The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
Marilla (Young) Ricker was born in New Durham, NH on March 18, 1840. She became a school teacher after taking a course at Colby Academy in New London. She was a free thinker, a suffragist and a member of the Whig party. She became a widow in 1868 after her husband John, a wealthy farmer, died.
In 1876 she traveled to Washington, DC to study law. Six years later, after taking the exam along with 18 men, she was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in the District of Columbia. In 1884, she was appointed examiner in chancery and US commissioner. She was the first female lawyer in NH and in July 1890, she opened the NH bar to women.
Before her education in law and subsequent positions, Marilla was the first woman in NH who demanded the right to vote, going so far as to pay her taxes under protest. In 1870, she went to her local polling place in Dover demanding her right to vote as a property owner and tax payer. Naturally, she was refused but never gave up pursuing her right to vote for 50 years. In 1910, she sought to run for governor but couldn’t get her name on the ballot because, ironically, she was NOT a registered voter! She ran anyway, knowing she was not going to win, but, as she told the Grand Forks Daily Herald her goal was “to get people in the habit of thinking of women as governors. There isn’t a ghost of a reason why a woman should not be governor or president if she wants to be and is capable of it.”
Marilla felt it might take at least 100 years before a woman would be successfully elected, but she wanted “to set the ball rolling.” Thankfully, it took less than that for women to enter into and make their mark in the world of politics, thanks to the efforts of women like Marilla Ricker and Sally W. Hovey, chair of the NH branch of the National Women’s Party.
In June, 1919, Congress FINALLY approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Three months later, NH voted to ratify the Amendment and women have been rightfully and legally voting ever since.
Marilla died on Nov. 12, 1920 in Dover, hopefully she was aware that women were now able to vote.
Presently, there are steps being taken to undermine the vote, not just of women but for people of color. And yes, it IS happening here in NH. Which is why it is so important to take the time to enter your polling place and declare YOUR choice for candidates in local elections, state elections and federal elections. Your choice for planning board or selectman or city council can have as much effect on you as to who you vote for to represent you in Concord and Washington, DC.
Our right to vote took many decades and was hard fought. We must never forget that as we remember those who secured this right for us as we enter the voting booth.