Mary E. Moore

In 1894 Ohio enacted a statute for the first time permitting women to vote in local school board elections. In the April 1895 election Mary E. (Mrs. George) Moore of Xenia was one of two candidates nominated by religious women with the goal of electing board members who would begin the process of social reform in Xenia through the education of the young. Mrs. Robert Williams, a member of Xenia's African-American community was also nominated as a candidate. She declined the nomination, stating that women of the African-American community would support the white candidates and hoped that those women's support could be counted upon in the next election. Moores' supporters drew upon their experience organizing on behalf of temperance to bring out the vote and Moore won her race along with Mrs. Eliza Carruthers, who received 1162 votes. Moore received 1123 votes, and the three, losing, male candidates polled 1017, 823, and 627 votes. Mary Moore had been the youngest crusader in the 1873-74 Temperance Crusades. She was a member of the Second United Presbyterian Church, the Women's Missionary Society, and editor of the missionary society's magazine. Her husband was a farmer.