McSpadden, Lillie

Lillie McSpadden was elected to the School Board of Piedmont, Wayne County, Missouri in the mid 1890s. Her election was challenged and the courts ruled that as school board members had to be voters, McSpadden was relieved of her position. Voters in Missouri had to be male citizens and at least twenty-one years of age. In the same year Missouri courts ruled that women were eligible to all county wide offices, unless statutes designated otherwise.