Photo courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society The women in Pennsylvania’s first civil all female jury were, top row from left, Emma Hinsdale, Mary Rexford, Stella Cowles, Mrs. Kate Lounsbury, Cora Lomonna and Jessie Davis. Bottom row, from left, is Mrs. J.H. Schwartzfager, Gertrude O’Connor, Lenora Knopf, Theresa Nelson, Mrs. May E. Stewart and Adda Jeffords.

Warren County isn’t often considered a hotbed of diversity.

But the first civil case tried by an all-female jury in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was tried here at the Warren County Courthouse.

The precise year of the trial isn’t readily available but the story was published in a newspaper that was part of the National Editorial Association, of which the Warren Times-Mirror was a member.

But the presiding judge was Delford Urson Arird, who was president judge in the county from 1921 to 1942.

Under the headline “Warren’s All-Women Jury,” the publication reported that “just as the picture of an oil refinery fire a few years ago resulted in the name of Warren being blazoned forth in newspapers all over the United States so may the recent ‘all-women jury’ sitting in a Warren county court case result in similar publicity.”

Here’s the story that accompanied the NEA photo:

“The first all-women jury to try a civil case in common pleas court iin the history of Pennsylvania – and, it may be, in the history of the whole country – has finished its job. And, like many other juries, it has failed to satisfy everybody.

“Judge D.U. Arird commended it in the open court for its excellent work, thanking them for the close attention they had given the evidence and for the thorough manner in which they had considered hte issues involved while deliberatingf.

“But attorneys for the losing side have already filed a motion for a new trial.

“The case at issue involved a controversy regarding payment for the cutting of some timber. It was understood in court circles that attorneys for both sides selected women for the jury because they felt a jury composed exclusively of women could reach a decision quicker than one which had several men in the box.

“The trial lasted for three days, and the jury began its deliberations late in the afternoon. At 10:20 that night it reported, handing in a verdict for the plaintiff in the action and awarding him damages in the sum of $3,422.

“Court attaches here believe this was the first time in the history of the nation that a jury composes eclusively of women say in a case. The trial, for this reason, attracted the attention of layers throughout western Pennsylvania.”