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A Quiet Hero
By Steve Barnett,
Executive Director of the Irvington Historical Society

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Gertrude Amelia Mahorney

When we think of heroes, feats of extraordinary daring on the battlefield come to mind.  Heroes are also frequently found elsewhere, in sports for example, where a few men and women excel beyond what is ordinary.  And then there are the quiet heroes.  What adult – father, mother, aunt, uncle, teacher, friend – has not, at one time or another, earned the respect of a child and been called “my hero?”  Achievement in the face of adversity – physical or emotional – is heroism.

Some years ago in our community, a young woman became a quiet hero.  In the late 1880s, as the seeds of legal and de facto segregation were beginning to germinate, Gertrude Amelia Mahorney, the daughter of a remarkable family, became the first African-American to graduate from an Indiana college when she received her bachelor’s degree from Butler University in 1887.  Two years later when she was awarded a masters degree from her alma mater that too, most likely, was a first. Proficient in the German language, Gertrude translated stories that appeared in local papers.  She also taught the language in the public schools along with other subjects.  Except for a short time teaching in Rockville, Indiana, Gertrude spent most of her teaching career in the Indianapolis Public Schools.

Gertrude Amelia Mahorney was born in Indianapolis, Indiana at the close of the Civil War, the daughter of John Todd Mahorney (1829-1890) and Ann Elizabeth Gray Mahorney (c. 1834-1904).  Her father was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and spent most of his formative years in Pittsburgh.  Following his education, he was apprenticed as a bricklayer.  Gertrude’s mother was the daughter of Jared Gray a prosperous Chicago merchant who was active in the antislavery National Negro Convention movement.

Following their marriage, Gertrude’s parents came to Indianapolis during the early years of the Civil War where her father established an ornamental hair (wig) business on Illinois Street near the prestigious Bates House.  During this time the Mahorneys began their family.  Two children, Emma E. and George E, died early leaving Gertrude Amelia and her younger brother, John Joseph.  Her father entered the real estate business in the early 1870s.  Gertrude’s father was a man of conviction, and following the ratification of the 15th Amendment, he was the first African-American in Marion County, and possibly the state of Indiana, to become active in local Democratic politics.  He was a candidate for office on several occasions and held various patronage jobs in the ‘70s and ‘80s – turnkey of the city prison, watchman at the Deaf & Dumb Institute, and night watchman at the State Library Building.  Gertrude’s father was also active in the labor movement and organized the first African-American Knights of Labor assembly in Indianapolis.

Recognized as “a man of more than ordinary intelligence,” integrity, and a fluent speaker, Gertrude’s father was a reader, a “thinker,” and an inventor, holding several patents.  He frequently traveled overseas, and in the late summer of 1877 he took his family to England for a year of study.  The Mahorneys lived in London’s East End where they had many opportunities to converse with people of diverse backgrounds.  Gertrude’s father held advanced ideas on education, and upon the family’s return to Indiana, they took up residence in Irvington in 1879 so that Gertrude, and her brother could eventually attend Butler University.  Her father was a proficient writer and authored, from his personal acquaintance, a biography of Senator Charles Sumner.  In 1886 he joined Hoosier writers James Whitcomb Riley, Mary H. Catherwood, and others at the initial meeting in Indianapolis of the Western Association of Writers.  John T. Mahorney died at his Irvington home and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.

The story of Gertrude Amelia Mahorney is unfinished.  The public record that is so far known of her life ends in 1929, and additional research is needed to complete the story of this quiet hero.