{"id":83,"date":"2023-12-13T19:14:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T19:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/?page_id=83"},"modified":"2024-11-05T22:15:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T22:15:35","slug":"part-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/part-i\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Biography and Timeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Portrait of Mary L. Matthews, 1922<\/sup><\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mary Louisa Matthews was born on August 28, 1864 in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary from September 1880 to June 1883, and was an active member of the Mount Holyoke Missionary Association. She left school before her expected graduation due to ill health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews taught for two years at Fisk University while applying to be a missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). She was appointed to Monastir, in European Turkey, and arrived in 1888 as a teacher at the American School for Girls. Her post lasted for 32 years, in which she took only three short furloughs to the United States, in 1893-1896, 1904-1905, and 1913-1915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her years at the American School for Girls, Matthews witnessed many geographical, political, and social changes, including the Young Turks’ Revolution in 1908, the First and Second Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, and World War I from 1915-1918. Life at the American School consisted of academic and religious study, as well as relief work. Due to the multicultural nature of the region, Matthews\u2019 work was often affected by political and wartime circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Missionaries Harriet Cole and Mary Matthews in their sitting room in Monastir (Bitola), European Turkey (Macedonia), 1901<\/sup><\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Mary Matthews (back row, center, with dark dress) with other missionaries at Monastir, 1907<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

After the departure of principal Harriet L. Cole in 1909, Matthews was the head teacher at the American School and remained a primary missionary in the Monastir region until 1920. She left Monastir, for unknown reasons, in 1920 and spent the next few years in the United States. Eventually she returned to work as a teacher in the American School for Girls in Salonica, Greece, and was appointed as Foreign Secretary for the Near East, a position that revolved primarily around fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews remained in close contact with many of her Monastir and other Near East associates, such as Rada Pavlova and Delpha Davis, throughout the rest of her life. She died in the United States in 1950.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mary L. Matthews mounting her horse. Inscribed on verso: “An unauthorized snap of M. L. Matthews climbing onto a horse to go to a village, five hours from the American Farm School, In Oct 1920. Mr. Charles House accompanied her on the trip, over a horse trail.”<\/sup><\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Portrait of roses, original captioned “Some of my La France roses in my room at Monastir, Serbia – M. L. Matthews-“<\/sub><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mary Matthews in Monastir: A Timeline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1863:<\/strong> Mary Louisa Matthews is born in Cleveland, Ohio<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1880 to 1883:<\/strong> Mary attends Mount Holyoke Female Seminary; joins the Mount Holyoke Missionaries\u2019 Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1885 to 1888:<\/strong> Mary works as a teacher after her missionary application is initially rejected<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer 1887:<\/strong> Mary\u2019s missionary work application is accepted and she is assigned to Monastir in European Turkey (now known as Bitola in the present-day Republic of Macedonia)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 1888:<\/strong> Mary arrives in Monastir to work at the American School for Girls, where she will stay until 1920 with only brief furloughs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1901:<\/strong> Mary\u2019s fellow missionary Ellen Stone is captured and held for 172 days by Bulgarian and Albanian brigands<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1903:<\/strong> Mary purchases a small Kodak camera and learns to develop her own film<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1904-1905:<\/strong> Mary on furlough to United States<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1908:<\/strong> Bloodless Turkish Revolution by the Young Turks; Mary takes charge of the American School for Girls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1912: <\/strong>First Balkan War; Serbian army takes Monastir after centuries of Turkish rule <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1913:<\/strong> Monastir remains in Serbia during Second Balkan War<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1913-1915:<\/strong> Mary on furlough to United States; returns through U-boat-infested Atlantic during World War I<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1915:<\/strong> Monastir changed hands twice over the course of World War I; the first event was the Bulgarian invasion of Monastir in November 1915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1916:<\/strong> Serbian army aided by British and French sources takes Monastir back from Bulgarian forces; the Bulgarian\/German\/Austrian troops retreat to the mountains where they shelled Monastir for 22 months<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1917-1918:<\/strong> United States declares war on Germany; American Girls School building becomes a haven for refugees; Mary becomes de facto Consul, managing money from men working in the United States to families in Monastir<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1919: <\/strong>Mary is the last remaining American missionary in Monastir<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1920: <\/strong>Mary returns to the United States<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biography and Timeline Mary Louisa Matthews was born on August 28, 1864 in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary from September 1880 to June 1883, and was an active member of the Mount Holyoke Missionary Association. She left school before her expected graduation due to ill health. Matthews taught for two years at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-nosidebar.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-83","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/83\/revisions\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/marymatthews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}