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{{Short description|American author and temperance reformer (1829–1918)}}
{{Infobox writer
[[File:MARY A. CORNELIUS.jpg|thumb|Portrait from ''[[A Woman of the Century]]'']]▼
| name =
| image = MARY A. CORNELIUS.jpg
| alt = B&W oval portrait photo of a dark-haired woman wearing a dark shawl
| birth_name = Mary Ann Mann
| birth_date = September 25, 1829
| birth_place = [[Pontiac, Michigan]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1918|4|18|1829|9|25}}
| death_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery]]
| occupation = {{hlist|writer|sociall reformer}}
| genre = novels, occult
| subject = {{hlist|temperance|tolerance|God's love for the world}}
| movement = [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance]]
| notable_works = ''Little Wolf''
| spouse = {{marriage|Samuel Cornelius|1850|1886|end=died}}
}}
'''Mary Ann Mann Cornelius''' ({{nee}}, '''Mann'''; [[pen name]], '''Mrs. Mary A. Cornelius'''; September 25, 1829 – April 18, 1918) was an American author and social reformer.<ref>Not to be confused with the writer, Mary Ann Hooker Cornelius (1796-1880)</ref> A [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance activist]], she served as president of the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] (W.C.T.U.) of [[Arkansas]].<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893">{{cite book |last1=Willard |first1=Frances Elizabeth |author1-link=Frances Willard |last2=Livermore |first2=Mary Ashton Rice |author2-link=Mary Livermore |title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life |year=1893 |publisher=[[Charles Wells Moulton]] |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Mary_A._Cornelius |pages=207–08 |chapter=CORNELIUS, Mrs. Mary A. }} {{Source-attribution}}</ref> She lived several years in [[Tacoma, Washington]], where she established a free reading room and [[circulating library]] for the young. In Tacoma and also in [[Topeka, Kansas]], Cornelius served as a director of the [[humane society]]. She was the author of various novels and [[occult]] stories, including ''Little Wolf''; ''Uncle Nathan's Farm''; ''The White Flame''; and ''Why? or A Kansas Girl's Query''. She favored [[Women's suffrage in the United States|woman's suffrage]].<ref name="Womans1914">{{cite book |title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915 |date=1914 |publisher=American commonwealth Company |page=206 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQnhIJhYbbMC&pg=PA206 |access-date=10 September 2023 |language=en |chapter=Cornelius, Mary Ann (Mrs. Samuel Cornelius)}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
==Early life and education==
Mary Ann Mann was born in [[Pontiac, Michigan]], on September 25, 1829.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /><ref name="TheBanner1912">{{cite magazine |title=Woman's Department |magazine=The Banner of Gold |date=March 1912 |volume=XXV |issue=2 |pages=26–27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_lAxAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA26 |access-date=9 September 2023 |publisher=Gold Publishing Company |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref> Her parents were Lewis Whiting Mann (1802-1889) and Elvira (Bagley) Mann (1810-1867).<ref name="Womans1914" /><ref name="familysearch">{{cite web |title=Mary Ann Mann Female 25 September 1829 – 18 April 1918 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LZTV-W24 |website=www.familysearch.org |access-date=9 September 2023}}</ref> Both of her parents were of [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] ancestry and [[New England]] origin.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> Cornelius' siblings were Anna (b. 1827), Sarah (b. 1832), Preston (b. 1834), Louie (b. 1838), Evelina (b. 1842), and Lewis (b. 1852).<ref name="familysearch" />
She was educated at the Pontiac Academy.<ref name="Womans1914" /> Her first school composition, written when she was nine years of age, was a hit in the rural community where she lived and was printed in the local newspaper.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
==Career==
Her husband encouraged her to write short articles for the press on religious and philanthropic subjects, even with the responsibilities of motherhood and her position as a pastor's wife upon her. But wen she brought to his notice a story she had written of 39 long chapters, he protested against it.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
Although a semi-invalid for many years, she was involved in Christian and philanthropic enterprises.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> Cornelius' first public efforts were in aid of her husband's occupation as a clergyman. So many desperate women in the church confided to her their troubles with drinking husbands and sons that Cornelius became interested in the temperance cause, joining the W.C.T.U.<ref name="TheBanner1912" /> In 1885, she was elected president of the state W.C.T.U.<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> She led the first canvass by petitions for closing the [[pub|saloons]] in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]] under the [[Three-mile laws|three-mile law]]. The canvass was a bitter one and even threats were made to kill Cornelius if she continued the work. When the papers were ready for presentation to the judge of the court, an attempt was made to steal the petition, but Cornelius set herself to the task of making friends with the perpetrators for the cause of temperance even making the leader a life-long friend.<ref name="Daily-21apr1918">{{cite news |title=In Memoriam. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-arkansas-gazette-in-memoriam-mrs/131523389/ |access-date=9 September 2023 |work=Daily Arkansas Gazette |via=Newspapers.com |date=21 April 1918 |pages=9 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
She assisted her husband when he was engaged in editorial work. About the time of his death, in 1886, she edited a journal in the interest of the temperance society. Her poems, numerous prose articles, and voluminous newspaper correspondence testified to her writing career. Perhaps the best known of her writings were ''Little Wolf'', which has had a wide sale, and the poem, "Sweet Marie".<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" />
By 1893,<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> Cornelius removed from [[Arkansas]] to [[Topeka, Kansas]] that she might have the benefit of woman's suffrage in her temperance work. While there, she learned of the [[Keeley Institute|Keeley Treatment]] and having investigated its results, she was assisted by some of the leading women of the city to organize a Woman's Keeley Rescue League. Its object was to assist indigent inebriates to stop drinking.<ref name="TheBanner1912" />
[[File:Mary A. Cornelius (The Banner of Gold, 1912).png|thumb|Mary A. Cornelius (''The Banner of Gold'', 1912)]]
Still later, Cornelius removed to Tacoma, Washington,<ref name="Womans1914" /> carrying the temperance message by means of the Keeley Treatment. Realizing that prevention was better than cure, she established a free reading room for boys, which became a favorite place for many of the men and women in the neighborhood. It contained books of every description, from the novel to the work of science, history and romance, humor and pathos. The shelves along the walls were loaded with books and more books were placed on tables; there were books everywhere. Some of them were new and some were soiled, worn, torn, mutilated, damaged, and dog-eared to such an extent that it did not seem possible that they could be read without falling to pieces. Many of the books had been discarded by the public library as too worn for further service, and patched up and repaired by Cornelius for her reading room. In addition to the books, there were papers, magazines, and games. Cornelius' unique reading room provided entertainment and instruction for scores of boys and young men who were eager for advancement, but whose lives provided few advantages. It was a veritable club, where members could find recreation and improvement, and gain wisdom and courage for the responsibilities of life.<ref name="TheBanner1912" />
Cornelius wrote four books: the first, ''Little Wolf'', in the interest of temperance; the second, ''Uncle Nathan's Farm'', to promote tolerance; the third, ''The White Flame'', to emphasize God's love for the world. The fourth was dedicated to the young people who frequented the reading room.<ref name="TheBanner1912" />
==Personal life and death==
In 1850, she married Rev. Samuel Cornelius Jr., D.D. (1825-1886), of [[Alexandria, Virginia]].<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893" /> He was at one time pastor of the [[First Missionary Baptist Church (Little Rock, Arkansas)|First Baptist Church]] in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref name="ArkansasDem-19apr1918">{{cite news |title=Mrs. Mary A. Cornelius. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/arkansas-democrat-obituary-for-mary-a-c/131519732/ |access-date=9 September 2023 |work=Arkansas Democrat |via=Newspapers.com |date=19 April 1918 |pages=14 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref> They had one child, a son, William S. Cornelius (1853-1894).<ref name="familysearch" />
Cornelius suffered a severe injury from a fall in October 1911, which confined her to her room for many weeks. During that time, she wrote the poem, "The Watchword".<ref name="TheBanner1912" />
Mary A. Cornelius died on April 18, 1918, in Chicago. Burial was at [[Oakland-Fraternal Cemetery|Oakland cemetery]] in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref name="DailyArkansasGaz-20apr1918">{{cite news |title=Obituary. Mrs. Mary A. Cornelius. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-arkansas-gazette-obit-mary-a-cor/131519641/ |access-date=9 September 2023 |work=Daily Arkansas Gazette |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |date=20 April 1918 |pages=9 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
==Selected works==
[[File:The white flame (an occult story) (IA whiteflameanoccu00corn).pdf|thumb|''The white flame'' (an occult story)]]
===Books as Mary A. Cornelius===
* ''The White Flame'', 1900 [https://archive.org/details/whiteflameanoccu00corn (text)]
* ''Why? Or, A Kansas Girl's Query'', 1903 [https://books.google.com/books?id=qnk4AQAAMAAJ (text)]
===Books as Mrs. M. A. Cornelius===
* ''Little Wolf: A Tale of the Western Frontier'', 1872 [https://archive.org/details/littlewolftaleof00corniala (text)]
* ''Uncle Nathan's Farm: A Novel'', 1898<ref name="ThePublishers1898">{{cite book |title=The Publishers Weekly |date=1898 |publisher=F. Leypoldt |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yvq7AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA4-PA22 |access-date=9 September 2023 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
===Poems===
* "Sweet Marie"
* "The Watchword", 1911
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==External links==
* {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Isadore Gilbert Jeffery}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{authority control}}▼
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffery, Isadore Gilbert}}▼
[[Category:1840 births]]▼
[[Category:1919 deaths]]▼
[[Category:
[[Category:20th-century American writers]]
[[Category:19th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:Woman's Christian Temperance Union people]]
[[Category:19th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:American occult writers]]
[[Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century]]
[[Category:American animal welfare workers]]
[[Category:Temperance activists from Arkansas]]
[[Category:American social reformers]]
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