1842–1905
Mrs. Merrill E. Gates

Introduction

Born: Feb­ru­ary 14, 1842, Ro­ches­ter, New York.

Died: De­cem­ber 17, 1905, Wash­ing­ton, DC.

Buried: Wa­rsaw Ce­me­te­ry, War­saw, New York.

Biography

Gates was a des­cend­ent of Ro­ger Will­iams, found­er of Rhode Is­land; daugh­ter of Will­iam S. Bi­shop of Ro­ches­ter, New York; and wife of Mer­rill Ed­wards Gates, Sec­re­ta­ry to the U. S. In­di­an Com­mis­sion­ers and lat­er pr­es­ident of Rut­gers and Am­herst Col­leg­es (mar­ried In 1873)

She was a fa­cul­ty mem­ber of the Le­roy Fe­male Se­mi­na­ry.

Mary be­longed to the Wo­man’s Board for For­eign Mis­sions of the Re­formed Church in Am­eri­ca (Dutch Re­formed), and con­trib­ut­ed to nu­mer­ous pe­ri­od­ic­als, in­clud­ing The In­de­pen­dent, The At­lan­tic Month­ly, The Chris­tian In­tel­li­genc­er, and The Youth’s Com­pan­ion.

Works

Poem

How Far?

The East is from the West, how far?
Sundered in space, are no bounds met?
Or ends the East at some bright star,
And to the West are sure metes set?

See! Two strong fire-winged angels leave
The throne of God, from left and right;
East, West, their tireless pinions cleave
A flaming path in endless flight.

They glow and speed when myriad years
Of earth-accounted time have flown;
They whirl by systems, suns, and spheres,
And worlds to ashen grayness grown.

Each spans the fringe of golden spray
Washing creation’s outmost shore.
Beyond, they light the blue-black way,
Flashing and flying evermore.

Yet part they still! Their wings of might
Gleam farther, farther, swiftly fleet.
An outbound course—how infinite!
For each no limit and no mete.

Far, far apart! Soul, hast thou proved,
With joy that sets all fear at rest,
God hath from thee thy sin removed
Far as the East is from the West?

Mary Cornelia Bishop Gates
Hymns of Nature and Songs of the Spirit, 1908

Sources

Lyrics

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Gates (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),