Thurston County historian Sue Lean featured by StoryCorps

Shirley Stirling

StoryCorps is shining a national spotlight on one of Thurston County's own historians. Throughout August, the nonprofit oral history organization is featuring a 2011 interview with longtime historian Sue Lean.

In the interview, she recounts how suffrage leader Emma Smith DeVoe helped Washington become the fifth state nationwide to grant women (not all women) the vote. 

StoryCorps selected Lean's interview as one of its featured stories, introducing listeners nationwide to the Washington campaign that helped reshape the movement for women's voting rights. 

Emma Smith DeVoe

DeVoe, president of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association, was so effective in grassroots organizing that Washington became home to the nation's first organization of women voters. Its purpose was to help women elsewhere win the vote. Named the National Council of Women Voters, it inspired the creation of the League of Women Voters, founded on Susan B. Anthony's birthday in 1920. 

The West was the best 

Before Washington, only Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho had granted women full voting rights. Washington was the first state in the 20th century to do so, ending a 14-year national suffrage drought and a decade before the 19th Amendment became law. 

How?  Rather than large rallies and dramatic demonstrations, DeVoe preferred a disciplined campaign of personal conversations, careful organization, and coalition building. One strategy was separating women's suffrage from other controversial issues, particularly prohibition! Lean tells the rest of the story on StoryCorps. 

Why Thurston County matters 

The story is not just Washington state history, it is also Thurston County history. When Anthony visited Olympia in 1871 and visited the Bigelow House, she spoke before the Washington Territorial Legislature and also encouraged Washington women to continue fighting for equal voting rights.

In the same year, the Olney sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, took action: Because the law referred to "citizens" rather than “men,” women in the Thurston County communities of Grand Mound and Littlerock registered and voted in a territory-wide election, a first in Washington Territory. Today, a marker in Littlerock by the Daughters of the American Colonists (DAC), details the story.  

Legislators quickly closed the loophole, but the episode showed both the determination of Washington women and the growing momentum of the movement. Nearly three decades later, DeVoe built on that momentum, leading a successful campaign that won Washington women full voting rights in 1910.  

Today, visitors can explore this history at Olympia's Bigelow House Museum, a landmark on the National Votes for Women Trail and one of the state's important women’s suffrage sites. 

Bringing life to history 

Lean wasn't born a historian. She became one because something surprised and inspired her. In 1970, as a new League of Women Voters member, she attended the League's 50th anniversary party and was startled that women had the vote for only 50 years.

Years later, when visiting Seneca Falls, the home of the first women’s rights convention in the U.S., she read a National Park Service brochure timeline, which included the following, “1910 - Washington becomes the first state in the twentieth century to fully enfranchise women, inspiring nationwide campaign that soon brings success in several western states.” 

That sparked her interest in leading historical anniversary events. In 1996, for the 125th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s visit to Olympia, she, with a friend, arranged a capital building event featuring G. Thomas Edwards, author of “Sowing Good Seeds: The Northwest Suffrage Campaigns of Susan B. Anthony.” 

She later served as Project Director for Documents of Liberty, a long-term exhibit on Washington's 1889 Constitution for the secretary of state. She developed exhibits on important Territorial and state Supreme Court cases for the Washington Supreme Court in the Temple of Justice.  

Sue arranged for local seamstress and artist Pam Wells to create a five-star suffrage flag for the state Capitol building, representing Washington, the fifth state. Also used in the 1998 Lakefair parade, it celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls convention, then parades and events leading to the 2010 centennial of Washington women winning the vote. A historical pageant was created for the 19th Amendment centennial, performed twice in 2019. Players were then called to “Dress Up and Be Seen for Suffrage” on street corners, holding signs in celebration. 

Over time, Lean found ways to help restore DeVoe’s rightful place in history, the strategist and leader of the 1910 women's suffrage campaign. 

What is StoryCorps? 

StoryCorps is a nonprofit oral history organization, which preserves the stories of everyday people. Over 700,000 people nationwide have participated. Interviews are preserved in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress — perhaps the largest collection of human voices and personal histories. 

Recorded in 2011, Lean's StoryCorps interview features Sue Lean and Theresa Barker, then president of the League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County, discussing DeVoe and the successful women's suffrage campaign.   

Bigelow House 

Continue the story in person by visiting the Bigelow House Museum at 918 Glass Avenue NE in Olympia on Saturday, Aug. 8, from 1-4 p.m.  

Bigelow family members were among Olympia's civic leaders and supporters of women's suffrage. Visitors can explore exhibits on the movement, meet costumed interpreters and experience one of the state's most significant suffrage landmarks. Learn about Anthony's visit to the house, and the events that led to women winning the vote.  

Lean served on the Bigelow House board, helping with Equality Day events, highlighting the Anthony visit, the history of local women’s suffrage, and Anthony’s help forming the Washington Territory Equal Suffrage Association.  

DAC members will participate as some of the costumed interpreters, displaying selected "Moments That Made Us" interpretive panels from the Washington State Historical Society. The panel series is available to help celebrate America 250. 

DAC has sponsored 3 local suffrage markers: Susan B. Anthony visits Bigelow House, Washington Women Win the Vote, and the aforementioned They’re voting!. 

Lean moved to Santa Barbara in 2024, keeping in touch with Olympia organizations online and still reading The JOLT!  

See JOLT’s profile Sue Lean: History Machine.