Salter, Susanna, 1860-1961

<b>Susanna Madora “Dora” Kinsey Salter</b><br>
<b>BIRTH</b> 2 Mar 1860<br>
Lamira, Belmont County, Ohio, USA<br>
<b>DEATH</b> 17 Mar 1961 (aged 101)<br>
Norman, Cleveland County, Oklahoma, USA<br>
<b>BURIAL</b><br>
Argonia Cemetery<br>
Argonia, Sumner County, Kansas, USA

<p>Susanna Madora Kinsey was born into a devout Quaker family near Lamira, Ohio, on March 2, 1860. Her family moved to a farm near Silver Lake, Kansas, in 1872, and she attended the district schools there until entering Kansas State Agricultural College as a sophomore in 1878; illness forced her to leave college just six weeks before graduating. She married Lewis Allison Salter, the son of former Lieutenant-Governor Melville J. Salter, on September 1, 1880, at Silver Lake.</p>

<p>Lewis and Susanna moved to Argonia, Kansas, in 1882, and he took a job managing the local hardware store. Susanna's parents moved to Argonia and bought the hardware store in 1884; Lewis continued to work at the store, while reading for the law at the same time. When Argonia was incorporated in 1885, Susanna's father eas elected the first Mayor and her husband the first City Clerk. As the wife of the City Clerk, Susanna became responsible for writing the city's ordinances.</p>

<p>In 1887, Kansas gave women the right to vote in local elections, as long as they lived in a city of the first, second or third class. Since Argonia was a city of the third class, its women were eligibile. That year, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which Salter was a member, made enforcement of state prohibition laws the prime issue and nominated a slate of candidates for local office who agreed with them. A number of local men, however, not only disagreed with prohibition but also with the idea of women having any say in political affairs. Hoping to discredit the WCTU, the men drew up a slate of candidates identical to the one presented by the WCTU except for having Susanna Slater's name entered as a candidate for mayor. The men figured that the only people who would vote for Slater would be the WCTU members, and they thought that the WCTU would be so humiliated that it would disband. Salter was chosen because she was the only WCTU member who lived within the city limits.</p>

<p>She was elected as a joke.</p>

<p>In April 1887, just weeks after Kansas women had gained the right to vote in city elections, some men in Argonia nominated Salter on the Prohibition Party ticket — in a town where Salter was already well known for being an officer in the local Woman’s Christian Temperance Union – and whose father was the town’s first mayor and whose father-in-law was a former Kansas lieutenant governor.</p>

<p>Kansas women would not have full equal voting rights until 1912. The state did allow women to vote beginning in 1887 in local city and school elections. So, the year 1887 was the first time women could vote in Kansas.</p>

<p>Susanna Madora Salter (née Kinsey; March 2, 1860 – March 17, 1961) was an American politician and activist. She served as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman elected to serve as mayor in the United States (Nancy Smith was the first woman elected mayor in the United States, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, but chose not to serve) and one of the first women to serve in any political office in the U.S.</p>

<p>Susanna Madora Kinsey was born March 2, 1860, near the unincorporated community of Lamira in Smith Township, Belmont County, Ohio. She was the daughter of Oliver Kinsey and Terissa Ann White Kinsey, the descendants of Quaker colonists from England.</p>

<p>At the age of 12, she moved to Kansas with her parents, settling on an 80-acre (32-hectare) farm near Silver Lake. In 1878, she entered Kansas State Agricultural College (present-day Kansas State University) in Manhattan. She was permitted to skip her freshman year, having taken college-level courses in high school, but was forced to drop out six weeks short of graduation due to illness.</p>