Mary Murray Himes was a woman of great importance to her family, the town of
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Dickinson College. She was the knot that held her
family together as a young girl as well as an adult and had an influential role
in the society of Carlisle. Perhaps her most notable accomplishment was the work
she was involved in during the late eighteenth century as one of the first
female students at Dickinson College.
Mary Murray Himes was born on December 23, 1868 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She
was the eldest daughter of the prominent Dickinson professor, historian, and
scientist Charles Francis Himes and Mary Elizabeth Murray. Mary Murray Himes was
born into a family that was well established in the state of Pennsylvania. Her
mother, Mary Elizabeth Murray, was the daughter of a prominent minister in the
town of Carlisle, Reverend Joseph A. Murray, who, throughout his life,
maintained a close relationship with his granddaughter Mary. Charles Francis
Himes was an extremely important figure in the development of the science
curriculum at Dickinson College that he was involved in for over three decades.
He also served as acting president of the college for a year. Through the
importance of her father’s role in Dickinson College, Mary Murray Himes began
her interest in education at an early age. Through her close ties to the
College, Mary would become one of the first women to attend Dickinson College.
As a child, Mary enjoyed activities similar to any other child of her age. She
was a well-rounded, chubby child whose interests included picking flowers as
well as reading with her father. She enjoyed taking long walks with her father
and picking blackberries in the fields around Carlisle. The Himes family was
extremely close with their relatives. She would often take vacations to her
grandfather Himes’s house in New Oxford, Pennsylvania where her father had
played when a child himself. As a child, and also as she grew into a young lady,
Mary would spend weeks during the summer in New Oxford and during the Christmas
season, too. Mary often spent weeks with her cousins throughout the year. One of
her favorite activities to do with her younger cousins was going to the college
to listen to her father give lectures to his students while he was Professor of
Natural Science. Also as a child, Mary would spend summers with her father at
Mountain Lake Park in Maryland. Here she would enjoy her time as she felt it was
"the loveliest place she [had] ever been." While she was there her
father taught summer programs for amateur photographers. It was then that she
became interested in photography, following her father’s steps and his
interests in the sciences. She would continue to dabble in photography
throughout her life.
When Mary was just four years old her father and mother took her to Europe for
the first time. This would be the first of
many times that Mary would visit the European continent. In 1872, as a toddler,
Mary journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean on the Abyssinia with her father
and mother as well as her Aunt Helen, the sister closest to Charles Francis
Himes. Mary was included in all the activities with her parents and aunt while
they toured England, the Hague, Switzerland, and Italy. While in London they
visited the Tower of London where she remarked on the "stables full of dead
horses." When they visited the Hague, young Mary commented on the
"pleasant women" who wore wooden shoes and yokes around their necks.
They visited Germany for a substantial part of their trip where, as a young man,
her father received his Ph. D. in Physics at the University of Giessen. The
family visited the town of Weisbaden at the same time as Kaiser Wilhelm. Mary
enjoyed the flags that were flown in celebration of his arrival over the entire
town. She often made comments on the buildings and the architecture in Europe.
(Perhaps this was when she developed her fascination with architecture which she
would later study in College.) Commenting on the old churches Mary said, "I
think they are old enough to be tooken down." [Observations of a Tot
Traveler begun with Mary Elizabeth Himes and finished by Mary Murray Himes in
1905, Found in the Charles Francis Himes Family Collection, Archives and Special
Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania]
Education was an important part of the Himes family’s life. Both Mary’s
mother and father were well educated and they raised their daughters to follow
in their footsteps. Mary Murray Himes was an excellent student. She began her
schooling at Miss Hitner’s School where she studied History, Geography,
Arithmetic, and her favorite subjects, Reading and Writing. Mary consistently
received good marks in her Reading and Writing courses and as a young child was
above average in her education. Later, Mary attended the Metzger Institute where
she focused on Latin, American Literature, and composition. As she had while
attending Miss Hitner’s school, Mary received high marks in all of her
courses. Those grades served to see her accepted into Dickinson College, her
father’s alma mater and place of employment.
In 1885 Mary Murray Himes was enrolled in Dickinson College just a year after
the first woman to ever be enrolled in the
college, Zatae Longsdorff. Zatae, a friend of Mary’s was the first woman
enrolled as a student in the college after being dominated by males for over one
hundred years. This was an important moment for women in the late 1800s. It took
seven years before a woman could be accepted into the college. The first to
propose to the Board of Trustees the idea of women entering the college was
General Rusling in 1876. One of the proposed problems was the issue of housing
for women. Apparently there was not enough money to build a proper dormitory for
the ladies. The final decision came in 1883 that the women could enter the
college under the same standards as men. This decision came about under the
administration of President McCauley, in part to stem the tide of falling
admissions.
