Cache County
The Cache Valley Woman Suffrage Association was organized on December 10, 1889. It was an affiliate of the Utah Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association.
On April 18, 1895, Cache County’s delegates to the state constitutional convention presented eight petitions in favor of including an equal suffrage clause in Utah’s proposed constitution. Both women and men had signed the petitions.
After Utah women regained voting rights with statehood, the leading women of Logan threw a “grand celebration” for the “advent of Franchise”. A large suffrage meeting and banquet, followed by a ball with the Harris Orchestra, took place on January 17, 1896.
Key Players
Cache County Woman Suffrage Association
“Mass Meeting at Logan” Woman’s Exponent, 1 January 1890.
On December 10, 1889, 78 women of Cache County assembled in the Logan Tabernacle to establish a suffrage association. Mrs. E. Howard was named as Chairman and Jane Molen was named as secretary. The meeting came in reaction to the a group these women called the “Utah Carpet Bag Liberals,” whom they believed had “misrepresented” the women of Utah territory to Congress in lobbying for legislation that had revoked all Utah women’s voting rights in 1887. Similar to many other suffrage associations in Utah, local Relief Society presidents such as Adeline Barber and Jane Molen were named as officers of the association. Their leadership roles helped them to recruit members and spread the word about the suffrage association’s activities.
Cache County Constitutional Convention Delegates
James Paten Low as a Utah State Constitutional Convention delegate, March 4, 1895. Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society.
The women’s suffrage question was one of great importance at the 1895 Constitutional Convention of Utah. On April 18, the 46th day of the convention, Cache County’s delegates presented eight petitions from women and men in support of including an equal suffrage clause in the constitution. All of Cache County’s Democratic delegates voted in favor of equal suffrage. One of the delegates, James Paton Lowe, stated to Convention members that he campaigned in support of women’s suffrage and “cut out of the newspaper…two clauses referring to…equal suffrage [for] women, and placed them in his hat” as a reminder of his duty.
Jane Hyde Molen
Jane Hyde Molen. Photo courtesy of Vena Jensen Childs.
Jane Hyde Molen moved to Hyrum, Utah in 1859, where she was an active participant in local politics as a member and leader of the Democratic Party of Cache County, as well as a member of the Cache County School Board. She also became a member of the Cache County Association for Woman Suffrage in 1889. The platform of the Democratic party of Cache County supported women’s suffrage both locally and across the state of Utah. Prominent women of Cache County were invited to party meetings, held offices, and served as delegates to the larger Democratic party across the state. Molen acted as second vice president to the convention of the Democratic Party of Cache County for several years. She was also chosen to be a delegate to the territorial judicial convention of Democrats in 1895, and in 1896 spoke at another convention on “women in politics”. Molen was one of many local women who vigorously participated in politics during the early years of Utah statehood.
Loucretia Boynton
Loucretia Houston Boynton. Photo courtesy of Bruce Richardson.
Loucretia Boynton was a well-liked leader of the Cache County Republican Party who organized Ladies’ Republican Clubs in towns and cities across Cache County. She was also a regular speaker at Republican conventions, and her goal was to promote and expand support for the McKinley administration. One newspaper report described her as an “indefatigable and intelligent worker.” Boynton’s efforts show one of many ways in which Utah women successfully influenced politics and persuaded their fellow voters.
Key Sites
Logan Tabernacle
Logan Tabernacle, 1884. Photo courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society.
The Cache County Woman Suffrage Association was organized in the Logan Tabernacle on December 10, 1889. Many suffrage association meetings took place there, and in January 1896 Cache County women held a celebratory meeting and banquet in the Tabernacle in honor of women’s newly regained voting rights.