Woah. Hold up. Do you know who this is? This is May Hutton nee Arkwright, born July 21, 1860. You should know her name because not only was she a tough-as-nails miner (a profession known for its male majority and super fun workload) for Bunker’s Hill, she was a take-no-bullshit suffragette. She worked part-time in the mines alongside her husband and wrote a book detailing the horrible conditions of the mine and the abuse workers faced. Did I mention this was in the middle of Idaho in the 1880s? Idaho wasn’t even a state until July 1890.
In 1897, May and her husband Levi invested a silver mine. They were millionaires by 1901. In Idaho. After mining for years. At the turn of the century. Just saying.
And as if being a reputable bad ass wasn’t enough, the Huttons hosted the King of Moose-Riding, Teddy Roosevelt. They had coffee in 1903 while the President toured the area.
May eventually moved with her husband to Spokane, Washington in 1906 and joined the Spokane Equal Suffrage Club. She went on to become the first vice-president of the Washington Equal Suffrage Association. She was known for being blunt and unconventional aka she got shit done.
She passed away on October 6, 1915, five years after women were granted the right to vote. In her memory, her husband Levi started the Hutton Settlement in Spokane. The Hutton Settlement caters to children between the ages of 5-18 in need of a long-term, alternative home.
