People from Tioga County, New York - Esther Hobart Morris (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Esther Hobart Morris (August 8, 1814 April 2, 1902), a Tioga County, New York native, distinguished herself as the first female Justice of the Peace in the United States. A mother of three boys, she began her tenure as justice in South Pass City, Wyoming, in February 14, 1870, and served a term of less than nine months. The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners appointed Morris as justice of the peace after the previous justice, R. S. Barr, resigned in protest of Wyoming Territory's passage of the women's suffrage amendment in December 1869. Popular stories and historical accounts, buttressed by state and federal public monuments, point to Morris as a leader in the passage of Wyoming's suffrage amendment. However, Morris' leadership role in the legislation is disputed. Morris' life after South Pass City included participating in local and national women's organizations. She received but ultimately rejected an 1873 nomination by the Woman's Party of Wyoming as a candidate to the Wyoming Territorial Legislature. Morris served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1876. Esther Morris died in Cheyenne, Wyoming, April 2, 1902. Esther Hobart McQuigg was born in Tioga County, New York on August 8, 1814. Orphaned at an early age, she apprenticed to a seamstress and ran a successful millinery business out of her grandparents' home, "making hats, and buying and selling goods for women." Moreover, Morris agitated as a young woman against slavery, reportedly during one incident countering efforts of slavery advocates who threatened to destroy a church that supported abolition. Eight years into her millinery business, Morris married Artemus Slack in 1841. Three years later, just short of her 30th birthday, her ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=743934