Lincoln, Mary Johnson (1844–1921)

American educator and cookbook writer. Born Mary Johnson Bailey in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on July 8, 1844; died in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 2, 1921; second daughter and one of three children of the Reverend John Milton Burnham Bailey (a Congregational minister) and Sarah Morgan (Johnson) Bailey; graduated from Wheaton Female Seminary, Norton, Massachusetts (later Wheaton College), in 1864; married David A. Lincoln (a clerk), on June 21, 1865 (died 1894); no children.

The daughter of a Congregational minister who died when she was just a child, Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was born in 1844 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and grew up there and in Norton, Massachusetts, where she attended Wheaton Female Seminary. Upon graduating in 1864, she taught for one term in a Vermont country school before her marriage to David A. Lincoln, a clerk who was also from Norton. The couple moved to Boston, and, although Lincoln remained childless, she busied herself with homemaking, church activities, and a literary club. When her husband became ill in 1870, threatening the family income, she took in sewing and did housework in the neighborhood.

In December 1879, Lincoln took a job teaching at the Boston Cooking School, which had opened the previous March under the auspices of the Woman's Educational Association of Boston. For the next five years, Lincoln taught classes of homemakers, cooks, nurses, and other teachers. She also compiled her Boston Cook Book, written ostensibly as a textbook for her classes. Containing curriculum outlines and information on chemistry, physiology, and hygiene, as well as a collection of recipes, it was published in 1884. The book was extremely popular and went through several editions.

Lincoln resigned from the Boston Cooking School in January 1885, citing family responsibilities. From 1885 to 1899, she taught cooking at Lasell Seminary in Auburndale, Massachusetts, during which time she also prepared three new publications: Peerless Cook Book (1886), Boston School Kitchen Text-Book (1887), and Carving and Serving (1887). Afterward, she devoted herself to writing and lecturing, frequently traveling to speaking engagements across the country. For ten years beginning in 1894 (the year her husband died), she was associated with American Kitchen Magazine, of which she was also part owner. Her column, "From Day to Day," was widely read, as were her books, the last of which, What to Have for Luncheon, was published in 1904. During her final few years, Lincoln suffered ill health, and she died at the age of 77, following a cerebral hemorrhage.

sources:

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1983.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts