By Anne Foster
Add one more to the list of Prescott's "World's Oldest" accomplishments. Prescott may have held the World's Oldest Rodeo Queen contest! Certainly, Prescott's Frontier Days was one of the first (if not the first) to include women in a rodeo event.
The occasion was the "cowboy tournament" held during the July 4th festivities in 1889. Prescott's rodeo tradition had been founded only the year before in 1888. Apparently, the first event had been such a success that the organizing committee expanded the competition. This time, local women were invited to compete in a riding contest. Prizes included a saddle and bridle in order to entice entrants. The competition was an unqualified success. The local newspaper of the time, the Journal-Miner, reported: "The celebration of the Fourth of July closed on Friday, with a baseball game in the morning, and ladies riding and a cowboy tournament at the Driving park in the afternoon. Greater interest was manifested in the latter than in any of the previous days' sports of the track, every available vehicle and animal in the town being pressed into service to carry passengers, business of all kinds being closed for the afternoon. The prizes offered for the best lady rider was a fine saddle as first, and a bridle for second prize. There were seven contestants: Mesdames T. Atto, Celia Book, D.W.Thorne and Misses Mollie Baker, Minnie Bargeman, Mary Boblett and Lizzie Dillon. The judges selected were Jeff Young, Orick Jackson, George Augustine, George L. Merritt, Frank Kuehne, James Rourke and Juan Leibas. The first prize was awarded to Miss Lizzie Dillon, and the second to Miss Mary Boblett".
Although no mention is made, the saddle was surely for sidesaddle riding. It would take a few more years and a bicycle craze before women riding astride was widely accepted. On the other hand, most of Prescott's ranch women had probably already adopted the custom privately.
Unfortunately, little is known about the contestants. Lizzie Dillon lived in Prescott. On February 6, 1891, she married Thomas F. Turner, also of Prescott. After that, she disappears from the historical record. Even less is known of the married ladies or of Miss Mollie Baker. Perhaps they were temporarily stationed with husbands or fathers at Fort Whipple. More likely, their history simply was not considered important until it was too late.
Mary Boblett, one of Sharlot Hall's cousins, moved with her family from Kansas to Lynx Creek in 1876. Only four years old at the time, in later years she vividly recalled the nearly yearlong trip by covered wagon. She married Amos L. Hall (no relation to Sharlot) of Cordes on August 21, 1890. He must have died not long after for she later married George Ross while on a trip home to Council Grove, Kansas. She lived in Phoenix for several years before returning to Prescott. A Prescott Courier reporter interviewed Mary in 1951, while she was a resident of the Arizona's Pioneer's Home. "She related the story of how she happened to go to the first rodeo and ride in it", he wrote, "her brother, Edward Boblett, was to ride in the roping event and he registered her in the exhibition event with eight other women". Mary's memory might have been a little fuzzy (the event was held in 1889 and there were seven contestants total), but she provides valuable evidence nonetheless.
Minnie Bargeman later married into the Boblett family. She married Samuel Boblett on March 16, 1890. Her family had moved from Holland to Walnut Grove, Arizona, in the early 1870's. She died young, sometime before 1918.
Horseback riding had long been an acceptable activity for women. Even colonial-era women rode and raced on horses-not surprising in a predominantly rural society that relied on horses for transportation. By the time of the Civil War, "the sport that became most acceptable for women was horseback riding, so long as they retained their grace and femininity". Occasional riding contests had been held as early as the 1840's and were especially popular among the plantation class in the South. By the 1880's female trick riders were popular features of circuses and vaudeville.
Cheyenne, Wyoming's Frontier Days offered a ladies race in 1899. Pendleton, Oregon's first competition for women was held after the turn-of -the-century. Held ten years earlier, Prescott's contest, then, appears to be the first women's rodeo event ever held. Unfortunately, the event was not repeated in subsequent years. But by the 1920's and 1930's, women's rodeo was in full swing and women again returned to the World's Oldest Rodeo. Although it took nearly thirty years to be repeated, Prescottonians should celebrate this historic moment in rodeo history.
Anne Foster is the Assistant Archivist at the Sharlot Hall Museum.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (pb126f5i4). Reuse only by permission.
Pearl Ritter appears to be winning this race sidesaddle at the Prescott Rodeo in the 1920's. Prescott's claim-to-fame rodeo was only a year old when the first riding contest for women was initiated. Lizzie Dillon was the event's first winner and took home a new saddle for her effort.