08/22/2026
What an awesome story ❤️ Amazing things happen when you dare to try!
August 2026 marks 106 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, a milestone in the history of voting rights in the United States. Ratified on August 18, 1920, the amendment opened the door for millions of women to participate more fully in American political life - not just as voters, but also as candidates and elected officials. Cue Nellie (Darling) Moore.
The story goes that in 1921, Democrat Everett Darling and Republican Herman Johnson were running for mayor of Nellie, Ohio. As local men discussed the candidates at the village general store, they jokingly suggested that Darling’s sister, Nellie Moore, enter the race as an Independent. “After all, she runs the town anyway.”
Moore, emboldened by the 19th Amendment’s recent passing, took it as a challenge and began to study the village ordinances until she could cite them from memory.
This story, while fun, is most likely a few colorful half-truths combined. What we do know is that on Nov 9th, 1921 the Coshocton Tribune’s front page reported the election results: Unopposed with 51 votes, Nellie Moore had won. In doing so she officially became one of only two Ohio women to take office as mayor following the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
In an 1987 interview with The Tribune (Nov 15, 1987, pg 5), Nellie’s daughter, Virginia Moore recalled that her mother “feared no man” - despite being 5’5 and 98 pounds. When Virginia was about 14, she came home one night to find the town drunk (a dangerous man known to carry a knife) sitting in the living room with her mother.
Alarmed, Virginia rushed upstairs to wake her father. "My father raised up on one elbow and emphatically informed me that he had not voted for my mother and that she would have to handle the problem herself.”
And she did. Mayor Moore had arrested the man and calmly held him until the marshal arrived to take him away.
The 1921 election is remarkable not only because Nellie Moore became mayor so soon after women gained the right to vote, but because no one ran against her. At a time when many Americans still questioned women’s place in public office, it is significant that no male candidates stepped forward to oppose her simply on the grounds that the mayor’s office should belong to a man. Her unopposed election suggests that her qualifications and standing in the community spoke louder than convention.
In 1923 she ran again - this time against her brother, Everett. She won by two votes.
