Early Suffrage in Great Falls

The seed of suffrage was sown early in Great Falls, Montana. The Political Equality Club of Great Falls was the first suffrage club formed in the state of Montana, founded in February of 1895. Montana had missed a chance to give women suffrage with the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1889, but our female citizens did not give up hope. The Political Equality Club was spearheaded by Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe as its first president. The group organized a delegation and sent them to Helena to lobby for a constitutional amendment that was set before the state legislature in 1895. The proposition was defeated, but the advocates were not dismayed. They declared they would continue the battle for equal rights until the victory was won. The club offered an invitation to all good women to join its ranks and to take up a line of study in political science.

Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassman, (May 14, 1850 - September 25, 1936,) circa 1870. [1992.066.0327]

Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassman traveled to Great Falls by covered wagon and arrived as a well educated young woman. Plassman was a skilled teacher, writer, and editor and was known as the “first business woman of Great Falls.” Her husband H.P. Rolfe founded the Great Falls Leader, and after his death in 1895, she became the first female editor of a daily newspaper in Montana. After the death of her second husband, she sold the Leader and began working in insurance; she was one of the first women insurance workers in the state.

An extensive vertical file of the details of Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassman’s life, published articles, and other materials are accessible by making an appointment with The History Museum’s Archives.

A member of the Political Equality Club of Great Falls described the aim and purpose of the club to the Great Falls Tribune on August 23, 1895:

“Much interest and zeal for the advancement of the cause for which this club was organized, i.e., the advancement of the woman suffrage movement and better education of the sex along political lines, in particular, while at the same time aiming for a general good, was manifest. They would urge women everywhere to exercise common sense and be governed thereby.”

Women already had the right to vote in school elections, and the club used this as a springboard to call others. In the spring of 1896, 600 women voted for school officers in Great Falls. “This shows there are 600 women here interested enough in good local government to cast a ballot. Of that 600 there must be a good number who desire municipal or full suffrage.”

Clipping of “An Earnest Appeal to the Women of Great Falls” article, Great Falls Tribune, April 8, 1896

The movement lost momentum after the 1895 defeat but came back with force in 1913. Montana women were given the right to vote in 1914, but the cause was carried until 1920 when all women of the United States could vote.

Many women became strong civil leaders thanks to those who fought before them. Though you may have never heard of them, please take a moment to read the names of those we could identify who helped with early suffrage efforts:

Mrs. Martha Edgerton Rolfe Plassmann, Mrs. S. W. Ferguson, Mrs. Pedee A. Dann, Mrs. Amos Desilets, Mrs. Putnam, Mrs. O. H. Perry, Mrs. Frank Marion, Mrs. P. A. Jullien, Mrs. Emerton, Mrs. Chase, Mrs. Bodkin, Mrs. Sherman, Miss Helen Edgerton, Mrs. Lillian Agnew, Mrs. Margaret Kingsbury, Mrs. Josephine Trigg, Mrs. Marion, Mrs. Benner, Mrs. M. K. Nelson, Mrs. H. B. Mitchell, Mrs. Alice Park, Mrs. Manning, Mrs. C. H. Robinson, and Dr. Isabel Gliddon.

Let us not forget the men who encouraged and supported those women and their fight for a place at the polls:

H. P. Rolfe, Rev. L.L. Shearer, Rev. H. Russell, Mayor Newton T. Lease, Rev. A. J. Williams, Rev. Riggin, Reverend E.E. Flint, Rev. F. J. Maynard, Rev. E. P. Giboney