WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Petticoat Rulers

0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.640
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and

0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.719
<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and this is short stuff and this is

0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.080
<v Speaker 1>a good one. I'm I'm excited about this one. Chuck.

0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.920
<v Speaker 1>Let's go, go, Chuck go. Yeah. I mean, we're talking

0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.840
<v Speaker 1>about Petticoat rulers. And it might surprise people considering America

0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.799
<v Speaker 1>today is ranked eighty one out of a hundred ninety

0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.920
<v Speaker 1>three countries, and women representation and government that we actually had,

0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.400
<v Speaker 1>uh women who were mayors and city council people way

0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.760
<v Speaker 1>back in the eighteen hundreds. Yeah. There are two towns

0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:41.559
<v Speaker 1>in particular, um Oscaloosa, Kansas and cannab Utah that had

0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:47.080
<v Speaker 1>elected all female town councils in eighteen nineteen twelve, respectively,

0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.440
<v Speaker 1>which is pretty substantial. But then Jackson, Wyoming, home to

0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.320
<v Speaker 1>the famous checks in Whole, Wyoming, which I guess is

0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.560
<v Speaker 1>a hamlet or a burg or some sort of affiliated town,

0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.520
<v Speaker 1>but it's basically the same place from what I understand.

0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.640
<v Speaker 1>Oh man, we're gonna get some email from the Jacks

0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.400
<v Speaker 1>and people. Um, they said, you know what, hold our beer,

0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.560
<v Speaker 1>our hold our Sasaparilla, because we're gonna one up both

0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.959
<v Speaker 1>of those towns. And in nineteen twenty, the year that

0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.760
<v Speaker 1>um women were granted suffrage by the Constitution or the

0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.160
<v Speaker 1>Bill of Rights. I should say that same year Jackson,

0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:25.240
<v Speaker 1>Wyoming elected not only in all women town council, Chuck,

0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.880
<v Speaker 1>but also a mayor, a woman mayor for the first

0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.479
<v Speaker 1>time ever. And the the that group, these petticoat rulers,

0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.640
<v Speaker 1>as they came to be known, appointed women to the

0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.760
<v Speaker 1>highest positions in the town clerk, health, treasurer, and marshall.

0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.360
<v Speaker 1>Isn't that amazing? It is amazing? And I'm I was

0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.120
<v Speaker 1>surprised to see that the first woman elected mayor in

0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.080
<v Speaker 1>the United States was all the way back in I

0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.200
<v Speaker 1>had and I had no idea. Yeah, it was in Agoria, Kansas.

0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.280
<v Speaker 1>Her name was Well, this one was the one I

0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.920
<v Speaker 1>believe we covered before in something, Susann Assaulter, who was

0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.880
<v Speaker 1>placed on the ballot as a as a sort of

0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.000
<v Speaker 1>a prank by men in the town who didn't think

0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.880
<v Speaker 1>that women should hold office. They put her on the

0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.440
<v Speaker 1>ballot thinking that she would be humiliated and it would

0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.840
<v Speaker 1>set women back politically. And she didn't know she was

0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.640
<v Speaker 1>on the ballot. It was like a blind ballot until

0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.400
<v Speaker 1>the day of the election. And she she won and

0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.600
<v Speaker 1>went on to be mayor UM. The other ones Oscaloosa,

0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:33.080
<v Speaker 1>Mary D. Loman, She was UM legitimately elected mayor and

0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:37.080
<v Speaker 1>the first woman elected as mayor UM in Kansas within

0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.480
<v Speaker 1>all UH city council full of women, nothing but ladies.

0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:44.720
<v Speaker 1>That's amazing. But the thing is, yeah, like we we

0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.200
<v Speaker 1>think about it today and we're like, that's just that's

0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.400
<v Speaker 1>unheard of, you know, like literally unheard of. I hadn't

0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:55.080
<v Speaker 1>heard about that before. UM. But the state of Wyoming

0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.519
<v Speaker 1>is actually known as the equality State. And one of

0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.960
<v Speaker 1>the reasons why is because you know, we associate nine

0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.000
<v Speaker 1>ten twenties the year that women were granted the right

0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.000
<v Speaker 1>to vote. That's a national thing. UM. They had the

0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.480
<v Speaker 1>right to vote back in eighteen sixty nine in Wyoming.

0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.639
<v Speaker 1>So it kind of like gives it a little more

0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:15.520
<v Speaker 1>UM texture or context or both UM to know that

0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.359
<v Speaker 1>that women already had the right to vote for UM

0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.040
<v Speaker 1>more than fifty years before UH Mayor Miller and the

0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.919
<v Speaker 1>all female town council UM were elected in Jackson. Yeah,

0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.639
<v Speaker 1>and that's how Mary Loman won in Oscaloosa, is they

0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.400
<v Speaker 1>had in Kansas, they had the right to vote in

0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.080
<v Speaker 1>municipal elections, and they won by a two to one

0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.320
<v Speaker 1>margin on the Oscaloosa Improvement ticket. UM. The one in

0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.720
<v Speaker 1>Utah was interesting too, and they both kind of had

0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.040
<v Speaker 1>similar stories and that when they got in office. UM,

