Minnie Johnson Grinstead

MINNIE JOHNSON GRINSTEAD is a native Kansan and a Kansas woman who has played a spirited part in that long and eventful struggle by which woman has obtained recognition in her native commonwealth and is gradually attaining the recognition that is her due in the management of the affairs of the nation.

Mrs. Grinstead was born in Crawford County, Kansas, in 1869, was educated in the public schools and the State Normal at Emporia, and for twelve years was a successful teacher. For six years she was connected with the city schools of Pittsburg, Kansas, and two years was principal of one of the city schools. Mrs. Grinstead is the wife of Judge V. H. Grinstead, formerly judge of the Thirty-Third District of Kansas, and one of the prominent lawyers of the state. She is the mother of two children, a daughter and son, Darline, twelve years of age, and Wayde, aged eleven. For all her public prominence and public interests Mrs. Grinstead is a home woman and thoroughly understands the great business of housekeeping, and her friends and guests do not hesitate to praise her cooking as equal to any.

In 1896, on the republican ticket, Mrs. Grinstead was candidate for county superintendent of public instruction in Crawford County. She led the ticket by 500 votes, being defeated on account of the populist landslide that year. She has always been a stanch prohibitionist, for fifteen years has served as a national lecturer for the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and her work in this field has taken her to several states. She is a very forceful and effective speaker, and is a licensed evangelist. A strong advocate of woman suffrage, in the public campaign of 1912 she was president of the Big Seventh Congressional District of thirty-two counties. All but four counties were carried for suffrage through the untiring energies of the splendid men and women of her district helping in the fight. In 1910 she spoke 2 1/2 months in the campaign for prohibition in Missouri, and each year spends some time in the lecture field. Mrs. Grinstead is a republican by deliberate choice, believing that organization most capable of bringing about and carrying out her views. In August, 1918, she was nominated for the Legislature from Seward County on the republican ticket, and November 5, 1918, was elected over her opponent on the democratic ticket, by 475 majority, and has the honor of being the first woman elected to the Kansas Legislature.

Pages 2333-2334.