This is Amy Wagenaar from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan history moment. In 1920, Olympia Brown voted in an election for the first time. She was 85 years old and she had worked all her life for that moment. Olympia Brown was born in Prairie ronde, Michigan, in 1835. Her parents, who were Universalists, instilled a deep belief in education in her and her siblings. As a young woman, Brown enrolled in a women's seminary in Massachusetts, and in 1856 she transferred to Antioch College in Ohio. While at Antioch, Brown heard a sermon from Antoinette Blackwell, America's first female ordained minister in a mainstream Protestant church. Thrilled, Brown decided to become a minister herself. She graduated from Antioch in 1860 and applied to every universalist divinity school in the country. They all rejected her, but finally, Ebenezer Fisher, president of the Canton School of Theology at St. Lawrence University, offered her admission. Fisher wrote that he thought women were unsuited for the ministry, but would leave the decision to Brown and God. To his surprise, Brown showed up and announced that she wanted to enroll. Fisher protested that he had discouraged her. Yes, Brown replied, but your discouragement was my encouragement. So I have traveled from Schoolcraft, Michigan to enroll in your university. Brown graduated and was ordained in 1863. She accepted a full time ministry in Massachusetts, where she met women's rights leaders Susan B. Antony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and others. She got her first taste of women's suffrage work in a campaign in Kansas. Voters there rejected the measure, but Brown was undeterred. Afterward, she accepted ministries and churches in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Racine, Wisconsin. But at the age of 53, she decided to change careers. Brown suspended her ministerial work to become a full time activist for women's rights. She led suffrage initiatives at the state and national levels and fought to have women admitted to colleges and professional schools. She joined in demonstrations organized by the Women's Party and once publicly burned one of President Woodrow Wilson's speeches in view of the White House. She was one of the few original suffragists still alive to witness the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919. Today, a universalist church and a school in Racine both bear her name. In 1999, Olympia Brown was inducted into the Michigan Women's hall of Fame. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.