As the Territorial and State Capital; Olympia and Thurston County were central to the history of women’s right to vote. Activist women gained the vote and women were and continue to be leaders in local governments and tribes. Washington’s governors, First Ladies and even the Governor’s Mansion were central to the suffrage movement.
The first women’s rights convention, held at Seneca New York 1848, was a public call for voting rights for women. After Washington Territory was created in 1853, the first Washington Territorial Legislature in 1854 considered enacting women’s suffrage. House member Arthur A. Denny introduced an amendment for women’s suffrage to a pending voting bill and the amendment failed by only one vote.
Following new laws in the Washington Territory and the post-Civil War U.S. Constitutional amendments regarding the rights of citizens—some Thurston County women were determined to go to the polls without waiting for legislative action to empower them to vote. In 1870 activist women, led by sisters Mary Olney Brown and Emily Olney French, went to the polls.