Kitchelt, Florence Ledyard Cross, 1874-1961

Florence Ledyard Cross Kitchelt was born in Rochester, New York, on December 17, 1874, and died in Wilberforce, Ohio, on April 4, 1961. Kitchelt's activities included work as a social worker, settlement house worker, and suffragette organizer in New York, and as a peace activist in Connecticut.

From the description of Florence Ledyard Cross Kitchelt papers, 1909-1947 (inclusive), 1924-1941 (bulk). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702165663

Social worker, suffragist, and socialist (Wells College, B.A., 1897) Kitchelt worked in settlement houses in Rochester, NY, N.Y.C., and New Haven, Ct., was Citizenship Director of the Connecticut League of Women Voters, executive director of the Connecticut League of Nations Association (1924-1944), chairman of the Connecticut Committee for the Equal Rights Amendment (1943-1956), and a published author.

From the description of Papers, 1885-1961 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122576356

Journal kept at The College Settlement, 95 Rivington St., New York City, 1900

Florence Ledyard Cross Kitchelt was born in Rochester, New York, on 17 December 1874. She graduated from Wells College in 1897. For two years after college, she worked at the George Junior Republic, a self-governing community for troubled youth. From 1900-04, she worked at the New York College Settlement at 95 Rivington Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side and its summer location in Mt. Ivy, New York. In 1904, she returned to reform work as a volunteer probation officer for women with New York City's Essex Market Court. From 1904 to 1905, she worked at the Lowell House settlement in New Haven, Connecticut. She was the head worker in the Little Italy House in Brooklyn (1903) and another Italian American settlement, the "Housekeeping Center," in Rochester (1907-10). She married Richard Kitchelt in 1911. After her marriage, she was active in several civic and political causes. She volunteered and wrote articles for suffrage, trade union, socialist, and pacifist organizations in New York and Connecticut. She died in Wilberforce, Ohio on 4 April 1961.

From the guide to the Florence Cross Kitchelt Papers MS 86., 1900-1959, (Sophia Smith Collection)

Settlement house worker; Social worker.

Born Rochester, N.Y., 1874; graduated from Wells College, 1897; summer course at NY School of Philanthropy, 1900. Worked for two years as social worker at George Junior Republic, a community for troubled youth. Resident at College Settlement Association House in New York City, (also known as 95 Rivington Street), 1900-1904, and at its summer location in Mt. Ivy, N.Y.; and at Little Italy House, Brooklyn, circa 1903. Volunteer probation officer for women with New York City's Essex Market Court, 1904; worked at Lowell House, New Haven, 1904-05; and head resident of Italian settlement house, Rochester, NY, 1907-10. Married Richard Kitchelt, 1911. Was active in New York suffrage movement and peace movement in Connecticut, and served on several boards of social reform/public service organizations including the Consumers' League and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union.

From the description of Papers, 1900-1959. (Smith College). WorldCat record id: 49517318

Florence Ledyard Cross Kitchelt was born in Rochester, New York, on December 17, 1874, and died in Wilberforce, Ohio, on April 4, 1961. Kitchelt's activities included work as a social worker, settlement house worker, reform volunteer, and suffragette organizer in New York, and as a peace activist in Connecticut.

Florence Ledyard Cross Kitchelt was born in Rochester, New York, on December 17, 1874 to Frederick Holland and Jennie Ledyard (Wilcox) Cross. She attended Wells College in Aurora, New York, graduating in 1897 with an A.B. Throughout her early career Kitchelt was a social reform worker at a number of settlement houses in New York City and state. Immediately after college Kitchelt was a resident and volunteer worker caring for dependent and delinquent youth at the George Junior Republic in Freeville New York. She spent the next four years working for the College Settlement on the lower east side of Manhattan and its summer location in Mount Ivy, New York. In 1903 she was the head worker of an Italian American settlement called the "Little Italy House" in Brooklyn, New York. For a short time in 1904 she was a voluntary probation officer for women at the reformist Essex Market Court. From 1904 to 1905 Kitchelt worked at the Lowell House in New Haven, Connecticut.

After spending several months in Italy learning about the conditions from which her many immigrant cases came, Kitchelt returned to her hometown of Rochester, New York. In 1907 she opened "The Housekeeping Center" in an Italian neighborhood there, and the center operated under her supervision until1910. In June 1911, she married New York socialist agitator Richard Kitchelt.

By 1915 Florence Kitchelt had become a suffragette, continuing her work when she moved to New Haven, Connecticut three years later. There she became the Citizenship Director of the Connecticut League of Women Voters in 1920, and served as the Executive Director of the Connecticut branch of the League of Nations Association (CLNA) for twenty years beginning in 1924. During 1943 she was Chairman of the Connecticut Committee for the Equal Rights Amendment, a group she supported until 1956 when she and her husband moved to Ohio to live with Florence's sister Dorothy Zeiger.

Kitchelt was also a dedicated peace activist and worked with a variety of organizations to pursue pacifist goals, including thethe Connecticut Council on International Relations, the National Council for the Prevention of War, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Throughout her lifetime, Kitchelt was an active socialist, pacifist, member of the Unitarian society, and author of several books of poetry, a prose work called The World's Work , and editor for the Rochester magazine The Common Good . She died in Wilberforce, Ohio, on April 4, 1961.

From the guide to the Florence Ledyard Cross Kitchelt papers, 1920-1947, (Manuscripts and Archives)