Biographical Sketch of Henrietta Eliza (Bryan) Lambie

Biographical Database of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913-1920

Biography of Henrietta Eliza (Bryan) Lambie, 1851-1932

 

By Linda D. Wilson, Independent Historian

Suffragist Henrietta Eliza (Bryan) Lambie, the daughter of Dr. James and Henrietta M. Bryan, was born on September 26, 1851, in Rochester, New York. On September 7, 1875, Henrietta Bryan married Jasper Eadie Lambie, a merchant and a Civil War veteran, in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Their children were Ethel, Emily, Margaret, and Morris. At age fifty-five Jasper Lambie died on March 11, 1898, at Northampton, Massachusetts, where he had served as mayor.

Sometime after 1910, widow Henrietta Lambie and children moved to New York City. She and her daughter Margaret were founding members of the Congressional Union (later the National Woman's Party), organized by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. As founding members, they contributed one hundred dollars or more to the organization. In December 1915, Henrietta Lambie contributed an additional twenty-five dollars to the CU fund to secure the passage of the Anthony Amendment. She was one of the Silent Sentinels, picketing the White House in April 1917. Lambie joined the picket line in the days before any arrests began. In May 1922 Henrietta Lambie chaired the refreshment committee for the dedication of the National Woman's Party headquarters in D.C.

During World War I, daughter Margaret (a 1907 Vassar College graduate) headed the Vassar College Relief Unit that served in Verdun and Savenay, France. After the war that group and others formed a branch of the Women's Overseas League in Washington, D.C. The organization worked to help disabled veterans in Washington, D.C. hospitals. By 1922 Henrietta Lambie and other prominent women including Grace Coolidge became patronesses of the league. Lambie was also an active member of the Anthony League organized in Washington, D.C. As a Progressive-Era organization, it helped to further education, philanthropy, and humanitarian efforts. Representing the Anthony League, Henrietta Lambie spoke before the League of Women Voters at a convention in Buffalo, New York, in April 1924.

While living in Washington, D.C., Henrietta Lambie was a member of the All Souls' Unitarian Church. She died on March 7, 1932, at her daughter Margaret's home in D.C. Henrietta Lambie was buried beside her husband, who preceded her in death, in the Main Street Cemetery, Easthampton, Massachusetts.

SOURCES:

Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), March 12, 1898. Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), December 18, 1921, April 27, 1924, and March 7, 1932. Massachusetts Marriage Records, 1840-1915, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 20, 2020. Montclair Times (Montclair, NJ), October 11, 1919. News Journal (Wilmington, DE), July 27, 1921. New York State Census, 1855, Rochester, Monroe County, New York. New York, Town Clerks' Registers of Men Who served in the Civil War, circa 1861-1865, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 20, 2020. New-York Tribune (New York, NY), June 26, 1915 and March 20, 1922. Doris Stevens, ed. Carol O'Hare, Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote (Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press, 1995), 205-211. St. Louis Star and Times (St. Louis, MO), April 2, 1917. The Suffragist, 4:1 (January 1, 1916). U.S. Census, 1870, New York City, New York County, New York. U.S. Census, 1880 and 1900, Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. U.S. Census, 1910, Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. U.S. Census, 1930, Washington, D.C. U.S. City Directories, Washington, D.C., for 1927, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 20, 2020. U.S. Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 20, 2020. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, for Henrietta E. Lambie, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 20, 2020. Washington Herald (Washington, D.C.), December 18, 1921 and January 22 and March 5, 1922. Washington Post (Washington, D.C.), December 18, 1921, March 1, 1922, and May 17, 1922.

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