Madeline McDowell Breckinridge

Who was Madeline McDowell Breckinridge?

Madeline McDowell Breckinridge was a leader of the women's suffrage movement and one of Kentucky's leading progressive reformers. She was also known as Madge Breckinridge and Mrs. Desha Breckinridge.

She was born in Woodlake, Kentucky and grew up at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, the farm established by her great-grandfather, nineteenth-century statesman Henry Clay. Her mother was Henry Clay, Jr.'s daughter, Anne Clay McDowell, and her father was Major Henry Clay McDowell, who served during the American Civil War on the Union side. They purchased the Ashland estate in 1882. One of her brothers was federal judge Henry C. McDowell, Jr.. Another, Thomas was a renowned Thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder and trainer who won the 1902 Kentucky Derby.

She was educated in Lexington, Kentucky and at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, and at State College intermittently between 1890-1894. In 1898 Madeline McDowell 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.