From collection Candidates
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 in a news filler by the Kansas Daily Commonwealth on June 18. Two other Kansas women also held this position in other counties in 1872. Lorraine Gehring reports that Webster may have been appointed to fill a vacancy, rather than appointed. "Women Officeholders in Kansas," Kansas History, (Summer 1986), page 48, note 4.
