This week, the Minnesota delegation to the Democratic National Convention will help make history by nominating a woman candidate for the presidency. How many Minnesotans know of the first time women in Minnesota ever held public office?

The year was 1876. In 1875, male voters had passed a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote in school board elections and to hold positions on public school boards. The 1876 Legislature ratified the amendment, and within days, two women — Charlotte S. Winchell and Charlotte Van Cleve — were nominated to run for the Minneapolis school board.

Van Cleve was an early pioneer and highly venerated in the school district. Winchell, 39, and the mother of four, was less well-known. Arriving in Minnesota from Michigan in 1872, she was a graduate of Albion College in Michigan, and she had served on its faculty and had taught high school before her marriage. Her husband, Newton Horace Winchell, was affiliated with the University of Minnesota, serving as state geologist and head of the Minnesota Geological Survey.

Fortunately, Winchell wrote a lively account of women "hav[ing] actually — don't be shocked now — gone to the polls and voted." First there was a pre-election rally in which women filled a large hall: "Ladies, holding a political rally! A caucus! Yes, really, a political meeting, their first, too …," at which Mahala Pillsbury, wife of the sitting governor, John S. Pillsbury, rose and addressed the gathering.

Winchell described the April election day. Despite "melting snow and water, mud everywhere," women turned out to vote, arriving with their husbands or in small groups. They were "everywhere treated with the utmost courtesy and respect."

"The result was that the tide was turned and the … lady nominees elected by a handsome majority."

The following week, the new school board members were installed. A reporter from the Minneapolis Evening Mail wrote up the historic event. Under the headline "The East Side School Board: how the Ladies Looked and Conducted Themselves in Their New Positions," he was careful to describe their dresses (black with velvet trim), their jewelry (a red coral pin on Van Cleve) and their gloves (taken off and placed on the table.) But he also recorded the women's interest in the school's library: How was it begun? How was it funded? Did students have access to books, or was the facility used only by teachers? The women also were interested in the committee conducting examinations for students and the protocol for electing officers of the school board.

Early in the evening, Winchell was elected secretary of the board and proceeded to take minutes of the meeting. When the meeting concluded, the reporter noted that "the ladies donned their cloaks, the men their hats, and after a few remarks about the ladies' unexceptional behavior, etc., Mr. Smith [a director on the board] escorted the lady members to their carriage, unfastened the horse and bade them good night."

After their term on the school board, both women remained in the public eye. Van Cleve founded Bethany House, a home for unwed mothers, and remained a strong advocate of women's suffrage. Winchell played a leadership role in the state's Woman's Christian Temperance Union and today is recognized as the editor of her husband's voluminous scientific reports.

Following the first flush of victory in that historic 1876 election, Winchell received a congratulatory postcard from her brother-in-law, also a schoolteacher. He wrote that he had eagerly followed the election from afar and that he was pleased with the results. He added: "The world has moved."

Sue Leaf, of Center City, Minn., is at work on a biography of Newton Horace Winchell of the Minnesota Geological Survey, 1872-1900.