Women being recognized in history doesn’t happen as often as it should. For instance, does the name Susanna M. Salter ring a bell? Well, if not, you’re probably not the only one who has never heard of her before. Or, you may have heard of her before, but you never spent a lot of time learning about her in school or on your own. People often forget about the women of United States history like her and her contributions to history. Well, not today!
There are so many women in history who go unrecognized in their contributions to women’s history and the history of the world. These are women who have given so much of their time, energy, and life to pushing the lives of American people and women forward. Women like Henrietta Lacks, Hedy Lamarr, Patsy, Mink, and many more are just a few examples of women who have been overlooked in American history. However, we will not be analyzing them and their contributions to history today. Instead, we’ll be analyzing the forgotten Susanna M Salter.
You may have never heard of Susanna M. Salter or have forgotten who she is. If this is true, that’s fine because today you won’t forget. In this article, I will review the life and contributions of Salter in the United States and the country’s history of women.
Who Is Susanna M. Salter?
Susanna M. Salter was an American politician and activist. She was first elected on April 4th, 1887. She was actually the first elected woman to be elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas. Salter was also the first woman to serve in any political office in the United States.
She accepted to take office if elected prior to discovering the election results, but Salter had no idea that she was even running until they asked her if she would accept.
This was because a group of local men had placed her name on the slate of candidates as a prank according to the Kansa Historical Society. She had no idea because, at the time, candidates did not have to be made public until election day. They wanted to humiliate Salter and discourage women from running for office positions. Of course, it didn’t work out how they planned.
Instead of everyone writing her candidacy off as a joke, the prank caused people to take her seriously as a candidate. On election day, she accepted to take office if elected, and floods of people voted for her. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union dropped their candidate and voted for Salter instead. They brought in many votes and voters for her. The local Republican Party Chairman also sent a delegation to her home to confirm her running and promised to help her secure the position by bringing in two-thirds of the majority.
Her Personal Life
Salter was born on March 2nd, 1860 near an undeveloped settlement in Ohio. She was the daughter of two Quaker colonists from England who would eventually move their family to Kansas. In Kansas, they bought 80 acres of land near Silver Lake to settle their family.
After high-school. Salter would go on to attend Kansas State Agricultural College or Kansas State University as it would later be called. She was fortunate enough to skip her freshman year classes because she took classes during high school, but unfortunately, she never graduated college. This was because she became gravely ill a few weeks before graduation.
While at college though, she met her husband, Lewis Allison Salter. They would marry soon after and they would both move to Argonia. There, Salter joined the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and Prohibition Party Organizations.
Her Term As The First Woman To Be Mayor
Her term as Mayor of Argonia was uneventful, but it brought a lot of press to the area. Salter’s position sparked a debate over cities and towns that wanted to follow Argonia’s lead.
A correspondent for the New York Sun came and noted how she conducted the council meeting. He explains how she demonstrated herself as a good parliamentarian.
Her position as Mayor then became news across the world in places such as South Africa and Sweden. The idea of a woman in politics was still taboo at the time. So, for this to occur definitely shattered people’s ideas of what a woman could do all over the world. Today, because of her, women like Stacy Abrams who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize can run for office and positions of power to help their communities.
After a year in office, she was compensated $1 ($28 in 2019). This certainly, wasn’t much by today’s standards, but Salter accepted it but declined reelection.
Her life After
After her term as mayor, Salter and her family spent some more years in Argonia until 1893. She and her family then moved to a piece of land in Oklahoma. They would later move to another part of Oklahoma where her husband practiced law and established his own newspaper.
She would go on to raise her family until her death in 1961, even after her husband’s death in 1916. Though she kept up with political and religious matters, she never ran for office again.
In 1933, she did receive a commemorative bronze plaque, which is displayed in Argonia’s public square. It honors her as not only the first female mayor of the city but of the United States too. Her old home in Argonia was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 as well.
The More You Know!
I doubt that, before this article, you knew who Susanne M. Salter was. I doubt that you knew of what she did. I doubt that you even came across her name in your history textbooks at school. Though, after reading this article, I now hope you do.
Salter was a mother, a wife, and an excellent mayor. She might have not signed up to become a politician or even knew that she would become one when she was just a young woman attending college. Despite all of this, she became one and worked hard to be a good representation for all women everywhere during her term. She kept the city of Argonia afloat during her year as mayor and made sure to keep the people’s interests ahead of her own. While she may not be the first name you see in a history book, I certainly think that she contributed a lot to women’s history in the United States and inspired many other women to run for office later on in history.
Want to know about anther woman who have blazed their own trails in history?
