Laura J. Rittenhouse
"A Woman of the Century"
Born	Laura Jacinta Arter April 30, 1841 Grand Chain, Illinois, U.S.
Died	July 11, 1911(1911-07-11) (aged 70) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place	Cairo City Cemetery, in Villa Ridge, Illinois
Occupation	activist, author, poet, business woman, club-woman
Notable works	"Out of the Depths"
Spouse	Wood Rittenhouse ​ ​ (m. 1863; died 1896)​
Children	4
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Laura J. Rittenhouse (née, Arter; April 30, 1841 – July 11, 1911) was an American temperance activist, juvenile literature author, poet, businesswoman, and club-woman of the long nineteenth century. She was the author of the poem, "Out of the Depths".^[1]

Laura Jacinta Arter was born in Grand Chain,^[1] Pulaski County, Illinois, near the Ohio River, April 30, 1841. She was a daughter of Dr. Daniel Arter. From her parents she inherited her tastes and talent for literature. Her education was received in the schools of the sparsely-settled county, but she supplemented her deficient schooling by self-study and wide reading.^[2][3]

In Pulaski County, December 31, 1863, she married Wood Rittenhouse (1835–1896),^[4] a prominent business man of Cairo, Illinois. Their family included one daughter and four sons: Isabella Maud, Wood Arter, Harry H., Fred M. and Robin C. Rittenhouse.^[4]

After her marriage, for many years, Rittenhouse was able to spare little time for literary work, but during the early 1890s, she was a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers. Her best work was done in her short stories. She was a skillful writer of plots, and all her stories were carefully worked out to their logical ending.^[2][3]

For years, her interests were given to the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and for that body, she worked and wrote unceasingly.^[3] She was the first president of the WCTU of Cairo, serving in that office for many years. She was elected district president of that organization for four consecutive years, and for five years, she also served as district treasurer. She served as secretary of the Social Science Association in Cairo, secretary of the Centennial Association in Cairo, and secretary of the Cairo Protestant Orphan Asylum, besides acting as manager of the asylum for many years. She served a year as secretary of the Cairo Women's Library Club, president (three years) of the Presbyterian Woman's Aid Society in Cairo, and vice-president of the Red Cross Society in Cairo.^[2]

Rittenhouse died on July 11, 1911, in Chicago, Illinois. She was buried at Cairo City Cemetery, in Villa Ridge, Illinois.

• "Out of the Depths"

• Richard Graham's Love, by Laura J. Rittenhouse^[5]

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Herringshaw, Thomas William (1914). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits ... (Public domain ed.). American Publishers' Association. p. 20.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Moulton, Charles Wells (1890). "Laura Jacinta Rittenhouse by M. B. Harrell". The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review. Vol. 2 (Public domain ed.).
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Perrin, William Henry (1883). History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois (Public domain ed.). Higginson Book Company. ISBN 9781581033847.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 612.

• Works related to Woman of the Century/Laura Jacinta Rittenhouse at Wikisource
• Works by or about Laura J. Rittenhouse at the Internet Archive