{{Short description|First American woman to vote}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} thumb|Seraph Young, photo published in the ''Deseret Evening News'' March 1902
'''Seraph Young Ford''' (November 6, 1846{{spnd}}June 22, 1938) was the first woman to cast a ballot under a law that made women citizens' voting rights equal to men's in the United States. She voted in Salt Lake City's municipal election on February 14, 1870, becoming the first woman to vote after the Utah Territory passed a women's equal suffrage law, just two days prior.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arlington National Cemetery |date= |title=Notable graves: Women's history |url=https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Womens-History |access-date= |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241215125043/https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Womens-History|archive-date= December 15, 2024}}</ref>
==Biography== Seraph Cedenia Young was born on November 6, 1846, to Cedenia Clark and Brigham Hamilton Young in Winter Quarters, Nebraska. The Young family migrated to the Great Basin the next year along with other Mormon refugees, arriving in October 1847 and settling in Salt Lake City.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/pioneers/1540/seraph-cedenia-young|title=Seraph Cedenia Young – Pioneer Overland Travel|last=Press|first=The Church Historian’s|website=history.churchofjesuschrist.org|access-date=April 10, 2020}}</ref> Young, grandniece of Brigham Young,<ref name="tribune2020"/> was the oldest of nine children and eventually became a teacher at the model school at the University of Deseret. She was twenty-three years old and teaching at the university at the time of her historic vote.<ref>“Second Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students in the University of Deseret, for the Academical Year 1869–70,” Salt Lake City, 1870. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.<!-- ISSN/LOC # needed, if any --></ref>
Utah's territorial legislature unanimously passed a law extending voting rights to women citizens in February 1870. Acting territorial governor Stephen A. Mann signed the bill into law on February 12, 1870, and Salt Lake City's municipal election was held just two days later.<ref>{{Cite news|title= Woman Suffrage in Utah|publisher=New York Tribune|date=February 14, 1870|location=New York|url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/19CMNI/id/13492|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=Digital Collection BYU Library|language=en}}</ref> Although Wyoming Territory had extended voting rights to women citizens before Utah Territory did, Utah held two elections {{ndash}} the municipal election on February 14 and a territory-wide election on August 1<ref>{{Cite web|title=This Day in History: Women Voted Across Utah for the First Time|url=https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/2019/07/this-day-in-history-women-voted-across-utah-for-the-first-time/|date=July 31, 2019|website=Better Days Curriculum|language=en|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref> {{ndash}} before Wyoming women first cast ballots on September 6.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Who Cast the First Vote? {{!}} WyoHistory.org|url=https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/who-cast-first-vote|website=www.wyohistory.org|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref> Seraph Young's historic vote was cast at Council Hall, which in 1870 served as the city hall for Salt Lake City and housed the territory's Legislative Assembly. The building was moved in 1961 to the grounds of the Utah State Capitol.<ref name=koch/>
No historical records survive that record Young's feelings about the issue of woman suffrage, but newspapers reported that she was the first woman to cast her vote on February 14, 1870, which made her the first American woman to vote under a law that gave women the same voting rights as men.<ref name="eveningstar1870">{{Cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1870-02-23/ed-1/seq-1/|work=The Evening Star|title=The Mormon Feud|date=February 23, 1870|access-date=April 10, 2020|issn=2331-9968}}</ref> Young's simple action made history. Young did not go on to become a leader in the women's rights movement, but Utah women remembered her even decades later as the first to vote.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Relief Society (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)|url=https://archive.org/details/reliefsocietymag07reli|title=The Relief Society magazine : organ of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints|date=1920|publisher=Salt Lake City : [General Board of the Relief Society]|others=Harold B. Lee Library|page=264}}</ref>
In 1872, Young married Seth L. Ford in Salt Lake City.<ref>United States Western Marriage Index, Family History Library.</ref> He was a printer from Buffalo, New York and a Union Army veteran during the American Civil War. The couple had three children, two of whom survived to adulthood. She moved farther east as her husband's health deteriorated from wounds sustained during the war. They lived most of their married life in New York and Maryland. She struggled to support the family after he became blind and paralyzed, for a time the family raised money by singing and playing the harmonica on street corners.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/bios/seraph-young/# |publisher= Better Days 2020 |title=Seraph Young Ford, First Woman to Vote with Equal Suffrage |last=Clark |first=Rebekah |access-date=February 14, 2023}}</ref> Young cared for Ford until his death in 1910, and was buried next to him in Arlington National Cemetery after her death in 1938.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Humanities|first=National Endowment for the|date=June 23, 1938|title=Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854–1972, June 23, 1938, Image 14|newspaper=Evening Star|pages=A|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1938-06-23/ed-1/seq-14/|access-date=May 15, 2020|issn=2331-9968}}</ref> Her headstone read “Serath” instead of the correct spelling of her first name until it was fixed in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kslnewsradio.com/1934225/seraph-young-first-female-voter-finally-gets-misspelled-headstone-corrected/amp/|title = Seraph Young, first female voter, finally gets misspelled headstone corrected|date = September 29, 2020}}</ref>
== Commemoration == A mural depicting Seraph Young's vote, created by artist David Koch, is in the House of Representatives chamber of the Utah State Capitol.<ref name=koch>{{Cite web|title=Utah State Capitol Murals|url=https://www.davidkochartist.com/single-post/2017/10/07/Utah-State-Capitol-Murals|website=website|date=October 7, 2017|language=en|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref> In 2019, the Utah Capitol Preservation Board approved a women's history sculpture for the lawn in front of Council Hall to honor Seraph Young's historic first vote and commemorate Utah's role in the struggle for women's suffrage.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Board OKs new women's history sculpture at Council Hall on Capitol Hill|url=https://www.deseret.com/utah/2019/10/21/20925300/board-oks-new-womens-history-sculpture-at-council-hall-on-capitol-hill|author=<!--not stated-->|date=October 21, 2019|website=Deseret News|language=en|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref> The sculpture, designed by Utah artists Kelsey Harrison and Jason Manning, was installed in the summer of 2020. In 2019, the state legislature recognized Seraph Young's vote and passed a bill designating February 14 as Women's Voter Registration Day.<ref>{{Cite web|title=To rekindle love affair with voting, lawmakers seek to make Valentine's Day also Utah Women's Voter Registration Day|url=https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2019/02/14/rekindle-love-affair/|website=The Salt Lake Tribune|language=en-US|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref> On February 14, 2020, the 150th anniversary of Seraph Young's vote, public history non-profit Better Days 2020 led a remembrance walk to Council Hall, where Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall spoke about the importance of Utah women's leadership in the suffrage movement and encouraged Utah citizens to register and vote.<ref name=tribune2020>{{Cite web|title=Utahns celebrate milestones in women's voting rights while recognizing the fight continues|url=https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/02/14/utah-celebrates-th/|website=The Salt Lake Tribune|language=en-US|access-date=May 15, 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Rebekah Clark, [https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/bios/seraph-young "Seraph Young Ford"] * Katherine Kitterman, [https://www.betterdays2020.com/blog/2018/11/6/meet-seraph-young-utahs-first-female-voter "Meet Seraph Young, Utah's First Female Voter"]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Seraph Young}} Category:1846 births Category:1938 deaths Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Mormon pioneers Category:Women's suffrage in Utah Category:Latter Day Saints from Utah Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Suffragists from Utah