Mary Monnett Bain - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mary Monnett Bain (September 21, 1833, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

- July 30, 1885, Osawatomie

Osawatomie, Kansas

Osawatomie is a city in Miami County, Kansas, United States, southwest of Kansas City. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,447. It derives its name from two streams nearby, the Osage and Potawatomie.-History:...

, Miami County, Kansas

Miami County, Kansas

Miami County is a county located in East Central Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 32,787. Its county seat and most populous city is Paola...

), following her mother's death, came into a very large sum of money. She is known for the construction of Monnett Hall

Ohio Women's Methodist Seminary

The Ohio Women's Methodist Seminary was a seminary located in Delaware, Ohio.The seminary provided general educational opportunities to women in an era when co-educational institutions of higher learning were not yet fully open to students of both sexes...

in 1856, a cutting edge, Midwestern 19th century female college, built at a time when many Ohioans still lived in log cabins and most colleges did not accept women or did not provide boarding for them if they wanted to study away from home. The college (and Mary's building - a grand Second Empire styled Victorian building) was absorbed into Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...

(OWU) after a few decades, but addition upon addition made the building grow to mammoth size. Monnett Hall provided the female dormitory

Dormitory

A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...

space for all of OWUs women students for decades, until it was abandoned in the 1960s and torn down in the 1970s. Mary Monnett's donation of initial funding for the building provided generations of women with a kind of freedom she herself never enjoyed.

Monnett inherited a heart ailment which had made her family over-protect and shelter her. She was also the youngest daughter. As a result, she was not a good candidate for the kind of independence thrust upon her by her father's wealth after the death of her mother, just two years after the deaths of her other family members due to typhoid fever.

Mary and a young man named Charles McCabe, a male seminarian attending Ohio Wesleyan University

Ohio Wesleyan University

(also in Delaware, Ohio

Delaware, Ohio

The City of Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County in the United States state of Ohio. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area...

), had been courting since before the death of Mary's mother. He along with her mother's minister linked Mary to the life she had lived before the deaths of her father, two brothers, and sister, from typhoid fever, and then later, her mother. Mary's mother had loved Charlie and spoken of him on her deathbed.

Upon the death of her mother, since Mary could not live alone (19th century proper single females did not do this), she was taken into the home of her mother's minister, Bishop Leonard B. Gurley and his wife. Gurley was deeply involved with the Ohio Wesleyan Female College

Ohio Wesleyan Female College

Ohio Wesleyan Female College was founded in 1853 in Delaware, Ohio. It is also known under the name Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati...

in Delaware, Ohio

Delaware, Ohio

and the Methodist Church network in Ohio. Mary had already begun attending classes at the female school where her elder sister had attended. She continued her studies, and continued her romance with Charlie McCabe.

But Rev. Gurley (it is believed that Gurley was the culprit) persuaded Mary that, with all her money, if she married the wildly talented Charlie McCabe, it would ruin McCabe's career, making him look like a gold digger. So without explanation, Mary ended her relationship with McCabe, who went on to become a nationally known figure much like Billy Graham. McCabe's highly acclaimed singing popularized the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which he was asked to sing at President Lincoln's funeral.

Meanwhile, Rev. Gurley then had total control of Mary, who probably viewed him as a father figure. Published religious poetry of Gurley's suggests that he believed strongly that when bad things happen to people, the people must be bad, and should repent. By this time Mary's life was a string of tragedies -- the loss of her father-brother-sister-brother in one summer and finally the loss of her mother two years later. After Gurley persuaded her to sever ties with McCabe (who stopped eating, left school and moved to the other end of the state, probably because he was so distraught), Mary was emotionally flattened. But she had inherited $100,000.

The amount of $10,000 (ten percent, which might have been viewed as a tithe) was what Gurley induced her to donate to the Methodist effort toward creating its own female college. Her signature was forged (see book below, by Cynthia Rush, comparing signatures) on a key document related to the donation, but she honored her commitment to the school for as long as she controlled her own finances.

Gurley engineered a marriage between Monnett and a wealthy young man who sat on the board with him at the college, John William ("J.W.") Bain, a widower with two children, probably assuming that this marriage would give Gurley entrance to additional funds in the future. Instead, Bain took his wife and their budding family to New York where, on his money and hers, they enjoyed very high living for several years, only to return to Ohio to learn that the ministers who had promised to wisely invest Mary's wealth had lost nearly all of it. Bain had already shown his true attitude toward Gurley and the college when he complained bitterly to the college's board about the construction payments they expected from Mary. Now, he and Mary felt they had to leave Ohio so they would not have to be around Mary's quite wealthy relatives. Bain found work in Philadelphia selling typewriters while living near a mental institution, and Mary's mental health began to deteriorate.

Bain, a traveling salesman, died at a private residence. By this time Mary's mental health had deteriorated to the point that she could not manage her household or raise her children. Assisted by a cousin (who later wrote about it), Mary and the children moved west to Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, first living with her stepson. The children continued to live with their half-brother -- Bain's child by his earlier marriage, and Mary was institutionalized in a state facility for the insane, where she died shortly after being discovered by the Reverend Charles McCabe who was attending to the residents of the asylum as a minister.

With the merger of the Ohio Wesleyan Female College into Ohio Wesleyan University, control of Monnett Hall was transferred to OWU where it remained active as a dormitory for women until 1968; Monnett Hall was razed in 1978. OWU continues to honor Mary Monnett Bain through the "Monnett Club" and "Monnett Weekend" held each spring on the campus in Delaware, Ohio

Delaware, Ohio

. A plaque commemorates the space where Monnett Hall once stood, and a group of volunteers maintains a garden on the former building site.

Mary Monnett Bain's grandson, Monnett Bain Davis

Monnett Bain Davis

Monnett Bain Davis was an American Ambassador. Born in Greencastle, Indiana, he was named for his maternal grandmother, Mary Monnett Bain, a benfactress of the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio....

(1893-1953) served as the United States Ambassador to Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

1948-51 and to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

1951-1953.

As a tribute for her generosity towards the Female Seminary and Ohio Wesleyan University, Mary Monnett Bain's formal portrait hangs in the main level of OWU's Frances E. Mowry Memorial Alumni Center.

Sources

Rush, Cynthia Money Madness & Methodism: The Story of Mary Monnett. Innovations Resource Ltd. 2002.
Monnette, Orra E.The Monnet Family Genealogy 1913. Reprinted through Higgenson Books, Salem Massachusetts.
Mary Monnett Bain at Find A Grave
Monnett Bain Davis, Arlington Cemetery

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