AMERICA'S FIRST WOMAN MAYOR
BY ALFRED HEWETSON MITCHELL
A native of Ohio who became America's
first woman mayor
has been honored at Argonia, Kansas, by
a plaque which was
erected through the efforts of Kansas
club women and dedicated
on November 10, 1933. Kansas believes in
flowers for the living,
so this plaque was unveiled in the
presence of Mrs. Susanna M.
Salter, the Ohio-born woman who had made
history at the age of
twenty-seven when she was elected mayor
of Argonia in 1887.
Susanna Madora Salter was born March 2,
1860, on a farm
near Lamira. Belmont County, Ohio, the
daughter of Oliver and
Terissa Ann White Kinsey. Both were of
Quaker parentage,
their ancestors having come over from
England with William
Penn's colonists on the ship Welcome.
The Kinsey family moved
from Ohio to Kansas in 1872 and settled
near Silver Lake on an
80-acre farm ten miles west of Topeka.
Susanna attended country schools until
1878, when she en-
tered the Kansas State Agricultural
College at Manhattan, Kan-
sas, as a sophomore. There she met Lewis
Allison Salter, son of
former Lieutenant Governor Melville J.
Salter; she was married to
him September 1, 1880. For a year the
newlyweds lived on a farm
near Thayer, Neosho County, Kansas, and
then they moved to
Cherryvale where Lewis Salter worked in
a hardware store.
Argonia's opportunity to become famous
was occasioned by
Salter's accepting a position as manager
of the Argonia branch
of Carson & Baldwin of Cherryvale.
The Salters' second son,
born February 13, 1883, was the first
baby born in the new town
and was named Francis Argonia, the first
name being for Mrs.
Baughman, the wife of the doctor who
attended. In 1885, Mrs.
Salter's parents moved to Argonia, where
Oliver Kinsey and his
son-in-law purchased a hardware store
which was operated under
the firm name of Kinsey & Salter.
The town of Argonia was
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AMERICA'S FIRST WOMAN MAYOR 53
incorporated that year with Oliver
Kinsey as the first mayor and
Lewis A. Salter as clerk. All ordinances
were written by Mr.
Salter, who was at that time studying
law. The next mayor was
William Watson. In 1886, the Kansas
legislature enacted a law
giving the franchise to women in first,
second, third, and fourth
class cities. A Women's Christian
Temperance Union had been
organized in the vicinity of Argonia in
1884 and went into action
at the time of the April election of
1887. The organization called
a caucus and selected a ticket of good
men without regard to
politics.
There was, however, an element in
Argonia that was averse
to women in politics. Two of this
opinion called twenty of their
friends into a secret caucus, where it
was decided to teach a lesson
to those females who dared to
participate in politics. They named
the same candidates for council, but
substituted Mrs. Salter's name
for mayor, intending to give her only
twenty votes as a means of
curbing W. C. T. U. activities. Her name
was chosen because
she was the only W. C. T. U. member
living within the village
limits.
The tables were turned, however, the
morning of the election
when the voters discovered the trick.
They voted for Mrs. Salter
in such numbers that she received a
two-thirds majority and thus
became the first woman mayor in the
United States--perhaps in
the world.
As the news of her election spread in
the newspapers, many
curious persons wrote to find out if the
report was correct, and
Mrs. Salter spent her annual salary of
one dollar many times over
each month for postage in answering her
"fan-mail." Leaders of
women's rights movements in the United
States and many other
countries wrote to her, and, in the fall
of 1887, Madam Mayor
was invited to speak at Newton before
the Kansas Woman's Equal
Suffrage Association. On this program
there also appeared Susan
B. Anthony and Henry Blackwell, the
husband of Lucy Stone.
When Mrs. Salter was introduced to Miss
Anthony, the noted
leader did not offer her hand, but
instead slapped her on the
shoulders, saying, "Why, you look
just like any other woman!"
54
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
No difficulties occurred in connection
with her regime for,
when she called the council to order,
she said, "Gentlemen, what
is your pleasure?" This convinced
the surprised and skeptical
councilmen that, contrary to
predictions, they were not under
petticoat rule.
Although at the time of her election,
Mrs. Salter was only
twenty-seven, she was already the mother
of three boys and one
girl. Another girl and boy were born
later in Argonia and two
more sons came into the world after the
Salters had moved to
Oklahoma. At the opening of the Cherokee
Strip, Lewis Salter had
filed on a claim one mile north of Alva,
Oklahoma, and soon moved
his family and law office to this county
seat of Wood County. After
living ten years on a farm near Alva,
they sold the land and moved
to Carmen, Oklahoma, where Salter
practiced law and established
a newspaper, the Carmen Headlight. His
older sons aided in its
publication.
Salter died August 2, 1916, and his
widow took her children
to Norman, Oklahoma, where she still
resides at 31 E. Boyd
St. She takes an active interest in
political and religious affairs.
Each year she returns to visit relatives
in Ohio and the East.
Five of her children are: Lewis S.
Salter, Dean of Fine Arts,
Oklahoma University, Norman; Leslie E.
Salter, Flossmoor, Illi-
nois, a practicing attorney in Chicago
and formerly an assistant
attorney-general at Washington, D. C.;
William E. Salter, on the
staff of the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C.; Mrs.
Melva O. Harris, employed at the Bureau
of Engraving, Wash-
ington, D. C.; and Mrs. Roy Stover,
Wichita, Kansas. The other
three, Clarence E. Salter, Winifred A.
Salter and Frank A. Salter
are dead.