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Mary Ashton Rice

Mary Ashton Livermore, Mary Rice Livermore, Mrs. D.P. Livermore

19 December 1820—25 May 1905

Born 19 Dec. 1820 in Boston.1 Daughter of Timothy Rice and Zebiah Vose Ashton.2 Attended Miss Hall’s Private School, Hancock School, and Miss Martha Whiting’s Female Seminary, 1824–1836, in Charlestown, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts.3 Worked as a governess on the Henderson Plantation in southern Virginia, 1839–1842.4 Taught school in Duxbury, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts, where she met Daniel Livermore, 1844–1845.5 Active in the temperance movement while in Duxbury, 1844.6 Married Daniel Parker Livermore, 7 May 1845, in Boston; three children.7 Moved to Stafford, Tolland Co., Connecticut, 1847.8 Settled in Chicago, 1857.9 Cofounder of the Home for Aged Women and the Hospital for Women and Children; worked with the Chicago Home for the Friendless, 1861.10 Associate director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission in Chicago, 1861–1865.11 Created the Agitator newspaper, Jan. 1869, which later merged with the Woman’s Journal of Boston.12 Organized the first suffrage convention in Chicago, 11 Feb. 1869.13 First president of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, 1869.14 Moved to Melrose, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts, by 1870.15 Served for ten years as president of the Massachusetts Women’s Christian Temperance Union; president of the Massachusetts Woman’s Suffrage Association and served with many other philanthropic organizations, 1883–1890.16 Wrote extensively and lectured about women’s suffrage until her death.17 EBW asked her daughters to look for Livermore when they were in Boston, 1882.18 EBW mentioned a tribute given by Livermore at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and she shook her hand after the session, 4 June 1893.19 Received an honorary degree from Tufts University, June 1896.20 Died 25 May 1905 in Melrose.21

Footnotes

  1. 1 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 42. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 410. 1900 U.S. Census, Melrose 4th Ward, Middlesex Co., MA, ED 880, p. 9, Mary Livermore. “Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org, accessed 19 June 2019), Mary Ashton Rice (LH7V-RQQ). 

  2. 2 “Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988,” database and images, Ancestry.com (https://ancestry.com, accessed 16 Sept. 2019), Timothy Rice and Zebiah Ashton. Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 38, 39, 96. Elizabeth Gadsby, Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, vol. 25 (Harrisburg, PA: Telegraph Printing, 1908), 241. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 410.

  3. 3 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 124, 126, 130. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411.

  4. 4 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 143, 146. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411.

  5. 5 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 366, 394. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411.

  6. 6 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 377. Wendy Hamand Venet, A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005), 44. “Temperance Prize Tales,” Connecticut Courant, 2 May 1846, 70.

  7. 7 “Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988,” database and images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com, accessed 16 Sept. 2019), Daniel P. Livermore and Mary A. Rice. Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 394. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411. 1900 U.S. Census, Melrose City 4th Ward, Middlesex Co., MA, ED 880, p. 9B, Mary Livermore.

  8. 8 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 413. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411. Wendy Hamand Venet, A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005), 54.

  9. 9 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 454. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411. Wendy Hamand Venet, A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005), 64. “A Notable Career,” Barre (VT) Daily Times, 24 May 1905, 3.

  10. 10 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 457. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411. Wendy Hamand Venet, A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005), 67.

  11. 11 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 471. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 411.

  12. 12 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 482. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 412. Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds., American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies (New York: Mast Crowell & Kirkpatrick), 2:468.

  13. 13 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 481, 482. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 412.

  14. 14 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 482. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 412.

  15. 15 “The State Republican Convention,” Boston Daily Advertiser, 5 Oct. 1870, 1.

  16. 16 Mary A. Livermore, The Story of My Life or The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1897), 601, 602. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 412. “The Death of Mrs. Livermore,” Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette, 24 May 1905, 6.

  17. 17 Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper, The History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 (New York: J. J. Little & Ives, 1922), 155. Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds., Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 412. “The Death of Mrs. Livermore,” Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette, 24 May 1905, 6.

  18. 18 EBW, Diary, Memoranda, 1882, vol. 8, p. 60, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University (https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/p15999coll20/id/45648, accessed 17 Sept. 2019).

  19. 19 EBW, Diary, 4 June 1893.

  20. 20 Catalogue of Tufts College: Fortieth Annual Commencement, 1895–96 (Medford, MA: Tufts College, 1896), 192.

  21. 21 Massachusetts, Secretary of State, Register of Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1901–1905, vol. 65, no. 464, Mary Ashton Livermore, microfilm 2071015, DGS 4292431, image 1056/1811, FHL. “Writer and Performer,” Aberdeen Daily News, 24 May 1905, 4.