapers. 30,000 copies of a pamphlet written by the Missoula Teachers’ Suffrage Committee called “Women Teachers of Montana Should Have the Vote” were distributed. The vote was held 3 November 1914 and the amendment passed 41,302 to 37,588, making Montana the eleventh state to give women the right to vote. During the voting campaign, Anna likely was teaching at her first school, possibly a school in ...

It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is my assignment this week from Randy Seaver from Genea-Musing : 1)  The 2016 Presidential election is this coming Tuesday.  When did you vote in your first Presidential election and, if you choose, who did you vote for?  What about your parents?  When did they first vote? 2)  Share your responses in comments to this blog post, or in your own blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a link in Comments if you write your own blog post. My first election was in 1972. I was eighteen and was able to vote because of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution changing the voting age to 18. It became effective 7/1/1971. My girlfriend’s older brother was also voting for the first time, but he was four years older and had waited until he was 21. The two candidates were the Republican, Richard Nixon and the Democrat, George McGovern. I have to admit that I couldn’t re...