Boone in Boone County, Iowa — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)

Boone Suffrage Parade

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

1. Boone Suffrage Parade Marker

Inscription.
From this site on October 29, 1908, Iowa Suffragists marched downtown to rally for women’s right to vote. The Boone Suffrage parade was the only one held in Iowa and one of the first in the U.S. It was organized by Rowena Edson Stevens, President of the Boone Equality Club and former Iowa Equal Suffrage Association (IESA) President, and the Rev. Eleanor Elizabeth Gordon of Des Moines, President of the IESA. At 8th and Story Sts. the marchers stopped to allow National Women Suffrage Association President, Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, to speak. Afterwards, the parade reassembled and the women marched back to this site.

This Monument is dedicated on October 25, 2008, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Boone Suffrage Parade. It honors all of the Iowa women who worked to ensure women’s rights for future generations.

Erected 2008.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Civil Rights • Women. A significant historical date for this entry is October 29, 1908.

Location. 42° 3.754′ N, 93° 53.113′ W. Marker is in Boone, Iowa, in Boone County. It is at the intersection of 7th Street and Carroll Street, on the

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right when traveling east on 7th Street. The marker is located beside the sidewalk at the northeast corner of the Boone High School grounds. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 500 7th Street, Boone IA 50036, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the American Midwest

and in the Corn Belt.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture

and also the Louisiana Purchase.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 14 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: The Birthplace of Mamie Doud Eisenhower (within shouting distance of this marker); Lincoln Highway (approx. ¼ mile away); Champlin Memorial Masonic Temple (approx. 0.3 miles away); First National Bank (approx. 0.3 miles away); Dragoon Trail Historical Site (approx. 0.4 miles away); Co. D. 32nd Iowa Infantry (approx. 1.1 miles away); Boone Freedom Rock Veterans Memorial (approx. 1.1 miles away); Cassel Corner Park (approx. 13.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

2. Boone Suffrage Parade Marker

of all markers in Boone.

Also see . . .
1. 1908 Boone Suffrage Parade (Boone Historical Society).

Excerpt: At noon on October 29, 1908, 100 brave women took to the streets of Boone and protested for their right to vote. They marched with flags flying and a band playing from the Universalist Church, which was located on the southeast corner of 7th and Carroll Streets, down 7th Street to Story Street and up Story to 8th Street.
The parade marked the only women’s suffrage march ever held in Iowa and one of the first, and possibly the first, suffrage parade, to be held in the US. The parade took place as part of the 1908 annual convention of the IESA, held on October 27, 28, and 29 at the Universalist Church in Boone. Suffragists from all over the state and nation were present.
The Boone County Historical Society and other statewide organizations reenacted the parade on October 25, 2008, in honor the 100th anniversary of the 1908 parade. A monument to the original parade participants and the Iowa women who had played important roles in the suffrage movement was dedicated on that day.

(Submitted on October 28, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

2. Address at the Boone, Iowa, Suffrage Parade - Oct. 29, 1908 (Iowa State University Archives).

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 17, 2025

3. Boone Suffrage Parade Marker

Looking southwest from the 7th Street & Carroll Street intersection. Boone High School is in the background.

Excerpt: Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, then president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, gave this address at the Boone, Iowa, suffrage parade, one of the first suffrage parades in the United States. The Woman's Standard, a newspaper published by the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association from 1886-1911, reported that Shaw “…held the breathless attention of her hearers, wit, humor, pathos, sentiment and clear, hard logic from one to the other she passed, naturally, entirely without self-consciousness, with the greatest sincerity of manner and at time with much dramatic fire.”

(Submitted on October 28, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

3. Boone Suffrage Parade (Iowa PBS Video on YouTube). (Submitted on October 28, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

Credits. This page was last revised on October 28, 2025. It was originally submitted on October 23, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 77 times since then and 36 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on October 27, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 2, 3. submitted on October 28, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.