Catherine Brewer Benson

Widely credited as the first woman to earn a college degree, Catherine Brewer moved with her family to Macon, GA. from Massachusetts in the 1830's(?). She entered Georgia Female College (now Wesleyan College) in 1839 when the college, chartered in 1836, began offering classes. The honor of being the first woman to earn a degree from a chartered college fell to her because her name came first alphabetically among the graduates of the class of 1840, an honor of which she was well aware, as Wesleyan alumnae relate anecdotally. [http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/NewsInfo/News/NewsArchives/Winter2004/MarkerCeremonySpeechMay72004TenaRoberts/tabid/549/Default.aspx] . She is remembered each year at the annual meeting of the Wesleyan College Alumnae Association when graduating seniors are inducted into the association using the "Benson Charge", taken from a speech she made to the Class of 1888: [program, Wesleyan College Alumnae Association Annual Meeting, 2007]

"Members of the graduating class, demands will be made upon you which were not made upon us. Your training, if you are true to it, will amply qualify you to meet those demands. No wiser blessing could I wish for you than that you may be true to every God-appointed work. "

She was a mother of six(?), including the notable Admiral William S. Benson, USN (1855-1932) who became the nation's first Chief of Naval Operations, an office created May 11, 1915. She died at her home in Macon in March, 1908 at the age of 86 [http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ga/bibb/obits/b/benson6801ob.txt] .