Elected County Clerk Before Women Could Vote: Jasper County Courthouse, Carthage, Missouri

Travel to Carthage, Missouri’s Jasper County Courthouse, a striking historic building connected to an unusual moment in the history of women and public office. There, we speak with Jasper County Clerk and former Missouri State Representative, Charlie Davis, who shares the story of Annie White Baxter, who in 1890 was elected Jasper County Clerk—decades before women had the right to vote in Missouri. Her victory meant that an all-male electorate chose a woman to hold one of the county’s most important administrative offices, an extraordinary outcome for its time.