Woman of the Century/Mary Ware

WARE, Mrs. Mary, poet, born in Monroe county, Tenn., 11th April, 1828. Her maiden name was Mary Harris, a name that has long been prominent in southern literature. Her early youth was spent amid the beautiful scenery of east Tennessee, and to the charm of her surroundings was added the intellectual companionship of a brother, Edmund K. Harris, whose poetic gifts were of an order that gave promise of a brilliant future, and the loving instruction of a father, who was not only eminent as a lawyer, but possessed discriminating literary taste. MARY WARE. Just as she reached womanhood, her parents moved to Shelby county, Ala., to which State her brother had preceded them, and he had already begun a successful literary career, when his sudden death in Mobile threw a shadow across the life of the sister. Her verses have more than sustained the merit they early promised. They have been published by all the leading magazines and periodicals of the South, many of which belonged to ante-bellum days. "The South" published in New York City contained her contributions for twenty years. In 1863 she became the wife of Horace Ware, who was born in Lynn, Mass., but reared in the South and widely known as a pioneer in the development of the iron industries of Alabama. Mr. Ware died in July, 1890, and Mrs. Ware has since resided in Birmingham, Ala., where her home circle is brightened by the presence of four nieces, children of a surviving brother. Besides poetry she has written some intonating Indian legends, and a few romances further show her varied gift.