April 2013
| Business World Magazine | 53
Community President Mary Ann Drescher
provides essential historical perspective.
Drescher says the Attic Angel story dates
back to 1889 with a family who had just ex-
perienced the birth of twins. Though blessed
with two healthy children, the family was not
so blessed in the way of material possession,
in fact, they were so lacking in resources as
to not even have the means of clothing their
newborns. As word of this spread among
neighborhoods, the news weighed particu-
larly heavy on the hearts of two sisters named
Elva and Mary Bryant. As daughters of U.S.
General E.E. Bryant, a man renowned for
his leadership in battles of the Civil War as
well as Wisconsin’s suffrage movement, Elva
and Mary had been instilled with a certain
enthusiastic and can-do attitude. After en-
listing support from a few friends, these la-
dies went on to lead an initiative that saw
many sewing the necessary garments for the
children which were ultimately delivered to
very appreciative parents. But in the course
of that undertaking, Drescher says the Bry-
ant Sisters soon realized there were other
needy children and families in the commu-
nity. The sisters graciously galvanized forces
to foster further help for whoever was needy.
