On August 1, 1893, Ida G. Kast, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, an instructor in Irving College in that town, in a letter to the Board of Examiners for Law Students requested permission to appear before the Board for preliminary examination to be registered as a law student. At the bottom of her letter it was noted "that the above Ida G. Kast is a person of good moral character and social standing." This statement was signed by two prominent citizens of Mechanicsburg, Samuel F. Houston and William Penn Lloyd.1 The latter was a lawyer, a colonel in the Pennsylvania National Guard, a member of the State Senate, and was to be elected treasurer of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1895.
The secretary of the Board, John R. Miller, acknowledged receipt of Miss Kast's application on August 9 and noted that the rule required 30 days' notice. He set Monday, September 11, for the examination. The Board met on that day and passed a resolution stating that "the existing rules of court do not authorize or permit the registration of women as students of Law," and that therefore the application of Miss Ida G. Kast was refused. A copy of this resolution was handed to Miss Kast when she presented herself to the Board at the appointed hour. Miss Kast promptly filed an appeal with Judge Wilbur F. Sadler stating that she was a resident of the county, a citizen of the United States, of lawful age; that she had presented her application to the Board of Law Examiners, which had been appointed by the Court for the examination of applicants for admission to the practice of law; that the application was received; that she was directed to appear before the Board for a preliminary examination as a student of law; and that when she appeared at the time for the examination, she was handed the resolution denying her the right to the examination. The petition asked the Court to grant a rule upon said Board to show cause why she was denied the right to appear for an examination and to grant other relief as may seem just and proper. The Court on September 25, 1893, granted the rule upon the Board of Examiners to answer the petition by October 10.
The Board, answering the petition, repeated its position. It stated that the rules of the Court respecting the examination of applicants for registration of students did not authorize or permit the registration of women as students of law; therefore, Miss Kast's application was refused; and the Board asked that the petition be dismissed. It was signed by John Hays, M.C. Herman (formerly judge of the County Court), John L. Sheely, H.S. Stewart, Edward B. Watts, John R. Miller, and another. On December 12 argument on the matter was held before the Court. Each side presented a brief.
On August 21, 1897, The Farmers' Friend and Grange Advocate, a Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, newspaper, carried an advance notice about events at the Interstate Picnic and Exhibition that had been held annually for more than twenty years at Williams Grove on the eastern border of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. On "Suffrage Day" that year, the announcement read: