Edna Louisa Beard

Edna Beard was elected to be a Vermont County Superintendent of Schools in 1906.  In 1913 she was the Town Treasurer for Orange, Orange County, and was elected to a second term in 1915. In 1920, she campaigned for election to the Vermont House of Representatives. She lost in the Republican primary, but ran in the general election on a Citizen's Party ticket, and won. Although the Nineteenth Amendment had been ratified by the time of her victory, Vermont did not ratify the amendment until February of 1921, a few months after Beard's victory. Beard served one term in the House and was instrumental in winning legislation that provided welfare support to women with disabled husbands, raising compensation for single mothers, and allowing women to become deputy sheriffs. In 1922, she ran a successful campaign for the Vermont State Senate. Edna Louisa Beard is also known as Edna L. Beard.