Mary Birdsall

Mary Thistlewaite Birdsall was a suffragist and advocate of women’s rights in Indiana during the mid-19th century. Mary Thistlewaite married Thomas Birdsall in 1848 when they were both around 19 years old. They became actively involved in the activism of the time, including emancipation, temperance, and women’s suffrage.

Mary Birdsall’s first step into the fight for women’s equality and voting rights was through the Indiana Women’s Rights Convention. The first convention was held in 1851, with Birdsall serving as the commission’s elected Secretary. A second convention was held in 1852, which Mary Birdsall helped organize. This second convention focused on arguing for legalized equality between men and women by calling for gender equality to be written into the state’s constitution. Birdsall was responsible for taking minutes of these discussions, and submitted the records for publication. 

In 1854 the Indiana Women’s Rights Convention moved to Indianapolis, where it remained for several more years and attracted national figures in the suffrage movement like Lucretia Mott, a well known Quaker and suffragist. 

They petitioned the Indiana State Legislature in 1858 to give the same rights of property and suffrage to women as were granted to men. On January 19, 1859, Dr. Mary Thomas, Agnes Cook, and Mary Birdsall were the first women to address the State Legislature of Indiana. A newspaper reported that they spoke about the 1858 petition,  for rights of property and suffrage to be added to the state constitution. Birdsall’s speech was summed up as, “a very good speech.” No further action was taken on the petition by the legislature, but, in being one of the first women to address the legislature, Mary Birdsall helped pave the way for those women who came after her to  the fight.    

Mary Birdsall also used writing to advance the cause. As the Women’s Editor of the Indiana Farmer from 1852-1853, she often included articles on women’s rights. She wrote for the Indiana Farmer for at least 11 issues. In 1855, Mary Birdsall purchased The Lily, the nation’s first feminist newspaper. She worked with Dr. Mary F. Thomas to edit and publish the newspaper. It maintained an editorial focus on temperance, dress reform, suffrage, women’s rights, and the repeal of unjust marriage and inheritance laws. Clink to see records of both The Indiana Farmer and The Lily.

Mary Birdsall died in 1894 at the age of 65 or 66. She is buried in Earlham Cemetery in Richmond, Indiana. Her husband Thomas died in 1901 and was buried alongside Mary. No photographs of either Mary or Thomas are known to survive today.