Mary Cummings

Who was Mary Cummings?

Mary Phelps Cowles Cummings was a late 19th-century and early 20th-century philanthropist. She was highly educated for her time and among her family, husbands and their friends were prominent figures of the day.

Mary was the eldest child of Reverend John P. Cowles and Eunice Caldwell Cowles. John was an abolitionist and a professor of Greek, Latin, Syriac, French, German, and Italian. at Oberlin College shortly after its founding, from 1835 until he had a falling out with the President over the theory of Christian Perfection five years later. Eunice was from an old Ipswich, Massachusetts family and was educated at the original Ipswich Female Seminary. She was the first principal of Wheaton Female Seminary, now Wheaton College. She was also the Associate Principal at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary at its founding by Mary Lyon.

It appears she had two sisters and two brothers. Roxana Caldwell Cowles born in 1841 also in Elyria, Ohio. When Roxana died and left Mary money, Mary created a scholarship for Ipswich girls. John Phelps Cowles Jr was born in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1844.