Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Eugenia Kountze Nicholson, 1867-1931
By Eric LoPresti, Lisle, IL
Eugenia Clementine Kountze was born in Omaha, Nebraska on July 11, 1867. Her parents, Herman and Elizabeth, were prominent members of the business and social fabric of the city. Eugenia attended Vassar College, where she was a Phi Theta Kappa, and she graduated with her A.B. in 1888. On June 16, 1896 she was married to Indiana author Meredith Nicholson, with whom she had four children--Elizabeth, Eugenie, Meredith and Lionel. Following her marriage, she moved to her husband's home in Indianapolis, where, apart from living in Colorado between 1898-1901, she would live until her death in 1931.
Following in her parents' example, Eugenia would play a role in community activism, as a member and president of the Indianapolis Woman's Club, a member of the Indiana Vassar Club, the Consumers' League of Indianapolis, and a number of local social clubs. Kountze Nicholson was also a prominent leader in Indiana's suffrage movement, where she served as Vice-President of the Woman's Franchise League of Indiana between the years of 1912-1919. She was on the National Advisory Council of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage/National Woman's Party from 1915-1917, and 1920.
Sources:
“Alumni Bulletin.” The Vassar Miscellany 40, no. 1. (1911). Accessed from https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu
Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. The Suffragist, various issues, 1913-1920. Accessed from https://archive.org/details/thesuffragist
Harper, Ida Husted, ed. The History of Woman Suffrage: Volume 6, 1900-1920. N.p.: National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922 [LINK].
Leonard, John William, ed. Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada,1914-1915. New York: The American Commonwealth Company, 1914. [LINK]
“Personal and Society: Nicholson-Kountze.” The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN), June 17, 1869. Accessed from https://www.newspapers.com
Reeves, Winona Evans, ed. The Blue Book of Nebraska Women: A History of Contemporary Women. Mexico, MO: Missouri Printing and Publishing Company, 1916. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=RBo1AQAAMAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP1