Mary E. W. Risteau collection

Mary Eliza Watters Risteau, daughter of William McGlocken and Mary Elizabeth (Amoss) Risteau, was born in Towson on April 24, 1890. She graduated from Towson High School in 1907 and completed a special advanced course of study in Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University in 1917. In 1938, Risteau received her L.L.B. Degree from the University of Baltimore.

Risteau began a teaching career (1908-1917) upon her graduation from high school and taught at both Parkville Elementary and Gilford Elementary Schools. In 1917, she assumed management of a farm located on the family estate near Jarrettsville, Harford County, Maryland.

In 1921, Risteau became the first woman elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and served in the 1922, 1924, 1931, and 1933 sessions. She served on the Committee on Education, Committee on Agriculture, Library Committee, and the Chesapeake Bay and Its Tributaries Committee. She was instrumental in the passage of the Administration Bill granting women the right to serve in high public offices and the passage of the Cooperative Association Law. Her interest in education led to her support of school bond issues, the Equalization Fund Program Act, and the establishment of the State Teachers College at Salisbury. She fought against the Prohibition Bill and the Race Track Bill on the grounds that morals cannot be controlled by the legislature. In 1922, Governor Albert Rithchie appointed Risteau to the State Board of Education, the first woman to hold the position. She was re-appointed in 1924 and served 16 years up through 1938 without pay.

Her work in the House of Delegates led to her election to the State Senate in 1935. Once again she was the first woman to occupy the position. She served from 1935-1937 and held memberships on the Federal Relations Committee, the Temperance Committee, and the Finance Committee. Furthermore, she was the Chairman for the Committee of Agriculture and Labor, and the Vice-Chairman for the Education Committee. She sponsored bills to further women's rights and to organize a conservation of soil resources among other things.

In 1938, Risteau was appointed by the judges of the Third Judicial Circuit as clerk of the Circuit Court for Harford County. She filled that office for a year and in 1939, Governor Herbert O'Connor appointed her Administrator of Loans.

In 1951 she was elected to the House of Delegates for the fourth time in her life. Serving a term of four years, Risteau was a member of the Ways and Means Committee, the Committee on Education, and the Agricultural Committee.

Throughout her life, Mary E. W. Risteau was involved in a number of political and social organizations which furthered the public interest. A listing of her activities would include membership on the Maryland Tercentenary Committee, the National and the Maryland Orders of Women Legislators, the Maryland Women's Legislative Group, and the Harford County Federation of Rural Women's Clubs among others.

Mary E. W. Risteau died on July 24, 1978 at the age of 88.