Ada Henry Van Pelt (b. Henry) (c.1839-1923) was born in Versailles, Kentucky, and died in Los Angeles, California. By 1860 she was living and working as a seamstress in Princeton, Kentucky, where she married Charles E. Van Pelt, a painter, in 1864. During the American Civil War he was a captain in the 48th Kentucky Volunteer Mounted Infantry Regiment. After the war they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Van Pelt helped found the Lincoln City Library. Her husband died in 1888, and in 1889 she relocated to California, residing in Oakland, Santa Barbara, and ultimately Los Angeles. Van Pelt was a suffrage and temperance activist. She wrote for and edited the Pacific Ensign temperance bulletin and was president of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association. She was a nationally known member of the American Red Cross during the Spanish-American War. She also became known as "The Woman Edison" due to her many patented inventions, including a sophisticated combination locking mechanism, a postage box, two different electric water purification devices, an odorless and smokeless oil burner, and a swinging pendant steam ferryboat engine. In 1912 Van Pelt was named an honorary member of the French Academy of Science for these innovations. At the time of her passing she was the oldest and one of the most prominent members of Ebell women's club in Los Angeles. Van Pelt was related to H. C. (Hugh Clarkson) Waddell (1859-1940), one of Mary Baker Eddy's students, and in 1887 she wrote to Eddy to order a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

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