Josephine Brawley Hughes
Elizabeth Josephine Brawley Hughes (December 22, 1839 – March 1926) was an advocate of women's rights in the United States West region. George W. P. Hunt described her as the Mother of Arizona.[1]
Biography
Elizabeth Josephine Brawley (she dropped her first name later in life) was born on a farm near
While a student at Edinboro, she met
The family lived in an adobe home like the rest of "The Old Pueblo" (a nickname for Tucson), but it did contain the town's first cistern.[3] Hughes had three children after Gertrude: John, Josephine, and a child that died at age two.[1]
Hughes taught in the first public school for girls in Tucson.
In 1893, Louis was appointed territorial governor by President Grover Cleveland. Their son, John T., later served in the first state Senate.[3]
Louis died in 1915 and John in 1921, leaving Hughes with no other family in Arizona. She moved to California to be closer to her daughter, where she died in 1926.[1]
The Arizona State Capitol building in Phoenix has a bronze plaque in its rotunda in Josephine's honor, placed December 16, 1926.[3][7]
Activism
Hughes was the first president of the Arizona Women's Christian Temperance Association.[1] The Arizona WCTU, like the national WCTU, believed that women needed the right to vote so that they could regulate alcohol and other forms of vice in their communities.[6] She traveled around the Arizona Territory denouncing "Demon Rum" and promoting temperance.[8]
In 1891, as the push for Arizona statehood began, Hughes helped to found the first woman suffrage organization in Arizona Territory.[6][9][10] The organization hoped that women's right to vote would be included in the state constitution.[9] From 1891 to 1900, she was a major advocate for the women's suffrage bill, which was vetoed in 1900 by Governor Alexander Oswald Brodie. Despite her efforts, Arizona's women did not gain the right to vote until 1912.[1]
Accomplishments
- Helped establish the first public
- Was the first woman public school teacher in Arizona.[11]
- Joined other women to raise funds for the first Protestant church in Arizona.[3]
- Helped found the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Arizona.[11]
- Helped found the women's suffrage movement in Arizona.[11]
- Helped to manage and operate the Arizona Daily Star newspaper.[2]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Bello, John. "Biographical Sketch of Josephine Brawley Hughes | Alexander Street Documents". documents.alexanderstreet.com. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
- ^ a b "Josephine Brawley Hughes (1839–1926)". Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. 2012. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g Boehringer, C. Louise (January 1930). "Josephine Brawley Hughes: Crusader, State Builder" (PDF). Arizona Historical Review. 2 (4). Arizona State Historian: 98–107. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ^ a b c Cleere, Jan (14 March 2015). "Western Women: Meet crusader Elizabeth Josephine Brawley Hughes". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-3047-2.
- ^ a b c Osselaer, Heidi J. Winning Their Place. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. 2009.
- ^ a b "Women Here and Abroad". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. January 17, 1927. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ISSN 0021-9053.
- ^ a b "Arizona and the 19th Amendment (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
- ^ Heidi J. Osselaer, Arizona's Woman Suffrage Movement, 30 W. LEGAL HIST. 81 (2019).
- ^ a b c Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society (August 31, 1951). Buehman, Albert R. (ed.). "Arizona Album: Arizona's First Woman School Teacher". Tucson Daily Citizen. Tucson, Arizona. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
Further reading
- Banks, Leo (1999). Stalwart Women: Frontier Stories of Indomitable Spirit. Arizona Highways. ISBN 9780916179779.
External links
- Josephine Brawley Hughes, Arizona Women's Hall of Fame