Mary Anderson Leonard (1866-1930)

Mary Anderson Leonard received her education from the Reidville Female College, Mount Holyoke, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Chicago. Following graduation, she filled the Chair of History in colleges throughout the South. Some have recalled that she and Dr. Johnson organized Winthrop College (now University) with seventeen students. From 1899 to 1906, she was professor of History at Winthrop, and in her later years, she received the Ph.D. degree from the University of South Carolina. As a charter member of the Reidville Women’s Club, she was remembered in the minutes as “cherishing high ideals in herself and others. She was a woman of independence in thought and action and was recognized for the brilliancy of her mind.”