Carrie Thomas Alexander-Bahrenberg

Carrie Thomas Alexander-Bahrenberg (March 4, 1861 – November 24, 1929) was a member of the University of Illinois board of trustees and a Republican civic and political activist.

[1][2] She was graduated from Monticello Seminary, Godfrey, Illinois, in 1880 as class valedictorian,[3] at which event she gave an address on "The Differential and Integral Calculus.

[2][8][9][10] Alexander-Bahrenburg said that she "gladly" gave time to serving on the board, "where the average man with others depending on him possibly could not be so free.

[12] In 1912, she faced opposition in the Republican state convention in Springfield from Mrs. Emmons Blaine, daughter of Medill McCormick, proprietor of the Chicago Tribune.

[12] She was, however, nominated for reelection "despite the combined opposition of the Chicago Women's Club, the Alumni Association and Illini of the University, numbering 5[,]000 students, which endorsed so powerful a candidate as Mrs. Emmons Blaine.

My endorsement consists chiefly of the votes of the people which have given me the biggest majorities ever attained by a political candidate in Illinois.

[18] The other candidates were Isabel Worrell Ball of Washington, D.C., Lois Knauff of Ohio and Lue Steward Wardworth of Massachusetts.

Newspaper illustration of an Illinois ballot for women, who in 1912 were allowed to vote only for trustees of the state university. Alexander-Bahrenberg is listed in the first column as part of the Republican slate of candidates. ^{[

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