This page was created by Christine Liebson.
Mather Advisory Council Founders
Ellen Garretson Wade (1859–1917)
Mrs. Wade was a member of the Advisory Council from 1888 till her death in 1917. She served on the original College Home Committee as well as the Library Committee. Typical of the very personal involvement of the Advisory Council members in the life of the College, Mrs. Wade, for many years, provided the flowers for Commencement from her greenhouse. Several of her descendants also served on the Advisory Council. In 1965 the dining hall of the new student residence complex was named for her, “For her sincerity of purpose, for her generous support and her concern for the comfort of the students it is fitting that her name be perpetuated in a dining hall and lounge for women students.”
{IMAGE 2456 - Ellen Garretson Wade (left) with her mother, Ellen Howe Garretson]
Harriet W. Brown Williamson (1852 –1923)
Mrs. Williamson served on the Advisory Council from 1888 till 1893. She was born in 1852 in Auburn, New York. Her father, Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown, was a missionary to Japan who also helped establish a college for women in upstate New York. As a young woman, she spent time in Japan, returning to the United States in 1879. She married Judge Samuel Williamson in 1884. He was an alumnus of Western Reserve College and trustee of Western Reserve University and Adelbert College. Beginning in 1898 with her husband's new job in New York, she split her time between Cleveland and New York. In 1910 she relocated to East Norwalk, Connecticut, where she resided at the time of her death.
[IMAGE W00161 Harriet W. Brown Williamson (Image courtesy of Frederic E. Williamson)
Information was compiled by staff of the Case Western Reserve University Archives, May 2008.
