Ida Husted Harper

Ida Husted Harper was a well-known journalist and advocate for women’s rights during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the United States women’s suffrage movement was occurring. Ida wrote for countless newspapers all over the United States about various articles on women’s issues.

Ida Harper was born on February 18th, 1851 in a small town located in the state of Indiana called Fairfield. Ida lived in Fairfield for approximately ten years until she and her family packed their bags and moved to the city of Muncie, Indiana. After Ida graduated from high school at the age of 17, she decided to attend college at Indiana University. That is until she dropped out to become a teacher and also a high school principal in Peru, Indiana. Not too long after, Ida got married to a man named Thomas Winans Harper and relocated to Terre Haute, Indiana where they gave birth to a girl named Winnifred Harper. Later on, Winnifred also became a writer. Since Ida’s husband was not only an attorney but also a politician, he had many strong connections in the city of Terre Haute, connections that allowed Ida to write woman’s columns for the Terre Haute Daily News. Even though she did so without Thomas’ approval. In 1887, Ida began to focus on women’s voting rights and even helped create a women’s suffrage society in Indiana. Ida’s impressive and brilliant writing skills helped her become the Secretary of the women’s suffrage society.

A few years later, Ida and her husband realized they were unhappily married and eventually got a divorce. But this didn’t slow Ida down. She immediately moved to Indianapolis with her daughter and got a job working for the Indianapolis News. A few more years went by and Ida was still writing columns for newspapers. Ida and her daughter then set foot on a journey to the state of beautiful California where Ida began taking classes at Stanford University. In 1896, Ida committed her time to be a part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association where she spent a lot of time working with Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights crusader. While Ida served as the press relations leader for their campaign towards a state suffrage amendment, her and Anthony became close friends. Anthony eventually asked Ida to move to Rochester, New York to become her official biographer after seeing how well she did with the campaign. Ida then left California and headed to New York where she lived with Anthony and wrote and published three volumes about Susan B. Anthony’s life and work. Ida stayed persistent with her activism in the suffrage movement and later died on March 14th, 1931 in Washington, D.C. from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 80.


Work of Ida Husted Harper:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15220/15220-h/15220-h.htm