Susanna M. Salter
Susanna Madora Salter (born March 2, 1860 as Susanna Madora Kinsey in Lamira , Belmont County , Ohio , † March 17, 1961 in Norman , Oklahoma ) was an American politician ( Prohibition Party ). She was mayor of Argonia , Kansas , from 1887 to 1888, making her the first woman to hold mayor's post in the United States.
Life
Susanna M. Salter was born in 1860 near the village of Lamira in Richland Township in eastern Ohio. Her parents Oliver Kinsey and Terissa Ann geb. White belonged to Quakerism and were the descendants of British immigrants. At the age of twelve, Salter and her parents moved to a farm in Silver Lake, Kansas . In 1878 she began studying at Kansas State Agricultural College, now Kansas State University , where she met Lewis Allison Salter, son of the then Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, Melville J. Salter . They married in September 1880 and moved to Argonia together. Susanna Salter was the mother of a total of nine children. In Argonia, she soon became politically active and joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party . In 1885 Argonia was incorporated and Salter's father became the city's first mayor.
On April 4, 1887, Susanna Salter was surprisingly elected mayor of Argonia. She was nominated for the election by a group of 20 men who had actually exposed Salter with an election defeat in order to ensure that women no longer apply for political offices. The state of Kansas had only recently introduced women's suffrage . Salter herself did not know until the election that she had been nominated for this. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union withdrew its favorite candidate on election day, and all members of the association voted for Salter. She also received support from the Republican Party , so that she was elected mayor with a two-thirds majority. As a result, Salter gained national fame. Her tenure itself was relatively uneventful. Salter decreed a ban on the consumption of sparkling apple wine and similar alcoholic beverages in the city, otherwise she passed political decisions on, in some cases, to male city council members. After a year in office, she resigned in 1888.
After her tenure, Salter lived in Argonia until 1893, after which her husband bought land in what was then the Oklahoma Territory and the family moved to Alva . Ten years later he moved again to Augusta , where Lewis Salter worked as a lawyer. Susanna Salter later lived in Carmen . After her husband's death in 1916, Salter moved to Norman , where she spent the rest of her life. She died on March 17, 1961, shortly after her 101st birthday, and was buried next to her husband in the Argonia cemetery.
Others
One of Susanna Salter's sons was born in Argonia on February 13, 1883, and was the first child born in the city. The Argonia house where Susanna Salter lived during her tenure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 1971 .
literature
- Dianne G. Bystrom, Barbara Burrell (Eds.): Women in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Women as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders. ABC-CLIO, 2018, p. 461f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Susanna M. Salter. Emily Taylor Center for Woman and Gender Equality, accessed May 2, 2020.
- ↑ Susanna Madora Salter - First Woman Mayor. In: kancoll.org , accessed on May 2, 2020.
- ^ The first female mayor in the US was nominated as a prank, she won over 60 percent of the vote. The Vintage News, June 28, 2018, accessed May 2, 2020.
- ^ First woman mayor in the US Kansas Historical Society, accessed May 2, 2020.
- ↑ Welcome to Our City. City of Argonia, accessed May 2, 2020.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Salter, Susanna M. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Salter, Susanna Madora (full name); Kinsey, Susanna Madora (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American politician, first woman mayor in the United States |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 2, 1860 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | near Lamira , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 17, 1961 |
| Place of death | Norman , Oklahoma |