Mary Tyler Mann

Mary Tyler Mann ( Peabody; November 16, 1806 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts – February 11, 1887 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts) was a teacher, author, and mother. She was the wife of Horace Mann, American education reformer and politician. Early life Mary Tyler Peabody was the daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Her sisters were Elizabeth, reformer, educator, and pioneer in establishing kindergarten, and Sophia, painter and wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne. She had three brothers, Nathaniel Cranch Peabody, George Francis Peabody, and Wellington Peabody. The Peabody siblings grew up in genteel poverty. Nathaniel and Elizabeth Peabody had been schoolteachers when they married; after the nuptials, the couple set aside a parlor in their house as a schoolroom. Mrs. Peabody urged her husband to become a doctor. He became a dentist, who preferred to experiment, write tracts on the care of teeth, and test herbal remedies to attending patients. As a result, his wife's teaching salary became the main financial support of the family.