Mary Young Cheney Greeley
Mary Young Cheney Greeley was an American schoolteacher, suffragist, and spiritualist. She was also the wife of newspaper editor Horace Greeley.
Life
Greeley was born as Mary Young Cheney on October 20, 1811. Little is known of her early life. She was briefly a schoolteacher, and later an intermittent suffragist and spiritualist. She is reported to have been mentally unstable for much of her life. The date of her birth is uncertain, with some sources stating 1811 and others 1814.She married Horace Greeley in Warrenton, North Carolina, on July 5, 1836. Early in their marriage he used her $5000 in savings to fund his first private newspaper. In 1867 Horace Greeley served as chair of the suffrage committee of the American Equal Rights Association convention. Horace Greeley was in favor of African American men gaining the right to vote, but did not support voting rights for women. He was unaware that his wife, Mary Greeley, had signed a petition in favor of women's suffrage and was made aware of that fact when it was announced on the floor of the convention.
The marriage was not a happy one, and her oppressive relationship with her husband colored her life. He had little say in the running of the house, and avoided his wife and their house. However, he kept her almost constantly pregnant, but took no responsibility for the children. Five of their seven children died quite young, at least some of them of neglect: firstborn son, second son, Arthur Young Greeley, Mary Inez Greeley, and Raphael Uhland Greeley. Mary also suffered at least two miscarriages, both in 1839. Only two children lived to adulthood: Ida Lillian Greeley Smith and Gabrielle Rosamond Greeley Clendenin.