Wyoming Almanac of Politics

 JFK Campaigned for Democrats in Wyoming in 1958 

Mary Bellamy Was First Woman Elected to Wyoming State Legislature

Mary Godat Bellamy (b. 1861, d. 1954) was the first woman elected to the Wyoming State Legislature.

A resident of Laramie, she was one of the five state representatives elected at-large from Albany County. She gained the second-highest vote total, trailing leader Leslie A. Miller (also a Democrat and, later, Wyoming governor) by just one vote (1,284 to Miller’s 1,285).

A schoolteacher by profession, she was married to Charles Bellamy, the first licensed professional engineer in America.  Charles Bellamy, also a surveyor, supervised numerous surveys in the northern Rockies during his long career, including one survey in 1879 during which he named one of the most beautiful lakes in the Snowy Range, Lake Marie, in honor of his wife.

One of the founding members of the Wyoming Federation of Women’s Clubs, Mary Bellamy won the Democratic nomination for the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1910, going on to win the general election later than year.  She did not seek reelection to the office. 

In 1918, she was a delegate to the National Suffrage Convention. She never again sought elective office although she was selected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1920. 

Throughout her life, she remained active in Laramie and state civic organizations. In recognition of that service, she was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Wyoming in 1952.

She died in 1954 and was buried in Greenhill Cemetery, Laramie.

Interesting Facts About Governors of Wyoming

1st Wyoming native to be elected governor: Robert Carey, b. Cheyenne, 1878, elected governor in 1918.

1st University of Wyoming graduate to be elected governor: Milward Simpson, Republican, elected governor in 1954.

1st Wyoming governor to serve more than two terms: Ed Herschler, Democrat, elected to a third term in 1982.

1st former governor to become U. S. Senator: Francis E. Warren. Just 17 days after he became the state's first governor in 1890, Warren resigned to accept the legislature's election of him to the U. S. Senate. It started a tradition. John Kendrick, Lester Hunt, and Frank Barrett each resigned from the governorship after election to the U. S. Senate. J. J. Hickey resigned to accept appointment to the Senate. Other governors later elected to the Senate were: Robert Carey, Milward Simpson, and Clifford P. Hansen.