Mary Osburn Adkinson

Mary Osburn Adkinson (July 28, 1843 – 1918) was an American social reformer active in the temperance movement.[1] She took a leading part in the organization of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin, serving four times as its elected president. In Louisiana, she held the position of superintendent of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and matron in the New Orleans University.[2]

Mary Osburn Adkinson
"A Woman of the Century"
Born
Mary Almira Osburn

July 28, 1843
Rush County, Indiana, U.S.
Died1918
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Occupationsocial reformer
EmployerNew Orleans University
Organizations
Spouse
Lewis Gould Adkinson
​
​
(m. 1863; died 1906)​

Early life and education

Mary Almira Osburn was born in Rush County, Indiana, July 28, 1843.[3] Her father was Harmon Osburn, who was a prominent farmer in the county. Her mother often entertained ministers, teachers and others in her home.[1]

Adkinson was educated in Whitewater College, Centerville, Indiana.[1]

Career

On July 8, 1863, she married the Rev. Lewis Gould Adkinson, D. D. (1838-1906),[3] who went on to become President of New Orleans University. She began her married life as a pastor's wife in Laurel, Indiana. There, by teaching a part of the time, she supplemented the small salary received by her husband and added many valuable books to their library. Removing to Madison, Wisconsin, she was persuaded to take a leading part in organizing the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in that city. For ten or twelve years, she was very active in that work. Four times, she was unanimously elected president of the Madison district association. She was the association's delegate in 1883 to the Wisconsin State convention, and in 1884, to the branch meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan.[1]

In 1873, she united with the temperance women of the city in the woman's crusade and was thereafter actively engaged in temperance work. She became superintendent of the WCTU among African Americans in Louisiana. Many societies were organized and hundreds of young people took the pledge of abstinence from intoxicating drink, tobacco and profanity.[1]

Adkinson served as matron in New Orleans University while also teaching sewing and dressmaking.[1]

After relocating to Jacksonville, Florida, for seven years, she served as president of its branch of the WCTU.[4]

Personal life

Mr. and Mrs. Adkinson had five children.[1]

After an illness of 18 months, Mary Adkinson died at her daughter's home in Jacksonville, Florida, June 29, 1918.[5][lower-alpha 1] Interment was in the family lot in Westview Cemetery,[7] Atlanta, Georgia.

Notes
  1. According to the Dearborn County Register (August 8, 1918), Adkinson died June 20, 1918.[6]

References
  1. Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "ADKINSON. Mrs. Mary Osburn". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Charles Wells Moulton. pp. 8–9. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. Herringshaw, Thomas William (1905). Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century ... American Publishers' Association. p. 26. Retrieved 15 July 2022. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. "Mary Almira Osborn 1843–1918 • L2R4-2PD". ident.familysearch.org. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  4. Willard, Mary Bannister; Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Ames, Julia A.; West, Mary Allen; Stevens, Lillian M. N. Ames; Boole, Ella Alexander; Smith, Ida Belle Wise; Colvin, Mrs D. Leigh; Hays, Mrs Glenn G.; Edgar, Mrs Kermit S. (22 August 1918). "We record here the names of comrades and friends who have recently passed to the higher life". Union Signal and World's White Ribbon. Vol. XLIV, no. 30. National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. p. 9.
  5. "Standard Certificate of Death". familysearch.org. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  6. "Obituary for Mary Almira Osborn Adkinson". The Dearborn County Register. 8 August 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  7. "Obituary. Mary Almira Osburn Adkinson". The Atlanta Constitution. 3 July 1918. p. 18. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
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