Missouri’s Fearless First Women

From preachers to patents, the shattered glass ceilings.

Before the 1970s, women in Missouri could be denied credit or a divorce—unless they had what was considered sufficient evidence, such as proof of adultery. They could legally be prevented from renting or buying a house on the basis of sex or marital status. They could also be prevented from obtaining equal education. Let that sink in. It was only about 55 years ago that women in Missouri were granted these basic human rights.

Before and after the ’70s, women have been continuously fighting for rights that men simply possessed throughout history. In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s take a look at some of the firsts for women throughout Missouri.

To be elected

Three decades before women could vote, Annie White Baxter became the first woman in Missouri to hold a state-elected position. In November 1890, Annie was elected as the county clerk for the Jasper County Court by an all-male electorate and served three years in the position, according to The Eldon Advertiser.

The Carthage Press stated, “With pride, we point to Mrs. Baxter as an instance that a woman can fill a place of trust and honor as well as his majesty, man.”

When Annie received her election certificate, she framed it and hung it up “for envious men to look at,” as The Marion County Herald reported.

Annie was born in Pennsylvania on March 2, 1864, and moved to Carthage in 1876. At her high school graduation, she was approached by county officials who offered her a clerk position, which she accepted. In addition to working as a clerk for the collector’s office, she also worked in the recorder’s office and the county clerk’s office, according to The Poplar Bluff Republican. In 1888, she married Charles W. Baxter, and two years later, Democrats supported her in the county convention to become an elected clerk. Governor David R. Francis, who signed her position into commission, then named her an honorary colonel on his staff, another first for a woman in Missouri.

Not everyone accepted Annie taking on these roles though. She beat her male Republican competitor, Julius Fischer, by more than 450 votes. He later challenged through the Greene County Circuit Court the legality of a woman having this position, but his argument didn’t sway the court.

“The circuit court ruled against Fischer’s request to name him the winner of the election, but it did not clearly define whether or not Baxter was technically eligible to hold the office,” says Sean Rost, assistant director of research for The State Historical Society of Missouri. “As such, the court simply stated that if Baxter was deemed ineligible in a future ruling, the office of county clerk would be vacant until a special election could be held. She held the office until 1894, so it appears that no further challenge to her eligibility emerged.”

In 1891, Senator David Rouner of Knox County proposed a bill requiring that officeholders in Missouri be fully qualified to vote in the county in which they live, which ultimately did not end up passing.

When Annie attempted to bid for reelection, she lost to a male Republican. She then moved to Jefferson City to work for the state and died there in 1944.

To preach

Mary E. Andrews became the first ordained woman preacher in Missouri in 1902. She was a preacher at the First Unitarian Church in Kansas City for seven years.

In an article in The Kansas City Times, a summary was given of Mary’s address to a women’s dining club: “She severely condemned the custom into which women have fallen of being absolutely dependent on men, and she was very enthusiastic in her estimate of what the energy expended in the creation of fancy work and the dispensing of small talk could be made if directed into the proper channels.” Mary further explained that women no longer worked hard in the same way their grandmothers once did, but relied on their servants and husbands to do work. Mary, as quoted in the The Liberal News, said, “When a crisis of any kind enters a woman’s life, she is incapable of meeting it because she is so used to receiving that she has no self-confidence left.” She often urged women to make enough means for themselves, while also working hard as a homemaker.

Mary was born in 1871 in Hamilton, Ohio. She studied sociology at the University of Chicago and also studied at the Eastern Theological Seminary, according to the Kansas City Journal.

She first served as a minister at the Unitarian church in Ohio but later moved to Missouri to be a minister in Kansas City. She married Charles Chambers Connor, another Unitarian minister, in 1914. After living in Missouri, she moved to Massachusetts to serve as a minister alongside her husband for the First Parish Church, a Unitarian church. Mary died in 1956 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

According to the American Unitarian Association, 1945–1960 yearbook, one parishioner said shortly after her death, “I had the highest opinion of her as a woman, a pastor, and preacher.”

To vote

Five days after the passing of the 19th Amendment, which made it possible for women to vote, Marie Ruoff Byrum became the first woman to vote in Missouri. Her father-in-law, Lacey Byrum, was the initial person to suggest she become the first woman at the polls, according to the Missouri State Archives.

