Mary Wood Swift

Mary Wood Swift (September 12, 1841 – April 8, 1927) was an American suffragist and clubwoman, president of the National Council of Women of the United States from 1903 to 1909.

Mary Wood Swift
An older white woman with white curly hair.
Mary Wood Swift, 1902.
Born
Mary Angeline Wood

September 12, 1841
New York, U.S.
DiedApril 8, 1927(1927-04-08) (aged 85)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationSuffragist
SpouseJohn Franklin Swift

Early life

Mary Angeline Wood was born in New York, the daughter of William Graham Wood and Emily Morrell Wood.[1]

Career

Swift was president of the National Council of Women of the United States from 1903 to 1909.[2][3] In that role, she led national meetings,[4][5] and she attended International Council of Women meetings,[6] including the 1904 executive meeting in Dresden, the full congress meeting in Berlin, along with Ida Husted Harper,[7] and in 1909 in Toronto.[8]

Swift was president of the Century Club in San Francisco. She was also active in the Women's Relief Corps[9] the California Women's Suffrage Association,[1][10] the Colonial Dames of America, the Society of the Mayflower, and the national Daughters of the American Revolution.[11][12][13] "The Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution should not be devoted to ancestor-worship and to preserving history," she told the organization in a speech in 1906, "but it should bend its energies also to making history and to creating better conditions for posterity." In the same speech, she expressed opposition to immigration into the United States, and her support for Americanization and literacy programs.[14]

Personal life

Mary Wood married American diplomat John Franklin Swift. They lived in San Francisco but were often abroad for Swift's work, until he died in Tokyo in 1891. She was left with a significant fortune in widowhood.[7] After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, she moved to Berkeley, California.[15] She died in 1927, in Berkeley, aged 86 years.[16]

References
  1. Jordan, Victoria. "Biographical Sketch of Mary Wood Swift". Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920, Alexander Street Documents. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  2. Council of Jewish Women (U.S.) (1908). Triennial Report of Secretary. Council of Jewish Women. p. 32.
  3. "WOMEN ELECT OFFICERS.; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift Chosen President of the National Council". The New York Times. 1903-03-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  4. "Women Ready for Meeting". The Indianapolis Star. 1904-02-01. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "National Convention of Women Opens Convention". The San Francisco Examiner. 1906-04-02. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Mrs. John Franklin Swift, Honorary Vice-President General of Body, to be Feted at a Reception..." San Francisco Chronicle. 1923-08-15. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Harper, Ida Husted (May 19, 1904). "The United States Delegates to the International Council of Women". The Independent. 56: 1136–1137.
  8. "Will Represent the U. S. at International Council". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1909-06-06. p. 17. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Convention, Woman's Relief Corps (U S. ) National (1909). Journal of the ... National Convention of the Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic. E.B. Stillings. p. 228.
  10. "Secretly in Favor of Woman Suffrage". The San Francisco Examiner. 1900-12-15. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Annual Reports of the State Regents". Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine: 601. 1904.
  12. "Woman's World: Mrs. Mary Wood Swift". Asbury Park Press. 1904-07-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Daughters of Revolution Welcomed". Oakland Tribune. 1913-09-25. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Response of Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, of California". The American Monthly Magazine. 28: 591–593. April 1906.
  15. "Woman's Clubs to Organize". The Berkeley Gazette. 1906-08-10. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Funeral Tomorrow for Envoy's Widow". Oakland Tribune. 1927-04-10. p. 23. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
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