Mary Livermore (1820 – 1905)
A Penchant for Journalism!
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Let me now introduce to you this next Pioneering Woman of Civil War America. First, let me say that besides Mary Livermore’s “penchant for journalism,” she was a suffragist, organizer of aid, and speaker. Read on to see for yourself!
How Did Mary Livermore’s Penchant for Journalism and Various Other Achievements Get Started?
Certainly, Mary would be considered a child prodigy since she graduated from a Boston public school at 14 years old. Afterward, she continued her education at the Charlestown Female Seminary (Massachusetts). There, post-graduation in 1836, she taught French, Italian, and Latin.
Two years later, Mary accepted a position as a governess on a plantation in Virginia, where she witnessed first-hand the ills of slavery. In 1842, she returned to her native Massachusetts staunchly abolitionist. Around this same time, Mary also affiliated herself with the temperance movement, serving as the editor of a juvenile temperance paper.
Moreover, when she heard Reverend Daniel Parker Livermore speak on the merits of Universalism, Mary turned her cheek away from her Calvinistic upbringing.
Note: Both Calvinists and Universalists are Methodist denominations: the former believe that God has pre-ordained salvation to a select group of people; the latter believe that Jesus Christ (the son of God) died on the cross to give salvation to all people.
Mary turned her eyes both to her new religion and a preacher of it—Daniel Livermore, whom she married in 1845. They had three children before they moved to Chicago in 1857. Besides raising her girls, Mary devoted herself to temperance and charitable acts, such as founding the Home for Aged Women and the Hospital for Women and Children. Additionally, she sat on the board of the Home for the Friendless.
Mary also acted as an associate editor for her husband’s Universalist publication (New Covenant). She not only wrote articles for all facets of it, but she managed the paper when Daniel was away conducting church matters.
And so emerges Mary Livermore’s journalistic side!
Pre-Civil War:
Mary Livermore’s “penchant for journalism” allowed her to be the only female reporter amongst hundreds of male reporters present at the 1860 Republican National Convention! There Abraham Lincoln won the nomination for president of the United States, and Mary wound up campaigning for his election.
During the Civil War:
Mary Livermore, alongside Jane Hoge, ran the Northwest branch of the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), headquartered in Chicago. Her activities associated with it included: on the home front, fundraising for food, clothing, equipment, and supplies for the relief of the Union soldiers and recruiting and coordinating volunteers to collect, organize, and ship or deliver the supplies; at the battlefront, delivering aid; tending to the sick, wounded, and dying; inspecting army posts and field hospitals for cleanliness, and accompanying those soldiers transferred from the field hospitals elsewhere for recovery and/or rehabilitation. Additionally, she wrote articles for the press and answered letters and other communications.
As specifically regards her fundraising, in 1863, Mary and Jane organized the very first Sanitary Fair, which, of course, was held in Chicago. Amazingly, Mary secured President Lincoln’s original draft of his Emancipation Proclamation (pictured below) to auction off. Its sale yielded $10,000 to add to the other $86,000 Mary had helped impressively raise in two weeks! The major cities of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City mimicked Mary and Jane’s great success, holding their own Sanitary Fairs.
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
Post-Civil War:
Mary Livermore:
In 1868, co-founded the Chicago Sorosis Club, which supported women’s suffrage and organized the first Woman’s Suffrage Convention of Chicago.
In 1869, started a paper (The Agitator) dedicated to women’s suffrage, which merged with the Woman’s Journal in 1870 when she and Daniel moved to Boston. Although Mary only served two years as the associate editor of the Woman’s Journal, she continued to contribute articles to it.
Later, helped found the Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association and became president of the American Woman Suffrage Association and the first president of the Association for Advancement of Women.
Mary traveled the lecture circuit extensively, speaking about temperance and women’s suffrage.
What Set Mary Livermore on a Life-Long Course of Civic-Mindedness?
She hailed from a military family (her father fought in the War of 1812, and her mother descended from Captain Nathaniel Ashton of London). Thus, her predecessors and parents probably nurtured her sense of obligation to public service. From childhood until her death, she practiced undying compassion, charity, and intelligence.
Her work as a tutor (or governess) on a Virginia plantation (three years) exposed her to the horrors of slavery, which made her an ardent abolitionist.
Since her collection of essays was published while she was married, her husband & Universalist minister (Daniel Livermore) probably encouraged her to write about women’s rights, temperance, and other social reform of the day.
What Were Mary’s Other Literary Accomplishments?
She authored numerous books of poetry, essays, and stories and was a recognized member of the literary guild. Her publications are listed below:
Thirty Years Too Late (published in 1847, reprinted in 1878)
Pen Pictures (A collection of essays published in 1863 and arising from her experience at the 1860 Republican National Convention)
Sketches from Domestic Life
What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? and Other Lectures
Superfluous Women
Other Lectures
My Story of the War. A Woman’s Narrative of Four Years’ Personal Experience as Nurse in the Union Army, and in Relief Work at Home, in Hospitals, Camps and at the Front during the War of the Rebellion.
For Women of the Day, she wrote about sculptress Miss Anne Whitney.
For the Centennial Celebration of the First Settlement of the Northwestern States, at Marietta, Ohio, July 15, 1788, she wrote and delivered the historical address.
Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website
Article Online at Women History Blog.com: Mary Livermore
Book on Amazon: My Story Of The War:: A Woman’s Narrative of Four Years Personal Experience As Nurse In the Union Army (Illustrated Edition) by Mary Ashton Rice Livermore
Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America, Which Promises to Feature a Woman Who. . .
Changed the Face of the Nation!