Roy Alexander Burrows b. January 23 1881 Grass Valley, California d. October 23 1943 Reno, Nevada. Picture taken at the Riverside Studio in Reno 1920.
The theme for this week is voting...do you have any politicians in the family tree? Anyone involved in the women's suffrage movement? I learned that My Great Grand-Uncle Roy Burrows served for several years on the Reno City Council. In fact, he won another term in 1915 after women in Nevada were given the right to vote in local races. His wife Lucie would also participate in another local election as a clerk in 1918.
It would still be another 5 years before women could vote in national elections.
Taken from the Nevada State Journal May 5 1915:
ALL RECORDS FOR VOTING SMASHED BY ELECTORS OF RENO
"Reno smashed all records for voting yesterday....The large vote was due to the fact that women exercised the suffrage for the first time in the city of Reno and few of them neglected the opportunity to participate in an election that held a large interest for the community....
In the Sixth ward there was real excitement; Roy A. Burrows and Joseph E. Johnson running neck and neck as the count progressed. On account of the large number of candidates for councilman the vote progressed slowly in the sixth, and that added zest to the contest, for there was the element of suspended interest to thrill those interested. Burrows won finally by 54 votes.....
First Women Voters...There was rivalry among the women voters to see which would be the first to cast the ballot. Lucy M. Van Deventer claimed the honor in the first ward. Miss Minnie Flanagan was the first in the booth in the second ward. And Mrs. Josie Lancaster was the first to cast her ballot in the third ward.
Women took the time to go to the polls, while many men neglected to perform their civic duty. For instance, in the second ward 162 men who were eligible to vote failed to put in an appearance, while only 8 women did not vote.
One new face will appear at the city hall, that of Roy Burrows, elected to the council from the sixth ward. Burrows will fill the vacancy that has existed for about a year. "
The article continues on...
"Early in the day women, voting for the first time in Nevada, outnumbered the men as voters. They did not have the slightest difficulty and it was evident that they had studied their sample ballots well and had made up their minds for whom they intended voting, and they did it without confusion.
The afternoon found the streets thronged, every store in town having closed at 1 o'clock to permit their employees to vote and work for their favorites....there wasn't the least bit of disturbance in any section during the day in any part of the city. In this respect this election was one of the quietest held in Reno. Although Chief of Police Hillhouse had taken the precaution to station extra officers at the polling places there was nothing for them to do".
Nevada was a "black hole" in the west when it came to suffrage in 1914.
Women were not granted the right to vote on Nevada's entrance into the Union in 1864. A bill was introduced in 1869 to allow women the vote by Curtis J. Hillyer, who argued that "women possessed at least as much intelligence as men, followed the same laws, paid the same taxes, and most importantly would introduce a new standard of public morality to the public process". Both houses of the Nevada legislature passed the amendment that year, but it failed the mandated second vote two years later. It would be forty years more before suffrage became an issue again in the state, and on November 3, 1914, women were given the right to vote. They voted for the first time in local races in 1915, in statewide races in 1916, and gained the right to vote nationally with the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920.
https://nvsctlawlib.libguides.com/c.php?g=1078723&p=7870328
A big question on the ballot in the election of 1915 was the saloon ordinance. The initiative would have cut down the number of saloons in town to forty. The above article read..."A strenuous campaign was waged both for and against the measure, and the final count shows that the proposed ordinance was defeated by a majority of 1,411". It would be interesting to see how many women voted for the ordinance as opposed to men! Was the prognostication of Curtis J. Hillyer correct?
Roy Burrows was not new to politics in Reno. He had previously been on the Central Trades Council in 1907, and had appeared before the Reno City Council (Nevada State Journal Aug. 31, 1907) to get a permit amended so that laborers could hold athletic events on North Virginia Street and Commercial Row on Labor Day of that year. Maybe he got the bug to run for a bigger office at that time, or just saw the need to provide leadership in a growing community.
Roy was a prominent contractor and builder in Reno, and was instrumental in constructing many beautiful neighborhood homes in the older part of the city. For a time, he worked with Robley/Bob Hansen (his nephew), as Roy Burrows and Hansen Contractors until Uncle Bob started his own construction business in town. In 1936 Roy took out a building permit for a brick home at 524 Ridge Street in Reno, to build a home for F. P. Strassburg (a stock broker). The architect was the prolific F. J. De Longchamps. (Reno Evening Gazette April 2, 1936). De Longchamps was a local architect and is best known for his design of the Washoe County Courthouse, the Riverside Hotel, the Reno Post Office, and several buildings on the University of Nevada, Reno campus to name a few! He also designed stately brick homes for prominent Reno residents, as well as smaller English Tudor cottages, that still remain a charming part of old Reno.
Roy was first elected to the city council in 1912 and served through 1916. He ran again in 1920 according to this ad in the Reno Evening Gazette September 4, 1920.
Reno State Journal 1931. He was still running for City Council. This was a year after his daughter Gertrude died of appendicitis at the age of 13 (see the post from October 12, 2020 on Roy Burrows and his family for more history).
Roy Burrow's obituary from The Union (Grass Valley) October 26, 1943. He passed away on October 23, 1943 in Reno, Nevada. He was remembered as a contractor and builder, but it should be remembered that he also participated in the growth and development of his community by serving his constituents as a councilman from the Sixth ward for many years.
Roy's wife Lucie participated in the election process as well after the 1914 vote to allow women suffrage in Nevada elections. Many women were instrumental in the fight for women's suffrage in Nevada (indeed, they were not "given" the right, but had to fight for it). I could not find any sources to give me insight into Lucie's part in the change in state law, or what she thought about women's rights to vote, but I do know she thought her right to cast a vote as a full citizen was important enough to get involved in the local primary election of 1918.
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The Burrows/Hansen side of the family was always staunchly Republican. Mom (Margaret Hansen Boothby) remembers being allowed to walk into town each day to watch the proceedings of the Republican Convention to elect Eisenhower on Grandma Hansen's (Vere Burrows Hansen) brand new TV. She thought it was "beyond exciting to watch all the wrangling and parading and voting" while Grandma Hansen explained what was going on. She remembers that it was the beginning of her interest in politics. And of course, remember that Grandma Hansen did shake the hand of Teddy Roosevelt in 1903! (see the post of 1/14/21 "Her Patriotism Unbounded").
There were also many political arguments in Mom's house when they lived with Nana (Emma King Hayes Van Duzer) as Nana was an FDR Democrat and Mom's dad (Harold Hansen) was a Republican. "They could really get into it!" I can imagine! Mom always took great pride in voting, and passed it down to my sister and I.
Other Burrows/Hansen family members who were elected to public office:
John Hartwig Hansen (Mayor of Grass Valley) (see the post of 5/3/20 "John Hartwig Hansen")
William Lockyer (California Attorney General (6 years) and California State Legislator 25 years (see the post of 10/16/20 "Alfred Lord Tennyson and Arnold Schwarzenegger; Their Connections to the Burrows Family in Grass Valley").
My Dad, Dale Boothby, also served on the Nevada County School Board for 20 years, which was an elected position. Mom took me to the firehouse (our polling place) to see his name on the ballot! My family has a wonderful history of serving their communities for which I am thankful.
Relationship Reference: Me->Margaret Hansen Boothby->Harold Hansen->Vere Burrows Hansen (sister to Roy Burrows).
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