Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt 1859 ~ 1947

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt

Mrs. Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, for some years one of the most active and prominent workers for women's suffrage in the United States, was born in Ripon, Wisconsin, on the 9th of January, 1859. Her maiden name was Lane. While yet a child her parents moved to northern Iowa, where her youth was passed.

In 1878 she entered as a student the scientific department of the Iowa Agriculture College, and was graduated therefrom in 1880 with the degree of D.S. She was an earnest student, and attained first rank in her class. For three years she devoted herself to teaching, first as principal of the high school in Mason City, Iowa, from which position she was soon promoted to city superintendent of schools in the same place.

In 1885 she became the wife of Leo Chapman, and carrying out her ideas of the wife as economic helpmate she entered into partnership with him as a joint proprietor and editor of the Mason City Republican. Within a year Mr. Chapman died. Disposing of her paper, Mrs. Chapman went to California where, for a year, she was engaged in newspaper work in San Francisco. In 1888 she entered the lecture field, and for some time spoke only in lecture courses, but the cause of women's enfranchisement soon enlisted her warmest sympathies, and she accepted a position as state lecturer for the Iowa Women's Suffrage Association. Since that time all her energies have been devoted to the cause, and her earnest, logical eloquence has won her many friends. At every convention of the national association she has been called upon as a speaker. As the work for the cause in America has expanded and the suffrage army has grown, Mrs. Catt has come to be more and more acknowledged as one of its generals. Her health having suffered from her constant devotion to the cause, she has gone abroad. She said, on sailing, that it was her purpose to study the possibilities and status of equal suffrage in all of the countries throughout which she passed on her tour of the world, and it is safe to conclude that her deep, powerful voice will be heard in advocacy of the cause as often as possible.

In 1890 she became the wife of George W. Catt, civil engineer of New York City. Her home is in Bensonhurst-by-the-sea, on Long Island.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.