Dr. Roger Hardaway, professor of history at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, delivered a Women’s History Month talk in March to the Alva Chapter AL of PEO about two women who led historically significant lives and briefly lived in Woods County.
Susannah Madora Kinsey Salter (1860-1961) was an active prohibitionist in Kansas. She and her husband, Lewis Salter, settled in the small town of Argonia (population 390 in the 1890 census), which had been founded by Quakers in 1883. In 1887 Salter was elected mayor of Argonia, making her the first female mayor of any town in the United States. She was 27 years old at the time of her election. She served a one-year term, from April 1887 to April 1888; she did not run for reelection and never ran for office again.
In 1893, the Salters made the land run to western Oklahoma, settling a mile south of Alva. Later, they moved to Alfalfa County, where Lewis practiced law and published a newspaper called the “Headlight” in Carmen. Lewis died in 1916, and his wife moved to Norman where her youngest children were to attend the University of Oklahoma.
Susannah Salter died there in 1961 at the age of 101. She and her husband are buried in Argonia.
Ruth Brown (1891-1975) was born in Kansas and graduated from high school in California. Her parents then moved to Guymon, and Brown enrolled in Northwestern Territorial Normal School in Alva. In 1910, when Brown was 19 years old, she graduated with a lifetime public schools teaching certificate. Later, she attended the University of Oklahoma and in 1915 received a bachelor’s degree.
After teaching in various Oklahoma schools for a few years, Brown was hired to be the librarian in Bartlesville. She held that job for a little over 30 years. She was fired in July 1950 for insisting that the town’s African-American citizens have full access to the library, which was in direct opposition of the town’s rigid segregation ordinances. She later served as the librarian of the town of Sterling, Colorado.
Today, she is honored for her stand in favor of racial integration when Oklahoma was a staunch segregationist state. Northwestern lists her as one of its distinguished alumni, and the Oklahoma Library Association each year gives a scholarship in her name to a deserving high school student who intends to become a librarian.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to speak to the members of PEO and to discuss some Woods County history with them,” Hardaway said. “Susannah Salter and Ruth Brown are among the historically significant people who have lived here. Remembering them and discussing their lives is an appropriate way to celebrate Women’s History Month in Alva.”
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