As Mary was one of the first women to enter the college, there were few
activities for the young Coeds to enjoy. They often looked for support from the
other women in the college, all of them becoming very close. The activities of
the Coeds included reading together, walking together and going on sleigh rides.
A poem written in October of 1888 by the women entitled "The Walk
Taken" discusses the opposition that they received while attending
Dickinson:
For weeks it had
rained and was raining still
Such awful weather!
And it made the
Co-eds so terribly ill
They assembled
together.
They wanted a walk,
but the weather said; "No!"
It seemed to forbid
it:
But in spite of
their foe, they decided to go
And they did it.
The morning
appointed dawned bright and clear
And the Co-eds
assembled without a fear,
But in their eyes
there stood many a tear
When they found
opposition awaiting them here....1
One activity taken very seriously by male and female alike was throwing parties.
Two extremely successful parties occurred on Halloween night in the years of
1888 and 1889. These two parties are documented in the poetry book that the
Coeds wrote while they attended Dickinson. This journal includes many poems such
as the "Valedictory Ode" of 1839 and songs that the ladies wrote; one
of them, "there is a Tavern in the Town." A part of the Coeds
"Class Poem of 1889" discusses the first appearances of women in the
college:
Old men and young
men, great men and small,
Women and children,
students and all
Race of men, from
east to west,
From the north to
the south, and all of the rest
Who inhabit this
globe; especially the men
Called astronomers,
since it is given to them
To study the
heavens and try to discover
The plan upon which
our world was made over,
Were startled,
alarmed, thrown in great constellation,
Unheard of before,
and seen by no one
Of those who much
work in observing have done.
Unrecorded by the
Hindoos, the Arabs, the Greeks,
Hipparchus, Lycho-
Brake, by Kepler whose peaks
Would account for
everything seen in the sky,
And whose theories
answered the why of the why.
And all who saw it
quite well-remember
That it appeared
about four years ago in September....2
Although the males at first put up a fight against the entrance of the women
into the college, they soon began to accept that the women were there to stay.
This was made obvious by the actions of Zatae Longsdorff. In 1886, Zatae became
the first woman to receive a prize at the college. The Pierson Oraorcal Prize,
one of the ten awards given to the students, was presented to the best speaker
in an oral contest. During Zatae’s speech the men of the college set off the
alarm and it was then that the college made it a point to enforce equal rights
among the students. However, before this, Zatae was harassed with mice and
snakes in order for her to realize that she was not welcome. Soon the tension
died and the men and women began associating freely amongst one another, but the
activities of the women were still limited. They went to football games together
and the women attended fraternity parties with the men. By 1896 the first female
organization was established, the Harman Literary Society which was the female
version of the Belles Lettres Society. By 1897 the first sorority, Gamma Zeta,
was established by 6 women.
The
first women of the college took their education seriously knowing that their
purpose for being there was important. All of the women received high marks for
their studies, Mary Murray Himes being no exception. Throughout her years in
college, Mary received excellent marks in English Literature and History, Modern
Languages, and in Moral Philosophy under the guidance of President McCauley.
Some of her best marks were in the science department under the instruction of
her father. She graduated June 27, 1889 with a Certificate of Partial Studies.
This certificate allowed her to stray away from the required courses and
concentrate on the subjects that most interested her. Many of the first women to
graduate from the college received Bachelor of Arts Degrees and went on to
pursue careers in either education or medicine.
Following her graduation, Mary made a point to visit her friends and relatives,
often serving as the family representative in her parents’ absence. Through
the letters between she and her parents, family news was circulated to the
family friends and relatives. When her mother or father were away, she acted as
a parent would to her younger sister Anna Magdalen Himes. And, as her mother was
often away Mary found herself taking care of Anna quite often. Following the
death of Mary E. Murray on December 3, 1904, Mary Murray Himes was left to fill
her role in the house, entertaining guests for the family and making sure things
ran smoothly while her father was away. Anna was married a few months before her
mother’s death, leaving Mary to attend to the majority of family business. She
continued to pursue her activities as young socialite in Carlisle, often
throwing parties for the socialites of the area. She was a part of the Civic
Club and followed in her mother’s footsteps in her involvement in the clubs
and activities of the town and church. She continued with her activities in the
Hamilton Library Association, often speaking on issues dealing with women. While
her father was away on business whether in Europe, Illinois, or even New Jersey,
Mary went through all of his letters sending them immediately on to him if
necessary. After the death of her father in 1918 she handled all the business of
the Himes family. Much of her dealings with her father’s business involved his
historical works, especially the works he did on Thomas Cooper. In 1905, Mary
was wed to a fellow Dickinson College graduate, Thomas E. Vale, son of Captain
Joseph G. Vale and Sarah Eyster Vale of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This event was
"one of the leading society events of the season," says The Evening
Sentinel. [Himes and Vale Wedding, September 22, 1905, The Evening Sentinel,
Found in the Charles Francis Himes Family Collection , Archives and Special
Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania]
Not only was Vale a faculty member of the Dickinson School of Law, but he was
also a district attorney of Cumberland Country. Their marriage brought two
children, Mary Himes Vale and Sarah Elizabeth Vale. Mary brought the two girls
up in the same fashion as her parents had raised her. Her father, while still
alive, was a huge part of her children’s lives and, following his passing
still influenced the family’s activities; she would often take her daughters
blackberry picking and on long walks resembling the walks she used to take with
her father.
