Mary Lowe Dickinson (née Mary Caroline Underwood, January 23, 1839 – June 1914) was a 19th- and early 20th-century American fiction writer, poet, editor, and educator who also became an advocate for women's rights and anti-war activist.Adams, Katherine H. A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American Women Writers, 1880—1940. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2001.”An Appeal to Women: Asked to Help Secure Ratification of the Treaty”. Cresco, Iowa: Twice-a-week Plain Dealer, February 12, 1897.”Have Gained a Point,” in “Hosts of the Fair: They Gather in Chicago to Hold a Big Convention: National Council of Women.” Grand Rapids, Michigan: Grand Rapids Herald, May 11, 1892, p. 6.
Asked later in life about her decision to pursue the writing life, she observed: "Talent uses us.... If I had had a spark of it, I could not have waited for circumstances to force me to use it."Emerson, William A. ”Mary Caroline Dickinson”, in Fitchburg Massachusetts, Past and Present, pp. 101–105. Fitchburg, Massachusetts: Press of Blanchard & Brown, 1887.
Formative years Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on January 23, 1839, Mary Caroline Underwood (later known as Mary Lowe Dickinson) was a daughter of Ruth (Burgess) Underwood (1805–1869), a native of Warren, Rhode Island, and Timothy Underwood (1803–1863), a native of Swanzey, New Hampshire, who had become the owner-operator of a livery and stage coach route based in Fitchburg.Underwood, Lucien Marcus, compiler, and Howard J. Banker, editor. The Underwood Family in America, Vol. I: 90. Timothy Underwood, pp. 60–64. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The New Era Printing Company, 1913.Fitchburg Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 101.
She was raised in Fitchburg with her siblings: Harriet Alice (1825–1887), who later married Luke Wellington; Ann Elizabeth (1827–1844); Charlotte Hoar (1829–1891); Hannah Fidelia (1831–1882), who later wed Charles James Frye; James Burgess (born 1833), who died in the Utah Territory while in service with the 2nd California Cavalry; Abby Sophia (1835–1914), who later married Joel Willard Sheldon; Edward Monroe (1837–1921); George Henry (1841–1894); William Waldo (1843–1880); and Albert Greenwood (born 1845), who died on November 11, 1845, at the age of 7 months, and was laid to rest at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg.The Underwood Family in America, pp. 60–64.
Her father was described as a laborer on 1850 federal and 1855 Massachusetts census records and as a hostler on the federal census of 1860.Underwood, Mary C., Timothy, Ruth, et al., in U.S. Census (Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1850). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.Underwood, Mary C. Timothy, Ruth, et al., in Massachusetts State Census (Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1855). Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts State Archives.Underwood, Mary C., Timothy, Ruth, et al., in U.S. Census (Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1860). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Educated in the common schools of her communityFitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 101. she became a teacher in the small school of a neighboring village in 1854 when she was just 15 years old. As she became more adept as an educator, she was appointed as the head assistant of a school in Boston, and then was awarded the job of assistant principal at the Hartford Female Seminary.The Underwood Family in America, p. 61.
On April 3, 1858, she wed George P. Lowe in Fitchburg, Worcester County. A seaman and fellow Fitchburg native, he was a son of Stephen and Susan Lowe.Mary C. Underwood, George P. Lowe, Timothy & Ruth Underwood, and Stephen & Susan Lowe, in “Massachusetts Marriage Records” (Fitchburg, Worcester County, 1858). Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts State Archives. Widowed by him soon thereafter while he was traveling abroad,Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 101. she also sustained another loss in 1863 when her father died in Fitchburg at the age of 60 on September 30, and was laid to rest at the same cemetery – Laurel Hill – where her youngest brother had been interred 18 years earlier.The Underwood Family in America, p. 61.
Already greatly respected for her abilities as an educator and administrator by the time she was 24 years old, she was offered the job of vice-principal of the newly-established Vassar College in 1863, which she declined, choosing instead to pursue further training in Europe.The Underwood Family in America, p. 61. Traveling as a tutor with a female student and her family, she wrote regularly for thirteen publications, including the New York Tribune. After her term of service ended due to her student's marriage, she was then hired as a tutor by a family from Chicago, becoming so close that she was treated as a member of that family for many years thereafter.Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, pp. 101–102.
Upon her return to New York during the fall of 1867, she was awarded the position of acting principal of the Van Norman Institute, one of the city’s elite and most successful boarding schools.The Underwood Family in America, p. 61.Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 102.
Around this same time, she became the second wife of John B. Dickinson (1814–1875), a New York native who had become a highly successful and wealthy businessman.The Underwood Family in America, p. 61. In 1871, the couple embarked on an extended trip overseas.”Mary Lowe Dickinson”, in “Coming Congress: Some New Faces of the Lower House.” Dodge City, Kansas: The Globe-Republican, August 8, 1895. Making Italy their home base for three years, they ventured forth on periodic excursions, including a voyage along the Nile River aboard a Dahabeah during the winter of 1872–1873, during which she wrote her poem "If We Had But a Day".Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 102.
