Therese Alberta Parkinson Jenkins (May 1, 1853 - February 28, 1936) was a suffragist, credited with saving women's suffrage in the State of Wyoming. She was the first woman delegate to any Republican National Convention, the one in Minneapolis in 1892. [1] [2]
Therese Alberta Parkinson was born in Fayette, Wisconsin, on May 1, 1853. She was the daughter of the Peter "Badger Pete" Parkinson (1813-1895), one of the pioneers of Wisconsin, who fought in the Black Hawk War and won military honors, and Cleantha Stone Welch (1825-1863). [2]
She was a thoroughly educated woman, and her writings are clear and forcible. [2]
Beginning in 1887, Jenkins worked to secure equal rights and justice for all citizens. She was one of the orators of the day when Wyoming's admission to statehood was celebrated on July 23, 1890, and her address on that occasion was powerful and brilliant. She did much journalistic work. In April 1889, she contributed to the Popular Science a striking paper entitled "The Mental Force of Woman", in reply to Professor Cope's article on "The Relation of the Sexes to the Government", in a preceding number of that journal. She contributed a number of graceful poems to The Denver Times and other journals. She was the regular Wyoming correspondent of the Omaha Central West, The Woman's Tribune and The Union Signal . [2]
In 1891 she was named National Superintendent of the Franchise for her work to protect women's suffrage in the new constituted Wyoming. She joined the amendment campaigns in Colorado in 1893 and Kansas in 1894. [3]
Jenkins and Cora Georgiana Snow Carleton were sent as alternate delegates to the Republican national convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1892. She was active in church work and was a member of the Woman's Relief Corps and, inspired by Frances Willard, she organized the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1883; she advocated prohibition in Wyoming. [2] [3]
Parkinson moved from Wisconsin to Wyoming in 1877. On December 20, 1877, she married James Flood Jenkins (1852-1928), a commissary clerk and later wealthy merchant of Cheyenne, Wyoming. She had four children: May Jenkins (1879-1879), Elsie C. Jenkins (b. 1881), Horace M. Jenkins (b. 1882) and Agnes W. Jenkins (b. 1889). [2] [3]
She died on February 28, 1936, and is buried at Lakeview Cemetery, Cheyenne, with her husband.
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Frances C. Jenkins was an American evangelist, Quaker minister, and social reformer, involved in the temperance and suffrage movements of the day. While in Illinois, she served as a vice-president of the state's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.). She came to Kansas City, Missouri about 1880 and was active in church and club work there. It was chiefly through her influence that the Friends' Church at 30th Street and Bales Avenue was organized in that city in 1882. Several times since 1890, Jenkins was pastor of this church. In Kansas City, she was the first president of the Federation of Women's Clubs and was also president of the first equal suffrage organization in that town.
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