Laura J. Eisenhuth

Laura J. Kelly Eisenhuth (later Laura Kelly Alming) (May 29, 1859 – September 30, 1937) was an educator and politician from North Dakota. When she was elected the state's superintendent of public instruction in 1892, she became the first woman in the United States to win an election for state office.

Early life Laura J. Kelly was born in Blenheim, Canada West, to Thomas and Nancy (Flater) Kelly. With her parents she moved to DeWitt, Iowa, in either 1860 or 1863; there she grew up with four siblings. She attended college and then became a teacher at DeWitt High School in her hometown. She first traveled to the Dakota Territory in June 1885, filing a pre-emption claim on 160 acres of land near New Rockford. That fall she resumed teaching in Iowa, and returned to her homestead for each of the next two summers. She married, in the fall of 1887, Willis Eisenhuth, a drugstore owner from Carrington. He had come to the territory in 1882; like Laura, he had previously been a teacher in his hometown, Millheim, Pennsylvania. Women in the state were only permitted to vote on matters involving schools, and this was the only statewide office for which they could vote; consequently, Eisenhuth reasoned, there was no reason she should not be eligible for the post. She lost, with 45% of the vote, and returned to her institute work, conducting workshops in the southern part of the state.

Laura J. Eisenhuth, North Dakota state superintendent of public instruction from 1893-94, was the first woman elected to statewide office in the U.S.

In 1892, Eisenhuth was endorsed once again by the Democratic Party for the state superintendent election, this time also picking up an endorsement from the Populist Party Other women, however, soon followed her example in other western states; Antoinette Peavey was elected in Colorado the same year that Eisenhuth lost her post, and Estelle Reel won in Wyoming in 1896.

Later life Due largely to the health issues from which Willis was suffering, the couple suffered great financial hardships after Laura left office. They lost the newspaper which he had founded in Carrington, as well as the drugstore in that town and their home and possessions in Bismarck, due to unpaid county taxes. She ran for her old position in 1896 and 1900, but lost both races. Her husband died in May 1902, Willis is buried in Carrington. Neither her hometown newspaper nor that in Fargo, in their obituaries, was certain of the milestone she had reached.