The Territory's First Women Jurors Take Their Seats
A landmark moment in Washington history sees three women summoned for grand jury service in Island County, marking a first for the Pacific Coast.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Grand Jury of the District Court for Island County was impaneled yesterday morning, and upon its members were the first women on any legal jury in the Territory of Washington, or on the Pacific coast. Three women were summoned, namely: Mrs. Bradley, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Calhoon. The latter was dismissed because of doubts as to her citizenship, she being of foreign birth and unnaturalized. All three of the women were willing to serve, and Mrs. Bradley and Mrs. Anderson did serve. The novelty of the affair created an intense sensation in the little community. The Grand Jury went to work promptly, and in a short time reported their first indictment—that of A. P. Ledger for robbery, he having taken $20 from a relative at the point of a pistol. Women on juries will not be uncommon hereafter.
“The novelty of the affair created an intense sensation in the little community.”
Washington Territory briefly granted women the right to serve on juries in 1883, decades before the 19th Amendment. This short-lived progress was soon struck down by the Territorial Supreme Court in 1887, illustrating the fragility of voting and civic rights in the frontier era.
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