Mary Hillard Loines

Mary Hillard Loines (4 May 1844 – 1 April 1944)[1] was a suffragist and civic worker,[2] the daughter of writer Harriet Low.[3]

Mary Hillard Loines
Born
Mary Hillard

4 May 1844
London, England
Died1 April 1944 (aged 99)
Winter Park, Florida
Occupation(s)Suffragist, civic worker
Spouse
Stephen Loines
​
(m. 1872)​
ChildrenRussell Hillard Loines (1874–1922)
Hilda Loines (1878-1969)
Elma Loines (1882–1983)
Sylvia Loines Dalton (1885–1974)
Parents
RelativesAbiel Abbot Low (uncle)

Life
Mary's mother, Harriet Low

Mary Hillard Loines was born on 4 May 1844 in London, England, to American-born parents John Hillard and Harriet Low, who had emigrated to England soon after they married.[3] The family returned to America in 1848, settling in Brooklyn, New York.[3] For a period following the Civil War, Hillard worked as a teacher for the National Freedmen's Relief Association,[4] helping to educate those emancipated from enslavement.[3] She became a strong advocate for the Tuskegee Institute and the Hampton Institute,[3] both of which were created as educational establishments for African-Americans.[5][6]

Hillard subsequently worked as a secretary for G. P. Putnam's Sons publishers before her marriage,[3] in 1872,[1] to insurance broker Stephen Loines, with whom she had four children: Russell Hillard, Hilda, Elma, and Sylvia.[3]

Hillard Loines had been an active suffragist before her marriage, having been elected secretary of the Brooklyn Equal Rights Association in 1869, and continued for over five decades.[3] She became a central figure in the New York State suffrage movement, and in 1899 travelling with state Governor Theodore Roosevelt to a suffrage convention.[3] Along with a group of other activists, she met privately with Roosevelt to discuss the enfranchisement of New York women.[3]

For two decades, between 1899 and 1919, Loines led the Brooklyn Women's Suffrage Association, and became actively involved with the League of Women Voters after women won the franchise.[3] Loines was also prominent in other activism surrounding human rights, including in prison reform, and as a founder and organiser of the Consumers League of New York.[3]

Stephen Loines died in 1919,[7] remembered as a 'leading insurance broker' and 'yachting enthusiast'.[8] Mary Hillard Loines survived him for nearly 15 years, dying in 1944, aged 99, in a nursing home in Florida.[3]

Loines' son, Russell, a lawyer and lover of poetry, assisted in establishing Dongan Hall school on Staten Island.[4] A poetry prize was established in his name at the National Institute of Arts and Letters.[4]

References
  1. "Mary Hillard Loines (1844-1944) - Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  2. "Collection: Papers of Mary Hillard Loines in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1886-1944 | HOLLIS for". hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  3. "Biographical Sketch of Mary Hillard Loines | Alexander Street Documents". documents.alexanderstreet.com. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  4. "Finding Aid of the Theodore and Barbara Loines Dreier Black Mountain College Collection (Dreier BMC Collection), 1925 - 1988, PC.1956". axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  5. "Tuskegee Institute". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  6. "Hampton Institute and Booker T. Washington". Virginia Museum of History & Culture. 2013-04-10. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  7. "Stephen Loines, Prominent Brooklyn Citizen, is Dead". Brooklyn Times-Union. 16 January 1919.
  8. "Stephen Loines Dies after Long Illness". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 15 January 1919.
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