Celebrating a century of women’s voting rights

This year’s general election marks the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women in the United States the right to vote.

Some states, however, allowed women this right decades before the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Wyoming was the first U.S. territory that made laws permitting women to vote.

The Territorial Legislature granted women the right to vote, hold public office and serve on juries on December 10, 1869. 

Delilah Sonnesberger, great-great-grandmother to Grant resident Reenie Mercier, was the first woman to vote in Johnson County Wyoming.

On Apr. 19, 1881, 52-year-old Sonnesberger was the first woman to cast her ballot in Johnson County when she voted in Buffalo, Wyo. 

“We then felt we had a firm footing in the goodly heritage of Uncle Sam’s vineyard,” it is said Sonnesberger told people.

The original photograph of Sonnesberg placing her ballot in the ballot box can be found at Jim Gatcell Museum in Buffalo.

Mercier said voting is an honor, a privilege and a tradition in her family. She has already cast her vote in the 2020 election, following in the footsteps of her ancestors.

“People often say it’s especially important to vote this year, but it is important to vote every year,” she said.

Delilah’s Life

Sonnesberger did not have an easy start to life. She was born in Indiana on Aug. 16, 1829. Her parents passed away when she was three, so she was raised by her grandparents. She married Daniel Sprague at the age of 15, and was widowed five short years later.

After her losses, she began studying medicine under the teachings of an Illinois doctor, and she was qualified as a doctor within two years. She went on to practice as a general practitioner, and Mercier said her great-great-grandmother delivered many babies throughout her career.

On Apr. 15, 1851, she married George Washington Babcock with whom she had her first child, William Winfield Babcock.

Sonnesberger and her family left Illinois and moved to College Springs, Iowa. While living there, she gave birth to five sons and one daughter. According to Mercier, one son and the daughter were laid to rest there.

After Babcock left his wife and children, Sonnesberger decided to pack up her young sons in a covered wagon pulled by oxen, and they headed west.

They followed the Oregon Trail, then the South Platte River as far as possible, according to Mercier. Approximately 560 miles from Iowa, Sonnesberger and her children reached their destination of Fort Collins, Colo.

Sonnesberger’s son William later wrote they found Fort Collins “not to their liking.”

On Aug. 16, 1876, she married W. A. Sonnesberger. They left Fort Collins together and traveled north, headed for Johnson County.

Mercier said this trip required bravery, brains and determination.

To view the entire story, purchase a Grant Tribune-Sentinel or go to our e-subscription page to purchase a single e-copy or subscribe to the print and/or e-edition.