On August 31, 1920, Marie and her husband, Morris Byrum, walked 15 blocks at 5:30 AM in the drizzling rain to get to the polls in Hannibal. She was met at the polls by Lacey, who was serving that day as a Democratic election judge. Morris was a city clerk at the time of the election, according to The Marion County Standard.

The 26-year-old woman voted in a special election in Hannibal for a vacant alderman seat. Marie Byrum signed her name on the ballot at 7 AM.

“She did acknowledge that she beat her friend Zeppa Owens, who was the second woman to vote at the same precinct as Marie,” says Christina Miller, director of reference services for the Missouri State Archives.

Marie Louise Ruoff was born on September 30, 1893, in Missouri, and she married Morris Byrum in 1917 and became a housewife. She was the daughter of Joseph Matthaeus Ruoff and Ana Katherine Ruoff, nee Rein, who emigrated from Germany to America in the years 1889 and 1891. At age 13, after the death of her parents, she was raised by her aunt and uncle, says Nancy Benz, author of Trailblazing Midwestern Women.

“Purely by being able to vote on August 31, 1920, Marie was able to do what so many women before her had been fighting for since at least the Civil War in Missouri,” Christina says. “The first petition to the General Assembly related to women’s suffrage was in 1867.”

To patent a product

Maude Russell became the first woman in Missouri to be granted a patent on March 4, 1914, according to the Webb City Register and the Joplin News Herald.

Maude, who was born in Webb City, was an established dressmaker and tailor when she began teaching dressmaking in 1910. She taught throughout Missouri as part of the Maude W. Russell College of Dressmaking. During her time teaching, she realized the need for a simple, unified system of dress pattern cutting. She then invented the Maude Russell System of Garment Cutting, for which she was later granted a patent.

“I too, have had some flattering offers to sell my patent rights, already by designers who have known I was preparing a system, but I would believe I prefer to push the manufacturer of these improved models myself,” Maude said in The Webb City Register.

Maude explained the system in her book Complete Sewing Instructions, The Russell Way, “The system does away with the old-time work of drafting and study of making your own allowances, which no one can successfully do without natural talent or years of drafting. It contains the whole art of drafting within itself.”

To sit on a jury

Toby Edwards was the first woman in Missouri to sit on a jury on July 10, 1946, according to the Missouri Historical Review. She sat on the jury for the St. Clair County Circuit Court in Osceola under the jurisdiction of Judge Dewey Thatch.

“It was a new experience, and I can’t see any reason why women can’t do it as well as men,” Toby said, according to the Maryville Daily Forum.

There were 11 other men on the jury, yet she was elected foreman for the case of Melvin Woody Jr., who was charged with burglary and larceny and later found guilty of larceny.

The lawyers present addressed the jury several times as, “Gentleman of the jury and Mrs. Edwards,” according to the Maryville Daily Forum.

Her obituary paints Toby as someone who was dedicated to journalism. She was born on December 9, 1904, and died on February 17, 1989. She attended Warrensburg State College and the University of Missouri. In 1925, she married Rider Edwards, and in 1932, the couple purchased the St. Clair County Republican. Toby served as co-editor and publisher. She was also an active member of the Republican Editorial Association of Missouri. In the 1940s, she and her husband organized The Edwards Press and Hillbilly Printers.

Other female pioneers

MARY LOUISE “LULIE” GILLETT (1870) First female to graduate from the University of Missouri. She was from Hannibal, and Gillett Hall on the University’s campus at Columbia was named after her.

MRS. J.H. RODES (1905) First female in Missouri to receive a hunting license, at Sedalia.

NANCY WILLIAMS (1912) First female sheriff in Missouri, for Laclede County.

FREDERICKA SIMONSON (1920) First female licensed pharmacist in Missouri, at Jefferson City.

MAYME OUSLEY (1921) First female mayor in Missouri. She was the mayor of the town of St. James.

LEONOR SULLIVAN (1952) First female from Missouri to be elected to US Congress. She was from St. Louis and served as a Democrat.

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This article was originally published in the March/April 2025 edition of Missouri Life.