Woman of the Century/Mary Tenney Gray

GRAY, Mrs. Mary Tenney, editorial writer and philanthropist, born in Brookdale. Liberty township, Susquehanna county, Pa., 19th June, 1833, and became a citizen of Kansas by adoption. Her fitness as a leader in the struggles and labors of the new State was the result of a thorough training in her father's theological library, supplemented by a course of study in the Ingalls Seminary. MARY TENNEY GRAY. Binghamton, N.Y.,and continued in a Pennsylvania seminary. After she was graduated, she was for several years preceptress in Binghamton Academy. On the editorial staff of the Now York "Teacher" for two years her influence was felt among the teachers of the Stale. After she became the wife of Judge Barzillai Gray in 1859, and her removal to Wyandotte. Kansas Territory, and afterwards to Leavenworth, she entered u|>on many enterprises in the line of charities, church extension, the upbuilding of State and enmity expositions, and was a prominent mover in the Centennial exhibit for Kansas in Philadelphia in 1876. She was a contributor or correspondent to the leading magazines and papers of Kansas and to the eastern press. The orphan asylum in Leavenworth was debtor to the appeals of her pen for recognition and assistance. The "Home Record," of the same city, was an out-growth and exponent of her deep and abiding interest in the welfare and elevation of women. The compilation of the Kansas "Home Cook Book," for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless, was and is still a source of financial strength to the institution, more than ten-thousand copies having been sold. She has been for twenty years one of the officers of the board of control for the Home. As editor of the home department of the "Kansas Farmer" for some years she showed both sympathy and interest in a class who by force of circumstances are largely debarred from intellectual pursuits. As one of the original founders and first president of the Social Science Club of Kansas and Western Missouri, she has given an impetus to intellectual culture in those localities, and through skill, tact and personal influence has seen the organization grow from a small number to a membership of five -hundred of the brightest women of the two States. To these labors have been added scientific attainments unusual among women, and artistic work of much merit