August 26, 2020 marks the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
This simply stated Amendment -- 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 -- required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920.
Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, using a variety of strategies. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state — Colorado was the first state to ratify votes for women in 1893. Coloradoans then turned their activism towards a national referendum. They persisted and 100 years later we celebrate their sacrifices.
Celebrating Clara Cressingham (1863-1906)one of the first women elected to serve in any state legislature in the United States. She was also the first woman to serve in a leadership position in any state legislature. In 1893 Colorado became the first state in which women got the right to vote through popular election. The following year, 3 women were elected on November 6, 1894 to serve in the Colorado General Assembly.
At only 32 years old, Clara Cressingham was the youngest of these three trailblazers. She had moved from New York with her husband, worked as a writer, and was raising two children when she was elected to the General Assembly, representing a Denver district. As secretary of the Republican caucus, Cressingham was the first woman to fill a leadership position.
Cressingham is credited with passing the first law introduced by a woman. It set a government–provided bounty of $3 per ton on sugar beets raised in the state and sold to a factory within its borders, thus boosting the budding Colorado sugar beet industry. Other bills she introduced during her two years in the House addressed the creation of a state board of arbitration and a system of free schools. Along with the other two women in the legislature, she successfully supported a bill to create homes for delinquent girls.
Can you believe a woman this influential and remarkable has NO grave marker?
Now for the location of the final which can be found at N 39 45.ABC W 105 04.DEF
Using the headstone to the left of the empty Cressingham plot:
A = 3rd number of Father's birth year
B = 2nd number of Mothers birth year
C = 4th number of Mother's birth year
Checksum = 12
D = 2nd number of Mothers death year
E = 4th number of Mothers death year
F = 4th number of Father's birth year
Checksum = 15
Enter the final coordinates into the checker below for a bonus hint.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
For you curious types, upon her death Clara was buried in the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver. For reasons I couldn't ascertain she was moved to her current resting spot in 1912. Other than the plot number there was no information available about why she was moved or why she did not have a grave marker. Sadly, those details may be lost to herstory.
Update: Helen Reddy, who popularized the song, "I Am Woman," that this series was based on died on 29 September 2020. RIP Helen.
