Biographical Sketch of Gertrude Goodrich Reed (Miller)

Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Gertrude Goodrich Reed (Miller), 1883-1962

Corresponding Secretary, Kansas Equal Suffrage Association; Recording Secretary, Sigournean Club

By Amanda Ritter-Maggio, Associate Professor of English, Texarkana College, Texarkana, TX

The oldest child born to Herbert Stanley Reed and Emily O. Goodrich Reed, Gertrude Goodrich Reed was born in 1883 in Topeka, Kansas. She had one brother, Stanley, and one sister, Fanny, who died in childhood. In Topeka, Herbert Reed worked as a lawyer and later as a publisher. The family migrated from Michigan to Kansas in the late 1870s but maintained a summer home in Michigan.

Gertrude was a 1906 graduate of the University of Kansas and member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. The 1910 United States Census finds her living at home with her parents in Topeka. In May of 1911, she was elected Corresponding Secretary of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association.

On June 30, 1917, Gertrude married Dr. Henry Miller, a graduate of Baker University, Kansas State University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The couple made their home in Rossville, Kansas. They had no children, but did care for Gertrude's mother, Emily, in their home until her death in 1936. Gertrude was active in the Ladies Aid Society and the Sigournean Club, a literary society, in Olathe, Kansas, and served as that organization's corresponding secretary. Dr. Miller died in October 1956.

Gertrude Reed Miller died on November 4, 1962 and is buried in Rossville Cemetery in Rossville, Kansas.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Bulletin of the University of Kansas: Alumni Catalogue. Vol. 9, Iss. 2 (March 1908). https://books.google.com/books?id=wd7OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=kansas+state+university+gertrude+reed&source=bl&ots=ImuOVzPJXI&sig=ACfU3U0mt5pmZHeGuaGo-uLGc0gouoNXXw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyzLyw-bPxAhURCc0KHaO8BbcQ6AEwEXoECBcQAw#v=onepage&q=kansas%20state%20university%20gertrude%20reed&f=false

Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/40135864/gertrude-miller : accessed 25 June 2021), memorial page for Gertrude Reed Miller (1883-1962), Find a Grave Memorial ID 40135864, citing Rossville Cemetery, Rossville, Shawnee County, Kansas, USA; Maintained by Marie (contributor 46599044).

Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/14002769/herbert-stanley-reed : accessed 25 June 2021), memorial page for Herbert Stanley Reed (16 Sep 1849-19 Sep 1919), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14002769, citing Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, USA; Maintained by Oz (contributor 46520830).

A Genealogical History of Robert Adams of Newbury Mass and His Descendants, 1635-1900. Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Graduate Magazine of the University of Kansas Vol. 18-19 (1919). https://books.google.com/books?id=3YLOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA12-PA16&lpg=RA12-PA16&dq=university+of+kansas+gertrude+reed&source=bl&ots=ydS9j_sI8j&sig=ACfU3U0ATp1it5AWuE85tItEqN0pxEhZww&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTp9P8-bPxAhUZVc0KHdcYAd4Q6AEwEnoECAQQAw#v=onepage&q=university%20of%20kansas%20gertrude%20reed&f=false

Hempstead, Bertha. "Society." The Topeka State Journal 18 June 1917. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/324577760/?terms=gertrude%20reed&match=1

---. "Society." The Topeka State Journal 23 June 1917. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/324579482/?terms=gertrude%20reed&match=1

The History of Woman Suffrage vol. IV. Ed. Ida Husted Harper. New York: Little and Ives, 1922.

"Sigournean Club Election." The Olathe Mirror 15 February 1923. Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/62158036/?terms=mrs.%20gertrude%20miller&match=1

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