The bronze sculpture of the first woman justice of the peace in the US and the women’s suffrage advocate Esther Hobart Morris stands in the US Capitol’s Hall of Columns representing Wyoming in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Esther Hobart Morris (1814-1902) was born and raised in a large family in Tioga County, New York. At 21, she left home and opened a millinery business in Owego.
In 1869 she and her sons joined her husband and older son at a gold rush camp at South Pass City, Wyoming Territory. On December 10th, 1869, Wyoming secured equal rights for women. Two months later, on February 14th, 1870, her application to become a justice of the peace was approved, and she became the first woman justice of the peace in the US and the first woman to hold judicial office in the modern world. In slightly more than eight months in office, she ruled on 27 cases, including nine criminal cases.
A few years later, she left South Pass City, lived in New York and Illinois, and returned to Wyoming in the summers to spend time with her sons. Morris became a supporter and advocate of the American Women’s suffrage movement, attended conventions, served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and was a leader in the passage of Wyoming’s suffrage amendment, which got her the nickname “Mother of Suffrage” in Wyoming.
Avard Fairbanks sculpted this statue and its replica, which has been standing proudly outside the Wyoming State Capitol since 1963.
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