Mary Birdsall

Mary Birdsall
Born
Mary B. Thistlethwaite

1828
Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedFebruary 1, 1894 (aged 65-66)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting placeEarlham Cemetery
Known forSuffragist
SpouseThomas Birdsall (married 1848-1894)
Children3, including William W. Birdsall (1

Mary B. Birdsall (née Thistlethwaite; born 1828, Chester, Pennsylvania – died February 1, 1894, Philadelphia) was an American suffragette, temperance worker, and journalist.

Born to English immigrants,[1] she grew up on a farm near Richmond, Indiana, where she married Thomas Birdsall in 1848.[1][2] They had three sons together. She began her journalism career as the woman's editor at the Indiana Farmer newspaper.[3] For about five years she owned The Lily, a newspaper for women, which she purchased from suffragist Amelia Bloomer in 1854.[4][5] She helped organize the second women's rights convention in Indiana.[6] At that Indiana convention in 1852, she was elected as secretary for the newly-formed Indiana Woman's Rights Association (renamed the Indiana Woman's Suffrage Association (IWSA) in 1869, and eventually became president of the organization.[7] Birdsall was a vice-president at the fourth National Women's Rights Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853.[8] She was among the first three women to address the Indiana legislature in 1859 to present a women's rights petition, speaking for a half-hour in support of women's suffrage.[9]

Birdsall died in Philadelphia in 1894 and interred at Earlham Cemetery in Richmond.[10] Her Richmond home, a model of progressive architecture as espoused by Catherine Beecher, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.[3][11]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Thistlethwaite, Mary B (October 26, 1848). "Indiana Marriages Through 1850". Indiana State Library.
  3. ^ a b Duvall, Dave (July 21, 1997). "National Register of Historic Places – Sample Nomination Form Mary Birdsall House, Wayne County, Indiana" (PDF). State of Indiana. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  4. ^ Young, Andrew (1872). History of Wayne County, Indiana. Cincinnati: Robert Clark and Co. pp. 357.
  5. ^ Beach, Eloise (August 2, 1976). "Richmond Once Was Site of Paper Published by Amelia Bloom". Palladium-Item. Richmond, IN. p. 9.
  6. ^ "Proceedings of the Women's Rights Convention held in Richmond Indiana, October 15th and 16th 1852". Richmond Weekly Palladium. November 8, 1852. p. 1.
  7. ^ Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Joslyn, Matilda, eds. (1881). History of Woman Suffrage V. I. New York: Fowler and Wells. pp. 307. {{cite book}}: |first3= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Stanton et al. p. 125
  9. ^ Scholten, Pat Ceech (December 1976). "A Public 'Jollification': The 1859 Women's Rights Petition Before the Indiana Legislature". Indiana Magazine of History. 72 (4): 347–359. JSTOR 27790152.
  10. ^ "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803–1915." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008, 2010. From originals housed at the Philadelphia City Archives. "Death Records.". FHL film 1871368
  11. ^ "Wayne County, Indiana". National Register of Historic Places.