Miss Georgiana Trotter was elected to serve on the Board of Education in 1874 – nearly 20 years before women were even allowed to vote for candidates in local school board elections. Trotter also served on the Withers Library Board, was a successful businesswoman (with brother John Trotter) in the lumber, grain and coal business and had served in the Civil War as a nurse. With her friend, Superintendent Sarah E. Raymond, she was considered a "power in the education affairs of Bloomington." The two women, along with Sarah Withers, were the driving force behind raising funds and establishing the "Withers Public Library" – now known as the Bloomington Public Library. Trotter served fifteen years on the Bloomington Board of Education before retiring because of illness.
References to Trotter are still present in downtown Bloomington as the Trotter Family Fountain remains at the former site of the Withers Library (now Withers Park at Washington and East Streets). Trotter's likeness also appears on a mural located on the corner of Monroe and Center Streets in Downtown Bloomington.
Courtesy of the McLean County Museum of History
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