Representative women of New England/Mary A. Atherton
MARY ALDERSON ATHERTON was born in Pennsylvania, near the village of LeRaysville. Her parents, John and Margaret Alderson, were English people whose chief wealth consisted of their eleven children, eight boys and three girls. In 1881 Miss Alderson married Willard M. Chandler, of Boston, a leader in liberal thought, who died in 1889. In 1903 Mrs. Chandler became the wife of Frederick Atherton, a well-known attorney of Boston.
Her education began in the typical country school, open three months in winter and three in summer. It was continued at the village academy one term and at the Orwell Hill graded school three terms, a teacher's certificate then being granted her at the age of fifteen. At sixteen, or as early as the law of the Keystone State permitted, she began teaching in a small country school in what was locally known as the "Cleveland District."
Having entered upon the work to which she was by nature inclined, she determined to gain in it the front rank. This necessitated a broader education and special training, and from what source the requisite funds were to come was an unsolved and seemingly hopeless-problem. But at this critical juncture Fate took her by the hand, and, as if, in its earnest aspirations, one soul had bounded over the intervening mountains and wildernesses and struck a responsive chord in the heart of another, a letter came from a good elder Brother, who many years before had gone prospecting in the rough country that lay toward the setting sun. The letter said in part: "The little sister whom I left behind me years ago must be a young lady by this time, and I want her to be given an education. Send her away to school. Here is two hundred dollars as a starter, and if I make a big stake, as I have a good show to do, will send more when needed." This unexpected opportunity was eagerly seized, and Miss Alderson, entering the State Normal School at Mansfield, Pa., was graduated with the honors of her class two years later.
The first three years of her i)ublic life were spent in teaching in Venango City (since merged into Oil City) and Franklin, in the heart of the Pennsylvania oil district. At [the end of this period she ventured across the continent to California, the land of her girlhood dreams. In four weeks after her arrival she began teaching in Gait, a small town near Sacramento, at a salary of .seventy-five dollars her month. The next year found her, with an increased salary, at San Jose, where for several years she held the position of vice-principal in the Empire School. Later she went to the city of Oakland, where her career as a teacher in the public schools terminated finally.
Yearning for growth, she gave up a certainty for an uncertainty, and with characteristic .self-reliance resolutely turned toward the unknown future. Boarding an ocean steamer and waving a farewell to the friends on shore, she sailed out of the Golden Gate with the fixed purpose of entering upon a new, broader, and therefore more useful career. Going first to Philadelphia, she spent one year in study in that city, and then, in 1881, came to Boston, the field of her later activities.
Here, in a strange city, with new surroundings, occupation gone, restless for something to do, .she incidentally entered upon the study of shorthand, at that time attracting considerable public attention, to the practical development of which, along original lines, she has since devoted her time, talent, and financial resources. The chief features of her achievements in this direction may be briefly sunnnarrzed as follows: —
In 1883 instituted "The Home School of Shorthand and Typewriting." In 1888 published her first shorthand text-book, "The Chandler Practical Shorthand for Schools and Colleges," now in its sixth edition and extensively used in the public schools of New England. In 1890 introduced her system of shorthand into the Gloucester High School, when its merit was promptly recognized. In 1893 founded the Chandler Normal Shorthand School, chiefly for the training of teachers, the first .school of its kind in the world. In 1895 called a Public School Shorthand Convention, the first in the history of education. In 1895 founded the f^handler Thinking Club, for the promotion of individual growth by independent thinking. In 1898 founded a periodical called The Thinker, which has met with a cordial reception at the hands of the public.
The original i)lanks of her shorthaiul educational platform were two — "Quality, not quantity," "Legibility, not guessibility" — to which the following has since been added, "A uniform shorthantl in the public schools.'
Mrs. Atherton is a member of the Free Religious Association of America, an organization broad enough to meet the requirements of her liberal spirit.
Being the embodiment of enthusiasm, she is a natural leader and to the young an unfailing source of inspiration. The high esteem in which she is held by those who have come under her direct influence is indicated by the following extract from the constitution of the National Association of Chandler Shorthand Writers, recently (1904) organized by them: "The object of this association shall be to extend and perpetuate, through the means of a permanent organization, the valuable work which Mary Aklerson Atherton has done for humanity in the interest of true education and character-building."
It may be truthfully said that Mrs. Atherton has contributed something of value to the age in which she lives.