Mary Eleanor Brackenridge
| Mary Eleanor Brackenridge | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 7, 1837 Warrick County, Indiana |
| Died | February 14, 1924 (aged 86) San Antonio, Texas |
| Resting place | Brackenridge Family Cemetery Jackson County, Texas 28°56′55″N 96°32′24″W / 28.94860°N 96.54000°W |
| Alma mater | Anderson Female Seminary |
| Known for | Founded Woman's Club of San Antonio Women's Suffrage Regent TWU |
Mary Eleanor Brackenridge (March 7, 1837 – February 14, 1924) was one of three women on the first board of regents at Texas Woman's University, the first women in the state of Texas to sit on a governing board of any university. She was active in women's clubs and was a co-founder of the Woman's Club of San Antonio. Brackenridge was a leader in Texas suffrage organizations and helped get the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution passed. She was the first woman in San Antonio to register to vote. Although it's the Brackenridge name in Texas that is associated with wealth, philanthropy and achievement, Brackenridge qualified as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution through her mother's lineage.
Mary Eleanor Brackenridge was born March 7, 1837 in Warrick County, Indiana. She was the eldest daughter in a family of eight children born to John Adams Brackenridge and his wife Isabella Helena McCullough. She is often referred to as Eleanor, or M. Eleanor, in historical documentation. The family moved to Jackson County, Texas in 1853, but she remained behind and graduated in 1855 from Anderson's Female Academy in New Albany, Indiana.
Her father died during the Civil War, and she and her mother later moved into the San Antonio home of her brother George Washington Brackenridge. He appointed her director of the San Antonio National Bank and the San Antonio Loan and Trust, both institutions established by him. In San Antonio, she was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the Order of the Eastern Star and the Presbyterian Church. She was a member of the Texas Mothers' Congress, a predecessor to the Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers (Texas PTA). In 1906, Brackenridge was named vice-president of the San Antonio Health Protection Association, formed to combat tuberculosis in the city.
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