Most people today recognize the fact that women in America have had the right to vote for some time. And there is also recognition that the right to vote and many other civil rights enjoyed by women in this country are not shared by women in many other parts of the world.

But somehow there is still a lingering misunderstanding by many that American women got the vote and many other liberties on one great day in 1920 -- Aug. 26 to be precise -- with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Actually that passage was the result of many years of long and unremitting labor by a long line of supporters of women's rights. In fact, some of those rights had been won long before the passage of the 19th Amendment. And since Ohio in general and Columbus in particular were in the middle of this movement for most of its history, the story, or some of it at any rate, seems like one that should be retold.

Well after the time our country was founded after the American Revolution, women in the well-settled East and the rather rougher lands to the West were often denied the right to own property in their own name, the right to enter into contracts, the right to the custody of their own children and the right to vote.

It was to change these practices and the legal system that supported them that women began to organize to seek political and social equality for themselves and their families.

The movement really began in America with the publication in 1796 of a slim volume of political commentary called "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." The author, Mary Wollstonecroft, was a fiery advocate for women's rights and the "Vindication" inspired a number of women to begin to work for women's rights as well

Early advocates of women's rights -- Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone -- urged the adoption of a full range of legal rights for women, essentially making women the legal equals of men. These women were few in number but loud in their protests between 1820 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. A remarkable number of them were based in Ohio.

Ohio was something of a hotbed for social reform in the years leading up to the Civil War. Allied with newly emerging movements to ban slavery and temperately use alcohol, women's rights organizations became well organized in Ohio.

The comparative wealth of the new state combined with its location to bring forth a new generation of young people pledged to political, economic and social reform. The excellent transportation systems of the state and an early emphasis on higher education for women at places like Oberlin College produced enthusiastic, articulate and dedicated members of the cause.

In due course, many of these advocates of social reform ended up in Ohio's capital city. In 1843, Abby Kelley Foster came to Columbus and lectured on the evils of slavery. She also promoted equal education and legal equality for women. A local newspaper report at the time says some people were shocked by her views. But the same paper noted that many other people liked what she had to say.

Another early advocate was Frances Dana Gage. Arriving in Ohio from St. Louis, Gage immediately set to work forming organizations and speaking out about her ideas. In 1850, Norton S. Townshend, later of OSU faculty fame, presented a resolution to an Ohio Constitutional Convention seeking equal justice for women. It did not go anywhere.

Neither did a similar petition presented by Gage to the Ohio General Assembly in 1861. But the battle was joined and would continue for a number of years.

With the end of the Civil War, the struggle against slavery came to an end. But the women's rights movement continued.

Allied with a movement increasingly convinced that liquor should be prohibited rather than used temperately, the women's rights movement changed as well. Headed by new leaders like Susan B. Anthony, the movement began to leave other issues aside and uniformly and militantly seek the right to vote. It was widely believed by women's rights advocates that with the vote quickly obtained, all other legal rights would follow.

The point was not easy to make because the vote was not quickly obtained. The movement concentrated its efforts with state governments and tried to get state laws passed giving the vote to women. In some places, success was easily obtained. In Nevada, women won the right to vote in local elections in 1870.

In most places -- places like Ohio -- the struggle was much more difficult. By 1884, Columbus had an active Woman Suffrage Association ably led by Elizabeth Coit. Coit's daughter, Belle Coit Kelton, would follow her mother as a leader in woman suffrage politics in Columbus. The first great victory was won in 1894 when women were permitted to vote in elections for the board of education.

After the death of Elizabeth Coit in 1901, the movement was quiet for a few years but reformed as the Columbus Equal Suffrage Association in 1907. Shortly thereafter, Dora Bachman became the first woman elected to public office in Columbus as a member of the school board. She would not be the last.

Over the next several years, the women suffrage movement became quite strong in Columbus. In 1912, in an effort to persuade a Constitutional Convention meeting in the city to adopt woman suffrage, more than 5,000 women marched through downtown. Their efforts were opposed by a woman's Anti-Suffrage Association whose motto was announced as "The womanly woman does not want the vote." Apparently, a large number of men agreed. The amendment was not adopted in that year but the struggle continued.

In 1917, a change was approved in the Columbus City Charter permitting women to vote in municipal elections. With this, the battle for the vote shifted from the state to the national level until the 19th Amendment was approved in 1920.

And with that, one chapter in the story of the struggle for women's rights in America came to an end.

Ed Lentz writes a history column for ThisWeek.