Every Day Is Special: mayor

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April 4 - An Anti-Women Prank Results in the First Female Mayor in the US!

Posted on April 4, 2020

1882: Susanna and Lewis Salter moved to a little Quaker village in Kansas. The name of the town was Argonia, and the population was way under 500. (The population is still under 500, at least as of 2017.)

Lewis Salter managed a hardware store. Susanna Salter was busy with a bajillion types of unpaid work - pretty much all women were, back then - including birthing her second of nine children (Argonia's first birth!). Still, she found time to become an activist in the field of Temperance (the movement promoting moderation in the use of alcohol, elimination of the abuse of alcohol, and eventually prohibition of drinking alcohol).

1883: Susanna Salter's parents, the Kinseys, moved to town and bought the hardware store, which they named Kinsey & Salter.

1885: The town of Argonia was incorporated and its formal government set up. Susanna Salter's father became the town's first mayor, and her husband became the city clerk.

1887: The Kansas state legislature passed a law giving women the vote - but only in cities that were classified as first, second, or third class cities. Argonia was considered a third class city; so women could now vote!

(Kansas ensured the right of women citizens throughout the state to vote in 1912, and of course the 19th Amendment of the US Constitution enshrined this right all across the nation in 1920.)

April, 1887: The town of Argonia, Kansas, was planning an election, with one position to be filled being that of mayor.

Some men were angry that women now had the right to vote. That was man stuff! How dare women invade man stuff!

Also, some of these angry men were angry that women activists were talking about Temperance. They had attended Temperance meetings, and they'd tried to intimidate the "ladies."

Remember, a lot of people (including some women)
were very much against women having the right to
vote. Some made it seem as if it were an either / or
situation: either men can vote, or women can... and then
the empowered women wouldn't allow their husbands out
of the house long enough to vote, too?

What?

Twenty angry men met in the back room of a local restaurant, anxious to teach women a lesson, to humiliate them, to put them in "their place." They also wanted to discredit the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) as a political force. How to do that? They decided to put a woman on the ballot in the mayoral race, with her name subbed in for the man chosen by the WCTU for their endorsement... And they decided that the butt of this joke would be Susanna Salter. When she suffered a devastating loss at the ballot box, it would strike a blow at the WCTU and at women in politics.

At the time, candidates did not have to be made public (or even to file to run) before election day. So, that's why:

April 4, 1887: Early voters were shocked to see Mrs. Salter's name on the ballot. The chairman of the Republican Party in Argonia sent someone over to her house and found her doing laundry. The Republican delegation asked her if she would serve as mayor, if she won. She answered that she would.

Republicans then went to work, campaigning to get the vote out, all over town, and letting people know about the anti-women prank and their intentions to elect Mrs. Salter. When they heard about the prank, members of the WCTU ditched the male candidate they'd endorsed and voted for Mrs. Salter as well.

And that is how some anti-women men prompted the election of the first female mayor in the United States!

Even though Susanna Salter's term of office was pretty uneventful, she became famous all over the nation. Newspapers sent reporters to sit in on Argonia council meetings and to interview residents to see what life was like under "petticoat rule." Many folks decided that the normalcy of Argonia's government made it clear that women in politics wasn't crazy, after all....

Also on this date:

Anniversary of the cancellation of the Smothers Brothers

World Rat Day

Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics High School Day (held on different dates by different institutions)

Birthday of lock-and-key inventor Linus Yale, Jr.

Reformer Dorothea Dix's birthday

Independence Day in Senegal

Anniversary of the knighthood of Francis Drake

Anniversary of Square Root Day

Anniversary of the first paleontological lecture

National Walking Day

Anniversary of a record-breaking series of hits records

Birthday of architect Mary Colter

International Pillow Fight Day

(First Saturday of April)

Take Your Parents to the Playground Day

(Saturday before Easter)

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November 8 – Lord Mayor's Show in London

Posted on November 8, 2014

This event has been held every year, continuously, for more than 470 years. It's been happening off-and-on for almost 800 years!

(London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England.)

Every year a Lord Mayor of the City of London is chosen, and every year the Lord Mayor makes a trip from the center of London to the Royal Courts of Justice, in the City of Westminster, to take an oath of loyalty to the Crown.

(This is more than swearing allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II; it is swearing allegiance to WHOEVER sits in the throne.)

It is strange to realize that the Lord Mayor of the City of London is different than the Mayor of London! (Even weirder, “the City of London” is different than the city called “London.” More on that below.) London has only had an elected head known as a mayor for the past 15 years, but the Lord Mayorship has existed since 1189 and was once one of the most important offices an English person could have.

So, what is “the City of London”?

The red portion in the
very heart of London
is called the "City of
London."

It is a city and ceremonial county within London, the part that was settled by the Romans in the 1^st century CE and that continued to be considered London through the Middle Ages. It is about a square mile in size, and it includes around 7,000 residents and many business and financial establishments.

(When we say London, we generally mean Greater London, which includes the City of Westminster and some 30 other boroughs – and around 8,400,000 residents!)

Now, what's all this about the Lord Mayor's “Show”?

I mentioned that the Lord Mayor travels from the heart of London known as “the City” to the royal enclave at Westminster. Well, this procession grew to be a “show” – pomp and pageantry, show and fun!

The Lord Mayor used to travel via horseback and barge, but now typically rides in a coach.

(In 1710 a drunken flower girl somehow knocked the Lord Mayor off of his horse, and he broke his leg...and we can't have that!)

Gog and Magog

A great many “Livery Companies,” such as Goldsmiths and Fishmongers, participate in the show, as do regiments such as the Honourable Artillery Company.

Favorite charities and old schools and business associations of the year's Lord Mayor are invited to participate as well. Volunteers create and parade giant reproductions of statues of Gog and Magog.

In addition to the procession (aka parade), there is a river pageant and a fireworks display. I read that the fireworks may be cancelled this year, though, to save money.

Did you know...?

A float in the Lord Mayor's Show

Have you ever wondered why large displays rolling down the street in a parade or carnival are called “floats”? Well, it's all because of the Lord Mayor's Show! In the past, much of the procession to Westminster and back took place on a barge on the River Thames. The barge and other boats and watercraft were highly decorated for this parade-on-the-river, and each unit became known as a “float.” When parades on the street began to feature decorated cars and carts and rolling displays, the name transferred over...

Also on this date: