Susanna Madora Salter's Campaign for Mayor, 1887

Salter, Susanna Madora

In 1887 Susanna Salter, a 27-year old temperance activist, became the first woman in the United States to be elected to the position of mayor. The town was Argonia, Kansas, a small Quaker village with a population of less than five hundred that had only incorporated in 1885. She was nominated, without notification, by men intent upon embarrassing and defeating temperance. Local Republicans u...