To mark a century of women voting, Minnesota Public Radio took a look back at the work of three Minnesota women who helped break down barriers and paved the way for women’s suffrage. The trio includes Duluthian Sarah Burger Stearns.
Burger Stearns moved to Duluth in 1872 with her husband, Ozora P. Stearns. She was elected to the Duluth Board of Education in 1881 and served for three years. She also founded a state shelter for women and children, served as recording secretary and chair of the resolutions committee for the first Woman’s Christian Temperance Union State Convention, organized the Duluth Woman Suffrage Circle and served as its president, was a cofounder and the first president of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association, was vice-president from Minnesota for the National Woman Suffrage Association, and served as president of the Equal Rights League in Duluth.
