Emma Harriman

Emma Harriman's signature, 1869 (SCSU Archives)

Emma Harriman's obituary in the Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1933 (Newspapers.com)

Emma L. Harriman, the oldest of six siblings, was born in July 1848 in New Hampshire to shoemaker Moses Smith and Elizabeth Ann (Kimball) Harriman. In the 1850s, she moved with her family to Hinckley Township in Ohio. By the late 1860s, however, they had moved on to Corinna, Minnesota, where her father had received two land grants, one by President Abraham Lincoln and another by President Ulysses S. Grant. There, her father worked as a master mechanic. Graduating with the Third State Normal School’s first class on June 30, 1871, Emma delivered a culminating essay, “Why Not?,” questioning why women were educated only to be married and not to pursue a higher purpose outside of the home.

After graduation, Emma became a teacher while living at home in Corinna. In the late 1870s or early 1880s, she moved with her family to Topeka, Kansas, after her father became a traveling Methodist preacher. By late 1885, they had relocated to Los Angeles, where her father built a ranch house. Emma’s parents passed away by 1900. She continued to live in the family home, which she operated as a boarding house. Never marrying, Emma devoted her life to activism. As a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which called for the moderation of alcohol consumption, she authored several books and articles on various social reform topics including temperance and women's suffrage. As a leading member, she would have worked closely with fellow 1871 St. Cloud State graduate Hester Tuttle Griffith, who became president of the California WCTU. Emma was a personal friend of Frances E. Willard, president of the national WCTU and a prominent women’s suffragist. Following the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, Emma registered to vote as a member of the Prohibition Party and continued her activism well into her later years. She passed away on August 16, 1933 and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Sources

1850 U.S. census, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Candia, p. 246B, dwelling 173, family 190; NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 473, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1860 U.S. census, Medina County, Ohio, population schedule, Hinckley, p. 261, dwelling 685, family 685; NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 1007, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1870 U.S. census, Wright County, Minnesota, population schedule, Corinna, p. 306, dwelling 39, family 31; NARA microfilm publication T132, roll 13, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1875 Minnesota census, Wright County, Corinna, p. 140, family 21; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MNSC_19, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1885 Kansas census, Shawnee County, Topeka, p. 54, dwelling 5, family 5; Kansas State Historical Society microfilm collection, roll KS1885_128, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1900 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Angeles Ward 5, enumeration district 0050, p. 3, dwelling 59, family 62; NARA microfilm publication T623, n.r., accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1910 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Angeles Assembly District 70, enumeration district 0222, p. 4B, dwelling 108, family 108; NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 80, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1920 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Angeles Assembly District 72, enumeration district 327, p. 4A, dwelling 78, family 87; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 112, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1930 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Angeles, enumeration district 0267, p. 6A, dwelling 104, family 126; NARA microfilm publication T626, n.r., accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

California Department of Health and Welfare, Emma Harriman death record, 1933, California Vital Records-Vitalsearch, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

California Voter Register, Los Angeles County, 1920, Great Register of Voters, roll 010, California State Library, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

California Voter Register, Los Angeles County, 1922, Great Register of Voters, roll 012, California State Library, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

Jean H. Baker, Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005).

“Normal School Examination: Exercises of the Graduating Class,” The St. Cloud Journal, July 6, 1871, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).

“Opening of the Normal School,” The St. Cloud Journal, September 23, 1869, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).

“Pioneer’s Last Rites Conducted: Miss Emma Harriman Had Lived in Same House Here for Forty-nine Years,” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1933, http://www.newspapers.com (accessed July 19, 2019).

Robert J. Burdette, ed., American Biography and Genealogy: California Edition, vol. 2 (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1912), p. 780-787, accessed July 19, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

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State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Catalogue and Circular of the State Normal School at St. Cloud, Minnesota,” 1884-1885, p. 5, series 1, box 1, folder 1, St. Cloud State University Undergraduate Catalogs, 1869-2012+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Record Book” 1869-1885, box 1, folder 1, Admission and Records Records, 1869-1939, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections, transcript index, https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/archives/histories/transcript-index.aspx (accessed July 16, 2019).

Third State Normal School, undergraduate commencement program, 1871, series 1, box 1, folder 1, Records of St. Cloud State University Commencement, 1871-2018+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.