"Clarina Nichols Fought For Women's Rights in Kansas"

A Moment in Time

Kansas Historical Society

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

Clarina Nichols listened and knitted during debates at the Wyandotte constitutional convention. As the only woman assigned a seat in the hall that summer of 1859, Clarina was invited to express her ideas about women's rights but not to vote. During recess she met with delegates to share her strong views about equality for women and men. Because of her commitment, Clarina made an impact in Kansas history.

The final version of the Wyandotte consitution reflect Clarina's influence. It included three sections she had drafted dealing with women's rights in child custody, women's admission to the state university, and women's right to vote in school elections. Partly because of her efforts, the University of Kansas became the first state-run university in the world to allow female students.

Clarina was born in 1810 in Vermont and married at age twenty. She had three children, taught school, and worked for a newspaper. In 1843 she divorced her husband, Justin Carpenter, and the following year married George Nichols, a newspaper editor thirty years her senior. They had one son.

Women's rights continued to be a passion for Clarina. The editorials she wrote on the subject earned her a national reputation. In 1854 she joined the New England Emigrant Aid Society and moved her family to Lawrence in Kansas Territory. Her husband died the next year and she moved the family to Wyandotte County where she became associate editor of the Quindaro Chindowan. Clarina's articles focused on the Free State Party and women's rights.

Clarina traveled throughout the territory lecturing about equality, gathering signatures on petitions, and building support for her participation at the Wyandotte convention. It was the petitions that persuaded the delegates to invite her to speak at the convention.

Laws benefiting women's rights later passed in Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Missouri, due in part, to Clarina's efforts. She joined Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Olympic Brown, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to campaign for universal suffrage in 1867. The Fifteenth Amendment passed providing suffrage for African American men, but did not include woman suffrage.

Clarina left Kansas in 1871 to be with two of her children in California. She died there in 1885. Through strong speaking and writing, Clarina made history in Kansas and paved a path for people's rights.