Mary Jane Coggeshall: Iowa Time Machine September 17, 2000

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On September 17, 2020, a historical marker honoring Mary Jane Coggeshall was placed on the grounds of the Iowa State Capitol, where she had spent years urging lawmakers to recognize women’s political rights.

Mary Jane Whitely Coggeshall was born in Milton, Indiana, on January 17, 1836, and was raised in a Quaker family whose values encouraged moral conviction and reform. She moved to Des Moines with her husband and children in 1865, when Iowa was still a young state and public life remained overwhelmingly male. Five years later, Coggeshall became a charter member of the Polk County Woman Suffrage Society and the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association.

Coggeshall brought the case for woman suffrage directly to the Capitol. A writer, speaker, organizer, and lobbyist, she addressed Iowa House and Senate committees, edited the Woman’s Standard from 1886 to 1888, and served as president of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association in 1890, 1891, and from 1903 through 1905. In 1895, she became the first woman from west of the Mississippi River elected to the board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The 2020 marker was placed in a flowerbed west of the Capitol, south of the Pioneer Statuary Group and Buffalo Fountain; it was formally dedicated on September 26, 2020. Its location carries special meaning because Coggeshall had lobbied at that very seat of state power for the vote. #Iowa #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Suffrage