Women Who Ran: Lydia De Camp Goodrich

About Lydia De Camp Goodrich (1840–1925)

On September 2, 1889, Lydia DeCamp Goodrich became the second female member of the Grand Rapids Board of Education. Running in the Eighth Ward, Goodrich received 578 votes to her opponent, Mr. Pratt’s 424. Goodrich stood for reelection in 1891 but lost by 259 votes to Edwin J. Crossman.  

“For School Trustee—8th Ward, Lydia DeCamp Goodrich,” Ephemera from the Emily Burton Ketcham Scrapbook on the Women’s Suffrage Movement, Grand Rapids Public Library Digital Collections.

Beyond her service on the school board, Goodrich was active in Grand Rapids women’s clubs and various reform efforts. In 1870 she served as secretary of the Ladies’ Library Association, which reorganized as the Ryerson Public Library in 1871 (now the Grand Rapids Public Library). And in 1875 Goodrich was elected first president of the West Side Ladies’ Literary Club. 

Goodrich was an advocate of women’s rights. At an 1892 meeting of the pro-women’s suffrage Political Equality Club, she read a passage she had written twenty-five years before on “Progress.” As reported in the Grand Rapids Herald, “Mrs. Goodrich thought the ladies should feel an encouragement from woman’s present status over what it was a quarter of a century ago.” Goodrich also advocated for early education reform by helping organize public meetings for the Grand Rapids Kindergarten Association.