Isabella Greenway
Greenway in the 1930s
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Arizona's at-large district
In office
October 3, 1933 – January 3, 1937
Preceded byLewis Williams Douglas
Succeeded byJohn R. Murdock
Personal details
Born
Isabella Dinsmore Selmes

(1886-03-22)March 22, 1886
Boone County, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedDecember 18, 1953(1953-12-18) (aged 67)
Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Resting placeDinsmore homestead in Kentucky
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
  • Robert Munro-Ferguson
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1905; died 1922)​
  • ​
    ​
    (died 1926)​
  • Harry O. King
    ​
    (m. 1939)​

Isabella Dinsmore Greenway (née Selmes; born March 22, 1886 – December 18, 1953) was an American politician who was the first congresswoman in Arizona history, and the founder of the Arizona Inn of Tucson. During her life she was also noted as a one-time owner and operator of Los Angeles-based Gilpin Airlines, a speaker at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, and a bridesmaid at the wedding of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[1]

Early life

Isabella Dinsmore Selmes was born the daughter of Tilden Russell Selmes (1835–1895) and Martha "Patty" Macomb Flandrau (1861–1923). Isabella was born at the historic Dinsmore Farm in Boone County, Kentucky which was owned by her mother's maternal great aunt Julia Stockton Dinsmore (1833–1926). Tilden Selmes was general counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Patty Flandrau was the daughter of Minnesota judge and politician Charles Eugene Flandrau (1828–1903) and his first wife Isabella Ramsay Dinsmore (1830–1867).[2]

The Selmes family owned a ranch in the Dakota Territory that was close to Theodore Roosevelt's ranch and they developed a close friendship with each other.[3] The ranch was lost in blizzards in 1886-87, and Tilden moved to St. Paul, where his paternal grandfather was a lawyer.[4]

After the untimely death of her father in 1895, Isabella and her mother lived with various members of her mother's family in Kentucky, Minnesota, and New York. Patty supported them by selling bacon and ham.[4] In 1901, Patty's sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Franklin Cutcheon, invited Patty and Isabella to join them in New York City.[4] Isabella attended Miss Chapin's School and Miss Spence's School in New York City,[3] where she met and became lifelong friends with Roosevelt's niece, Eleanor.[5]

First and second marriages

Isabella met Robert Munro-Ferguson (1867–1922) during her debutante season. the younger brother of Ronald Munro-Furguson (1860–1934). Robert was a family friend of the Roosevelts, as well as one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders.[6][4]

In 1905, Isabella was one of Eleanor's bridesmaids when Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Shortly thereafter, while the Roosevelts were on their honeymoon, Isabella married Robert. Robert and Isabella became the godparents of Franklin and Eleanor's only daughter, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.[6] [7]

Three years into the marriage, Robert contracted tuberculosis and in 1910 the couple moved to the dry climate of New Mexico, hoping his health would improve. There Isabella, with help from her mother, nursed her husband, educated their two children; Robert, Jr. (1908) and Martha (1906), and managed the ranch.[8][4] This would have been especially difficult, as at the time, tuberculosis patients were told to have their own utensils and bedding and avoid touching others.[4] During this period, Isabella and Eleanor established a close correspondence that continued for the rest of their lives.[8]

In 1921, Robert's health declined. The Ferguson family moved to Santa Barbara, California, so the children could go to school.[4] After Robert's death in 1922, Isabella married a close friend, Gen. John Campbell Greenway (1872–1926), another of Roosevelt's Rough Riders, whom she had met in 1911. John moved the family to a ranch in Arizona near Bisbee where he was manager of the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company. Later the family moved to Ajo where Isabella and John's son, John Selmes ("Jack") Greenway (1924–1995) was born. In 1926, John died suddenly, following surgery, leaving Isabella a widow once again.[9] [10][11]

Isabella and her children moved to Williams, Arizona, and bought the Quarter Circle Double X Ranch as she and John had planned. Through smart business dealings and the sale of her mining stock at the top of its value ahead of the 1929 stock market crash, Isabella was able to grow the ranch to over 130,000 acres (530 km2). During the same period, she also became the owner and operator of Los Angeles-based Gilpin Airlines.[12][13] In 1930, Greenway founded the Arizona Inn in Tuscon.[14]

Franklin D. Roosevelt in center at the Quarter Circle Double X Ranch (1932)

Activism and politics

Isabella's political interests and social activism paralleled the interests of her friend Eleanor.

Her political work began in 1912, when Isabella worked to get voters for Roosevelt's Bull Moose ticket.[14] During the First World War she developed and directed a network of southwest women who farmed while the men were overseas. During the late 1920s she opened Arizona Hut, a furniture factory employing disabled veterans and their immediate families.[15] She also lobbied for a dam in the Colorado River.[14]

1934 photograph of Mary Harriman Rumsey, Chairman of the Consumers Advisory Board of the N.R.A; Eleanor Roosevelt; and Rep. Isabella Greenway.

