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Trolley Tour
Jefferson City, MO
Welcome to Jefferson City First Women’s History Trolley Tour: Her History, Our Future.
Our Trolley Tour was held in the spring of 2026. It highlighted some of the historic women who have influenced our community and nation.
Josephine Silone Yates (Princess Garner)
I devoted my studies to chemistry, a subject that many believed was
unsuitable for a woman—especially a Black woman in those days. But knowledge does not belong to one race, nor to one gender. Knowledge belongs to anyone willing to pursue it with discipline and curiosity.
At Lincoln University of Missouri here in Jefferson City, I had the privilege of
becoming one of the first Black professors hired to teach on its faculty. Imagine that for a moment—standing before a classroom full of eager students, discussing
the mysteries of science and the order of the natural world.
I was a founder of the Kansas City Colored Women’s League in 1893 and served as its first president.
Later I became the second president of the National Association of Colored
Women from 1900 to 1904, working to advance education, leadership, and
opportunity for African American women.
Education is freedom of the mind.
Cathy Williams
Cathy Williams was born in Independence, MO to an enslaved mother and a free father—which, by law, made her a slave. In 1861, during the early days of the Civil War, she was captured by the Union Soldiers in Jefferson City, Missouri and taken to Little Rock, Arkansas, labeled as
‘contraband.’
When the war ended in 1866, she became free. At 17, she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the 38th Colored Regiment infantry as a cook. Only two people—a cousin and a trusted friend in the regiment—knew she was a woman, and they kept her secret. She served as William Cathay during the Indian Wars, hiding her gender, becoming the nation’s only female soldier at that time, and the
first African American woman to enlist in the military.
Violet Ramsey
Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1796, she gained her freedom in 1838 and quickly built a new life in Missouri. Through hard work as a washerwoman, she became a successful business owner and began purchasing land—an extraordinary achievement for an emancipated woman of her time. Her home also became a place of early worship, helping establish Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church.
Violet’s legacy is one of sacrifice and vision. She and her husband Elijah worked to purchase the freedom of their family and continued investing in land throughout Jefferson City. Though they could not read or write, they built a future that would benefit generations to come. Today, we remember Violet Ramsey as a pioneer whose strength and perseverance helped shape this community.
Florence Smith
In 1840, James Crump and six enslaved
black males between 10-35 are credited with building Lohman's Landing Stone
building in 1983. Lohman's Landing served as a grocery store warehouse Tavern Telegraph office and hotel for Jefferson City.
There's a young lady who can attest to living here, Florence Smith.
Estella Diggs
Estella Diggs was a leader in the United Brothers of Friendship whose self-help initiatives included offering burial insurance for African Americans.
She was devoted to realizing the creation of a support center for the African American community, which was eventually built and named the Jefferson City Community Center.
In 1944, she became the first Black woman to represent the 2nd Congressional District Republican Party as a presidential elector. She went on to earn a Master of Arts Degree and became part of the city’s first racial relations committee, organized in 1949 and a forerunner of the modern-day Human Relations Commission.
