Annie Baxter to return to Jasper County Courthouse

It won’t be long before you’re able to see Annie Baxter at the Jasper County Courthouse.

Actually, it will be a bust of the political trailblazer, slated to be officially unveiled at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24th at the Carthage courthouse. Baxter became the first woman elected to public office in Missouri in 1890 when the Democrat was chosen by voters as Jasper County Clerk.

That’s especially impressive in that women didn’t even have the right to vote until 1920. At the time she was the only County Clerk in the nation.

Baxter, whose term lasted until 1894, did not serve at the present-day courthouse, which was not built until 1894-95. However, as a member of county government, she exerted a significant degree of influence in the planning of the building.

She was later appointed State Registrar of Lands, a position she occupied from 1908-1916. In 1922 Baxter was named financial secretary for the Missouri Constitutional Convention. She stayed active in Democratic politics and was a delegate to the 1936 Democratic State Convention.

She died in 1944. Annie Baxter Street in Joplin is named in her honor.

Key sponsors for the bust include Lance and Sharon Beshore, Harry Cornell, Jr., Dr. Ellen Nichols, County Clerk Charlie Davis and the Women’s Foundation.

RSVP no later than Sept. 22 to Abby Carlson by e-mailing ddc@womens-foundation.org or telephoning (816) 988-2005.