Grace Espy Patton dating history

Details

Grace Espy Patton (after marriage, Patton-Cowles; 1896-1904) was an American educator, writer, suffragist, and state superintendent of schools. Born in Pennsylvania, she moved to Colorado during childhood, where she made her career as a professor and public official. Patton taught modern languages at the Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University) and founded the Tourney, a literary magazine. She became widely known as the first woman to serve as Colorado's State Superintendent of Public Instruction (1897–1898), a role that made her the only woman in the United States to hold such a position at the time, as well as the ex officio state librarian. Patton was active in Democratic politics and the women’s suffrage movement, wrote both fiction and political pieces, and participated in national conventions as a lecturer and delegate. After her marriage to Warren Hayden Cowles, she engaged in Red Cross relief work during the Spanish-American War and traveled internationally before her death in Montana in 1904.