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Your Vote is Your Voice

Your Vote is Your Voice

The morning broke with a light drizzle falling from overcast skies. A young couple dressed and stepped outside their Hannibal, Missouri, home to walk downtown. It was 1920 and election day in the small river village. After several blocks, the couple arrived at the polling place to be greeted by the young man’s father, but it was the young woman who made a permanent mark on history simply by signing her name.

Her name was Marie; remember her name.

On August 26, 1920, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, known as the Women’s Suffrage Amendment. It read:

The right of citizens in the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridge by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Prior to this time, women had no effective say in the government of the United States because they were not allowed to vote. A few individual states granted women the right to vote earlier in our nation’s history, like Wyoming which gave women the vote in 1869, but the right was not available to all women in the U.S. until this Amendment was made law in 1920.

It was a hard-fought battle. The history books mention the very public battle for women’s right to vote through the stories and work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns. The Amendment was initially introduced in Congress in 1878 by Senator Aaron Sargent, but only after 41 years of continued work, did Congress pass the legislation in 1919. Another year of finalizing the process brought the proposal into law.

The work began decades before, with early organizations like the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association formed in 1869. During the years leading to 1920, women who supported the movement were often shunned by their communities, disparaged by adversaries, and even imprisoned for daring to question the established norms. The experience of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns was more recently depicted in the movie Iron Jawed Angels (2004), starring Hilary Swank.

Yet, for every woman who is well-known for her role in the movement, thousands of women remain unknown, though their work is immeasurable. They are the heroines of the movement. They are the individual warriors who stood in the face of the giant political machine, raised a fist of defiance, and did not flinch. They continued to slog through the muck of politics and bear the burden of being socially outcast. They fought for themselves, for their daughters, their mothers, their sisters and friends. They fought for you. They fought for me.

Their work was not only to gain the right to vote for women in this country, but moreover, was for all citizens to have an equal say in their government. When I think of what these women endured so I could stand in a ballot box and let my vote be counted, I am humbled.

So, who is Marie? Let me introduce you.

first woman voter, marie ruoff byrum, hannibal, missouri, history, historic, womens suffrage
Photo from the Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, Missouri, USA

Marie Louise Ruoff was born in 1893 in Missouri. She was the daughter of Joseph Mattheus Ruoff and Ana Katherine Rein, who emigrated from Genkingen, Germany to America about 1890. Marie was the second of their four children, and the only daughter. When she was quite young, her mother contracted tuberculosis and spent the remainder of her life in a hospital, while her father died when she was only 13 years old. With both parents gone, Marie and her brothers were raised by their uncle John Ruoff and his wife Maria. At the age of 23, Marie married Morris King Byrum, the son of local politician Lacy Morris Byrum and his wife, Ella King. The Byrums were very active on the political scene of northeastern Missouri.

After President Wilson signed the Amendment into law on August 26, 1920, the town of Hannibal, Missouri, held a special election a few days later to fill an open seat for alderman. In the days leading to election day, Marie had a friendly competition with her friend, Nita Harrison, regarding which of the two of them would cast the first vote in their town. August 31, 1920, became a day where Marie made her mark on history.

Living some 15 blocks from the polling place, Marie and her husband began walking at 5:30 a.m. in a drizzling rain. When they arrived, their clothes were quite damp, but they were the first voters to arrive that morning at the polling place located at the corner of Main and North Streets. Lacy Byrum, Morris’ father, was working at the polls that morning and greeted them when they arrived.

At 7 a.m. on Tuesday, August 31, Marie Ruoff Byrum signed the register and cast her ballot, thus becoming the first woman to vote in the election.  Byrum had just cast her ballot when Nita Harrison arrived by automobile. At 7:01 a.m. Harrison became the second woman to cast her vote in Hannibal. The two friends knew at the time they were the first women to vote in the small town of Hannibal, Missouri. Soon, Marie learned she was also the first woman to vote in the State of Missouri. It was some time later, though, that she learned she was, in fact, the first woman in the United States to vote after the passage of the amendment.

While Marie has the significance of being the first woman to vote after the passage of the Amendment, she was not the first woman to vote in the United States (like Wyoming, noted above). Her significance is important since her hand, casting her ballot on that day, symbolized a long fight waged by so many women prior to that moment.

When I read the stories of the people who campaigned for a right I still enjoy today, I am reflective. They cut a path through the thickets so that I — we — would have a better path to walk. They endured family and friends who thought their movement was pointless, they were ridiculed by the public, turned away from their social groups, and yelled at by strangers on the street, all for believing they should have a say in their government. Yet each supporter of the movement made their stance however they could, whether it was giving speeches, organizing rallies, picketing the White House, lobbying congressmen, or rallying the people of a small river town to accept the controversial legislation.

