Biographical Sketch of Grace Emma Ingraham Glendenning

Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Grace Emma Ingraham Glendenning, 1876-1968

By Jonna Herbstritt, Undergraduate, University of North Dakota, Trista Raezer-Stursa, Archivist, and Beth Twomey, Librarian, North Dakota State University

Grace Emma Ingraham Glendenning was born on May 31, 1876 in Dodge City, MN, to George D. and Emma Manda Calhoun Ingraham. Various sources use different spellings of Grace's last name including: Clendinning, Clendenning, Glendemning and Clendemning. She married Robert Glendenning and they had two children.

Glendenning was president of the North Dakota Votes for Women League in 1915 and 1916. On January 8, 1916, which was Suffrage Rally Day, she was a speaker at a Women's Club meeting at the Elk's Hall in Jamestown. In July of 1916, she was a featured speaker at a large suffrage convention held in Fargo, N.D. She was considered one of the most brilliant suffrage workers in the state and travelled frequently in North Dakota and also along the east coast to speak and organize in support of suffrage. On August 9, 1916, Mrs. Glendenning had a particularly memorable meeting with North Dakota Senator McCumber in Fargo. McCumber, a Republican senator, was against the Women's Suffrage Act until he met with Mrs. Glendenning. She helped persuade him to vote for the Women's Suffrage Act on June 5, 1919. On November 15, 1916, she was a guest of honor at an informal reception at the home of Dr. E. M. Darrow in Fargo. This was the first time she met one on one with the Fargo suffragists. Soon after, on November 18, 1916, she was a speaker at the first meeting of the new executive board of the North Dakota State Suffrage Association, at the Hotel Dacotah in Grand Forks. Glendenning was the president of the executive board. The theme was “Equal Suffrage in 1920.”

Glendenning was part of a delegation to deliver two suffrage measures to Governor Lynn J. Frazier in January of 1917 to be signed into law and providing for limited suffrage for the women of North Dakota. She also went to Washington, D.C. to represent North Dakota as part of a delegation of four women in an inaugural parade, on March 5, 1917. She attended the National Council Meeting afterwards.

Glendenning was a member of the North Dakota Women's Patriotic Emergency Committee and she served on the Women's National Defense Committee in 1917. She also spoke at the North Dakota Federation of Women's Clubs conference in Dickinson in October, 1917.

Glendenning died on June 23, 1968 in Minneapolis, MN.

SOURCES:

Grace Glendenning ND Ancestry, March 3, 2018

“Great Suffrage Conference Scheduled Friday in Fargo” Bismarck Daily Tribune, Bismarck, N.D. July 8, 1916, p. 5

National Women's History Project, “How Women Won the Vote: 1920: Celebrating the Centennial of Women's Suffrage 2020,” http://www.nwhp.org/wp-content/uploads/gazette_How-Women-Won-Vote-.pdf, accessed March 5, 2018

“Of Interest to Women” Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, N.D. March 02, 1917, p. 2

“Of Interest to Women” Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, N.D. March 16, 1917, p. 6

“Society Attending Alumnae Meeting in St. Paul,” Bismarck Tribune, November 19, 1916, p. 4.

“Society News” Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, N.D. August 09, 1916, p.3

“State Suffrage President Names Committee Chairman” Bismarck Daily Tribune, Bismarck N.D. November 19, 1916, p.4

“Suffrage Bill Passed by House and Will Become Law When Signed by Governor” Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, N.D. January 17, 1917, p.7

“Suffrage Organizers Trip Being Planned” Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, N.D. November 16, 1916, p.6

“Votes for Women?” The Weekly Times-Record, Valley City, N.D. November 18, 1915

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