FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 11 



MAEY A. MAYO. 



The name of Mary A. Mayo must henceforth be conspicuous in any 

 account, however brief, of the development of Farmers' Institute work in 

 Michigan as being the pioneer conductor of the women's section. It 

 was she suggested the direction the work should take along this line and 

 she presided over the trial series, paving the way for what has proved to 

 be a most helpful and popular feature of the present system of institutes 

 in the State. 



All her life she had been the friend and advocate of a broader and hap- 

 pier life for women in farm homes. She knew their needs in all the 

 ''nooks and corners" of the State where this movement sought to find and 

 help them. For, born on a farm (in 1845, seven miles from Battle Creek) 

 at twenty she had married Mr. Perry Mayo, whom three years before she 

 had sent out to the civil war, and settled on a farm across the road from 

 her parents. Here in a log house began her acquaintance with the details 

 of difficulties and advantages that come with mothering a family in a 

 farm home of limited means. Her horizon was never allowed to be 

 bounded by the walls of her own house. Her heart and interest were 

 always with that of humanity at large and with that amid farm environ- 

 ments particularly. Early she and her husband were active in the social, 

 mental and religious life of the neighborhood, county and State. 



Their connection with work outside their home county dates mainly 

 from 1883. Although for the past two years Mrs. Mayo has left her home 

 but a few times, she has aided in the general work for country people by 

 correspondence and contributions to farm periodicals. Probably for all 

 or nearly all of these twenty years she has held a commission from the 

 State Grange as a deputy lecturer which carried with it authority, to 

 organize and instruct new Granges. In 1885 she reported having deliv- 

 ered fifty lectures in Michigan and Ohio under auspices of granges; in 

 1886, seventy-three in Michigan ; in 1887, forty-eight in Michigan and two 

 in Indiana. This was the record of the beginning of her public work. 



Her interest in agricultural education was deep and practical. Her 

 only son was a graduate of Michigan Agricultural College, while her 

 voice and pen were used for years toward securing provision at that col- 

 lege for girls also. When that end was finally accomplished, in the dedi- 

 cation of the Woman's Building, her joy was too keen for words. 



This is somewhat of the experimental foundation upon which was based 

 Mrs. Mayo's distinctive work for farm women through the Farmers' In- 

 stitutes, when, in 1895, the scope of the work was enlarged through in- 

 creased appropriation. Mr. K. L. Butterfleld^ then superintendent, 

 broached the feasibility of holding separate sections, for women to Mrs. 

 Mayo and, upon her approval, asked her to lead the work. Several years 

 later, when asked how the plan suggested by Mr. Butterfield, had appealed 

 to her at first, she said : "My heart just throbbed. It was what I had 

 long wanted to do. He asked me what I would talk about. They were 

 strong subjects that I suggested and I know we discussed the matter of 

 how thev would be received but it was decided to try it.' 



