Mary Tenney Gray
Mary Tenney Gray (b.Tenney) (1833-1904) was born in Bedford County,
Pennsylvania, and died in Kansas City, Kansas. She graduated from the Wyoming Seminary,
in Kingston, Pennsylvania, in 1853 and served as preceptress in Binghamton Academy of
Binghamton, New York, from 1854-1858. She married Barzillai Gray, a judge, in Conklin,
New York, in 1859. That year, her husband founded the town of Wyandotte, Kansas, where
they lived for a few years before moving to Leavenworth, Kansas. As the Wyandotte
constitution was being written, Gray led a group of women who promoted the inclusion of
women's equal rights to custody of their children, hold property, and to vote in local
school board elections. Gray was one of Kansas's prominent leaders during the Centennial
Exposition of Philadelphia in 1876, and she was one of the original founders and first
president of the Social Science Club of Kansas and Western Missouri. Because of this,
she was known as the "Mother of the Women's Club Movement in Kansas." She served on the
editorial staff of several publications, including the New York Teacher, the Leavenworth
Home Record, and the Kansas Farmer. In the spring of 1901, Gray's paper on "Women and
Kansas City's Development" was awarded first prize in the competition held by the
Women's Auxiliary to the Manufacturers' Association of Kansas City, Missouri. After her
death, the Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs dedicated a monument in Oak Grove
Cemetery, Kansas City, in 1909 to the memory of Gray, as one of the founders of that
organization. Isabella A. Beecher wrote to Mary Baker Eddy in 1886, stating that Gray
would like to meet with Eddy for a Christian Science practitioner recommendation, and
that Gray's son, Lawrence T. Gray, would like to study with Eddy. Eddy's secretary,
Calvin A. Frye, later noted on Beecher's letter that Eddy gave them an interview and
invited Lawrence to class, however there is no record of him studying with Eddy.
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Mary Tenney Gray
Mary Tenney Gray (b.Tenney) (1833-1904) was born in Bedford County,
Pennsylvania, and died in Kansas City, Kansas. She graduated from the Wyoming Seminary,
in Kingston, Pennsylvania, in 1853 and served as preceptress in Binghamton Academy of
Binghamton, New York, from 1854-1858. She married Barzillai Gray, a judge, in Conklin,
New York, in 1859. That year, her husband founded the town of Wyandotte, Kansas, where
they lived for a few years before moving to Leavenworth, Kansas. As the Wyandotte
constitution was being written, Gray led a group of women who promoted the inclusion of
women's equal rights to custody of their children, hold property, and to vote in local
school board elections. Gray was one of Kansas's prominent leaders during the Centennial
Exposition of Philadelphia in 1876, and she was one of the original founders and first
president of the Social Science Club of Kansas and Western Missouri. Because of this,
she was known as the "Mother of the Women's Club Movement in Kansas." She served on the
editorial staff of several publications, including the New York Teacher, the Leavenworth
Home Record, and the Kansas Farmer. In the spring of 1901, Gray's paper on "Women and
Kansas City's Development" was awarded first prize in the competition held by the
Women's Auxiliary to the Manufacturers' Association of Kansas City, Missouri. After her
death, the Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs dedicated a monument in Oak Grove
Cemetery, Kansas City, in 1909 to the memory of Gray, as one of the founders of that
organization. Isabella A. Beecher wrote to Mary Baker Eddy in 1886, stating that Gray
would like to meet with Eddy for a Christian Science practitioner recommendation, and
that Gray's son, Lawrence T. Gray, would like to study with Eddy. Eddy's secretary,
Calvin A. Frye, later noted on Beecher's letter that Eddy gave them an interview and
invited Lawrence to class, however there is no record of him studying with Eddy.
See more letters.