Introduction

Biography

Mary was the daugh­ter of Sam­uel Co­dy Phin­ney and Lo­ri­an Phin­ney. She mar­ried twice: to Ed­ward Pay­son Humph­rey (1862) and Dr. Emo­ry Stans­bu­ry (1872), who, like her, was lat­er a trust­ee at Law­rence Uni­ver­si­ty, Ap­ple­ton, Wis­con­sin.

She ma­tri­cu­lat­ed at Law­rence Uni­ver­si­ty in 1853 and gra­du­at­ed in 1859, the young­est gra­du­ate in school his­to­ry. Af­ter gra­du­ation, she taught in Law­rence’s pre­pa­ra­to­ry de­part­ment for a year.

She was one of the first wo­men trust­ees at Law­rence (1874–80). Stans­bu­ry Thea­tre in the Music-Dra­ma Cen­ter is named af­ter her.

Works

Stansbury con­trib­uted po­ems and short sto­ries to ma­ga­zines, in­clud­ing Scrib­ner’s, The Youth’s Com­pan­ion, and the Cot­tage Hearth.

Her po­ems in­clude How He Saved St. Mi­chael’s (con­trib­ut­ed to The Al­dine, New York, May 1873), The Sur­prise at Ti­con­de­ro­ga, and Jem’s Last Ride.

Her oth­er works in­clude:

• The Path of Years (Ap­ple­ton, Wis­con­sin: Post Pub­lish­ing, 1907)