Cecil Murray Harden (November 21, 1894 – December 5, 1984) was an American educator who became a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
politician and an advocate of women's rights.
She served five terms in the
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
(January 3, 1949 to January 3, 1959) representing
Indiana's 6th congressional district
Indiana's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. The district takes in a portion of eastern and central Indiana as of the 2020 census, including Columbus and Richmond, as well as a few suburbs of bot ...
. Harden was the only Republican woman elected to represent Indiana in the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
until 2012, when
Susan Brooks
Susan Lynn Brooks (née Wiant; born August 25, 1960) is an American prosecutor and politician. She is a Republican and the former U.S. Representative for . She was elected in 2012. The district includes the northern fifth of Indianapolis, as well ...
and
Jackie Walorski
Jacqueline Renae Walorski (, August 17, 1963 – August 3, 2022) was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Indiana's 2nd congressional district from 2013 until her death in 2022. She was a member of the Republican Pa ...
were elected to serve in the
113th United States Congress
The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Presidency of Barack Obama, Barack Obama's presiden ...
beginning in January 2013.
Initially assigned to the Veterans' Affairs Committee in the
81st Congress, the next term she transferred to the House Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments (later called Government Operations), where she served as the chair of the Inter-Governmental Relations subcommittee of Government Operations during the
83rd Congress
The 83rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 1953, until January 3, 1955, during the last two weeks of the Truman administration, with ...
. Harden also served six years (1953–59) on the Committee on the Post Office and Civil Service during the
Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
administration. In 1957 Harden and U.S. Representative
Florence Dwyer proposed legislation in the U.S. House in support of equal pay for women. Harden also joined with
U.S. Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Madeline Smith (née Chase; December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S. representative (1940–1949) and a U.S. senator (1949–1973) from Maine. She was the firs ...
and U.S. Representative
Frances Bolton to encourage inclusion of issues of interest to women in the Republican Party's platform.
In addition, Harden helped her constituents in Indiana by securing federal funding for flood control projects, especially in the
Wabash River
The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows fro ...
valley, and was critical of the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...
's plan in 1956 to close its
heavy water plant in
Dana, Indiana
Dana is a town in Helt Township, Vermillion County, Indiana, United States. The population was 608 at the 2010 census. It is primarily a farming community.
History
Dana was platted in 1874 when the railroad was extended to that point. The town w ...
.
Harden, who became active in politics in 1932, served as the Republican precinct vice chairman from 1932 to 1940; vice chairman of the
Fountain County, Indiana
Fountain County lies in the western part of the U.S. state of Indiana on the east side of the Wabash River. The county was officially established in 1826 and was the 53rd in Indiana. The county seat is Covington.
According to the 2000 United S ...
, Republican Party from 1938 until 1950; Indiana's
Republican National committeewoman from 1944 to 1959 and from 1964 to 1972; and delegate-at-large to the
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
s in 1948, 1952, 1956, 1968, and in 1972. Harden was appointed to serve as special assistant for women's affairs to
U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield
Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield (March 17, 1899 – April 26, 1972) was a U.S. political figure who served as the 54th Postmaster General of the United States from 1953 to 1961. As Postmaster General, he was an ardent opponent of obscenity.
Early ...
(March 1959 to March 1961) and served on the National Advisory Committee for the
White House Conference on Aging The White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) is a once-a-decade conference sponsored by the Executive Office of the President of the United States which makes policy recommendations to the president and Congress regarding the aged. The first of its ...
in 1972–73.
Early life and education
Cecil Murray was born on November 21, 1894, at
Covington in
Fountain County, Indiana
Fountain County lies in the western part of the U.S. state of Indiana on the east side of the Wabash River. The county was officially established in 1826 and was the 53rd in Indiana. The county seat is Covington.
According to the 2000 United S ...
,
to Jennie (Clotfelter) and Timothy J. Murray. Cecil's father was a real estate broker and a longtime leader of the local
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
.