0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:48.960
<v Speaker 1>one of their big things was to kind of just

0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.920
<v Speaker 1>clean up the town collect back taxes. I think they

0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:57.920
<v Speaker 1>had something like two hundred dollars in collected taxes just

0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.240
<v Speaker 1>because people just refused to pay, and they went round

0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.000
<v Speaker 1>personally to the houses and I think they left office

0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.920
<v Speaker 1>with two thousand dollars in the city coffers Um and

0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:12.400
<v Speaker 1>then Mary Woolley chamberlain of kenneb Utah. She was mayor

0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.680
<v Speaker 1>for two years and she had a female city council

0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.320
<v Speaker 1>and she was one of the enacted one of the

0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.400
<v Speaker 1>first leash laws for dogs, and then wanted to protect

0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.599
<v Speaker 1>local business, so she enacted a uh a daily tax

0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.159
<v Speaker 1>on traveling salesman coming through town because she was like,

0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.480
<v Speaker 1>you can't just come through town, steal a bunch of

0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.520
<v Speaker 1>business and then leave with your pockets full. So we're

0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.640
<v Speaker 1>gonna text you guys per day just to kind of

0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.520
<v Speaker 1>dry business, to protect local business. That's some smart government

0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.360
<v Speaker 1>right there. Yeah. Well, let's take a break and we'll

0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:46.560
<v Speaker 1>come back and talk about some more smart government that

0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.279
<v Speaker 1>was instituted by women around the turn of the last century. Okay,

0:04:51.120 --> 0:05:17.320
<v Speaker 1>let's do it. St alright, So, Chuck, you said cannabs

0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.039
<v Speaker 1>Town Council were elected by a two to one margin.

0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:24.160
<v Speaker 1>I saw the same thing too for Jackson's Petticoat rulers,

0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.680
<v Speaker 1>which really kind of goes to underscore this. This was

0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.960
<v Speaker 1>not like some fluke or a joke. Like the first

0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.240
<v Speaker 1>female mayor in America, Salt Salter. Is that what you said?

0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.960
<v Speaker 1>Her name was? Uh, yes, Susannah Salter. She reminds me.

0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.800
<v Speaker 1>That story reminds me of Elizabeth Blackwell getting into med school.

0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:42.800
<v Speaker 1>Remember it was supposed to be a prank and kind

0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.960
<v Speaker 1>of blew up in the face, which that's probably what

0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.480
<v Speaker 1>I was thinking of. Actually, yeah, yeah, because I don't

0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:52.040
<v Speaker 1>remember talking about Susanna Salter before either. Um. But the

0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.800
<v Speaker 1>fact that they won, that the Petticoat Rulers and uh

0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.360
<v Speaker 1>the cannab Utah Town Council won by like a two

0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.720
<v Speaker 1>to in margin really shows that this was not like

0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:06.000
<v Speaker 1>a joke or a fluke. Um. I think one woman,

0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:10.120
<v Speaker 1>one of the city council members, beat her husband in

0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:16.200
<v Speaker 1>the election in Jackson in n Yeah, and um, which

0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:20.080
<v Speaker 1>that had to taste pretty pretty sweet. And then the

0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.000
<v Speaker 1>the fact is that a lot of them were re

0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.919
<v Speaker 1>elected when they came up for re election. So um,

0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.240
<v Speaker 1>not only was it a good idea, they proved themselves

0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.359
<v Speaker 1>as worthy for re election too. And some of the

0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.880
<v Speaker 1>things they did, like you said, they beefed up the

0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.760
<v Speaker 1>town coffers. Um. I saw. They didn't institute a leash

0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.880
<v Speaker 1>law in Jackson, but they did criminalize littering for the

0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.960
<v Speaker 1>first time. Um. They cleaned up the town square, meaning

0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.000
<v Speaker 1>that they didn't allow cattle grazing there anymore. That was

0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.400
<v Speaker 1>another thing they did. What else, Uh, they graded the streets.

0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.760
<v Speaker 1>They said, how about some street lights and street lamps. Um,

0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.520
<v Speaker 1>let's expand electrical service. Let's get a cemetery going in

0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.400
<v Speaker 1>this town, because everyone's always shooting each other, right are

0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.200
<v Speaker 1>they used to when the men ran the place. That

0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.200
<v Speaker 1>was another thing I saw too. I mean you were

0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.960
<v Speaker 1>talking about the back taxes not being collected and them

0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:17.920
<v Speaker 1>getting like an additional eighteen hundred dollars into the treasury. Um.

0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:19.560
<v Speaker 1>One of the things that I saw, I think it

0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.480
<v Speaker 1>was in the Jackson Whole newspaper. The reason for that

0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.440
<v Speaker 1>was that this town had been run like really insusent

0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.120
<v Speaker 1>lee by men up to that point, and that there

0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:32.080
<v Speaker 1>was like this this kind of pioneer spirit where everyone

0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.360
<v Speaker 1>was expected to take care of their neighbor and everyone

0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.320
<v Speaker 1>didn't stepped up when help was needed, but it wasn't

0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:44.320
<v Speaker 1>like an organized structural civic pride. And that that's what

0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.000
<v Speaker 1>the Petticoat rulers came in and instituted. They basically said, hey,

0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:49.720
<v Speaker 1>you know that the whole take care of your neighbor.

