Eliza Stewart Boyd

Who was Eliza Stewart Boyd?

Eliza Stewart Boyd was the first woman in America ever selected to serve on a jury.

In March 1870, her name was drawn from the voters’ roll to serve on the grand jury to be convened later that month. Soon after the grand jury was convened, five other Laramie women made history becoming the first women in the world to serve on a trial jury. The women on the grand jury and the trial jury were selected less than six months after Wyoming’s first territorial legislature granted women equal political rights.

Stewart was the eldest of eight children born to Aaron and Mary Stewart. Her maternal grandparents came from Scotland about 1797, settling in Pennsylvania. Her father was Scots Irish. Her mother died soon after the birth of the last child. Stewart took on the role of raising her seven younger siblings.

Despite the hardships involved in this endeavor, she continued to attend school—and excel. She graduated in 1861 from Washington Female Seminary in Washington, Pa., as class valedictorian. Her valedictory address, ten typed pages of rhymed verse titled "Entering Service," was published in the newspaper in Meadville, Pa.