As Election Day nears, a march is planned for later this month in the central Iowa town of Boone to recreate the original parade for women’s voting rights that took place there 100 years ago.
That 1908 event was one of the first women’s suffrage marches in the U.S. and the only one in Iowa — or the Midwest. Suzanne Caswell, spokeswoman for the Boone County Historical Society, says they’re looking for volunteers who want to take part in the re-enactment.
Caswell says anyone who wants to take part in the parade will be welcomed but they’ll have to dress in 1908-era clothing as they want to create something as close to the original parade as possible. She says the recreated march will circle around the community of Boone beginning at noon.
It’ll go down 7th Street to 8th Street and then back to Boone High School, which is the staging event for all of the other activities as well. She says the original march wrapped up at a church which is no longer standing, but it was very near to where the high school stands. In addition to the suffrage parade, Caswell said there will be speeches and other special activities to commemorate women gaining the right to vote.
A monument will be dedicated to Boone and Iowa women who took part in the march a century ago and it also recognizes all Iowa women who took part in the suffrage movement from 1870 through 1919, when the 19th amendment was passed and women won the right to vote. The event is scheduled for October 25th. For more information, visit the Boone County Historical Society website or call (515) 432-1907.