0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.000
<v Speaker 1>Think there's actually a lot of things we could be doing, um,

0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.000
<v Speaker 1>you know, through government, and let's let's just let's start

0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.000
<v Speaker 1>doing that. And that actually kind of took off. Yeah,

0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.920
<v Speaker 1>and Grace mell Or, the mayor of I think she

0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.720
<v Speaker 1>was Jackson right. She said in an interview. We simply

0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.400
<v Speaker 1>tried to work together. We put into practice the same

0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.840
<v Speaker 1>thrifty principles we exercise in our own homes. We wanted

0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.480
<v Speaker 1>to clean, well kept, progressive town in which to raise

0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.200
<v Speaker 1>our families. What is good government but a breathing space

0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.400
<v Speaker 1>for good citizenship. And it sort of reminds me of

0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.640
<v Speaker 1>that quote. Um, I don't know the exact quote, but

0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.440
<v Speaker 1>it's sort of like, if you want, if you want

0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.600
<v Speaker 1>the job done on time and write like hire a

0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.840
<v Speaker 1>working mom or something like that. I think you're talking

0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:39.480
<v Speaker 1>about something to do with like lipstick and pit bulls. Now, No,

0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.960
<v Speaker 1>is that a different one? I think so? Okay, Um,

0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.520
<v Speaker 1>the one you're talking about makes a tremendous amount of

0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:53.240
<v Speaker 1>sense though. Um. So, the Petticoat Rulers came in, and

0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:57.119
<v Speaker 1>from what I understand, there's a town historian Morgan Albertson.

0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.000
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to take a stab at this last name, Joan.

0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.199
<v Speaker 1>What do you j A O U E N. It's

0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:12.000
<v Speaker 1>a beautiful right either way, it looks very very nice

0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.679
<v Speaker 1>spelled out. Um. But historian that we're just gonna call

0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.520
<v Speaker 1>this person. The historian basically said that the Petticoat rulers

0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.720
<v Speaker 1>shaped shape Jackson and Jackson Hole into the town that

0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.880
<v Speaker 1>they know and love today. Um, and that it may

0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.760
<v Speaker 1>have just kind of become a town that ended up

0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:35.000
<v Speaker 1>deserted and misused and mistreated and misgoverned and lost to history. Um.

0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.320
<v Speaker 1>The historians willing to go so far as to say

0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.880
<v Speaker 1>that either way, they they rulers definitely deserve credit for

0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.000
<v Speaker 1>for shaping the place. But the weird thing is, Chuck

0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.439
<v Speaker 1>is like, despite how successful the all female town council

0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.800
<v Speaker 1>and mayor and appointed positions was for Jackson. It's like

0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.200
<v Speaker 1>the town was like, Okay, well we tried that. Let's

0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.839
<v Speaker 1>wait another eighty or so years before we do it again.

0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.640
<v Speaker 1>We try that works out really great, so let's just

0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.640
<v Speaker 1>wait till the nineteen eighties. Yeah, nineteen eighties was the

0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.880
<v Speaker 1>first time that women's city council people were elected again,

0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.760
<v Speaker 1>and it wasn't until two thousand one when they had

0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.959
<v Speaker 1>another woman. Mayor Jeane Jackson was elected in two thousand one.

0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:21.360
<v Speaker 1>So it went from Mayor Miller Grace Miller in to

0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.480
<v Speaker 1>Jeene Jackson in two thousand one. That was quite a drought. Yeah, uh,

0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.520
<v Speaker 1>you got anything else? I got nothing else. We salute them.

0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:31.360
<v Speaker 1>I I do too, but I have one last thing.

0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.880
<v Speaker 1>The um. The women were all members originally what was

0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.959
<v Speaker 1>called the Pure Foods Club, which was a social group

0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:40.319
<v Speaker 1>that met a couple of times a month, and that's

0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:45.160
<v Speaker 1>where the idea to run was hatched and nurtured. And

0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.480
<v Speaker 1>that group is still around today, but they call themselves

0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.240
<v Speaker 1>the Birthday Club. But in then Adorable. This group has

0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.440
<v Speaker 1>been around since the early nineteen hundreds and they still

0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.320
<v Speaker 1>meet twice a month. And now men are allowed. I

0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.400
<v Speaker 1>love the birthday Club. I want to be in that group.

0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.600
<v Speaker 1>They'll let you in. You're in and and likable, So

0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.880
<v Speaker 1>I think those are the two qualifications. And I have birthdays.

0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.920
<v Speaker 1>You do you have a birthday? Well? Yeah, hats off

0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.560
<v Speaker 1>to the Petticoat rulers and all of the women who

0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.920
<v Speaker 1>helped shape the United States then and now. Uh and uh.

0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:20.400
<v Speaker 1>I guess that means short Stuff is out. Stuff you

0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.079
<v Speaker 1>Should Know is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works.

0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.760
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart

0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.520
<v Speaker 1>Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.240
<v Speaker 1>favorite shows. H