WCTU: first woman to serve as mayor in USA history

Susanna M. Salter

Mrs. Susanna Madora Salter was the first woman to serve as a mayor in the USA. Oddly, she had not even intended to run for office – though she was politically active for the prohibition of alcohol. Certain anti-prohibition men who opposed her put forward her name, but merely to mock the women of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Yet to their surprise, she was elected! In 1887 she became the first woman in USA history to serve a term as mayor. (She did not seek a second term as mayor of Argonia.)

Argonia, Kansas was a town of Quaker background. The Quakers had long supported women preaching Biblically – like the prophetess Huldah who preached to males (2 Kings 22:8-20) and the prophetess Deborah who judged Israel (Judges 4-5).
My son, keep your father’s command, And do not forsake the law of your mother.” (Proverbs 6:20)

Susanna Madora Salter portrait
Susanna Madora Salter

Susana Salter of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union :
first woman to serve as mayor in USA history

Once women could vote in the USA, Marie Caroline Brehm of the WCTU become a vice-presidential candidate in 1924. She ran for the Prohibition Party.

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