Tragically, she was widowed a second time when her husband, John B. Dickinson, died suddenly of a stroke on March 16, 1875"John B. Dickinson", in "New York Deaths and Burials, 1795–1952 (FHL microfilm 1,671,687)". Salt Lake City, Utah: Family History Library (FHL microfilm 1,671,687, March 16, 1875, Chicago Deaths). while on a stopover in Chicago en route to San Francisco. According to the Fitchburg Sentinel:Obituary of John B. Dickinson. Fitchburg, Massachusetts: The Fitchburg Sentinel, March 20, 1875.
John B. Dickinson, the senior member of the firm of Dickinson & Co., bankers of New York city, died on Tuesday last in Chicago, of apoplexy, while on his way to visit his daughter, Mrs. Sherwood, in San Francisco. Mr. Dickinson was born in New York in 1814, but lived with an uncle in North Carolina until he was sixteen years old. He then returned to New York.... He was a director in the National Shoe and Leather Bank, the Union Mutual Insurance Company, the Broadway Insurance Company and the Brooklyn Dry Dock Company. He was also at one time president of the Tenth National Bank. Mr. Dickinson amassed a large fortune by his industry and business capacity. He was twice married and is survived by his second wife, four sons and four daughters. Mr. Dickinson was known to some of our citizens, having married for his second wife Mrs. Mary C. Lowe, formerly of this city.
Following funeral services at St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, located at the corner of New York City's Twenty-second Street and Fourth Avenue, her husband was laid to rest at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. According to The New York Times, “The ceremony [at the church] was witnessed by a congregation of relatives, friends, and business associates that crowded the building in every part. Exceptionally rich and costly floral offerings decorated the altar and chancel. The services were begun with the singing of the hymn, ‘Nearer My God to Thee.’”"The Funeral of John B. Dickinson". New York, New York: The New York Times, March 22, 1875.
Shortly thereafter, she began work as head of a Brooklyn school's department of literature and composition, but then resigned that position in favor of work as a private tutor.Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 103. During this time, she entered a period of her life throughout which she battled serious financial hardships. Multiple biographers and newspapers have documented that, two years after being widowed, the fortune she had inherited from her late husband was gone. Howard J. Banker described her savings as "suddenly swept away." The contacts she had built as an educator and advocate for women, however, helped her survive. According to Banker, "She was offered important positions in Wellesley, Northwestern University, Vassar, the University of Denver, and the University of Southern California." In 1888, she chose to become "the Chair of Literature in the University of Denver, where she labored for two years with such zeal and earnestness that her health became impaired and she was compelled to retire."The Underwood Family in America, pp. 61–62. According to The Gazette of Fort Worth, Texas, she was paid “the same salary as a man in a corresponding position” during her time there.Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson, in “News and Notes.” Fort Worth, Texas: The Gazette, December 16, 1888, p. 4.”Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickinson” (illustrated image with caption). Honolulu, Hawaii: Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 18, 1895, p. 3."Coming Congress: Some New Faces of the Lower House", The Globe-Republican.
Editorial and writing life According to biographer William Emerson, Mary Lowe Dickinson "wrote leaders for dailies, editorials for weeklies, serials, short travels, poems, articles on education and philanthropy, and Sunday School lessons, never free enough to work in any favorite line, but always shaping her work to suit the demand of the hour."Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, p. 103. In addition, she wrote about the lives and work of: Charles Kingsley, Harriet Martineau, George Sand, and others; edited The Open Window, a magazine produced by convalescing patients and other invalids by the Shut-in Society; served as an associate editor for the philanthropic magazine published by Edward Everett Hale and his Lend a Hand Society;Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present, pp. 103–104. contributed "A Tour Around the World" to the November 1882 edition of Chautauquan;Hoganson, Kristin L. Consumer’s Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920, Vol. 2, p. 202. Sydney, Australia: Accessible Publishing Systems, 2008. and penned “Women of the Period” for Harper’s Bazaar."1890: Harper's Bazar [sic] Illustrated". Mexico, Missouri: Mexico Weekly Ledger, December 18, 1889.
Poetry Dickinson, Mary Lowe. Easter Greeting (collection). New York, New York: H. H. B. Angell, publisher, . Dickinson, Mary Lowe. Edelweiss: An Alpine Rhyme (collection). New York, New York: Self-published, 1876. Dickinson, Mary Lowe. Home from the War: A Rhyme of Thanksgiving. New York, New York: Self-published, 1898. Dickinson, Mary Lowe. In the Afterglow: Poems by Mary Lowe Dickinson (collection). New York, New York: Self-published, 1905. Dickinson, Mary Lowe. The Living Christ: Easter Thoughts for the King's Daughters (collection). New York, New York: F. H. Revell Co., 1891. [No ISBN or OCLC found for this publication, but a digitized version is available at the University of Michigan's HathiTrust.]
Prose Dickinson, Mary Lowe. Address of the President, Mrs. J.B. Dickinson, at the Annual Meeting of the Women's National Indian Association, Philadelphia, November 17, 1885. New York, New York: Self-published. 1885. Dickinson, Mary Lowe. The Amber Star, and, A Fair Half-dozen. New York, New York: Phillips & Hunt; Cincinnati, Ohio: Cranston & Stowe, 1886. Dickinson, Mary Lowe. Among the Thorns: A Novel. New York, New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1880.