National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

The first Nevada suffrage marker was installed on 11/22 at the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, NV. The marker honors Marjorie Moore Brown whose work in the state’s second largest city in the center of the state proved vital to the state’s early success and important in the national campaign. The Mizpah Hotel provided meeting rooms for the suffrage league and hosted out of town suffrage speakers.
In 1912, the Nye County branch of the Nevada Equal Franchise Society (NEFS) organized and elected Brown press secretary. This responsibility included sending suffrage news briefs to local papers on a regular basis. The Tonopah Daily Bonanza opposed woman suffrage and never missed a chance to dismiss the voice of those who supported it. Nevertheless, Brown’s reputation and work kept the movement in the press. At the 1913 Nevada Equal Franchise Society meeting, Brown was elected second vice-president. Her support for Anne H. Martin’s state leadership became essential in 1913 when a split in the organization threatened to destabilize progress at a crucial time. Brown’s support maintained the county branch and the cohesion of the state organization. In 1914, the final year of the campaign, Brown was elected Third Vice-President of the NEFS. That fall, 70 percent of Nye County’s male voters voted yes and joined other counties to pass woman suffrage. Brown continued to support the national campaign and worked with two national organizations, the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Woman’s Party, for passage of suffrage in other states.
NCWHS board member Joanne Goodwin worked with representatives of the Hotel and with the Town Board to gain permission.
Front row (left to right) Professor Joanne Goodwin, Mizpah family representatives Elsie Cline Green and Ramsey Cline.
Back row: Molly Walt (Nevada Commission for Women); Marsha Cuccaro, Patti Bernard, and Mona Reno (Nevada women's history project); John McCormick (Mizpah Hotel); and Electra McGrath Skrzydlewski (Office of U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto).