Eliza Stewart was the first woman subpoenaed to serve on a court jury.
She was Laramie's first schoolteacher and her notice for jury duty was
delivered in March of 1870.
The idea of a woman serving on a jury led to many derisive comments and caricatures from those opposed to the idea. The following couplet published in connection with a caricature of a baby crying furiously is characteristic:
Eliza Stewart went on to establish Laramie's first library. She died in Laramie in March of 1912, some forty-two years to the day she was summoned to jury duty. |
