Berenice Morrison

Berenice Morrison was born in 1856 in Glasgow, Missouri. She was the granddaughter-- through her mother-- of Captain William Swinney, one of the founders and Board Chairmen of Central College, which would later become Central Methodist University. Berenice's parents died when she was a girl, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents.

In 1874, eighteen-year-old Berenice Morrison received a letter from Carr Waller Pritchett, headmaster of the Pritchett School Institute and former Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Central College, asking for assistance in the creation of a world-class telescope. Together with her family-- her uncle, James O. Swinney, was her legal representative-- she pledged $100,000 (roughly $2.2 million in today's money) to the construction and maintenance of the Morrison Observatory.

Berenice Morrison married John Morrison Fuller, and they had daughter, also named Berenice, who was born in 1887. She was active in the women's sufferage movement, serving as the secretary for the St. Louis Association for Woman's Suffrage. She died in St. Louis in 1947, survived by her daughter.

Sources:

"Berenice Morrison: A sketch of the wealthiest lady in Missouri" St. Louis Post-Dispatch. January 30, 1886, p 5.
"Mrs. Morrison-Fuller Dies at 91; Original Woman Suffragist" St. Louis Star and Times. September 5, 1947, p. 3.
Pritchett, Carr Waller. Publications of the Morrison Observatory, Glasgow, Missouri, Number 1. Lynn, Mass. Press of Thos P. Nichols, 1887.

An obituary from page 3 of the September 5, 1947 issue of the St. Louis Star and Times, announcing the death of Berenice Morrison Fuller in St. Louis on September 4. The article mentions that she is survived by her daughter, her invovlement in the womens' suffrage movement, and in role in the creation of the Morrison Observatory.