History Moments Clara Colby

Clara Bewick (like Buick) Colby arrived in Beatrice with her husband in 1872. She wasted no time in making her mark in the community. She started the first public library and community theatre. Colby established herself as a significant force in Nebraska and the National Women’s Suffrage movement. She launched The Woman's Tribune newspaper in 1883, circulating news of the suffrage movement throughout the Midwest and the West for 26 years. Clara Colby made an impact. Nebraskans supported referendums granting women the vote in 1882 and 1914, but both attempts were defeated. Colby, died in 1916 - four years before women won the right to vote in 1920, and nearly seventy years after the suffrage movement began.