Next month marks the 100th anniversary of when Maude Collins became Ohio’s first female sheriff. She was appointed to the office when her husband Sheriff Fletcher Collins was shot and killed in the line of duty in 1925.

When the Vinton County Commissioners appointed the sheriff’s widow to the position, I suspect they thought it was an act of charity, something that would buy the young widow some time to plan for a fresh start. Back in the day, the sheriff’s family lived at the Sheriff’s Office. His wife was the jail matron. His five young children lived under the same roof as prisoners kept in cells. This was still customary in 1925.

So when Maude lost her husband, she lost her home too.

Maude was around thirty when she first put on the badge and I’m proud to say she proved to everyone that she was capable of doing the job. She was no one’s charity case. She investigated crimes including several murders, served warrants, patrolled the roads and arrested people just like a man would.

Women had only been voting for a few years when she was appointed Sheriff. She finished her husband’s unexpired term and then her name appeared on a primary election ballot across from some local men. She beat them pretty handily and went on to beat a male opponent in the general election. And a few years later, she went on to be elected county recorder.

Sheriff Maude busted up moonshine stills with a child at her hip. That’s because there were no social safety nets back then. There were no food stamps or welfare, no housing vouchers or even kindergarten to send her youngest to.

And when she finished her day, there wasn’t an electric washer and dryer at home to make sure the family had clean clothes or microwave meals for the nights she didn’t have time to cook.

I can’t fathom how she managed.

A double murder investigation she led gained her national attention. I have a copy of a mid- century “Startling Detective Magazine” that tells the story of a sensational murder.

Sheriff Maude is also in the state’s history books for being the first woman to deliver a prisoner (a man, no less) to the Ohio State Penitentiary in 1929. Incidentally, she was a descendent of the McCoy family that gained so much notoriety as part of the Hatfield and McCoy feud.

She must have been a character. I mean, to be a single working mom would be hard enough. To do it back then would have been a Herculean task. To do something so dangerous as be a sheriff would take true nerve. She did have a male deputy who seemed to be a decent guy and supportive of his boss but it would still have been such a hard life.

Her story was mostly lost to time until about 25 years ago. In fact, Belmont County, Ohio had been telling everyone that their lady sheriff, elected in 1976, was the first to do so in the country. No offense to her legacy but that woman wasn’t even born yet when Sheriff Maude was out breaking up moonshine operations. Plus, there were a few women sheriffs before our Sheriff Maude.

This story may ring a bell for you longtime readers. I helped the local historical society get an Ohio Historical marker a few years ago and wrote that story here.

I sit on the local tourism board and we raised money to have a mural painted in Sheriff Maude’s honor. It will be dedicated on October 9, the 100th anniversary of her becoming sheriff. We’ll have an open house at the visitors center along with some vendors that evening.

When we announced the mural project, we had a local woman suggest that celebrating Sheriff Maude wasn’t the best use of a mural. After all, she just got the job because her husband died and she didn’t have to work that hard.

I would love to time travel that woman back to 1925 and let her see how hard Maude had to work to balance home and job and to keep it together. Let her do better. Why are there always naysayers?

Sheriff Maude did everything a man would do only she had to do it better, with a family to care for and undoubtedly with a lot of naysayers waiting for her to fail. Remember, this was still a time when women were expected to stay home and raise a family rather than have jobs, homes and incomes of their own.

This is why we talk about our past and study our history. It’s up to us to keep alive these remarkable stories and to appreciate how pioneers like Sheriff Maude helped shape our community and open doors for others like her.

Women today need to remember that our rights to vote, drive, be educated work, and do as we please with our lives are not a given and can be taken away much more easily than they were won by those who came before us.

I am proud of the legacy that Sheriff Maude left behind. Representation is important and I hope that little girls across the county will go by this mural and know that any dream is possible and that women like Sheriff Maude worked to make it that way.

PS: The mural is being painted by an artist who is just as excited about Sheriff Maude’s story as I am. She’s incredibly talented so I hope you’ll look up Pam Kellough Murals on Facebook. I am a big fan of her work and hope you’ll be too! She’s pictured here on one of the early days of the mural work.