Helen Loring Grenfell (April 29, 1863 — July 25, 1935) was an American educator, suffragist, and clubwoman. She was Colorado's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1899 to 1905.
Early life
editHelen Thatcher Loring was born in Valparaiso, Chile, the daughter of American parents Charles Loring and Mary Frances Loring. Her father was in Chile on business at the time of her birth there. She moved to Colorado as a child with her parents. She trained to teach in New York.[1]
Career
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Helen Loring taught school in Colorado from her teen years. She was appointed superintendent of schools for Gilpin County, Colorado in 1895. She was elected Colorado's state Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1898, and re-elected to two more two-year terms, serving through 1905.[2] She was elected vice-president of the National Educational Association (NEA) in 1902.[1] She was defeated in her run for a third re-election in 1904, by Katherine L. Craig.[3] In 1909 she published a report, The Constitution of the Ideal School Board and the Citizen's Duty Toward it.[4]
As an elected official, she toured nationally lecturing in favor of suffrage.[5][6] "We have come to the time when we must feel that the word chivalry belongs to the past," she told audiences, "I believe you will not misunderstand me when I say that if you will give us justice, it will mean a great deal more than chivalry ever did."[7] She served on Colorado's prison board for two terms. She was a member of the state forestry association and on the board of trustees for Denver's children's hospital.[8] In 1920, she was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.[9] She was chair of the Women's Auxiliary of the Retail Clerks International Protective Association.[10] She also spoke in favor of better compensation for teachers.[11]
Grenfell made a report to Woodrow Wilson on the Ludlow Massacre, as vice president of the Women's Law and Order League of Colorado. Her report was more critical of the strikers and more aligned with the governor's actions than many other accounts from the event.[12]
Personal life
editHelen Loring married Edwin I. Grenfell, a railroad executive, in 1889. She died in 1935, aged 71 years, from injuries sustained in a fall several months earlier.[13][14] Her husband wrote a biography after her death, A Brief Sketch of the Life and Works of Helen Thatcher Loring Grenfell (1939).
References
edit- ^ a b Celia Osgood Peterson, "School Men of the Hour: Helen L. Grenfell" American Education (January 1903): 274-275.
- ^ Jurgen Herbst, Women Pioneers of Public Education: How Culture Came to the Wild West (Spring 2008): iv. ISBN 9780230616523
- ^ Gail M. Beaton, ''Colorado Women: A History (University Press of Colorado 2012). ISBN 9781457173820
- ^ Helen Loring Grenfell, The Constitution of the Ideal School Board and the Citizen's Duty Toward it (1909).
- ^ "Magazine Writers Roasted by Mrs. Helen L. Grenfell" Lincoln Journal Star (March 9, 1911): 10. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Club Will Hear Woman Official" Democrat and Chronicle (March 20, 1911): 12. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Gage, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Ida H. Harper, The History of Women's Suffrage (1922): 113.
- ^ "Personal Glimpses" The Literary Digest (May 29, 1920): 70.
- ^ "Colorado Democrats Send Woman" New York Times (May 18, 1920): 3. via ProQuest
- ^ "Mrs. Helen Grenfell on Wage Question" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (December 26, 1908): 15. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Women Need More Pay" Fitchburg Sentinel (April 3, 1911): 4. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Mrs. Grenfell Tells Wilson of Strike" New York Times (May 26, 1914): 2. via ProQuest
- ^ "Mrs. Edwin Grenfell, Civic Leader, is Dead" New York Times (July 27, 1935): 13. via ProQuest
- ^ "Helen Grenfell is Dead from March Injury" Greeley Daily Tribune (July 26, 1935): 7. via Newspapers.com
