Woelpper, Letitia P.

Letitia P. Woelpper was elected to the School Committee of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1874. Woelpper was one of the first two women elected to the position. The Republican party which first nominated the two women, then tried to get them to withdraw from the race, both refused. 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. Unfortunately, Woelpper died before she could serve in the office.