WOODBRIDGE, Mrs. Mary A. Brayton, temperance reformer, was born in Nantucket, Mass. She is the daughter of Captain Isaac Brayton and his wife. Love Mitchell Brayton. Her mother belonged to the family of Maria Mitchell, the astronomer. Mary A. Brayton received a fair educational training, and in youth she excelled in mathematics. At the age of seventeen years, she became the wife of Frederick Wells Woodbridge, a merchant, whom she met while living in Ravenna, Ohio. They settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Several children were born to them, one of whom died early.
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MARY A. BRAYTON WOODBRIDGE.
She was too busy to do much literary work, but she was interested in everything that tended to elevate society. She was the secretary of a literary club in Cleveland, over which General James A. Garfield presided upon his frequent visits to that city. She was particularly interested in temperance work and, when the crusade opened, she took a leading part in that movement. She joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and has filled many important offices in that organization. She was the first president of the local union of her own home, Ravenna, then for years president of her State, and in 1878 she was chosen recording secretary of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a position which she filled with ability. Upon the resignation of Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, in the St. Louis National Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention, in October, 1884, Mrs. Woodbridge was unanimously chosen national superintendent of the department of legislation and petitions. Her crowning work was done in her conduct of the constitutional amendment campaign She edited the "Amendment Herald," which gained a weekly circulation of one-hundred-thousand copies. Since 1878 she has been annually reelected recording secretary of the national union. She is secretary of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and in 1889 she attended the world's convention in England.