1. Mary Eliza McDowell was an American social reformer and prominent figure in the Chicago Settlement movement.
16 Facts About Mary McDowell
1. 2.
Mary Eliza McDowell was born on November 30,1854, to Malcolm and Jane Welch Gordon McDowell in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the oldest of six children.
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Mary McDowell's father was recognized for his distinguished service in the Civil War and support for the presidency helped to establish her political conviction.
4.
The changes led her mother to become an invalid, no longer able to care for the family, and McDowell became responsible for her five brothers.
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Mary McDowell later organized religious classes for young people that attracted prominent figures in the temperance movement, students from Northwestern University, and residents of Chicago.
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Mary McDowell first began work for Frances Williard, founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, where she met Elizabeth Harrison.
7.
In 1894, Mary McDowell opened the University of Chicago Settlement House to alleviate the crowded, unsanitary housing immigrant and African American families often faced.
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Mary McDowell formed clubs for both men and women, including the Bohemian Women's Club and the Settlement Women's Club.
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Mary McDowell began to feel that the low wages these families received directly correlated to the low standard of living and welcomed the burgeoning union organizing started in 1901 by labor organizer Michael Donnelley.
10.
Mary McDowell presented a paper on the need to recognize the humanity of charity work and to work directly with individuals in need.
11.
Mary McDowell worked with residents to improve their neighborhood as well through education of politic rights and civic consciousness.
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Mary McDowell worked with the suffrage movement to put pressure on city officials to clean up the issues.
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In 1913, Chicago established the Chicago Commission on Waste where Mary McDowell served researching garbage collection methods.
14.
Mary McDowell's recommendations were a combination of incineration and reduction plants.
15.
Mary McDowell helped to found the Women's Trade Union League of Chicago and lobbied the US government to establish the Women's Bureau to study living and working conditions of women and children in 1920.
16.
Mary McDowell died on October 14,1936, in Chicago, suffering from a paralytic stroke.