Biographical Database of Black Women Suffragists
Biography of Mary E. Eato, 1844-1915
Susan Goodier, History Lecturer
SUNY Oneonta
Mary E. Eato was born in New York City on September 23, 1844, the daughter of Sarah Jane Eato, dressmaker, and Timothy Eato, a Methodist preacher. Her father died in 1854, leaving her mother to raise their seven children alone. On September 24, 1860, at the age of sixteen, Mary began teaching for the "Colored Schools." She taught at Grammar School No. 3 on West 41st Street, eventually teaching at Grammar School No. 80 on 42nd Street. Maritcha Lyons, an assistant principal, considered Eato "one of the four greatest teachers she had ever known." Eato retired in 1904, after a career that lasted forty-four years. She lived most of her adult life with her brother, Edward V. C. Eato, a prominent member of the African American community in New York and longtime president of the New York African Society for Relief.
Like most women of her acquaintance, Eato held membership in a wide range of social justice organizations. A longtime member of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church, she served as its treasurer. She also held offices in St. Mark's Mutual Aid Society, the New York African Society for Mutual Relief, and a branch of the African American Council. Eato helped establish and run the Hope Day Nursery for Colored Children, founded in 1902, serving for many years as its vice president.
During her teaching career she met Sarah Garnet, the first black woman principal in New York City. Garnet founded the Colored Women's Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn and Mary Eato held membership in the league for many years. Eato, as league vice-president, presided over most of the Equal Suffrage League meetings and events after its second president, Verina Morton-Jones accepted a post at Clark University in Atlanta in 1908. In 1910, Eato presided over meetings such as when Ida Craft, (white) president of the Kings County Organization of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association addressed the league, when they honored Harriet B. Stowe, when New York State Representative William M. Calder spoke to the membership on woman suffrage, and when members decided to hold a public memorial meeting in appreciation of Julia Ward Howe.
Mary Eato died on February 8, 1915 at age seventy. The parishioners of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church celebrated her life in a memorial service on Sunday, March 14, 1915.
Sources
"Maritcha R. Lyons," Notable Black American Women, vol. 2, ed. Jessie Carney Smith (New York: Gale Research, 1996), 419. On Eato's career, see the records of the New York City Municipal Archives, "Seventh Report of the Secretary of the Board of Retirement," 1915. When Mary Eato retired, she had an annual salary of $1,500, and she earned an annuity of $750. For a
Links to Additional Biographical Sketches
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