Minnie D. Davenport was born at Phillips, Maine, on November 4, 1883, the daughter of Marshall and Aura (Prescott) Davenport.  After becoming interested in politics during the 1919 Legislative Session, Mrs. Craig was elected in 1923 to the North Dakota House of Representatives where she served for six terms, culminating in 1933, as the first woman speaker of a House of Representatives in the nation.  Minnie also was the state president of the Nonpartisan Clubs for two years and Republican National Committee woman from 1928 to 1932.  In 1933, Mrs. Craig was appointed state worker for the Federal Emergency Relief Agency.  In the 1935 Legislative session, Minnie was named assistant to the chief clerk and was chief clerk in 1937 and 1939.

The Craig collection consists mainly of her handwritten autobiography and two scrapbooks.  The 99 page autobiography is incomplete and ends about 1946.  The first scrapbook of newspaper clippings deals with Mrs. Craig's political career in North Dakota, while the other deals with the Craig family, beginning with Virgil L. Craig, who managed the 4,000 acre farm at Spiritwood, North Dakota. 
 

Politics and Government  Women