Madeline McDowell Breckinridge (1872-1920)

Madeline "Madge" McDowell Breckinridge was a leader of the women's suffrage movement and one of Kentucky's leading progressive reformers.

She was born in Woodlake, KY on 20 May 1872 and grew up in Ashland at the Henry Clay Estate, a farm established by her great-grandfather, 19th century statesman Henry Clay. Her mother was Henry Clay, Jr.'s daughter, Anne Clay, and her father was Maj. Henry Clay McDowell (a namesake of Henry Clay), who served during the American Civil War on the Union side.
 
She was educated in Lexington, KY, at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT and at State College (now the University of Kentucky) intermittently between 1890-1894. In 1898 Madeline married Desha Breckinridge, the editor of the Lexington Herald and a brother of the pioneering social worker Sophonisba Breckinridge. The Breckinridges together used the newspaper's editorial pages to promote political and social causes of the Progressive Era, especially programs for the poor, child welfare and for women's rights.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed shortly before she died. She was able to vote only once in her life, in the November 1920 presidential election, before suffering a stroke and dying on Thanksgiving day, 25 Nov 1920.