Mary Ashton Rice
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]
[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] “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] 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] 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] 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] 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] “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] 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] 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] 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] 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] 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] 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] 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] “The State Republican Convention,” Boston Daily Advertiser, 5 Oct. 1870, 1.
[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] 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] 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] EBW, Diary, 4 June 1893.
[20] Catalogue of Tufts College: Fortieth Annual Commencement, 1895–96 (Medford, MA: Tufts College, 1896), 192.
[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.