America’s First Female Governor, 100 Years Ago In Wyoming

Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote, and then the first state to have a woman governor.

January 5 marks 100 years since Nellie Tayloe Ross was sworn in as a governor in the United States.

Nellie was elected governor in 1924.

Her husband, William Ross, had died unexpectedly of appendicitis in the middle of his term.

She picked up his campaign in the next election after the Democrat Party nominated Nellie to take his place.

She did not travel the state campaigning She just let the chips fall where they would. She won by a narrow vote to become the state’s 14th governor.

She carried on policies like strict enforcement of Prohibition.

For her agenda, she worked to protect women in the industrial sector.

She pushed to requite cities, counties, and school districts to have budgets and earmarked state mineral royalties for school districts.

“I had long realized that the strong, good man at my side was the vital influence in the molding of my character and thought, and I had begun to think that my individuality was almost submerged in his. But when all at once I found myself standing alone, facing an unknown future, I knew that there had been no submergence, but that because of that association, there had been developed a more clearly defined and independent individuality with real self-reliance based upon convictions and experience.” — Nellie Ross, Good Housekeeping, 1927.

 

She lost her bid for reelection but then took another job and became the longest-running director of the U.S. Mint in 1933.

Wyoming's current Gov. Mark Gordon signed a proclamation recognizing this year's anniversary as Nellie Tayloe Ross Day.

The proclamation was not written by Governor Gordon. It was written by a Green River High School class.