["Cecil Murray Harden" in ]
She attended local public schools and graduated from Covington High School in 1912.
Murray enrolled at
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
in
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...
, but left IU to become a teacher in the
Troy township schools, at later in her hometown of Covington.
[
On December 22, 1914, Cecil Murray married Frost Revere Harden (1889-1965), "who eventually became an automobile dealer in Covington."] Their only child, a son named Murray Harden (1915-1989), became a doctor in Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...
.
Career
Local and state politics
Despite her father's ties to the Democratic Party, Harden became active in the local Republican Party. She first became interested in local politics in 1931, when President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
appointed her husband as Covington's postmaster. Harden became even more active in Republican politics in 1933, after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
took office and appointed a Democrat to replace her husband as the Covington postmaster.[
Harden entered politics in 1932 as the Republican precinct vice chairman, a position she retained until 1940. Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, Harden was active in Indiana politics. In 1938, she became vice chairman of the Fountain County Republican Party, a position she held until 1950, and served as the vice chair of an Indiana congressional district.][
Harden joined the Republican National Speakers Bureau in 1940. She was elected Indiana's Republican National committeewoman in 1944, serving until 1959, and again from 1964 to 1972. Harden also served as a delegate-at-large to the ]Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
s in 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1968.[
]
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1948, when Indiana Republican Noble J. Johnson
Noble Jacob Johnson (August 23, 1887 – March 17, 1968) was a United States representative from Indiana and an United States federal judge, Associate Judge and Chief Judge of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
Education and ...
resigned from the U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
to accept a federal judgeship, Harden won the Republican Party's nomination to run for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
in the general election in the fall. In her first bid for elective office, Harden narrowly defeated Democrat John James (Jack J.) O'Grady by a margin of only 483 votes out of a total of 132,000 votes cast in the race.[ O'Grady, a native of ]Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
,[ was a U.S. Army veteran who had represented ]Vigo County, Indiana
Vigo County ( ) is a county on the western border of the U.S. state of Indiana. According to the 2020 United States Census, it had a population of 105,994 . Its county seat is Terre Haute.
Vigo County is included in the Terre Haute metropolitan ...
, in both houses of the Indiana legislature. Harden was elected to the 81st Congress and the four succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1949 to January 3, 1959,[ a total of five consecutive terms in the U.S. House as a representative of ]Indiana's 6th congressional district
Indiana's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. The district takes in a portion of eastern and central Indiana as of the 2020 census, including Columbus and Richmond, as well as a few suburbs of bot ...
.[ Harden voted in favor of the ]Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwigh ...
.
In her first term in Congress in 1949, Harden was initially assigned to the Veterans' Affairs Committee, but the next term she transferred to the House Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments (later called Government Operations). During the 83rd Congress
The 83rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 1953, until January 3, 1955, during the last two weeks of the Truman administration, with ...
, Harden chaired the Inter-Governmental Relations subcommittee of Government Operations. She also served six years (1953–59) on the Committee on the Post Office and Civil Service. While serving on these congressional committees, Harden toured military installations to evaluate and looking for ways to improve the military's procurement procedures. In an effort to cut government costs under the Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
administration, she also urged military and other government offices to consider using private companies to perform some of their work.[
Harden, an advocate for women's rights, joined with ]Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
's U.S. Senator, Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Madeline Smith (née Chase; December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S. representative (1940–1949) and a U.S. senator (1949–1973) from Maine. She was the firs ...
, and Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
's U.S. Representative, Frances Bolton, to urge the Republican Party to adopt platform planks of interest to women. In 1957, Harden and New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
's U.S. Representative, Florence Dwyer, offered "a bill to provide equal pay for women."[
Harden served her Indiana constituents by promoting flood control in the ]Wabash River
The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows fro ...
valley, helping to secure federal funding for flood control projects in her state. She was also critical of U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...
's plan in 1956 to close its heavy water plant in Dana, Indiana
Dana is a town in Helt Township, Vermillion County, Indiana, United States. The population was 608 at the 2010 census. It is primarily a farming community.
