Jenckes, Virginia Ellis, 1877-1975

<p>Water, liquor, and communism stirred Virginia Ellis Jenckes’s considerable passions and spurred her into elective politics, where she unseated a 16-year veteran Congressman to become the first Indiana woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jenckes’s expressions of commitment to creating flood control for her constituents, abolishing Prohibition, and routing communist influences from American society made her one of the more colorful Washington politicians during the New Deal.</p>

<p>Virginia Ellis Somes was born on November 6, 1877, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to James Ellis, a pharmacist, and Mary Oliver Somes. She attended public schools in Terre Haute and took one year of coursework at Coates College. In 1912 Virginia Somes married Ray Greene Jenckes, a Terre Haute businessman 34 years her senior. A year later, Virginia Jenckes gave birth to a daughter, Virginia. The couple operated a 1,300-acre family farm along the banks of the Wabash River in western Indiana. Ray Jenckes died in 1921, leaving his widow to manage the farm and raise their child.</p>

<p>Flooding posed a constant problem in western Indiana. In 1927 a new dike along the Wabash River failed, threatening lives and Jenckes’s $15,000 crop. She mobilized local residents and participated in a 3,000-sandbag effort that successfully contained the breach. That experience led her to found and serve as secretary and lobbyist for the Wabash and Maumee Valley Improvement Association, an organization that proposed flood control programs and projects. In 1928 Jenckes achieved a major political triumph when party leaders adopted one of her association’s flood control plans into the Democratic national platform. Success emboldened Jenckes, and within several years, she had committed herself to running for Congress.</p>

<p>Virginia Ellis Jenckes (November 6, 1877 – January 9, 1975) served three terms as a U.S. Representative (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1939) from Indiana's Sixth Congressional District. The Terre Haute, Indiana, native was the first woman from Indiana to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Alongside Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy, she was the second woman Representative from the Midwest and the first who was not succeeding a male relative. In 1937 she became the first American woman appointed as a U.S. delegate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Paris, France. The outspoken, independent-minded farmer from Vigo County was an advocate for women and became known for her support of flood-control measures and repeal of Prohibition, as well as her opposition to communism. Jenckes's most significant accomplishment for her Indiana constituents was obtaining an $18 million appropriation for the Wabash River basin that eventually became law.</p>

<p>While Jenckes broadly supported New Deal initiatives in general and voted with the majority of the Democrats in the U.S. Congress, she did not always follow the Democratic majority. During her later years, Jenckes became especially concerned about thwarting what she believed to be communist propaganda and its perceived threats, despite the public ridicule she received. After retiring from Congress in 1939, Jenckes served as an American Red Cross volunteer for more than twenty years. During the Hungarian uprising of 1956, she gained national attention for her efforts to assist five Catholic priests in their escape to the United States from Hungarian prisons. In 1969 Jenckes returned to Indiana, where she spent the final years of her life.</p>

<p>Virginia Ellis Somes, the daughter of James Ellis Somes, a pharmacist, and Mary Oliver Somes, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on November 6, 1877. She attended public schools in Terre Haute, including Wiley High School, where she enrolled at the age of eleven and became the youngest student in the school’s history. She left high school early to complete her formal education by taking two years of courses at Coates College for Women.</p>