17 Facts About Frances Munds

Frances Lillian Willard Munds was an American suffragist and leader of the suffrage movement within Arizona.

Frances Munds lived in Prescott, Arizona and represented Yavapai County in 1915.

Frances Munds's family were ranchers who moved to Nevada before moving on to the Arizona Territory.

Frances Munds joined here sister and brother-in-law in Maine, and was educated at the Central Institute in Pittsfield, Maine.

Frances Munds worked as a school teacher in the communities of Pine, Payson, and Mayer before marrying John Lee Munds, youngest son of Willard Munds, in 1890.

Frances Munds continued after marrying, finally leaving education when the school board refused to expel students who had drawn knives in her classroom.

The Frances Munds moved to Prescott in 1893 where John Frances Munds was elected Yavapai County sheriff for two terms beginning in 1899.

Frances Munds joined Prescott's Monday Club, where she met Pauline O'Neill.

In 1898, Frances Munds was elected secretary for the Territory of Arizona Women Suffrage Organization.

Frances Munds attended legislative sessions personally to lobby for women's issues.

In 1909, with statehood appearing imminent, Frances Munds struck a deal with the Western Federation of Miners in which the labor union would support women's suffrage in exchange for the women's organization's support in labor issues.

That year, Frances Munds was elected president of the Arizona Equal Suffrage Association.

Frances Munds initially refused to accept the position, but acquiesced on the condition the position be renamed chairman, and that she be allowed to reorganize the state organization.

In 1913, Governor George Hunt appointed Frances Munds to represent Arizona at the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Budapest, Hungary.

Frances Munds chose not to run for a second term in the legislature, but in 1918 was persuaded to run for Secretary of State, a run which was unsuccessful.

Frances Munds died at home on December 16,1948, and was buried at the Mountain View cemetery in Prescott, Arizona.

On May 4,2024, a statue of Frances Munds, created by sculptor Stephanie Hunter, was unveiled in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza.