Mary Alice Bingham
Pictured: Mary A. Bingham, c. 1874.
Mary Alice Bingham, or “Minnie” as her friends knew her, was born on August 30, 1856, in Watertown, New York. She grew up in Rome, New York, where her father owned a business and her mother devoted herself to her family, her church and to the growing Temperance Movement. A very wealthy couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bingham traveled extensively through North America and Europe during the post-Civil War years.
The youngest of the four Founders, Minnie entered Syracuse University in the fall of 1873. Described by her contemporaries as “a rather frail young woman,” she dropped out of school for the 1875 academic year due to ill-health but returned to Syracuse University in the fall of 1876.