The 1920 Election in Femme Osage Township   
by Bob Brail    

            When Americans go to the polls in November, 2016, it will be the twenty-fifth presidential election in which all American women have been eligible to vote.  As hard as it may be to believe, there was a not-too-distant time in our past when only males could cast ballots.  Not until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 could all American women exercise the right to vote.

              In the archives of the Boone-Duden Historical Society, there is a collection of poll books from the Femme Osage precinct of Femme Osage Township covering several elections during the first half of the twentieth century.  Two of them, the books for the general elections of 1916 and 1920, combined with information from the 1920 Federal Census, provide an interesting picture of an electorate, formerly all male, which included women for the first time.

            The first state to allow women to vote in presidential elections was Wyoming when it achieved statehood in 1890.  By 1914, the contrast between East and West had become striking. All of the states west of the Rockies had women's suffrage, while no state did east of the Rockies, except Kansas.  Congress began debating the Nineteenth Amendment in early 1919.  It read as follows: “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.  Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”  The House of Representatives passed the Nineteenth Amendment on May 21, 1919, and the Senate followed on June 4.  Quickly states began to ratify the Amendment.  On July 3, 1919, Missouri was the eleventh state to do so.  When Tennesee became thirty-sixth state to approve it on August 18, 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment became law in the United States.

            
          The presidential election on November 2, 1920, resulted in the landslide election of Republican Warren G. Harding over Democrat James M. Cox.  Harding won thirty-seven of forty-eight states, including Missouri.  In the Missouri gubernatorial race, Republican Arthur Hyde defeated Democrat John Atkinson. 
           
          Because the 1920 Federal Census does not specify exactly where an individual lived and the poll books do not specify the boundaries of the precinct, it is not possible to exactly determine the population of the precinct.  Based on a comparison of last names in the poll books to an early twentieth century plat map of the county, it is safe to say that the people whose names are listed in the Femme Osage poll books lived in the western half of Township 45 North, Range 1 East, which includes the village of Femme Osage.  The poll book states that the voting occurred in the schoolhouse in town.  The Femme Osage precinct election judges for the election were Otto Brinkman, John Fluesmeyer, William Brueggemann, August Nadler, William Thilking, and Fritz Pieper.
           
         In this precinct in 1916 election, before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, 108 men had voted.  In 1920, 102 men and seventy-eight women voted.  Of the thirty people aged thirty and younger who voted in the 1920 election, sixteen were women.  The Femme Osage electorate had dramatically changed.
           
         It is clear from looking at the voting and census records that age played a role in determining whether or not wives accompanied their husbands to the polls in Femme Osage in 1920.  Thirty-seven married couples voted in the election.  The average age of husbands whose wives also voted was forty-nine.  On the other hand, fifteen husbands voted without their wives voting.  The average age of these husbands was fifty-five.  It is also interesting to note that thirteen husbands aged forty and younger voted with their wives; however, only two husbands aged 40 and younger voted without their wives.  Another evidence of the age factor is the fact that of all the husbands who voted without their wives, forty percent were older than sixty; of the husbands who voted with wives, only twenty-five percent were older than sixty.  (Two wives voted without husbands).
           
          It is even clearer that the new female voters, almost without exception, must have voted for the same candidates as their husbands.  In fact, nearly everyone in the precinct voted the same way!  In nearly every contest listed on the ballot, the Republican candidate won about 94% of the vote, including the votes for President, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Senator, and Congressman.  Democrats garnered only about 4% of the votes and Socialists 2%.  When it came to constitutional amendments and propositions, this same pattern of “solidarity” was evidenced.  Almost all of the amendments and propositions were either approved or disapproved by margins of about 95% to 5%.   
          The poll books and census records reveal some noteworthy facts.  Mrs. Alice Henneke turned twenty-one between the census (January) and the election (November).  She was the youngest female voter in precinct.  Mrs. Friedrika Stock, a widower, aged 81, voted for president for the first time in her life.  If she had been eligible to vote at ate 21, she could have voted in the 1860 presidential election.  The Wessler household in 1920 was made up of five adults, two women and three men.  Widower Mrs. Emma Wessler voted along with her twenty-two year old daughter, Emma, but none of the three adult sons voted!  Another interesting family was the extended Rahmeier family, who lived as neighbors in three houses.  In the 1916 election only the men had voted, but in 1920 all eleven adults in the three homes voted, including the six women.    
           
         Of course, there are still countries today that do not allow women the same voting rights as men.  It is hard to believe that this was true of the United States less than one hundred years ago.  The schoolhouse at Femme Osage had been the territory of men only on election day in 1916, but on November 2, 1920, it was both men and women who walked through the schoolhouse door and cast their votes for President of the United States.                                                                                                                     

MARRIED COUPLES WHO VOTED IN THE 1920 ELECTION

                                   Herman and Pauline Backhaus               Henry and Lizzie Backhaus

                                   Charles and Minnie Borgmann               Frank and Anna Brakemeyer

                                  William and Alma Fienup                         Charles and Ida Gerdemann

                                  Charles and Louise Guhlemann              Albert and Clare Guhlemann

                                  William and Paulina Hemann                   Henry and Mary Henneker
                                   Louis and Doris Holt                               William and Amelia Joerling
                                   Eddie and Alvine Joerling                       George and Meta Kniemuller
                                  Charles and Margaret Lanfkapf               Henry and Minnie Lippold
                                  Gustave and Minnie Lueckemeier           Cornelius and Melanie Mallinckrodt
                                  Theo and Hilda Mallinckrodt                   Theodore and Alma Meyer
                                  William and Louise Nienhauser               John and Emma Paul
                                  Gustave and Carrie Rawie                         Walter and Hilda Rahmeier
                                  William and Mathilda Rahmeier               George and Louise Schmidt
                                  Edwin and Annie Schuester                    Willian and Amelia Schuester
                                  Henry and Doris Sehrt                               Eddie and Annie Straatman
                                  Henry and Louise Thilking                       William and Emma Thilking
                                  Fritz and Emilia Twiehaus                          Henry and Hilda Twiehaus
                                  Henry and Anna Webbink                        Herman and Lena Webbink
                                  William and Laura Wildschuetz

                                                                
SOURCES: Federal Census 1920; history.com; memory.loc.gov; ourdocuments.gov; politicalgraveyard.com; Poll Books, Femme Osage Precinct, Femme Osage Township, 1916 and 1920; wikipedia.org.