The largest salary Anna Shaw ever received for teaching was one hundred and fifty-six dollars a year, so at last she stopped and started to learn the trade of sewing. This was very distasteful to her, and she determined she would not earn her living with the needle. What she wanted to do was to preach. Finally she had a chance to give her first sermon, and her brother-in-law, who owned the county newspaper, printed this notice:

“A young girl named Anna Shaw preached at Ashton yesterday. Her real friends deprecate the course she is pursuing.”

This did not discourage Anna Shaw, for she kept on working and in 1873 managed to enter Albion College in Albion, Michigan. She had earned a little money to pay her way, and she intended to get the rest by preaching. Her family disapproved so strongly of this step that they had nothing to do with her, and it was some years before they became reconciled and good feeling was once more established between them and the bright young woman.

Anna was twenty-five when she entered college, and she had had so much experience in her pioneer home she seemed much older. Every Sunday she preached in mission churches to congregations composed chiefly of 182 Indians who sat listening solemnly, while their papooses were hung along the walls in their queer little Indian cradles.

From Albion College, Anna Shaw went to Boston Theological School, and after a hard struggle with poverty, was graduated from this institution as a minister. She had given to her for her field of labor a little church on Cape Cod, that part of Massachusetts that seems to stretch forth to meet the sea. Here she was the minister for seven years. The members of her church liked her, and she was always busy helping them in every way, from preaching funeral sermons and performing marriage ceremonies to helping settle neighborhood quarrels.

There were many amusing episodes in her life. One over which she has laughed many times was her purchase of a horse. She wanted a horse gentle and safe for a woman, so when she went to look at one that had been offered her the only question she asked was, “Is she safe for a woman?” The family who owned her said she was, so Miss Shaw bought her. When the errand boy at the Shaw residence went out to the barn to hitch up the new horse, the creature kicked so that the boy ran from the building thoroughly frightened. However, Miss Shaw went into the stall and harnessed the horse easily. Soon she discovered the truth; the horse was safe for women, she liked them, but she would not let a man or boy come near her. The only way she could be outwitted was 183 when the errand boy put on a sunbonnet and long circular cloak of Miss Shaw’s. Even then the horse would eye him suspiciously, but did not kick. Miss Shaw thought she had made a most peculiar purchase, but she became fond of Daisy, as the horse was called, just as she did of every person and thing in her parish.

At last, feeling the need of more training, in order to do good in the world, she went to a medical school, and after serious study became Dr. Anna Shaw. While there she became interested in the cause of Woman’s Suffrage. At that time only a few persons believed that women, as well as men, should have the right to vote, and anyone saying they should was criticized severely.

Dr. Shaw went to work for this cause with great energy and steadfastness of purpose. From 1888 to 1906 she was closely associated with Miss Susan B. Anthony who was then the head of the suffrage movement. When Miss Anthony passed away, Dr. Shaw became one of the great leaders. In 1906 only four states had granted suffrage to women,

Wyoming in 1869,
Colorado in 1893,
Idaho in 1896,
Utah in 1896.

Suddenly all over the United States women became interested in this cause to which a few devoted women had already given years of their lives, and in 1910 Washington 184 was added to the small list of states where women had equal political rights with men. Then in quick succession came