Eliza Pickrell Routt

http://www.cogreatwomen.org/index.php/item/66-eliza-routt

http://www.lohseworks.com/index.php/author-joyce-lohse/special-even...

Eliza Pickrell Routt, wife of John Routt, Colorado’s first state governor, was a pioneer in the struggle for women’s rights and was the first woman registered to vote in Colorado. As Colorado’s original first lady Eliza Routt developed a standard for the state by performing community and public service without fanfare or pretense. In 2008 she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.

Eliza was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Pickrell and Mary Ann Elkin. Eliza and John were wed in 1874 in Decatur, Illinois, and had one daughter.

When the Routts arrived in Denver in 1875, Eliza became a founding member of the Woman’s Home Club and continued her service long after her husband retired from office. She served on the first board of trustees for Colorado Woman’s College in 1888 and in 1895, Eliza became the first woman to serve on the Colorado Board of Agriculture at the State Agricultural College. During her decade on that board, she developed a School of Domestic Economy, allowing young women a foothold in higher education, and she obtained the first professorship for a female instructor in the school.