Douglass, Maria 1843-1937

DOUGLASS, GREENE, PAGE, ORR, PINKERTON

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 9/2/2014 at 18:06:12

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register
May 1937

MRS. TRUMAN
O. DOUGLASS
PASSES AWAY
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Her Life Was Closely
Identified With
Early Grinnell.
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One of the noble women whose lives were closely identified with the up building of early Grinnell has crossed "over the river" and rests "in the shade of the trees." Mrs. Maria Greene Douglass, widow of the late Rev. T.O. Douglass, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Abbott C. Page, in Claremont, California, on May 8, after a long period of feebleness. She was born Sept. 10, 1843 and would have been 94 years old on her next birthday.

Dr. and Mrs. Douglass were for many years prominent figures in the Congregational history of Iowa. Their influence was far reaching and helpful wherever it touched. Mrs. Douglass reared her large family in Grinnell. She was a woman of strong convictions, of fine Christian nature and of instinctive refinement.

Surviving children are H. Paul of Upper Montclair, New Jersey; T.O., Jr. of Claremont, Calif.; M. Hale of Eugene, Oregon; Faith (Mrs. A.C. Page) of Claremont, California; Grace (Mrs. H.W. Orr) of Lincoln, Nebraska and an adopted daughter, Agnes (Mrs. W.B. Pinkerton) of Los Angeles, California. Fourteen grandchildren and six great grandchildren also survive her. Winfred H., a fourth son, died in an accident near Des Moines in 1924. Her husband, the Rev. Truman O. Douglass, for many years Superintendent for Home Missions in Iowa and Trustee of Grinnell College, died in 1925.

She was the next to the youngest of ten children and spent her childhood on her father's farm near Honeoye, Ontario County, New York. The father, Benoni Greene, a farmer-teacher, was an out-spoken Abolitionist and was one of a considerable group who withdrew from the Protestant Methodist church of Honeoye to become charter members of an Independent Church where they would be free to express their anti-slavery sentiments.

At the age of twelve she moved with her family to Platteville, Wis., and later attended the Platteville Academy from which she was graduated in 1861. She was also graduated from State Normal School of Albany, N.Y. and took a special course in "Kindergarten Training" in Oswego. From 1865-1867 she taught in a Quaker school in Philadelphia, the Miss Susan Hayhurst Seminary for Young Ladies and Kindergarten for children.

She was married June 25, 1868 to Truman O. Douglass, then recently established in his first and only parish at Osage, Iowa. Here they lived fourteen years and here all of their children were born. Coming to Grinnell in 1882 they moved into the house at 914 East Street (altho it bore no number in those days) which was only slightly disturbed by the cyclone a few weeks before. This was the family home until the removal of Dr. and Mrs. Douglass to Claremont, California.

During the years of her residence in Grinnell, Mrs. Douglass was active in the religious and civic interests of the community and in the missionary organizations of the state. From 1886 to 1896 she was president of the Iowa Woman's Home Missionary Union (Congregational) during which decade the women gave through the Union over $50,000 to the "Home-land" societies. In 1907 she started the Women's Clubs Endowment Fund by donating a wedding fee which came into her hands, which Fund at the close of the campaign netted $1,430.53 to the college. To the Elizabeth Earle Magoun Club, of which she was a member, she suggested the desirability of united effort on the part of the women for city betterment. Out of this suggestion came the Civic League of which she was the first chairman.

Services will be held in Claremont on Monday, May 10th; interment in Hazelwood at a later date not yet determined.