Esther Hobart Morris (August 8, 1814 – April 2, 1902)[a] was an American judge who was the first woman justice of the peace in the United States.

[2][3] Popular stories and historical accounts, as well as by state and federal public monuments, point to Morris as a leader in the passage of Wyoming's suffrage amendment.

Both John Morris and Archy purchased interest in mining properties soon after their arrival, including the Mountain Jack, Grand Turk, Golden State, and Nellie Morgan lodes, according to historian Michael A.

[12] Initially, prospects looked good in the midst of the gold rush, where the mines and adjoining businesses of South Pass City spurred employment for 2,000 workers during 1868 and 1869, according to a Stanford University study.

[10] Esther Morris had hardly settled in her new home in South Pass City when District Court Judge John W. Kingman appointed her as justice of the peace in 1870.

The clerk's telegraph to the world in part read:Wyoming, the youngest and one of the richest Territories in the United States, gave equal rights to women in actions as well as words.

[10]Morris's momentous appointment followed the resignation of Justice R. S. Barr, who quit in protest of the territorial legislature's passage of the women's suffrage amendment in December 1869.

[13] However, according to author Lynne Cheney writing in American Heritage, the county board appointed Morris to complete the term of Judge J. W.

Morris began her tenure as justice in South Pass City in 1870 by arresting Stillman, who refused to hand over his court docket.

Morris began anew with her own docket, holding court sitting on a wood slab in the living room of her log cabin.

[10] Morris's historic judgeship garnered favorable review upon the completion of her term in the South Pass News, as her son Archy was the editor.

The Wyoming Tribune, published in Cheyenne, did note the comments of Territorial Secretary Lee: "the people of Sweetwater County had not the good sense and judgment to nominate and elect her for the ensuing term.

"[10] Esther Morris, as a working mother, held court over a camp of miners, gamblers, speculators, business owners, prostitutes, and rounders.

An 1871 fire struck the South Pass City newspaper office owned and operated by Esther Morris's son, Archibald Slack, forcing him and his wife Sarah to move to Laramie in Albany County.

[4][5] Reports of Morris as suffragist in South Pass City, where she was said to have hosted a momentous tea party for the electors and candidates for Wyoming's first territorial legislature, are not supported by any contemporary accounts, and only appear nearly fifty years after the fact.

[10] The legislation had been written a year before she became a justice of the peace, by Civil War veteran and South Pass City resident William H.

[18] Other research leads to Morris's friend Melville C. Brown, who was president of the 1889 Constitutional Convention in Cheyenne, who claimed that she had presented the suffrage bill to the legislature.

He wrote a letter published on February 14, 1919 in Wyoming State Journal, in which he recounted the tea party and his attendance as a legislative candidate, some 50 years after the event had taken place.

[10] The pamphlet eventually became so widely distributed that students throughout the state's public schools read the story memorializing Morris's suffrage feats.

In 2006, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, inducted Morris, as a suffrage pathbreaker.

"[22] In 1960, the actress Bethel Leslie played Morris in an episode of the syndicated television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews.