Zara A. Wilson

She moved to Indianapolis in 1867 and lived with her sister, Mary Kilbun Robinson (1821-1909), whose home was at 603 North New Jersey Street.

The sudden death of her father called her home to the support of a sorrowing mother, whom she assisted, during the next year, in the settlement of a large estate.

[1] In Lafayette, Indiana, Wilson took her first public stand in favor of the equality of sex, refusing to accept a position as principal because the salary offered was ten dollars per month less than was paid to a man for the same work.

She had, in her earnest longing to do good, a strong desire to enter the ministry, but found that, because of sex, she would not be admitted to the Biblical Institute in Evansville, Indiana.

[1] Wilson organized the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Goodland, Indiana, and was corresponding secretary of that district until, her health demanding change of climate, the family home was removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1870.

[1] Wilson was an efficient member of the Nebraska Woman's Christian Temperance Union, delivering addresses and publishing state reports.

Owing to broken health, her energies were for ten years confined mostly to home duties and the care of her only child, a son.