March 1862 Election Revisited: Oskaloosa Once Elected a Woman as Mayor—But It Wasn’t What It Seemed

Did Oskaloosa, Iowa, Elect The First Woman To Political Office?

OSKALOOSA, Iowa — In one of the most unusual and little-known moments in local political history, a woman named Nancy Smith was elected mayor of Oskaloosa during a municipal election in 1862—but declined to serve. The event, while initially treated as a joke, remains one of the earliest recorded instances of a woman being elected to mayoral office in the United States.

According to a period newspaper clipping from 1862, rediscovered in recent years, only one official candidate had been listed on the ballot for that year’s mayoral race. Dissatisfied with the available choice, a group of local men reportedly rallied in a spirit of mischief and wrote in the name of “Mrs. Nancy Smith” on election day.

“The ‘boys’ did not like him, and were bound to have another candidate,” the article read. “And so, more in the spirit of fun than otherwise, they nominated Mrs. Nancy Smith on the day of the election… when the votes were counted in the evening, it was found that Mrs. Nancy Smith had twenty-one majority over the regular candidate for Mayor.”

The satirical act stunned the town and was reported by multiple newspapers at the time, including The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye. With the vote certified, Oskaloosa had—in theory—elected its first female mayor. However, there is no record of Smith taking the oath of office or performing any mayoral duties. City council records from the era do not reflect her name, and legal precedent at the time would not have recognized her election as binding.

A Town Still in Its Infancy

In 1862, Oskaloosa was a young and growing community of fewer than 4,000 residents. Founded in the 1840s by settlers including Quakers and Civil War-era pioneers, it had become a hub of agriculture, coal mining, and early civic development. Despite its frontier progressivism, women in Iowa still lacked the right to vote, hold office, or participate officially in municipal governance.

Nancy Smith’s election occurred nearly three decades before Iowa passed the Municipal Suffrage Act in 1894, which granted women the right to vote and hold city offices. It was also 57 years before the 19th Amendment granted women nationwide voting rights in 1920.

While Smith’s nomination was not serious in its intent, it served as a striking historical artifact that challenged the assumptions of the day, albeit unintentionally.

No Known Biography

Despite the notoriety of the event, little is known about Nancy Smith herself. Census records from Mahaska County list multiple individuals with that name, but none are definitively connected to the 1862 election. She did not appear in future political roles, and no known correspondence, obituary, or personal account survives.

Historians believe she was likely a respected member of the community chosen not for her political ambitions, but as a stand-in protest against an unpopular male candidate.

Still a First—Even If Symbolic

Nancy Smith’s election has been referenced in historical records such as Her Hat Was in the Ring, a digital project cataloging early women candidates, and more recently in articles exploring firsts in American political history. Wikipedia’s entry on early female mayors includes Smith as the first woman elected to mayoral office in the U.S.—while noting she never served.

She predated the much more widely known Susanna Madora Salter, who became the first woman to actually serve as mayor in the U.S. in 1887—in Argonia, Kansas.

Still, the Oskaloosa vote stands as a remarkable footnote in the city’s past: a reminder that even in jest, moments of historic significance can occur.

“So Oskaloosa has actually elected a Mayoress,” the 1862 report concluded, “who will, we presume, preside over the official destinies of that city for the ensuing year.”

She didn’t—but the record endures.

SOURCES:

The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, 1862 edition (via public domain archives)

“Her Hat Was In the Ring” women’s history archive – https://herhat.historyit.com

Wikipedia – List of first women mayors: en.wikipedia.org

“Finding America’s First Female Politician,” Heather Michon – Medium, 2023

Roustabout History, Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy archive