Gertrude Amelia Mahorney, 1887 Butler University class photo

Gertrude Amelia Mahorney became the first documented African-American woman to graduate from an Indiana college or university when she received a bachelor's degree from Butler University in 1887.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} In 1889, she also earned a master's degree from Butler.^[8]

Early life and family

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana about 1864, Gertrude Mahorney was the daughter of John Todd Mahorney (1829–1890) and Ann Elizabeth Gray Mahorney (c. 1834 – 1904).^[9][10] Her parents owned an ornamental hair (wig) business on Illinois Street near the prestigious Bates House and were active in the antislavery National Negro Convention movement. John Mahorney entered the real estate business,^[11] was an author^[12] and was the first African-American in Marion County to become active in local Democratic politics.^[13][14] He was active in the labor movement, organizing the first African-American Knights of Labor assembly in Indianapolis. Gertrude was raised in the household with her step-grandmother, Johanna Gray, a Prussian and German speaker so that Gertrude became proficient in German.^[15]

In 1877, John Mahorney took his family to Europe.^[16] He held advanced ideas on education. Gertrude lived in London's East End and had opportunities to interact with people of diverse backgrounds. In 1879, they moved to Irvington, a suburb of Indianapolis, so that Gertrude, and her brother could attend Butler University. While at Butler, Mahorney was confronted with the social segregation of the day, but “stood on her merits and...won the regard of students and professors.”^[17]

In 1890, her father, John T. Mahorney, died at their Irvington home^[18] and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery. Two years later, Gertrude's brother, John Joseph Mahorney, a civil engineer and 1889 Butler graduate^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]} died at age 21 from appendicitis.^[25]

Gertrude lived with her mother until her mother died in 1904. The two often traveled together.^[26]

Career

Proficient in the German language, Gertrude Mahorney translated stories that were subsequently published in local newspapers.^[27][28] She was an active newspaper columnist^[29] and in the suffrage movement. In 1891 & 1892, she taught in Leavenworth, Kansas^[30][31] and then continued her teaching career at Indianapolis Public School No. 23, a school for “colored” children living in the near northwest side of the city, and taught German at another nearby “colored” school, IPS No. 24.^[32][33][34]

In 1904, Gertrude and her mother attended the St. Louis World's Fair where her students' work was exhibited.^[35]

Mahorney resigned her teaching position in the fall of 1906 to study in Pittsburgh and teach at Avery College & Trade School in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.^[36][37] When she returned to Indianapolis, she was only offered a substitute position in IPS. Unable to secure a permanent teaching position, she left Indianapolis in September 1910 to become the teacher in charge of the Ohio Street Colored School in Rockville, Indiana. Depending on enrollment, over the next four years Gertrude Mahorney was often the only teacher at the school.

In 1914, Gertrude was the President of the Woman Suffrage Club in Rockville, Indiana.^[38]

The story of Gertrude Amelia Mahorney is unfinished. In May 1914, she concluded her fourth year of teaching in Rockville, stopped to visit a friend at the Tuberculosis Hospital, and returned to Indianapolis.^[39] The known public record of her life ends in 1915 when she owned a lot in Irvington, Chambers First Subdivision.^[40]

Butler University honored her posthumously at a Founder's Day program with the presentation of her restored graduation photograph.

References