History
Dana was platted in 1874 when the railroad was extended to that point. The town w ...
, which was within her congressional district. Harden claimed that 900 workers would become unemployed as a result of the closure.[
Harden, who aligned her political interests with the Eisenhower administration, lost her bid for a sixth term in the U.S. House to Democrat Fred Wampler, a Terre Haute high school football coach, in 1958 by slightly more than a two-percent margin.][ Harden was one of Indiana's seven Republican congressional members who were defeated in the 1958 election (and one of the forty-seven seats in the U.S. House that the Republicans lost in the election). Her defeat was blamed, in part, on a recession that negatively affected industrial employment in Terre Haute.][
]
Other service
Although her final congressional term ended in January 1959, Harden remained in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Two months later, in March 1959, she was appointed to serve as special assistant for women's affairs to U.S. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield
Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield (March 17, 1899 – April 26, 1972) was a U.S. political figure who served as the 54th Postmaster General of the United States from 1953 to 1961. As Postmaster General, he was an ardent opponent of obscenity.
Early ...
. Harden remained at this post until President John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
's Democratic administration replaced Eisenhower's Republican administration in March 1961.[ Harden also continued to serve as a Republican national committeewoman for Indiana from 1964 until 1972, and as a delegate-at-large for the Republican National Conventions in 1968 and in 1972.][ In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Harden to the National Advisory Committee for the ]White House Conference on Aging The White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) is a once-a-decade conference sponsored by the Executive Office of the President of the United States which makes policy recommendations to the president and Congress regarding the aged. The first of its ...
, where she served in 1972–73.[
]
Later years
Harden outlived her husband, Frost Harden, by nearly two decades. Following her retirement from politics in the early 1970s, Harden returned to her home in Covington, Indiana.[ She spent her final years in an assisted living facility.]
Death and legacy
Cecil Harden died of cancer on December 5, 1984, at the age of ninety, in Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...
. She was survived by her son and grandchildren.[ Her remains are at Mount Hope Cemetery in Fountain County.
The "Cecil Murray Harden Papers, 1938–1984," are housed in the collections of the ]Indiana Historical Society
The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) is one of the United States' oldest and largest historical societies and describes itself as "Indiana's Storyteller". It is housed in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center at 450 West Ohio Street ...
in Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
.[
On December 14, 1974, President ]Gerald R. Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
signed a bill renaming Mansfield Lake in Parke County, Indiana
Parke County lies in the western part of the U.S. state of Indiana along the Wabash River. The county was formed in 1821 out of a portion of Vigo County. According to the 2010 census, the population was 17,339, an increase of 0.6% from 17,241 ...
, in Harden's honor. As U.S. Representative she had been involved in securing funds for the project. Under the Flood Control Act of 1938
The Flood Control Act of 1938 was an Act of the United States Congress signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that authorized civil engineering projects such as dams, levees, dikes, and other flood control measures through the Un ...
, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
designed and built the lake by damming Big Raccoon Creek as part of flood control project for Big Raccoon Creek and the Lower Wabash River watersheds in Parke County. Construction began on the lake in October 1956; it was completed in July 1960. Indiana's Department of Natural Resources administers recreational uses of the lake in the Raccoon State Recreational Area.[Wonning incorrectly states that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the authorization to change the name to Harden Lake, but Gerald Ford was the U.S. president on December 14, 1974, and signed the legislation to rename the lake.
See: ]
See also
* Women in the United States House of Representatives
Women have served in the United States House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber, since the 1916 election of Republican Jeannette Rankin from Montana, the first woman in Con ...
Notes
References
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*"Cecil Murray Harden" in
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External links
"Cecil Murray Harden Papers, 1938–1984
" Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harden, Cecil Murray
1894 births
1984 deaths
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Indiana University Bloomington alumni
People from Covington, Indiana
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians
20th-century American educators
Schoolteachers from Indiana
Indiana Historical Society
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana