The information on this guide is taken with permission from the First Ten Women at M.A.C. blog series written by Megan Badgley-Malone, Tim McRoberts, and Susan O’Brien, University Archives and Historical Collections. Previously posted to Archives @ MSU, November-December 2020.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first women enrolled at Michigan State University, then known as Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.).
In 1870, the first women students applied for admission to Michigan Agricultural College. There were ten women admitted that year. Unlike many colleges, Michigan Agricultural College never actually banned women from attending. But some people believed that the early curriculum, which focused on scientific agriculture, was not of interest to women.
St. Joseph Saturday Herald (Saint Joseph, Michigan) · 29 January 1870, Saturday · Page 4
A bigger issue was a lack of housing. There were a few rooms in the first Williams Hall (the men’s dormitory) given to women starting in 1870. These rooms were located next to the steward’s rooms on the first floor, while the men lived on the second and third floors.
Photograph of campus, circa 1872. From left to right: Boarding Hall (later known as Saints’ Rest), Williams Hall, College Hall (A000278.jpg)
The first ten women came from well-to-do families. Their fathers were doctors, legislators, merchants and, of course, farmers. Their families lived comfortably enough to allow their daughters the opportunity to go to college. There are two other facts worthy of note: they all studied agriculture (just the same as the male students) because that was the only major available prior to the 1880s and second, none of them graduated.
According to M.A.C. President T. C. Abbot’s diary entry for March 12, 1870*, the first four lady students on campus were Mary Jones, Isabel “Belle” Allen, Ella Brock, and Catherine “Katie” Bacon. Six other women began attending classes soon after: Gertrude Howe, Elizabeth E. Sessions, Harriet A. Dexter, Emma H. Hume, Mary E. Daniels, and Catherine E. Steele. By August, eight of the ten women lived in Williams Hall, while Gertrude Howe lived with her family in Lansing, and Catherine Steele lived with Professor Robert C. Kedzie, who was her uncle.
March 1870 entries of M.A.C. President T. C. Abbot’s diary (UA 2.1.3, box 861, volume 1)
The women took classes in chemistry, botany, horticulture, floriculture, trigonometry, surveying, entomology, book keeping. Students in the 1870s were required to perform three hours of manual labor daily. The women students worked in the horticulture department “where they cut seed potatoes, set tomato plants, picked potato bugs, hoed, pruned shrubbery, gathered small fruit, and helped in the greenhouse” (Kuhn, page 123).
The Weekly Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan) · 21 Oct 1870, Friday· Page 4
The Faculty Meeting Minutes note the entrance of the ladies and discussions about issues surrounding them such as their denial to the Lyceum (a student literary society) and talks given to male students about their behavior. It was reported that the presence of women on campus improved the manners of the male students.
The first ten women attended M.A.C. for one or two years. Unfortunately, in 1872, nearly all women applicants to the college were denied admission due to lack of housing. The faculty decided that all the rooms on campus were needed for men. Only four women were allowed to enroll because they were able to live with relatives or friends.
One hundred and fifty years later, we celebrate those first ten brave women students who came to campus to expand the minds and increase their knowledge. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
*In 1870, the academic year started on February 23 and ended on November 15.
Use the side navigation to learn more about each of the women.
Abbot, T.C. (1870, January 29). Michigan Agricultural College. St. Joseph Saturday Herald, 4.
Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.
Ancestry.com. Various birth, marriage, death records. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
Ancestry.com. Minnesota, Territorial and State Censuses, 1849-1905 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Baker, F. J. (undated). Gertrude Howe: Thirty-one years a missionary in China. Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. https://archive.org/stream/gertrudehowe00bake/gertrudehowe00bake_djvu.txt
Baker, F.J. (1887). Historical sketches of the northwestern branch of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Jameson and Morse Co. Printers. http://divinityarchive.com/bitstream/handle/11258/3084/historicalsketch01fran.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Bashford, J.W. (1906). China and Methodism. Jennings and Graham. https://library.um.edu.mo/ebooks/b32369062.pdf
Beal, W. J. (1915). History of the Michigan agricultural college and biographical sketches of trustees and professors. East Lansing: Agricultural college.
Bergen (1891, November 28). The Buffalo Times, 2. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62396634/emma-hume/.
Better trained farmers needed (1931, August 9). The San Bernadino County Sun, 14. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63589384/kate-bacon-monteith-death/#.
Bingham, S. D. (1888). Early history of Michigan: With biographies of state officers, members of Congress, judges and legislators. Lansing, MI: Thorp & Godfrey, State printers.
Carruth, Susie. (2011, May 11). Shelton Family Bible [Weblog post]. Ionia County MIGenWeb. http://ionia.migenweb.org/meat/sheltonfamilybible.htm.
Carruth, Susie. (2012, July 20). Shelton Family [Weblog post]. Ionia County MIGenWeb. http://ionia.migenweb.org/photoalbum5/SheltonFamily.htm.
Closing hours accepted. (1933, August 10). The San Bernardino County Sun, 14. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63589384/kate-bacon-monteith-death/.
Death of A. F. Scott (1889, February 14). Star Tribune, 5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61538195/kate-bacons-husband-ansel-f-scott/.
