Susan Wissler

Background

Wissler was born in Broadhead, Minnesota. She moved to Denver at age nine, where she ultimately married and had two children.

Career

In 1890, Wissler and her family moved to Dayton, Wyoming. Wissler"s husband died of tuberculosis in 1896, leaving Wissler to support her family alone. She became a local schoolteacher and later opened a millinery store.

In 1911, a group of Dayton residents who were unhappy with the current mayor encouraged Wissler to run for mayor.

Though Wissler initially rejected the idea, she eventually chose to run for office. Her non-partisan campaign focused on improving Dayton"s moral and financial welfare, as her opponent had been criticized for failing to license and regulate the town"s saloons.

While she was once thought to be the first female mayor in the United States, another woman became mayor of a Kansas town on the same day. As Kansas is one time zone ahead of Wyoming, Wissler was technically inaugurated later.

Wissler was reelected twice and served three years in office.

Highlights of her tenure included heightened regulations on local saloons and the construction of Dayton"s first water works. After leaving office, Wissler moved to her daughter"s ranch in Ashland, Montana in 1915. She retired to a rest home in Dayton in 1935, where she died in 1939.

Her home in Dayton is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Achievements

• Wissler won the election by a nine-vote majority, making her Wyoming"s first female mayor.