Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Rosa Russell Ingels, 1859-1939
By Haley Robaina, University of Missouri
Edited by Tammie Busch
Mrs. Rosa Russell Ingels was a suffragist and women's rights activist who was born in 1859 and died in November 1939. She was born in Kentucky, but lived most of her life in Columbia, Missouri. She married George Alvin Ingels in 1881. They had two children-- Boone, born in 1889 and Giltner Russell, born in 1897.
According to the "History of Woman Suffrage in Missouri" published in 1920 in the Missouri Historical Review, Rosa had been prominent in club work since 1892. Rosa made the first public talk on woman suffrage at one of these clubs, the Tuesday Club, in Columbia in March 1912. The Tuesday Club, a club still in existence today, focuses on literature, philanthropy and female empowerment. In 1915, Rosa served as a contributing editor of the Missouri Woman, the official magazine of the Missouri Federation of Women's Clubs.
She was the president of the Columbia Equal Suffrage Association in 1913 and a member of the State Board of the Missouri Equal Suffrage League from 1917-1918. Rosa was one of a group of women who visited the Missouri Legislature on behalf of woman suffrage and worked on petitions and at the polls. In 1913, with the help of several other local women's suffrage leaders, Rosa helped organize a petition for a Women's Suffrage Amendment in the 1914 election. This was signed by 14,000 voters.
Following the 19th amendment's ratification in 1919, Rosa was among the first active group of women working in citizenship schools. These citizenship schools were study classes and courses of lectures on the principles of government and political history and methods. Rosa was the author of several articles on woman suffrage including a history of woman suffrage in Columbia published in the Missouri Historical Review in 1920 in which she discusses citizenship schools. In May of 1921, Rosa traveled to Sedalia after being chosen as a delegate to attend the annual convention of the League of Women Voters.
Rosa was active in The Daughters of the American Revolution, and in 1918 was elected regent of the Columbia chapter. Rosa was also very politically active in the war effort during World War I. As the chairman of her district on the Women's Executive Committee on War Savings in 1918, she organized donations to go to the war effort. In June of 1919 at a DAR meeting organized to discuss the evolution of peace treaties of the United States, Rosa read an original poem on peace.
Sources:
Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 9 March 2020), memorial page for Rosa Lee "Rose" Russell Ingels (1859-1939), Find A Grave Memorial no. 38536510, citing Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Pleasant Hill, Cass County, Missouri, USA ; Maintained by Richard Parker (contributor 47021994) .
Census and Death Certificate:
Year: 1920; Census Place: Columbia Ward 3, Boone, Missouri; Roll: T625_906; https://www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts/1939/1939_00038878.PDF
Newspapers from 1914 to 1929:
Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 19, The Columbia evening Missourian. (Columbia, Mo.), 16 May 1921. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066316/1921-05-16/ed-1/seq-1/>
The Daily Missourian. (Columbia, Mo.), 26 Nov. 1916. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066314/1916-11-26/ed-1/seq-1/>
Columbia Missourian. (Columbia, Mo.) 30 September. 1929. Missouri Digital Heritage Newspapers. <http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm/ref/collection/colmo1/id/18892>
The Evening Missourian. (Columbia, Mo.), 14 June 1918. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066315/1918-06-14/ed-1/seq-3/>
The Evening Missourian. (Columbia, Mo.), 08 Feb. 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89066315/1919-02-08/ed-1/seq-1/>
Books and Journals:
Stanton, E. Cady., Harper, I. Husted., Gage, M. Joslyn., Anthony, S. B. (Susan Brownell). (18811922). History of woman suffrage. Vol. 6. New York: Fowler & Wells. [LINK]
Missouri Historical Review, Volume 14 Issue 3-4, April-July 1920, Retrieved from The State Historical Society of Missouri, Digital Collections, https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/mhr/id/7332
Other sources:
"Longest serving women's club celebrates role of art." News Tribune. February 14, 2017. https://www.newstribune.com/news/news/story/2017/feb/15/longest-serving-womens-club-celebrates-role-art/661671/