Malinda (Linda) Louise Warfel Slaughter (1843-1911) was a pioneering women’s rights activist, school superintendent, journalist, historian, attorney, artist, and one of Bismarck-Mandan’s earliest residents. Locally, she is perhaps best remembered for establishing Bismarck’s first school and serving as postmaster/postmistress, an atypical role for females of the era.
Her manifesto, Fortress to Farm, is one of the most detailed accounts of early local history.
History
Linda Slaughter was born Malinda Louise Warfel on February 1, 1843 in Candiz, Ohio. She was educated at Oberlin College before relocating to Kentucky and Tennessee as a missionary overseeing schools and churches for freed slaves.
Linda met her future husband, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Slaughter, in 1868. He was an army surgeon who was ordered to relocate to Dakota Territory’s Ft. Rice in 1871. The following year, the Slaughters settled in what is now Bismarck after Dr. Slaughter was ordered to report at the newly established Camp Greeley/Hancock. The pair arrived aboard the Ida Stockdale from Fort Rice on August 8, 1872.
Linda Slaughter established Bismarck’s first school, Sabbath School – a Presbyterian Sunday school, at Camp Hancock on August 24, 1872. She went onto establish Bismarck Academy in 1873. The school was housed within the First Presbyterian Church, constructed that summer on the corner of 2nd Street and Thayer Avenue. Slaughter shared teaching duties with her sister, Aidee Warfel.
Among the first actions of the recently formed Burleigh County Commission that year was establishing Slaughter as Superintendent, which she served until 1882. In 1876, Slaughter was appointed deputy superintendent of public instruction for all of Dakota Territory.
Slaughter was Bismarck’s first postmaster, or today what we would call a postmistress. The law had to be changed in 1874 to qualify for her – a married woman – to hold the role. She took these duties seriously, directly confronting General Custer when he tried to assert power and circumvent her.
A prominent women’s rights activist, Slaughter organized the local chapter for the Ladies’ Historical Society in 1889. She was also a founding member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and active in other female-focused organizations.
Slaughter was a journalist too. Her role as Washington correspondent for the Bismarck Tribune established important connections in the nation’s capital.
In 1892, as a party delegate, Linda Slaughter was the first woman to vote for a presidential candidate at a national convention.
She became a licensed attorney in Washington D.C. in 1895, where she became close friends with historical figure Susan B. Anthony.
Linda died in St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1911.
Personal Life
With her husband, Linda had five children, three of which, all daughters, survived to adulthood. The Slaughters are the great-grandparents of Governor Doug Burgum, whose father, Joseph Boyd Burgum, was the son of their daughter, Jessamine.
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