Nellie Tayloe Ross
Nellie Davis Tayloe Ross was an American educator and politician who served as the 14th governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927, and as the 28th and first female director of the United States Mint from 1933 to 1953. She was the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state, and remains the only woman to have served as governor of Wyoming. She was a Democrat and supported Prohibition.
Ross was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, to James Wynns Tayloe, a native of Tennessee, and Elizabeth Blair Green, who owned a plantations in [the American South|plantation] on the Missouri River. Her family moved to Miltonvale, Kansas, in 1884, and she graduated from Miltonvale High School in 1892. She attended a teacher-training college for two years and taught kindergarten for four years.
On September 11, 1902, Ross married William B. Ross, whom she had met when visiting relatives in Tennessee in 1900. William B. Ross was governor of Wyoming from 1923 to his death on October 2, 1924. Ross succeeded her husband's successor Frank Lucas as governor when she won the special election, 1924|special election], becoming the first female American governor on January 5, 1925. She was a staunch supporter of Prohibition during the 1920s. She lost 1926 [Wyoming gubernatorial election|re-election in 1926], but remained an active member of the Democratic Party.
In 1933, Ross became the first female Director of [the United States Mint]. Despite initial mistrust, she forged a strong bond with Mary Margaret O'Reilly, the assistant director of the Mint and one of the United States' highest-ranking female civil servants of her time. Ross served five terms as Director, retiring in 1953. During her later years, she wrote for various women's magazines and traveled. Ross died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 101.
Early life and education
Born Nellie Davis Tayloe in St. Joseph, Missouri, Ross was the sixth child, and first daughter, of James Wynns Tayloe, a native of Stewart County, Tennessee, and his wife, Elizabeth Blair Green, who owned a plantation on the Missouri River. She spent much of her childhood in Florence, Alabama, and Decatur, Alabama, in the Tennessee Valley. In 1884, when Ross was seven years of age, her family moved to Miltonvale, Kansas. This relocation happened after her father's old family home back in St. Joseph burned, and the sheriff was about to foreclose on the property.After Ross graduated from Miltonville High School in 1892, her family moved to Omaha, Nebraska. During this time, she taught private piano lessons and attended a two-year training program for kindergarten teachers that was sponsored by the Omaha city school system. She then taught kindergarten for four years. Two of her brothers sent her on a trip to Europe in 1896.
While on a visit to her relatives in Dover, Tennessee, in 1900, Ross met William Bradford Ross, whom she married on September 11, 1902. They had three children. William Ross practiced law and planned to live in the American West. He moved to Cheyenne and established a law practice, bringing his wife to join him. Ross became a leader in Wyoming's Democratic Party served as Laramie County's prosecuting attorney from 1906 to 1907. In 1910 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Wyoming's at-large congressional seat, and in 1918 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Governorship of Wyoming
In 1922, William Ross was elected governor of Wyoming by appealing to progressive voters in both parties. However, after little more than a year and a half in office, he died on October 2, 1924, from surgical complications following an appendectomy. The Democratic Party then nominated his widow, Nellie, to run for governor in a special election the following month.Nellie Ross refused to campaign. She won the November 4, 1924, election with 43,323 votes against her opponent's 35,275 votes. On January 5, 1925, she became the first female governor in the history of the United States. As governor she continued her husband's policies, which called for tax cuts, government assistance for poor farmers, banking reform, and laws protecting children, women workers, and miners. She urged Wyoming to ratify a pending federal amendment prohibiting child labor. Like her husband, she advocated the strengthening of prohibition laws.
Ross ran for re-election in 1926, and relied on campaign surrogates including Cecilia Hennel Hendricks, the Democratic nominee for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, but was narrowly defeated by Frank Emerson. She attributed her loss in part to her refusal to campaign for herself and support for prohibition. She remained active in the Democratic Party and campaigned for Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election, even though the two disagreed on prohibition. At the 1928 Democratic National Convention, she received 33 votes from eleven states for vice president on the first ballot. She also gave a speech seconding Smith's nomination. After the convention, she served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and as director of the DNC Women's Division.