Queer Places:
Backenstoe-Howard House, aka Waucoma Lodge, N Webster St, Evansville, WI 53536
Cooksville Cemetery, 11901 W Church St, Evansville, WI 53536

Susan M. Porter (September 3, 1859 - March 27, 1939) was born on September 3, 1859, in Decatur, Green County, Wisconsin, as the daughter of early settler William Micaiah Porter and Aura Virginia Wheeler Porter. Her educational journey began when she entered the Whitewater Normal School for teachers in 1877. Following her graduation, she taught for two years at Waukesha High School before spending the next six years keeping home for her father and traveling for a year on the Pacific Coast with an invalid brother. Her professional career expanded when she became an assistant at Lake Mills High School in March 1893, eventually settling into a long and distinguished tenure teaching history at Racine High School for 26 years.

Throughout her decades in Racine, Susan Porter became a much-beloved educator, recognized for founding both the Audubon Club and the Photography Club, and leading an active life centered on teaching, traveling, club memberships, and community involvement. Her contributions to the school were officially commemorated when the 1922 Kipikawi yearbook of Racine High School was dedicated to her on the occasion of her 25th year of service. Beyond her classroom duties, she was closely associated with the Racine Public Library and active in local organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution. Outside of her professional life in Racine, she maintained deep ties to her family's roots in Cooksville, Wisconsin, purchasing the Backenstoe-Howard House, also known as Waucoma Lodge, in 1910 to serve as her summer and second home.

Susan Porter played a notable role in local history by introducing other Racine residents to Cooksville, most notably Ralph Warner, a never-married school teacher from Racine who subsequently bought a historic brick house on the village square to establish his famous summer sanctuary and early preservation site, the House Next Door. Warner's life and preservation work in Cooksville have been heavily studied by contemporary historians documenting early-twentieth-century rural enclaves and networks of gay men as keepers of culture and alternative lifestyles. Susan Porter's connection to Warner and her own independent life as a career woman and homeowner in a tight-knit artistic and preservationist community place her squarely within the broader social networks associated with these historic counter-cultural and heritage preservation circles in Cooksville.

Susan M. Porter passed away at the age of 79 on March 27, 1939, in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, and was laid to rest in the Cooksville Cemetery. Her summer property and local history traditions were subsequently carried on by Cora Atwood, who inherited her home and preserved the community's legacy.

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