Colorado Women’s
Hall of Fame
Honors Eliza Routt

On March 11, 2008, Eliza Pickrell Routt was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony took place at the Seawell Ballroom in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Centennial author Joyce B. Lohse, Mrs. Routt’s cousin and biographer, nominated her for the honor, and
spoke to the audience of more than 750 people attending the induction ceremony.
 

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Joyce’s Speech:

I would like to share some history with you …

About 130 years ago, 14^th Street in Denver was known as Governor’s Row. It was home of Colorado pioneers and Bonanza Kings. Miles of sidewalks made of diamond shaped marble slabs lined the street. Paved with a mixture of course sand and gravel, the street required steady sprinkling by horse drawn water trucks, to keep the surface compact and to settle the dust.

During mild weather, about 1 ½ hours before sundown, carriage and buggy driving began, and kept up until darkness put a stop to it. The corner of 14^th and Welton was a center of activity. This was the location of the first governor’s mansion, a Victorian home with a carefully tended yard and flower gardens, the residence of Governor John Routt and his wife, Eliza.

When John Routt sold his successful silver mine in Leadville in 1880, he turned the profits over to his sensible wife, Eliza. The couple splurged when they bought their home for $30,000, and a buggy with a pair of matching bay horses for $3,000, no doubt the hit of the evening buggy parade on 14^th Street. After that, Eliza frugally managed their finances for the rest of their lives.

            The Victorian Era in the late 1800s was a period during which style and conduct were particularly restrained and conservative. A proper lady appeared in the newspaper only when she was born, she was married, or when she died. Eliza Routt, a proper Victorian lady, was quite busy while she was NOT making headlines.

Eliza Pickrell Routt, who arrived in Colorado when it was still a roughly settled territory, set a high standard of behavior and activism for women when Colorado became a new state. In her low-key and generous manner, she worked to provide safe housing and higher education for women and young people.

Eliza was a progressive leader in the movement for equal rights for women, nudging her influential husband in that direction as well. She supported music and the arts in the community, and worked to obtain the bronze Native American sculpture, The Closing Era, which still rests on the east lawn of the Colorado state capitol building. People from all walks of life respected her and called her their friend.

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            As first lady, Eliza balanced her civic activities with plenty of attention to the governor’s mansion and generous non-partisan hospitality. As wife of the gregarious Governor Routt, the former Miss Pickrell was his partner, his anchor, and a source of pride when she became Colorado’s first woman registered to vote.

One day while he was working at his desk in his office on Larimer Street, some friends gathered and were loudly boasting about the size of fish they had recently caught. John Routt continued to be occupied at his desk while the bragging escalated.

            Suddenly, he looked up from his work and said, “Oh, what’s the matter with you fellows anyway … with your little ten-pound trout and twenty-pound catfish, you will have to take a back seat to me. Why, I caught a Pickrell that is a lot bigger than that!”

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I am grateful to the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame for honoring Colorado’s original first lady, Eliza Pickrell Routt. Many thanks to my family and friends for their support and enthusiasm for this induction, and to Filter Press, who generously supplied copies of my book, First Governor, First Lady, for attendees of the induction ceremony.

            And most of all, I thank Eliza, for her wonderful story, and her great work. Perhaps you will think about Denver’s early days when you drive your buggy home through her neighborhood this evening. Thank you.

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First Governor, First Lady, Joyce Lohse’s biography of John and Eliza Routt, is available from your favorite bookseller
and online at www.lohseworks.com and www.filterpressbooks.com.
For more information about the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, see www.cogreatwomen.org. 
Joyce Lohse will present "Eliza Routt: An Unpretentious Activist" at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum on Saturday, June 21, at 2 p.m.
 

Joyce Lohse is included in ...

Writing, Etc.
an instant adrenaline rush for the writer

Writing, Etc. includes tips by author Joyce B. Lohse.

Published by Ghost Road Press
March 2006
$15.95, 8.5 x 5.5" trade paperback
ISBN #0-9778034-0-6
Contact: Joy Overbeck, Colorado Authors' League Publicity Chair, at http://www.coloradoauthors.org or Matt Davis, Publisher, Ghost Road Press, at www.ghostroadpress.com

The Colorado Authors League, a 250-plus-member organization of professional wordsmiths founded 75 years ago, has launched a new book called Writing, Etc., a must-have for the aspiring, novice, or seasoned writer. This juicy trove of inspiration, advice and strategies is sure to bring anyone's writer's voice to life. The authors share their personal secrets in over 250 tips on craft, creativity, work habits, marketing, money, dealing with agents and editors, and more, each proven and field-tested in their successful real-life careers. The book also offers a valuable and comprehensive resource list of national and Colorado writers' organizations, classes, conferences, and recommended reading for the writer.

The talent behind Writing, Etc. is impressive. It includes such Colorado Authors' League notables as Margaret Coel, author of a
New York Times best-selling Arapaho mystery novel series; Vickie Bane, correspondent for People Magazine; Tom Noel, author of Denver history books and popular Rocky Mountain News columnist; mystery novelist Stephanie Kane; Sally Stich, popular national speaker at writing seminars and Woman's Day Contributing Editor, and over 80 more professionals. Colorado Authors' League writers' specialties and insights into the writing life cover a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, from poetry, plays and scripts, to memoir, nature and history, travel, spiritual and self-help, plus essays and magazine articles of every type.

Purchase Writing, Etc. at the Tattered Cover in LoDo, Highlands Ranch, and Cherry Creek, the Boulder Bookstore, and at other independent
bookstores across the state (please visit ghostroadpress.com for a list.) It's also available at Barnes and Noble or Borders, or order at
barnesandnoble.com, borders.com, amazon.com, or the publisher's website at ghostroadpress.com.

Denver Public Schools -
Educational Resource Services Review of
Emily Griffith: Opportunity's Teacher
by Joyce B. Lohse

Curriculum Connection :
Teachers; Emily Griffith Opportunity School; Colorado; Famous people in Colorado
Reading Level : 3 - 5
Recommendation : Highly Recommended
Review :
     Emily Griffith developed her interest in teaching while still a teenager when she taught in a sod schoolhouse on the Nebraska prairie. This was the "beginning of a lifelong dream to create a school for all who wished to learn." Griffith established the Opportunity School in Denver that would be open all day and into the night so "boys and girls, men and women, regardless of age or race or creed, might use what time they had to increase their education." Emily Griffith has served as a role model for the value of education at any age for children and adults alike.
     The photographs and newspaper pictures used as primary sources give the reader the flavor of the time period. Students will enjoy reading of the life of this remarkable woman. This will be a must-have addition for all school libraries in Colorado.

Reviewed By : Martin, Marilyn     Reviewed On : 2005, October