The U.S. Census Bureau has always been ahead of the curve 

when it comes to employing women. Ever since 1880, when it 

started using professional enumerators rather than U.S. 

marshals, the Census Office has employed women in that role. 

With the advent of the Hollerith tabulating machine in 1890, 

women moved into the role of keypunchers. By 1909, 10 years 

before the 19th amendment granted national women's 

suffrage, over 50 percent of the Census Bureau’s 624 

permanent employees were women. As women proved 

themselves as capable as the men, and with the increasing 

number of women in the workforce, it became harder for the

Census Bureau to justify assigning all supervisory positions to 

men. By 1920, the Census Bureau would once again push 

forward appointing the first five female supervisors, as well as 

the first three female expert chiefs of divisions. Many of these 

pioneering women who worked on the census in these early 

years also broke through in other fields, such as law, medicine, 

education, activism, journalism, and the arts.

Stella M. Goslin, sometimes known as Estella, was 

born on July 16, 1857, in Ohio. Stella’s mother 

Gretchen passed away shortly after childbirth, and 

her family soon moved to Illinois. Following her 

father’s Civil War service with the 48th Illinois 

Volunteers, the family moved to Holt County, 

Missouri in 1865. Asher, Stella’s father, worked as a 

physician and served on the school board, while 

Sarah, her stepmother, kept house and participated 

in women’s clubs like the Horticultural Society and 

the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. 

Following her early education, Stella enrolled in the Oregon [Missouri] Normal School (also known 

as the Northwest Missouri Normal School), from which she graduated in 1877. In 1878, Stella 

accepted a job as assistant principal at nearby Falls City, Nebraska, and continued to be active in 

the Oregon Teacher’s Institute. In addition to teaching, Stella participated in her local Women’s 

Union and the Holt County Woman Suffrage Association.

In May 1880, Stella’s education and knowledge of the community, and strength of will earned her,

and seven other women in her census district, an appointment as enumerator for the decennial 

count. Enumerators began counting the population on June 1st, and Stella enumerated 862 people 

in the town of Oregon, for which she would have received 

the standard enumerator pay of 2 cents per name. In 

addition to the population schedule for the 1880 Census, 

enumerators also completed schedules for Mortality, 

Agriculture, Social Statistics, and Manufacturing.

Census Enumerator and Suffragist

The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT) 

September 17, 1911

Stella’s self-enumerated 1880 Census

The National Citizen and Ballot Box (Syracuse, NY) July 1880
On July 10, 1883, Stella married John F. Cowan, an 1881 

Princeton graduate, who had growing business concerns in 

Butte, Montana. A week after their marriage, the new couple 

arrived in Butte, where John developed his reputation as a 

businessman, civil servant, and politician. The couple also 

experienced the rougher side of the frontier mining business—

in 1885, John tried to avoid testifying as a witness in a murder 

trial. In the 1890s, the growing family moved to Salt Lake City, 

Utah.

After her three daughters and one son started school, Stella 

returned to the activism that she had displayed in Missouri. 

Over her next several decades in Salt Lake City, Stella devoted 

most of her time to the Ladies Literary Club. Originally 

founded for women to discuss literature, like most Ladies Literary Clubs across the country, 

women soon found themselves discussing a variety of topics and issues affecting their community. 

During Stella’s long tenure, she participated in talks ranging from pensions, old age care, municipal 

property ownership and utility fees to current events, World War I, and of course, women’s 

suffrage. Stella served in several leadership positions in the Literary Club: as a member of the 

finance and program committees, as a corresponding secretary, as vice-president in 1918, and 

starting in 1919, as president.

As part of her membership with the 

Ladies Literary Club, Stella also enjoyed 

membership in Utah’s Federation of 

Women’s Clubs, a group of 

approximately 75 women’s clubs that 

worked together to exercise greater 

power. Although the Utah state 

constitution had enshrined the rights of 

women to vote in its state, most did not 

have the same privilege. For this reason, 

Stella became more active in national 

organizations. In 1916, Stella and fellow 

clubwomen hosted the Congressional 

Union for Suffrage, a national women’s 

political group which, in 1914, had 

successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress 

for the first women’s suffrage 

amendment in several decades. She also served as a longtime delegate to the annual Utah 

Federation of Women’s Clubs conventions. In both 1919 and 1921, she attended the national 

conventions as a delegate for Utah. In addition to her work with the women’s clubs, Stella also 

supported the Red Cross and helped found the Sarah Daft House, a nonprofit senior living 

community in Salt Lake City. 

Stella’s legacy and hard work also laid the foundation for several people in her life, whether they 

knew Stella intimately or only in passing. All three of Stella’s daughters attended prestigious 

colleges: Vassar, Bryn-Mawr, and Columbia University. Following Stella’s pioneering work as a 

census taker in 1880, at least four out of the next five enumerators for her district were women 

(the returns for the 1890 Census were destroyed by fire in 1921 and the enumerators’ names are 

lost). In the 1930s, Stella moved to California to live with her daughter Frances’ family, where she 

passed away in Los Angeles on March 10, 1945. 

The Census Bureau is proud of Stella’s work in 

education, her fight for universal women’s 

suffrage, and her contributions to 

the community.

St. Joseph Weekly Gazette (St. Joseph, MO) May 20, 1880

Stella, left, and fellow members of the Federation of Women’s Clubs

The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT) October 16, 1919

The Salt Lake Herald Republican (Salt Lake City, UT) February 19, 1910 HB-18-0009