Wyoming’s First Woman Mayor was in Dayton

Susan Wissler Photo Courtesy of Wyoming State Archives

“You bet that little woman in the dry goods store is some scrapper.” said the gaunt cowboy who reined up in front of the Dayton saloon. “It ain’t her way to say much, but if she ever takes it into her head to clean up the town in a hurry, it’s goin’ to be a record breaking clean up. An’ if the marshal ain’t got sand enough to back her up, she’s just liable to grab his star and guns and go after the roughnecks herself.” The LARAMIE REPUBLICAN, WYOMING, MONDAY, JULY 29, 1912.

The little woman referred to was Susan Wissler, who had been elected as Mayor of Dayton in 1911, and was the first women in Wyoming to be mayor of any city. She was the second woman mayor in the United States, the other being Susanna M. Salter in Hunnewell, Kansas (some sources say Argonia). But, according to the Laramie Republican article, Salter was chosen more in jest then in earnest, and she was bitterly opposed by the town council, whereas Wissler was ‘selected from several available candidates and was elected by a rousing majority.’

From The Sheridan Post, May 17, 1912, Mrs. Wissler Mayor-Elect Chief Executive Of Town Of Dayton. Second Town in the United States to Elect a Woman Mayor. At the municipal election held Tuesday. Mrs. Susan Wissler was elected mayor of Dayton by a majority of 13 over her opponent, C. H. Ketcham.”

Ketcham had been the mayor Dayton since the town’s incorporation in 1906, and during the primary election he was nominated on the Citizens’ ticket without opposition. There seemed to be no particular objection to his administration, but there was, as the newspapers put it, ‘a large element that believed the welfare of the town demanded that there be two tickets, and an effort was made to secure a candidate.’

The Sheridan Post, “Until a short time before the opening of the polls the name of no other candidate had been presented… A committee waited on Mrs Wissler but it was not until almost the eleventh hour that she gave her consent to run. It was then too late to have the name printed on the ballot, so her name was written on the ticket, and when the vote was counted it was found that Mrs. Wissler had received 34 votes and her opponent 21. Many voters did not learn of the contest until after the election was over, and less than half the votes of the town were cast.

The article stated that Mrs. Wissler was engaged in the dry goods business in Dayton, and was known as a competent and conservative business woman.

Wissler came west with her husband 21 years before, but Mr. Wissler’s health failed and the couple went to Florida, where Mr. Wissler succumbed to his illness. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Wissler returned to Sheridan county and for several years lived on their ranch, and taught school. She later moved to Dayton and opened a dry goods store, a business which she conducted successfully.

Again from the Sheridan Post, interviewing Wissler about the election. “The whole matter is new to me,” said Mrs. Wissler to The Post representative this morning. “While I know I have been elected, the vote has not been officially canvassed and I have not been sworn in. Until I assume the duties of the office and have time to look around a little, I am not able to say what I will do.

“So far us I know, there will be no radical change in the policies, of the administration. I have been told that the marshal has resigned but I have not selected his successor. At present have no police Judge, but I do not know who will be appointed.

“These matters will have to besettled later. For the present I can only say that I will do my duty as best I can and notbetray the confidence the people have reposed in me.”

Due to the fact that it was still a man’s world in politics, the newspapers throughout the state picked up the story or a woman mayor.

From The Miner HUDSON, FREMONT COUNTY, WYOMING, FRIDAY. JULY 26, 1912. Dayton Has Woman Mayor. Sheridan.— The election of Mrs. Susan Wissler as mayor of Dayton is another instance of the wonderful versatility of woman. In her effort to demonstrate that she is the equal of man in all lines of human endeavor, Mrs. Wissler was elected on an independent ticket and by an almost unanimous vote.

An editorial from the Spokesman Review of Spokane, Wash, was reprinted in the Sheridan Post, July 23, 1912.

PRAISES SUSAN WISSLER. The Spokesman Review of Spokane Wash., in its issue of July 15th had an editorial singing the praises of Susan Wissler of Dayton. Mayor Wissler, who was until a few month since a hard-working milliner, with excellent taste in arranging silks, ribbons, feathers and ornaments, and good ability in the management of a business that catered to a small but growing community, now finds herself making good in village politics and with a renown almost nation wide. The Spokesman-Review says “Wyoming does not often come under the national limelight, but when it does it makes the nation take notice.

