Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Mary L. Bonney Rambaut 1816 ~ 1900

Mary L. Bonney Rambaut

Miss Bonney was born June 8, 1816, in Hamilton, Madison County, New York. Her father was a farmer in good circumstances. Her mother had been a teacher before her marriage. Religion and education were prominent in their thoughts and directed the training of their son and daughter.

Miss Bonney was a pupil for several years of the Female Academy in Hamilton and also under Mrs. Emma Willard, in Troy Seminary, at that time the best institution for young ladies in this country. Her father's death occurred when she was quite young, obliging her to take up the profession of teaching.

In 1850 she decided to establish a school of her own and provide a home for her mother. In connection with Miss Harriette A. Dillaye, one of the teachers in Troy Seminary, and a friend of her earlier days, she founded the Chestnut Street Seminary, located for thirty-three years in Philadelphia and later, in 1883, enlarged into the Ogontz Seminary, in Ogontz, Pennsylvania, one of the famous schools for girls in the United States.

Here, for nearly forty years. Miss Bonney presided. Her attention was first attracted to the cause of the Indians through a newspaper article in regard to Senator Vest's efforts to have the Oklahoma lands opened to settlement by the whites. It was at this time Miss Bonney formed the friendship with Mrs. A. S. Quinton, and these two women began their task of aiding in righting the wrongs done by the government to the Indians.

Miss Bonney gave freely from her own income to this cause. She became the first president of the society and devoted the latter years of her life to this work. While in London, in 1888, as a delegate to the World's Missionary Conference, Miss Bonney met and married Rev. Thomas Rambaut, D. D., LL. D., a friend of many years and also a delegate to the conference. Mrs. Rambaut died in 1900.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.