First Women in U.S. to cast a VOTE leagally

On September 6, 1870, 70-year-old Louisa Ann Gardner Swain of Laramie, Territory of Wyoming, casts her vote early in the morning, becoming the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally since 1807 (did you know that all inhabitants—male and female—of New Jersey had the right to vote, according to its state constitution as ratified in 1776, until 1807, when New Jersey rescinded the…

right of all women and black men to vote). Mrs. Swain is described in the Laramie Daily Sentinel as “a gentle white-haired housewife, Quakerish in appearance,” wearing an apron and carrying a tin pail because she was on her way to a shop to purchase yeast. Pictured is a statue in Laramie, Wyoming,  marking her historic vote.