In 1928, Greenway became Arizona's Democratic national committeewoman. She expanded the position's requirements, campaigning for Al Smith. She also the Democratic Party so the men's and women's divisions were integrated.[4] In 1932 she campaigned heavily for Franklin Roosevelt and was credited with assuring his support from Arizona. She made one of the speeches seconding his nomination at the 1932 Democratic National Convention.[15]

In a landslide victory, Greenway was elected as Arizona's sole Representative to the 73rd Congress in 1932 to complete the unexpired term of resigning Rep. Lewis W. Douglas, who had been appointed the U.S director of the budget. She won reelection in 1934. On her fiftieth birthday she announced that she was retiring from public office. There was some expectation that had she run in the 1936 election, she would have been unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Though she broadly supported New Deal legislation during her terms in Congress, she demonstrated her political independence by breaking with the President over some issues of concern to veterans, an important part of her political base in Arizona. She opposed legislation to reduce the pensions of World War I servicemen, funds for which FDR planned to shift to fund economic recovery programs. She also opposed some provisions of the Social Security Act, which she believed would be impossible to implement in the long term.[16]

Later life

Greenway announced her retirement in 1936, citing wanting to spend more time with family.[4] In 1939, Isabella married mining executive Harry O. King (1890–1976), a former National Recovery Administration manager for the copper industry, and then-president of the Institute of Applied Economics in New York City. During this marriage, Isabella spent part of her time in New York City and part in Tucson. [17]

In 1940, Greenway refused to support Roosevelt for another term, as she believed there should be a limit of two presidential terms. In response to her disloyalty, Roosevelt invited Greenway's children, without their mother, to dinner at the White House.[4]

Although Greenway had opposed the United States entering the war in Europe, after Pearl Harbor, she joined the war effort. She was elected to chair the American Women's Voluntary Services and the Arizona Inn was deemed essential to the war efforts in order to provide accommodations near the local air base and naval training schools.[4]

Death and legacy

Greenway died in 1953 in Tucson at the Arizona Inn.[18] She is buried on the Dinsmore Homestead in Kentucky where she had been born.

In Phoenix, Greenway Road and several public schools are named for her second husband, John Campbell Greenway.[19]

In 1981, Greenway was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural cohort.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman". Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Isabella Selmes Ferguson Greenway King". The Dinsmore Homestead. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Ryan, James Gilbert; Schlup, Leonard C. (2015). Historical Dictionary of the 1940s. Routledge. ISBN 9781317468653. Retrieved February 16, 2017 – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Miller, Kristie (1999). "Greenway, Isabella Selmes (1886–1953)". In Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah (eds.). Women in world history: a biographical enyclopedia. Detroit: Yorkin. ISBN 978-0-7876-3736-1.
  5. ↑ "Greenway, Isabella Selmes". History, Art, and Archives – United States House of Representatives. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Robert Harry Munro Ferguson". Dinsmore Farm. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Ronald Craufurd Munro-Ferguson". Dictionary Of Australian Biography. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Miller, Kristie and Robert McGinnis (2009). A Volume of Friendship: The Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabella Greenway, 1904–1953. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-910037-50-1.
  9. ↑ "John Selmes 'Jack' Greenway". Dinsmore Farm. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  10. ↑ "John Campbell Greenway (1872–1926)". Encyclopedia of Arkansasrizona Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  11. ↑ "John Campbell Greenway (1872–1926)" (PDF). National Statuary Hall Collection. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Quarter Circle Double X Ranch and the Greenway Ranch". Grand Canyon News. October 19, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Gilpin Air Lines, G. & G. Air Lines Co., Ltd". calisphere.org. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  14. 1 2 3 Britten, Thomas A. (Thomas Anthony) (2006). "Isabella Greenway, an Enterprising Woman (review)". Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 110 (1): 152–153. doi:10.1353/swh.2006.0007. ISSN 1558-9560.
  15. 1 2 "About Arizona Hut Furniture". Tom’s Fine Furniture and Collectables. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Isabella Selmes Ferguson Greenway King (1886–1953)". Dinsmore Farm. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Harry King (1890–1976)". The New York Times. September 25, 1976. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  18. ↑ "History – Arizona Inn". The Arizona Inn. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  19. ↑ "John Campbell Greenway (1872–1926)". National Mining Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.

Other sources

  • "Isabella Selmes Greenway" in Women in Congress, 1917–1990. Prepared under the direction of the Commission on the Bicentenary by the Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1991.
  • "Isabella Greenway King" in the magazine series Arizona Pioneers, in Copper State Journal, Fall 1997. Compiled and edited by Floyd R. Negley.
  • Beasley, Maurine H. et al., The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia, pp. 217–218
  • Miller, Kristie (2004). Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman. Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-1897-1.
  • Miller, Kristie; McGinnis, Robert H., eds. (2009). A Volume of Friendship: The Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabella Greenway, 1904–1953. Tucson, Arizona: Arizona Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-910037-50-1.
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