If you recall from the basement area, the photograph of the 1873 courthouse featured a man named Pat Templeton sitting in a horse and buggy. This is his daughter, Nancy Templeton, who contributed something very significant not only to Ellis County, but to Texas, history. Nancy Templeton served as the Ellis County Treasurer for 53 years, from 1909 – 1962 – practically, the entire first half of the 20^th century. For many decades, Waxahachie residents enjoyed wishing “good morning” to Miss Nancy walking to the courthouse.

     What is more significant than Templeton’s length of service, however, was the fact that she was elected in 1908. While some states allowed women to vote as early as the 1870’s, women in most of the United States could not vote until the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in time for the 1920 election. Thus, Nancy Templeton was elected three separate times in 1908, 1912, and 1916 before she was even allowed to vote herself as a woman. How did she accomplish this? Nancy’s last name carried weight; the Templetons were wealthy cotton merchants and were politically-connected.

     Although Nancy Templeton may have been elected the first time due to her name, she evidently exceled in her service as the Ellis County Treasurer because she continued to serve in that role until only three years before her death in 1965. After Ms. Templeton’s passing, each elected official who served alongside her signed the back of a picture frame memorial, which is now preserved in this commemorative to Templeton right outside of the office she served in.