1874-1962
Social Worker, Suffragist, Democratic Party Leader

Childhood and Education.

Mary Dewson, known as Molly, grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, the youngest of six children. Because of her father's poor health, her mother became the backbone of her family. Dewson acquired her father's interest in history and government and would always remember her mother's happiness in being a wife and mother. She was also influenced by her neighbor Elizabeth Cabot Putnam's idealism and commitment to prison reform. Dewson was educated at Dana Hall School in Wellesley and at Wellesley College. There she studied economics, history, and sociology and related these subjects to emerging industrial problems. As president of the senior class at Wellesley, Dewson demonstrated her leadership and organizational talents and the class predicted she would become president of the United States.

Domestic Reform.

After graduating from Wellesley in 1897, she became secretary of the Domestic...