Being personally acquainted with Mrs. Sarah A. Oren, and knowing her to be a woman of refinement and culture, we can consistently urge upon you a favorable consideration of her claims as a candidate for election to the office of State librarian. She has had the benefit of a collegiate education, and has been for several years a successful teacher in Antioch College and in the public high-school of Indianapolis. She is mainly dependent on her own labor for the means to support and educate her children, who were made fatherless by a rebel bullet at the siege of Petersburg. Her education and experience have admirably fitted her for the discharge of all the duties of the office of State librarian; and by electing her to that office, the Republican party will secure a faithful and efficient officer, and have the pleasure of making another payment on the debt we owe to the widows and orphans of those who died that our country might live.[586]
Mrs. Oren was elected to the office of State librarian and performed the duties belonging to it with great efficiency and fidelity. She has been succeeded by Mrs. Margaret Peele, Mrs. Emma A. Winsor and Miss Lizzie H. Callis.
CHAPTER XLVII.
MINNESOTA.
[A.]
In the early days, long before the organization of either State or local societies, there were, besides those mentioned in the main chapter, a few earnest women who were ever ready to subscribe for suffrage papers and circulate tracts and petitions to congress and the State legislature, whose names should be honored with at least a mention on the page of history. Among them were: Mrs. Addie Ballou, Mrs. Ellis White, Mrs. Eliza Dutcher, Mrs. Sarah Clark, Miss Amelia Heebner, Miss Emily A. Emerson, Mrs. Mary F. Mead, Mrs. E. M. O'Brien, Miss Ellen C. Thompson, Miss R. J. Haner, Mrs. Mary Hulett, Mrs. Gorham Powers, Mrs. C. A. Hotchkiss, Mrs. Emma Wilson, Mrs. Mary Wilkins, Mrs. Anna D. Weeks, Mrs. Mary Leland, Mrs. Susan C. Burger, Mrs. A. R. Lovejoy, and others.
[B.]
Of the seventy-six organized counties in Minnesota we give the following partial list of those that have elected women to the office of superintendent of public schools: Mille Lacs County, Olive R. Barker; Pine, Ella Gorton; Lac Qui Parle, Malena P. Kirley; Anoka, Mrs. Catharine J. Pierce, Mrs. Ellen Conforth, Miss Dailey; Benton, Mrs. Belle Graham, Mrs. E. K. Whitney; Cottonwood, Mrs. E. C. Huntington, Mrs. B. J. Banks, Mrs. L. Huntington; Dodge, Mrs. Mary Powell Wheeler, Mrs. P. L. Dart, Mrs. J. W. Willard, Barbara Van Allen; Dakota, Mrs. Martha Wallace, Harriet E. Jones, Mrs. C. H. Day, Mrs. C. Teachout, Nellie Duff, Mary Mather, Anna Manners, Jennie Horton; Freeborn, Mrs. J. B. Foote, Mrs. D. R. Hibbs, Mrs. A. W. Johnson, Mrs. J. H. Pickard; Fillmore, Charlotte Taeor, Margaret Hood, Mrs. M. E. Molstad, Mrs. A. E. Harsh; Fairbault, Jane Harris, Georgia Adams, Mrs. A. B. Thorp, Mrs. Levi Crump, Mrs. R. C. Smith, Mary Rumage, Mrs. L. A. Scott; Goodhue, Mrs. H. A. Hobart; Brown, Mrs. O. B. Ingraham; Douglass, Mrs. M. C. Lewis, Mrs. J. B. Van Hoesen, Mrs. Trask; Houston, Mrs. Annie M. Carpenter; Hennepin, Angelina Dupont, Mrs. M. F. Taylor; Lyon, Louise M. Ferro, M. D., Mrs. W. C. Robinson, Mertie Caley; Mower, Mrs. W. H. Parker, Mrs. V. J. Duffy, Mrs. J. F. Rockwell, Mrs. E. Hoppin, Sarah M. Dean; Marshall, Mrs. L. H. Stone; Meeker, Mrs. A. R. Jackman, Mrs. Orin Whitney, Mary E. Ferguson; Martin, Mrs. J. W. Fuller, Mrs. M. E. St. John, Mary E. Harvey, Mary A. McLean; Olmstead, Adelle Moore, Jane Haggerty, Mrs. R. S. Carver; Polk, Mrs. M. C. Perrin, Mrs. J. A. Barnum; Ramsey, Mrs. B. McGuire, Annie E. Dunn; St. Louis, Sarah Burger Stearns; Winona, Dr. Adaline Williams; Stevens county reports one lady serving as school-district treasurer; Otter Tail county reports six ladies serving in different places; Wright county, four serving as clerks of school-districts; and in Beeker county it is said ladies sometimes serve as deputies during their husbands' absence.