E.M.B. Club Entering Its 56th Year in 1936 (1936, January 1). Lansing State Journal, 82. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48760233/emb-club/.
E.M.B. Club. (1915, June 12). Lansing State Journal, 5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63025058/12-june-1915-page-5-part-1-eleanor/.
E.M.B. Club. (1916, January 8). Lansing State Journal, 5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63031717/mrs-o-d-hardy-eleanor-emb-club/
Experiment Station Record. (1929). United States: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Find a Grave, database (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 October 2020), memorial page for Harriet A “Hattie” Dexter True (23 Feb 1852–29 Jun 1880), Find a Grave Memorial no. 80006842, citing Forest Hill Cemetery, Evart, Osceola County, Michigan, USA ; Maintained by N. Sharlene (Rice) Kent (contributor 47597667)
Find a Grave, database (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 9 December 2020, memorial page for Eleanor E. Hardy (1854-1916), Find a Grave Memorial no. 23176503, citing Mount Hope Cemetery, Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan, USA ; Photograph by Terri Vance Weston (contributor 46776046)
Find a Grave, database (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 9 December 2020), memorial page for Origin D. Hardy (1849-1921), Find a Grave Memorial no. 23177097, citing Mount Hope Cemetery, Ingham County, Michigan, USA ; Photograph by Terri Vance Weston (contributor 46776046)
First Ten Years of Co-edism at Michigan State. (1931, February). M.S.C. Record, 36(6) 9-11. https://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/162-565-611/the-mac-record-vol36-no06-february-1931/
Harnett, T. (1947, November 17). Plaque honors memory of woman missionary. Lansing State Journal, 7. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45532519/gertrude-howe/
Hospital Gift Aids Children. (1920, May 13). Lansing State Journal, 1. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63022912/eleanor-hardy-and-sparrow-hospital/
In Memoriam: Isabel Allen Thayer, with 1874. (1931, October). M.S.C. Record, 7(2), 11. https://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/162-565-621/the-mac-record-vol37-no02-october-1931/
Kedzie, A. S., and Kedzie, F. S. (1882). Kedzies and their Relatives. Grand Haven: Herald Power Print.
Kedzie, F.S. (1930, January 1). Michigan State College, now flourishing institution, had modest beginning, 60. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45271028/first-10-women-at-michigan-state/
Kuhn, M. (1955). Michigan State: The first hundred years, 1855-1955. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
Lansing woman, 57 years in China, is dead. (1929,99999 January 6). Detroit Free Press, 28. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54954942/gertrude-howe-death-notice/
Lansing Woman’s Club (2020). Welcome to the Lansing Woman’s Club. https://lansingwomansclub.org/
Last rites Thursday for club, D.A.R. leader. (1931, September 29). Saginaw Daily News, 9.
Michigan Agricultural College. (1900). Catalogue of officers and graduates, 1857-1900. East Lansing, Michigan.
Michigan Agricultural College. (1911). Catalogue of officers and graduates, 1857-1911. East Lansing, Michigan.
Michigan Department of Community Health, Division of Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952; Film: 7; Film Description: 1872 Branch-1872 St Joseph.
Minutes of Meetings, February 1857 – August 1877, Volume 1, Academic Senate records, collection UA 4.1, Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan.
Miss Gertrude Howe. (1929, February 3). Detroit Free Press, 16. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54954825/gertrude-howes-death/
Mrs. Isabelle Allen Thayer. (1931, September 30). Lansing State Journal, 3. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61404646/obituary-for-isabelle-allen-thayer/
Mrs. Hardy dies in Battle Creek. (1916, July 22). Lansing State Journal, 11. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64808266/eleanor-brock-hardy-obituary/
Mrs. Thayer dies; club work leader. (1931, September 28). Saginaw Daily News, 1.
Northern folk are visitors. (1930, July 5). The San Bernadino County Sun, 14. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61536641/kate-bacon/
Obituary. Delos C. Wiley. (1874, April 27). Chicago Tribune, 5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61538476/obituary-delos-c-wiley/
Powers, P. F. (1912). Evart Village. In A history of northern Michigan and its people. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co. http://genealogytrails.com/mich/osceola/cityevart.html
Robert, D. L. (2017, November 06). Howe, Gertrude (1847 ~ 1928). Methodist Mission Bicentennial. https://methodistmission200.org/howe-gertrude-1847-1928/
T. C. Abbot diary, January 1, 1872, Box 861, Volume 1, Theophilus Capen Abbot papers, collection UA 2.1.3, Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan.
T. C. Abbot diary, March 12, 1870, Box 861, Volume 1, Theophilus Capen Abbot papers, collection UA 2.1.3, Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan.
The city had 138 streets in 1880; here’s how they named them (1940, January 21). Lansing State Journal, 18. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64518855/city-had-138-streets-in-1880-here-is/
The Methodist Mission in Jiujiang (Kiukiang), China (2018, July 15). A Blog out of the Wall. https://wildabc.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/the-methodist-mission-in-jiujiangkiukiang/
True-Dexter. (1879, October 24). The Evart Review, 3. https://digmichnews.cmich.edu/.
Ward, D. and Chen, E. (2017). The University of Michigan in China. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library.
Women’s Labor. (1870, October 21). The Weekly Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan), 4. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60200979/womens-labor-at-mac/