Mary Murray Himes was an important individual in the town of Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. She participated in many clubs and activities and held an
important role as a socialite of the town. Mary was also a leading figure in the
women’s movement at Dickinson College. She, like the other few Dickinson women
of her time, paved the way for the future of women in the college. She was
sophisticated and smart and not only was an important part of her society, but
also a valuable part of her family, the bond that held it together until her
death in 1942.
1.
"The Walk Taken," The Co-eds Journal, by Mary Murray Himes and class
mates, Found in the Charles Francis Himes Family Collection, Archives and
Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
2. "The Class Poem 1889," The Co-eds Journal, by Mary Murray
Himes and class mates, Found in the Charles Francis Himes Family Collection,
Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
As a child, Mary enjoyed activities similar to any other child of her age. She
was a well-rounded, chubby child whose interests included picking flowers as
well as reading with her father. She enjoyed taking long walks with her father
and picking blackberries in the fields around Carlisle. The Himes family was
extremely close with their relatives. She would often take vacations to her
grandfather Himes’s house in New Oxford, Pennsylvania where her father had
played when a child himself. As a child, and also as she grew into a young lady,
Mary would spend weeks during the summer in New Oxford and during the Christmas
season, too. Mary often spent weeks with her cousins throughout the year. One of
her favorite activities to do with her younger cousins was going to the college
to listen to her father give lectures to his students while he was Professor of
Natural Science. Also as a child, Mary would spend summers with her father at
Mountain Lake Park in Maryland. Here she would enjoy her time as she felt it was
"the loveliest place she [had] ever been." While she was there her
father taught summer programs for amateur photographers. It was then that she
became interested in photography, following her father’s steps and his
interests in the sciences. She would continue to dabble in photography
throughout her life.
many times that Mary would visit the European continent. In 1872, as a toddler,
Mary journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean on the Abyssinia with her father
and mother as well as her Aunt Helen, the sister closest to Charles Francis
Himes. Mary was included in all the activities with her parents and aunt while
they toured England, the Hague, Switzerland, and Italy. While in London they
visited the Tower of London where she remarked on the "stables full of dead
horses." When they visited the Hague, young Mary commented on the
"pleasant women" who wore wooden shoes and yokes around their necks.
They visited Germany for a substantial part of their trip where, as a young man,
her father received his Ph. D. in Physics at the University of Giessen. The
family visited the town of Weisbaden at the same time as Kaiser Wilhelm. Mary
enjoyed the flags that were flown in celebration of his arrival over the entire
town. She often made comments on the buildings and the architecture in Europe.
(Perhaps this was when she developed her fascination with architecture which she
would later study in College.) Commenting on the old churches Mary said, "I
think they are old enough to be tooken down." [Observations of a Tot
Traveler begun with Mary Elizabeth Himes and finished by Mary Murray Himes in
1905, Found in the Charles Francis Himes Family Collection, Archives and Special
Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania]
the
college, Zatae Longsdorff. Zatae, a friend of Mary’s was the first woman
enrolled as a student in the college after being dominated by males for over one
hundred years. This was an important moment for women in the late 1800s. It took
seven years before a woman could be accepted into the college. The first to
propose to the Board of Trustees the idea of women entering the college was
General Rusling in 1876. One of the proposed problems was the issue of housing
for women. Apparently there was not enough money to build a proper dormitory for
the ladies. The final decision came in 1883 that the women could enter the
college under the same standards as men. This decision came about under the
administration of President McCauley, in part to stem the tide of falling
admissions.
The
first women of the college took their education seriously knowing that their
purpose for being there was important. All of the women received high marks for
their studies, Mary Murray Himes being no exception. Throughout her years in
college, Mary received excellent marks in English Literature and History, Modern
Languages, and in Moral Philosophy under the guidance of President McCauley.
Some of her best marks were in the science department under the instruction of
her father. She graduated June 27, 1889 with a Certificate of Partial Studies.
This certificate allowed her to stray away from the required courses and
concentrate on the subjects that most interested her. Many of the first women to
graduate from the college received Bachelor of Arts Degrees and went on to
pursue careers in either education or medicine.