Mrs. Haggart, Mrs. K. R. Doud, Miss Comstock, the
Grand Worthy Vice-Templar from Milwaukee, Mrs. Le Page, and Mrs.
Amy Talbot Dunn, as Zekel's wife, made a deep impression.

[429] See vol. II. page 259.

[430] For her argument see _Woman's Journal_, April, 1876.

CHAPTER XLVII.

MINNESOTA.

Girls in State University--Sarah Burger Stearns--Harriet E.
Bishop the First Teacher in St. Paul--Mary J. Colburn Won the
Prize--Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm, St. Cloud--Fourth of July
Oration, 1866--First Legislative Hearing, 1867--Governor Austin's
Veto--First Society at Rochester--Kasson--Almira W. Anthony--Mary
P. Wheeler--Harriet M. White--The W. C. T. U.--Harriet A.
Hobart--Literary and Art Clubs--School Suffrage, 1876--Charlotte
O. Van Cleve and Mrs. C. S. Winchell Elected to School
Board--Mrs. Governor Pillsbury--Temperance Vote, 1877--Property
Rights of Married Women--Women as Officers, Teachers, Editors,
Ministers, Doctors, Lawyers.

Minnesota was formally admitted to the Union May 11, 1858. Owing to
its high situation and dry atmosphere the State is a great resort
for invalids, and nowhere in the world is the sun so bright, the
sky so blue, or the moon and stars so clearly defined. Its early
settlers were from New England; hence, the church and the
school-house--monuments of civilization--were the first objects in
the landscape to adorn those boundless prairies, as the red man was
pushed still westward, and the white man seized his hunting-ground.

This State is also remarkable for its admirable system of free
schools, in which it is said there is a larger proportion of pupils
to the population than in any other of the Western States. All
institutions of learning have from the beginning been open alike to
boys and girls.

Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, to whom we are indebted for this
chapter, was one of the first young women to apply for admission to
the Michigan University.[431] Being denied, she finished her
studies at the State Normal School, and in 1863 married Mr. O. P.
Stearns, a graduate of the institution that barred its doors to
her. Mr. Stearns, at the call of his country, went to the front,
while his no less patriotic bride remained at home, teaching in
the Young Ladies' Seminary at Monroe and lecturing for the benefit
of the Soldiers' Aid Societies.

The war over, they removed to Minnesota in 1866, where by lectures,
newspaper articles, petiti