While grand movements in the societal fabric make for great news stories and do indeed land in the history books, it is the small determined steps we take every day that create the change we endeavor to see in our lives. Marie’s name will not be found in many history books, and her name is known to few. She is not as famous for this topic as Stanton or Anthony, yet she is as much an integral part of the history of the 19th Amendment as any of them. That’s why you should remember her name. She was a symbol of the American woman of 1920, a common woman doing a uncommon thing on that day in August.

The Missouri State Archives created a short video to commemorate Mrs. Byrum’s place in their state history, as well as our nation’s history.

How I Was Introduced to Marie

I did not learn of Marie Ruoff Byrum from a history book or a documentary. Instead, I stumbled on the information in 2012 while conducting genealogical research, a long-time hobby of mine.

When researching a family tree, it is very common to hit a wall when working on a particular family line, which is what happened to me a few years ago. One night, I could not find any viable information on my great grandmother but I knew the name of her brothers. The wonders of the internet had me searching her brothers in hopes to find more about her, and I spent an hour gathering the names of her brothers’ children through census records. Reaching the point in the evening of either boredom or sheer exhaustion, I began entering each child’s name into Google to see what appeared.

I hit historic gold when I entered Marie’s name.

Several online articles appeared, telling the story of her vote in 1920. Each article, though, was no more than two short paragraphs and I wanted to know more. Over the next several days, I searched more avenues, looking for Marie. My research took me to census records, death certificates, newspaper articles, and finally, excerpts from old publications at the Missouri State Archives. I was both fascinated with the new information and saddened that I had to search so extensively for this significant American history.

I vowed to gather all the information into one place so others would be able to just read the story and not wrestle with the research. If you looked at the Wikipedia entry for Marie (via the link provided above), you will read many of the same words you read here. Rest assured, I did not plagiarize the Wikipedia page; I wrote it. Therefore, I used a few of the paragraphs from there in this page.

So, you see, Marie is my first cousin twice removed. More precisely, her father and my great grandmother were siblings. She was born of strong German stock, just like me. She called a small town home, just like me. She held her right to vote in high regard, just like me.

As the American presidential campaign gains momentum, I may groan at the spectacle it has become, but I do not bemoan the process. Our Constitution designed a democratic election process of which all adult citizens are now able to participate. When my grandmothers were born, they were born in to a country that would not allow them to vote when they became adults. It is my duty as a citizen to participate in the voting process; it is respectful to the women who struggled for me to have this right that I participate in the voting process.

To you, Marie: I salute your work and your gumption. I vow to continue telling your story so you will no longer be a footnote to history. Every American woman should know your name (and the guys, too).

Rita Herrmann lives in the Ozark Mountains with her two dogs and Netflix subscription. A lifelong writer, she's learned to draw deep thoughts from the simplest of observations. Through her work on She Wears Red Shoes, she inspires others to be the best version of themselves, even though she often eats too much chocolate. A good road trip with a great playlist is how she rolls. Her core beliefs include dancing spontaneously, singing randomly, laughing often, living simply, and learning to forgive.

9 thoughts on “Your Vote is Your Voice

  1. As I was thinking about your genealogy, it occurred to me that your name is spelled the same as the actor Edward Herrmann, who beautifully narrated an audiobook I reviewed this year (“The Boys in the Boat.”) I’m sure Herrmann is a common German name, but have you found him in your family tree?

    1. Oh, I have searched for a connection, believe me, but haven’t found one yet. That would be great to link our families because I do so enjoy his work. Maybe someday. 🙂

  2. Totally totally totally awesome!!!! I love that you wrote the Wikipedia page and that you painstakingly stumbled upon this connection. Utterly brilliant. Gumption and hard work is most definitely a family trait and I too salute Marie’s work, as I do yours. Neither of you will be a footnote to history (love that description, by the way). xo

  3. Rita, I came across your article while doing a quick google search for Marie L Byrum. I live in Hannibal, MO and after seeing a facebook post about women placing their “I voted” stickers on SBA’s grave, I decided I wanted to participate in a similarly meaningful way. On Tuesday, after we vote, a friend of mine and my mother plan to go to Mt Olivet and place our “I voted” stickers on Marie’s stone. Thank you for your research and your lovely article.

    1. Jamie — I am THRILLED that you are doing that! I so love this idea and am happy that you will include Marie in your voting day activities. If possible, could you take a photo of your stickers on Marie’s headstone? I would so love to see how you incorporate her contribution into your voting day. Bravo!

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