Maryville College's first woman alumna in TICUA Hall of Fame

Maryville College's first woman alumna in TICUA Hall of Fame

Appeared in: Maryville Daily Times 

Maryville College’s first alumna — and the first woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in the state — was inducted this month into the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association’s Hall of Fame.

Mary Wilson was born in Syria to parents who were missionaries and hoped to serve as a Christian missionary after her 1875 graduation. Health challenges kept her from traveling abroad, so she “made Maryville and the surrounding area her mission field,” according to her biography in the Hall of Fame.

She married William A. McTeer and taught Sunday School in an African American church and supported Freedmen initiatives, including Swift Memorial Institute in Rogersville, Tennessee. She was active in New Providence Presbyterian Church and in foreign missionary organizations. She served in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and her leadership also was part of the effort to form the Blount County Humane Society.

Mary Wilson McTeer spent years working for women’s equality, forming and presiding over the Maryville Equal Suffrage Club. With 25 members in the 1890s, it was one of the state’s largest women’s rights organizations.

The biography says, “She used skills developed and perfected at Maryville College in persuasive writing and debate to advance worthy causes at a time when few women were able to be advocates.”

For the first Hall of Fame class last year, Maryville College submitted its first African American graduate, William Henderson Franklin, from its Class of 1880. He went on to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister and found Swift Memorial, dedicating his life to educating African American children.