A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life

Knowles, Ella L.

In 1892 Ella L. Knowles was nominated by the Populist and Alliance Party as their candidate for the office state Attorney General of Montana. She lost the race, but the winner appointed her as an assistant Attorney General. Knowles was a l…

Foltz, Clara Shortridge

Clara Shortridge Foltz was a pioneering woman attorney who opened the California bar to women lawyers. She practiced law until the age of 80 and innovated the idea of an office of public defender. Foltz was active in the fight for suffrage…

Bigelow, Belle G.

Belle E. Bigelow of Lincoln, Nebraska was nominated for Lieutenant Governor in 1894. Bigelow was twice the Prohibition Party candidate for County Superintendent of Instruction. She ran in 1885 and again in 1892, but did not win either race.

Kepley, Ada Miser

Ada Miser Kepley ran for Illinois state attorney general in 188l. Kepley wrote: "I have been a candidate for state's attorney on a County Prohibition ticket, and received more votes than any other candidate thereon. Had I been elected I pr…

Diehl, Cora Victoria

Cora Victoria Diehl was elected Register of Deeds for Logan County, Oklahoma in 1890. She was the People's Party candidate and was also endorsed by the Democrats. Diehl was the first woman to be elected to public office in the state of Okl…

Hamilton, Anna J.

Anna J. Hamilton, an educator, writer, editor, and journalist was elected to the school board of Lexington, Kentucky some time before 1914.

Dalgarn, Mary

Mary Dalgarn was the United Labor candidate for Superintendent of Schools in Meade County, Kansas in 1888. She was the first woman to run for elected office in the county.

Telford, Mary Jewett

Mary Jewett Telford, of Grand Junction, Colorado, was a leader of the state Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and a suffrage activist. As a delegate, she attended the national convention of the Prohibition Party, and in 1894 was no…

Garner, Eliza A.

Eliza A. Garner campaigned for the office of County School Commissioner in Union County South Carolina in 1888 and 1890. She was not elected in either race. Garner ran on a platform of extending the school and supplying free books to the s…

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton initiated the call for a woman's rights meeting at Seneca Falls, New York. The members of this historic convention issued the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, among them the demand for woman suffrag…