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 Women's 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 women's 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(Tena Roberts c'60). She was a mother of six?, including the notable Admiral William Shepherd Benson, USN (1855-1932) who became the nation's first Chief of Naval Operations, an office created May 11, 1915. She died March, 1908 at the age of 86[[1]].