Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Daphne Lynde Selden Jones, 1892-1969
By Nicole B. Plummer
Undergraduate Student, Central Connecticut State University
Suffragist, World War I organizer
Daphne Lynde Selden Jones (Selden) was born on September 14, 1892, to Richard L. Selden and Cora W. Selden of Deep River, Connecticut. She was the older sister of Constance Selden, who was born in November of 1899.
Selden and her sister attended Wellesley College, then was appointed state organizer for the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association in 1917. She moved from the Selden family home in Deep River to Hartford in 1918 to further her work in the suffrage movement.
During World War I, Selden was very dedicated to the war effort. In the spring of 1918, Selden raised funds with the Woman Suffrage Association for the Women's Overseas Hospital Unit in France. During the summer of 1918, Selden worked as a farmerette at the Samuel Russell, Jr. Farm in Middletown, Connecticut. In 1919, Selden went to France to assist the Red Cross.
While in Europe, Selden met her husband, Richard Cocke Jones of Louisville, Kentucky, a graduate of Princeton, who was serving in France. The couple married at the Selden residence in Deep River on May 4, 1920, by Reverend Byron Hatfield of the Deep River Baptist Church. After their wedding, the couple moved to Louisville, Kentucky.
Widowed in 1927, Selden continued to live in Louisville with her two children, Richard and Elizabeth. Selden died in December 1969 at age 77, and was buried in the Cave Hill Cemetery of Louisville.
Sources:
Much of Daphne Lynde Selden Jones's life is covered by the newspaper The Hartford Courant. Further biographical information on Daphne Lynde Selden Jones can be accessed through Ancestry.com as well as the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Federal Census.