Racine at that time counted among its residents one who was destined to have her name linked indissolubly with the suffrage cause in Wisconsin, the Reverend Olympia Brown. Born in Michigan, she was bred to a belief in freedom and opportunity for all, men and women alike, by her mother, Mrs. Lephia O. Brown, who was, says the daughter, "the earliest reformer I ever knew." Olympia Brown succeeded with great effort in securing a college education at Mount Holyoke and Antioch colleges, and also at the Theological School connected with St. Lawrence University at Canton, New York.

Mrs. Brown had served as pastor of a Universalist church in Massachusetts and had done pioneer work campaigning in Kansas with Miss Anthony. She came to Wisconsin in 1878, became Pastor of the Universalist Church at Racine, and soon associated herself with such suffrage organizations as there were in the state. In 1880 she was one of two Wisconsin delegates to the national suffrage convention in Indianapolis.