“It did so recently, and Mayor Susan Wissler of Dayton, Wyo., is the woman that did the deed…….

“Nothing that happened at Baltimore or Chicago or the San Francisco convention of the federate club women has so momentous import as this new Declaration of Independence by Susan Wissler. ……she is the American Joan of Arc who stands forth as the fearless and doughty champion of the oppressed….. “Praise be to Susan Wissler!’

From the LARAMIE REPUBLICAN, MONDAY, JULY 29, 1018

“YOURS truly, Susan Wissler, Mayor of Dayton.” Such a business like signature of the new mayor of a little cow town in northern Wyoming. Though Wyoming is the first equal suffrage state, no woman ever before secured a mayor’s office. Indeed, Mrs. Wissler is the second woman in the United States to be a mayor.

“I want to have some things corrected about my election,” said Mrs. Wissler. “Some of the papers said the women elected me. While many women voted for me—and I appreciate their support— four-fifths of the votes for me were cast by men. You know Wyoming is a man’s state, and the men are greatly in the majority here. I doubt if any one could get an office solely on the strength of the woman vote, as in other states where the proportion of women is much larger.”

“Another thing I want to have corrected is the story that I promised to close the saloons and had appointed an anti-saloon man as marshal. I made no promises whatever, only that I would do my best to qualify for the office and to give the people of Dayton a good administration. I don’t want to talk about my plans, but you can say that there will be no lack of vigor in this administration. After I have made up my mind what is the right thing to do I am going ahead without fear or favor, and I will have a marshal on the job who will back me up.”

“Wissler is in the dry goods business in Dayton and is well known to the people of northern Wyoming. Dayton is the chief town in the cattle and sheep region and is the trading center of the ranch folk for miles around. She has a wide acquaintance in her part of the state, and even the cowboys and sheep herders know and respect her.

“The saloon question is dominant in Dayton. Like most towns of its class, Dayton is “some lively” when a few visiting cowboys or sheep herders come in from the lonely plains and decide to wake things up. The control of such turbulent spirits has vexed the better class of citizens, and finally it was decided to put a woman in the mayor’s office and see if some change for the better could not be wrought. Those who know Mrs. Wissler have not doubt that she will solve the problem with determination…. and tolerance. She has lived so long in the ”big outdoor country” that she knows its questions are different from those of older communities and demand different treatment.”

The club women of Wyoming were elated at the election of Mrs. Wissler as mayor of Dayton.

The article continued: “(The club women)… want more representation among the elective offices of the state… More Wyoming towns are going to follow the example of Dayton and elect women mayors. We don’t have to depend on the woman vote to get the offices… Wyoming men are the most gallant and fair minded in the world, and they are going to help the cause along when they see how much good it is going to do some of these rough towns to have a woman at the head of affairs.”

At the time,Mrs. Wissler had two grown children, and she told the paper that politics has been a pleasant field of work for her ever since her home duties ceased.

Although Dayton, with its population of only around 200 people, did not appear to be a big field, the Laramie Republican writer was sure that there… “is more devilment here than in most cities many times the size. …if ‘Aunt Susan’ can hold down the job here she wouldn’t have any trouble bossing New York or Chicago. We’re going to give her lots of elbow room and plenty of help, and we believe that it ain’t going to hurt things a bit to have a crackerjack housekeeper and business woman in charge of Dayton for awhile.”

Mayor Wissler was served four years, or two terms, before declining to run again in 1915. She continued operating her dry-goods business out of home, with the living space upstairs and the store downstairs.

In 1915, she joined her daughter, Brownie Wissler-Schaudel, on her ranch near Ashland, Mont. During her time as mayor, she regulated gaming and saloons within the city, installed the city’s first water works, outlawed the shooting of firearms in the city limits, and set a five-mile-per hours speed limit on cars inside the town.

In honor of her achievements, there is a plaque on the Dayton Town Hall telling about her stint as mayor. The house that Susan lived from 1905 to 1915 in was constructed in 1885. It still stands at 406 Main Street in Dayton, and was added to the National Register of Historic places on March 8, 1984.

Mayor Susan Wissler, proving that Wyoming is truly the Equality State.