PARMA, Idaho — We tend to learn a lot from our viewers, thanks to the back and forth we have on the 208.
Last week, we shared a story about what we believe was Boise's first female mayoral candidate.
Esther Marenholtz, in 1933, dubbed herself "truly the friend of the worker."
She lost the election but she stayed true to being truly the friend of the worker. She showed up and spoke about low wages at several labor meetings over the years.
She also worked with the U.S. Department of Ag to ensure meat was included in food rations.
We learned about this woman because of a candidate card a Boise man found in a book he bought at a thrift store.
That story intrigued Dawn, who sent us a message saying, "I loved your story about the female Boise mayoral candidate, but there's another great story. It's about a Parma, ID woman named Laura Stockton Starcher."
Well, Dawn is correct.
Laura Stockton Starcher has a legacy in both Oregon and Idaho.
She was part of what was dubbed the Petticoat Revolution in Umatilla.
We take this history lesson back to 1916.
At this point, women in Idaho and Oregon had the right to vote in local and presidential elections, but women taking a seat in government was a rare sight.
That was before Laura Stockton Starcher came around.
Kimberly Jensen, a Western Oregon University Professor and board member for Oregon Encyclopedia, said she was a westward settler.
"Laura was born in Missouri," said Jensen. "She was a westward settler colonial story and apparently, she was also a homeschool homesteader in her own right and she was Parma's first postal staff. They called it a postmistress at the time."
Laura considered Parma home, but it took leaving the state with her husband, Earl, to make a national splash.
Shanna Hatfield, an Author and a part of the Western Writers of America group said Starcher is a trailblazer.
"Laura and her husband lived in Umatilla, Oregon, and he was the mayor," said Hatfield. "It was all men on the council and they just kind of let things slide."
Thanks to Laura and her friends, in 1916, the Petticoat Revolution began.
"Here's this group of women who see a need in their community, and they decide to step up and fill it," said Hatfield. "The women saw things like the sidewalks were cracked, and the city hadn't paid their power bill, so none of the streetlights were working."
After watching the Umatilla community crumble, Laura met with the women in the 200-person town.
"They lined out who was going to run for each position and kind of how they would do it and they all agreed they didn't want the men to know what they were doing," said Hatfield. "They set about very quietly and discreetly generating support from the other women in town."
Jensen said It was the 1916 election that changed everything.
"There was this drama and this, you know, endless possibilities of talking about what that meant, that her husband had been mayor before her," said Jensen.
Instead of going in the morning when the polls opened, the women waited until around two in the afternoon to show up at the polls.
"When the votes were tallied, Laura had beaten her husband 26 to eight in the votes and it was just the men could not believe what had happened, like where did this come from," said Jensen.
Laura became Umatill's new mayor, and four other women stepped in and filled open town council seats.
It hit newspapers everywhere.
"It got a lot of press all around the US because people who were skeptical about women voting were terrified that women would be officeholders," said Jensen.
"The first thing they did was paid outstanding power bills so they could get the streetlights turned back on," said Hatfield. "Then they got roads paved and even arranged for a monthly garbage pickup. They did all kinds of wonderful things to just help the community. Not just grow but be a better, stronger community," said Hatfield.
She made a huge impact in roughly eight months as mayor. Historians said she didn't finish the entire term due to health concerns.
There are others who say it's because she was pregnant with her daughter.
She then moved back to Parma and lived with her mother and daughter.
"Apparently, she returned to Parma and the 1930 census said that she had a daughter, who was about 12," said Jensen. "So part of her leave of absence and resignation may have had something to do with the birth of her daughter and then she lived in Parma until her death in 1960."
It's not clear what happened to her husband.
There are rumors that she left the mayor role because she was pregnant with her daughter, but we heard her husband didn't follow her.
Also, her death certificate said she was a widow, but during that time, people were shunned if they were to get divorced.
Either way, Jensen and Hatfield said she was a trailblazer.
"The Umatilla women and Laura starcher with her wonderful Idaho connections really proved that women could do a great job," said Jensen.
"They were the first ones to do something like that and I think it paved the way because it showed other women what was possible in what they could do and I think today even they still set that example of, well, look what they did, we can do that," said Hatfield.