Paist, Harriet W.

Harriet W. Paist was a Republican nominee School Director in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1874. After some opposition Paist was elected and served on the School Committee. Paist gave at least one public speech defending her right to run for office, and wrote several letters to Republican party officials protesting their deliberations to throw her and another woman candidate off the ticket. Writer Emily Hallowell later wrote an amusing history of the race, noting that the local Republican party committee, might have suffered from a mass hallucination from which they soon awoke, when realizing they had nominated two women for the School Committee. Hallowell wrote that Paist was accused of "being a Quaker, of beating her husband, and of spelling chairman without an i." Paist was well regarded, and served on at least two special committees during her term on the School Committee. However, Hallowell claimed that male members tried to ignore Paist for the first two years of her term. She ran for a second term but was not elected. In the 1880s Paist was involved in prison reform, especially in Pennsylvania, but also traveled as a delegate to national conferences on the topic. Paist was a well to do Quaker, who left over $5,600 in her will after her death in 1903. A significant portion of this money was dedicated to the education of young Quaker women.