Mary Cummings

Mary Phelps Cowles (Hall) Cummings (August 5, 1839 in Elyria, Ohio – December 23, 1927 in Woburn, Massachusetts) was a late 19th-century and early 20th-century philanthropist.

John was an abolitionist and a professor of Greek, Latin, Syriac, French, German, and Italian.

at Oberlin College shortly after its founding, from 1835[1] until he had a falling out with the President over the theory of Christian Perfection five years later.

Henry Augustine Cowles was born in 1846 in Ipswich and died a soldier in the Civil War in 1864.

Later, in 1885, Mary would donate the funds to build a library in her late husband's name, located in Dr. Hall's original hometown of Northfield, New Hampshire.

After John died in 1898, Mary remained in their mansion and maintained the farm while traveling abroad.

Along with the land, she left a substantial maintenance and care trust fund to be supported by income from an office building next to Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston.

She was inspired by the park and playground movements that swept the country during the late 19th and early 20th century.