A note from Dave Elbert: Last week, I wrote about men at Woodland Cemetery; this week is about women buried there. You can sign up for a Sept. 7 tour of women’s graves at the Des Moines Parks and Recreation’s Cemetery online page. Retired librarian Lorna Truck, a source for much of today’s column, is the tour guide. The tour is 1 to 3 p.m. and costs $10.

Mary Jane Coggeshall may be the least appreciated formerly famous person interred in Des Moines’ Woodland Cemetery.

Woodland was one of Iowa’s first garden-style cemeteries, organized in 1848, two years after Iowa became a state and three years before Des Moines was a city. A new book, “Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines, A History,” tells stories about 121 of the roughly 50,000 buried there. 

It says Coggeshall was known as “the mother of women suffrage in Iowa” and for her “brilliant repartee and sharp wit.”  

A charter member of the Polk County Women’s Suffrage Movement in 1870, Coggeshall died in 1911, nine years before Iowa women officially got the vote. But she left fingerprints on many of that era’s progressive movements. 

Today, thanks to retired Des Moines librarian Lorna Truck, we know about Coggeshall’s role in a long-buried bit of local history. In 1908, she literally fought city hall and won after she and other women were denied ballots for a bond issue on a new city hall. 

The women cited an obscure and little-used section of Iowa law that gave certain women the right to vote in money-related elections, like that year’s referendum to issue $350,000 in bonds for a new city hall. 

When the women were denied ballots, Coggeshall hired lawyers and sued. She lost in district court but appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, which voted unanimously in the women’s favor. The decision was a rebuke to city officials and required they restart the process for a new city hall.

The women’s goal was not to stop the project. It was to call attention to the unfairness of denying women the vote, which their lawsuit did. When the verdict was reported, newspapers from New York to California and from Florida to Oregon carried the story. 

Many Iowa suffragettes and other notable women are buried in Woodland. They include: 

Frances Hubbell, wife of pioneer businessman F.M. Hubbell. Frances received nationwide attention for the large suffrage conference she hosted in 1897 at the Hubbell home – now Terrace Hill, the Iowa governor’s mansion. Attendees included such well-known suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt.

Delia Ann Webster, a friend of Frederick Douglass. Delia was the first woman jailed under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in Kentucky. Years later, she moved to Des Moines to be near relatives.  

Cora Bussey Hillis, an educator, famous for saying more was known about raising animals than raising children. Cora “set the stage for childcare in the 21st century,” according to Truck. She also raised money for the first city plan.

Elizabeth Day Mann helped establish Des Moines’ first orphanage in 1886 after a 3-day-old infant was left on a doorstep. 

Grace Cramer worked with homeless men, unwed mothers and prostitutes at Sunbeam Rescue Mission, which she co-founded with her husband.

Hattie Wilson was a newlywed at 28 and dead at 30, according to Truck. Wilson’s 1883 obituary said she kept “a vile house” and that her funeral was attended by “a dozen or more of the sinful sisterhood.” Wilson reportedly made her own funeral arrangements and paid for an expensive $85 coffin that was placed in an unmarked grave.

Alice Carey Wilson Weitz, wife of builder Frederick Weitz, was instrumental in adding an auditorium to Hoyt Sherman Place. She also lobbied for legislation that allowed the Des Moines Women’s Club to obtain a 99-year lease on the property. 

Annice Baldwin Tracy was a Civil War nurse who organized Des Moines’ first “Cottage hospital” in 1875. The hospital received nationwide attention two years later when a Barnum Circus train derailed near Altoona, killing 20 and injuring 36. Survivors were taken to Cottage hospital, and circus owner P.T. Barnum was so grateful he raised $12,000 for the hospital.