Grace Garrett Durand (August 25, 1867 – February 26, 1948) was an American clubwoman, business owner, and temperance activist.
Grace Garrett Durand (August 25, 1867 – February 26, 1948) was an American clubwoman, business owner, and temperance activist.
Grace Denise Garrett was born in Burlington, Iowa, the daughter of William Garrett and Martha Rorer Garrett.[1] She went to school at St. Mary's in Knoxville, Illinois.[2]
In 1904 Grace Durand began running a model dairy, Crab Tree Farm, in Lake Forest, Illinois, to sell good quality local milk to Chicagoans,[3] and to support her other projects, such as a kindergarten for children in Chicago's tenements.[4] The farm was relocated to Lake Bluff, Illinois in 1906. "I have not entirely given up society for my dairy," Durand explained, "but the work is so interesting that I cannot look upon the time and effort given to it as any sacrifice."[5] Several of the buildings on the farm were lost by fire in 1910. She rebuilt the barns with help from architect Solon Spencer Beman.[6] In 1915, her herd of Guernsey cows was destroyed by government officials because they were suspected of carrying foot and mouth disease.[7][8] She sued for $100,000 in damages.[9] She lectured at farmers' institutes across the American midwest on her methods and experiences in dairy work, and patented a design for milk jugs.[10]
Grace Durand was the first woman elected to serve on the board of education in Lake Forest, Illinois.[1] She was a member of the Lake Forest Golf Club,[11] and president of the Lake Bluff chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She wrote a book, Consider, opposing the repeal of Prohibition. Her temperance work was much remarked upon when her husband was accused of participating in a "rum ring" and indicted in 1933.[12][13]
Grace Garrett married wealthy sugar broker[14] Scott Sloan Durand in 1894. They adopted two children.[1] Their son Jackson G. "Jack" Durand was convicted of robbing the home of F. Edson White in 1926, and served a prison sentence.[15][16] The Durands traveled around the world, even visiting Tristan da Cunha in 1935.[17] Grace died in 1948, aged 80 years.
She donated woven and embroidered shawls from India to the Art Institute of Chicago.[18][19]
Crab Tree Farm remains a working farm near Lake Bluff today.[6]
