Jenckes , who had been involved in farming in Vigo County , Indiana , since her marriage in 1912 , was well aware of the damage that frequent river flooding could do to farms . Jenckes later reported that her farm had flooded nine times in fourteen months during the 1920s . In 1926 Jenckes took a more active role in flood-control efforts after she and other local farmers organized the Wabash-Maumee Valley Improvement Association . Juncos served as the association 's secretary until 1932 . In 1928 Jenckes was one of two women from the Terre Haute area who traveled to the Democratic National Convention in Houston , Texas , to join others in successfully lobbying for the inclusion of one of her association 's flood-control plans as a plank in the Democratic Party 's national platform . Jenckes also attained national prominence in 1928 as secretary of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress . In 1932 Jenckes became the first woman from Indiana to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives . She was elected as a new Deal Democrat to represent Indiana 's Sixth Congressional District in the Seventy-third Congress and was re-elected to the two succeeding Congresses . Jenckes served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4 , 1933 , to January 3 , 1939
Democratic National Convention
1928 Democratic National Convention
Virginia E. Jenckes