Women Officeholders in Kansas, 1872-1912

Morse, Hannah B.

Hannah P. Morse was elected in 1888 to the Oskaloosa, Kansas town council. This was an historic election as the mayor and all of the town council members were women. By one account, after the success of Susanna Salter's term as mayor of ...

Webster, Ellen

Kansas ' first legislature, in 1861, gave women the right to vote in school elections. In 1872 Ellen Webster became superintendent of public instruction in Harvey County, Kansas. She took the oath of office in June, an event noted only i...

McGill, Alice

Alice McGill was elected as register of deeds (circa 1900) for Graham County, Kansas. She was one of several women to hold this position in Kansas in this period. Elected by all-male voters, these women often proved themselves in lower, ...

Maria M. Sheetz's Campaign for City Council, 1894

C. Ina Sutley's Campaign for County Superintendent of Public Schools, 1912

C. J.. M. Sharon's Campaign for County Superintendent of Schools, 1872

Rice, Emily S.

Emily S. Rice was elected Harper County ( Kansas) clerk in 1884 and served until 1888. Although Kansas was often progressive in matters of women's rights, since 1874 dissenters had challenged women's right to hold elective office. The qu...

Mary E. Wrigley's campaign for State Senate, 1896

Maria Mahlberg's Campaign for University Trustee, 1910

Wright, Mary Page

In 1874 Miss Mary Page Wright was elected Coffey County, Kansas superintendent of schools. Her election as superintendent furnished the Kansas Supreme Court the test case, Wright v. Noell, in the decision that sex is no disqualification ...