“I am very tired of the kind of life I lead, but it is my bread. I've not had much butter.”
1182: Estelle Reel
The First Woman Elected to Statewide Office in Wyoming
Born: 1862, Illinois, United States of America
Died: 2 August 1959, Possibly Washington State, United States of America*
Estelle was elected to be the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1894. She was a member of the Republican Party and had campaigned hard by traveling all around the state, giving speeches, and defending her positions. Estelle was so popular; she was the only Republican candidate in 1894 to win the majority vote of every county in Wyoming. One of her more controversial stances was wanting to provide free textbooks to students across the state. Unfortunately, this idea would not be realized until 1899, after she left office. Her salary was $2,000 a year.
In that year, 1894, only two states had given full voting rights, Wyoming and Colorado—and Colorado had just given women that right that same year!
Estelle was not, however, the first woman elected to statewide office in the entirety of US history. That distinction belongs to Laura Eisenhuth, who was elected to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for North Dakota in 1892. North Dakota was one of around twenty states that allowed women partial voting rights at the time.
Estelle was so good at her job that some constituents started up the idea that she should run for governor. However, Estelle was not very happy with the idea. She was quoted at the time as saying, “The idea of a woman running for governor of the state of Wyoming is not worthy of serious consideration.” Estelle did not believe women should play large roles in government offices. Running for governor was against her core beliefs on what it meant to be a woman, and so some suffragists at the time were very upset with Estelle and her public views on women in government.
Estelle served the state of Wyoming for three years. Before taking the statewide office, Estelle had previously served as School Superintendent of Laramie County, where Wyoming’s capitol Cheyenne is located. While serving the state, Estelle was an advocate for equal pay for equal work, meaning women should be given equal compensation for their labor if they were performing the same work as men (namely teachers). Estelle was also an advocate for prison reform and fought hard to ensure libraries were included in every penitentiary in the state.
Estelle later became the National Superintendent of Indian Schools—the first woman confirmed to a federal office by the United States Senate. The new job came with a pay raise. Estelle’s new position raised her salary to $3,000 a year. According to WyoHistory.org, “Based in Washington, D.C., she nevertheless spent 17 of her first 26 months in the field, traveling more than 41,000 miles to visit 49 Indian schools. About 2,000 miles of those travels were by wagon, packhorse or on foot. She was in charge of 250 Indian schools in the U.S., with a combined enrollment of about 20,000 students, and administered a budget of $3 million.”
Like many of her time, Estelle did not believe Native American people could learn and become as smart as their white peers. Estelle in particular did her best to ensure Native American student curriculum focused on the “dignity of labor,” which was one of her favorite phrases and basically meant that she believed Native Americans were destined to work menial labor jobs instead of intellectual-based careers. She never wanted to give the native people credit for being creative either, despite acknowledging how Native American women added to their people’s economies through basket weaving, netting, sewing, and other pursuits that combined the arts and practical means.
Estelle stayed in her position as National Superintendent of Indian Schools until 1910, when she left to marry a rancher from Washington State. She never again ran for a political office or took a federal job.
In 2018, the state of Wyoming passed legislation to recognize every January 7th as Estelle Reel Day.
*Because Estelle married a man from Washington State and moved to the state with him, and the sources seemed to indicate they stayed locally in Washington, I have estimated her place of death to be somewhere in Washington State. However, no sources I have found indicate an actual place of death and so this is only an educated guess.
Sources:
https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/estelle-reel-first-woman-elected-statewide-office-wyoming