Twenty-fourth Week, Friday's "Medfield Historical Minute"

A Medfield Historical Minute...

This "Medfield Historical Minute" is brought to you by town historian Richard DeSorgher.
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis. A different "Medfield Historical Minute" will appear each day during the Crisis.

"The first female to serve on the Medfield School Committee was Mrs. Susan Minerva Meade “Chase” Clark. From 1885 until her death in 1930, , she was a household name and an individual who accomplished much for the Medfield Public Schools. She was then Susan Chase and she was one of the most respected teachers in the town during her 26 years of teaching from 1885 to 1911. Due to the laws and customs of the times, she was forced to resign in 1911, due to her marriage to Oliver Clark. In spite of her forced resignation from teaching, Susan Clark would not give up her passion for a better education for Medfield children. While federal law still prohibited females from voting or running for office on the federal level, Massachusetts and Medfield permitted females to vote and run for office on the local level. Susan Clark ran for the office of School Committee in 1911, becoming the first female to be so elected to the school committee and the second female elected to public office in town history. She would continue to run and be elected every three years, for the next fourteen years until her death in 1930. Adding her 26 years as a teacher with her 14 years on the school committee, Susan Chase Clark gave a total of 40 years to the children and the education system of Medfield."