Mary Vance Humphrey

Mary Vance Humphrey ( Vance; pen name, Mary A. Humphrey; 1838–1916) was a writer and leader in the women's club movement in the United States. She was very active in educational, literary and club circles, serving as president of the Kansas State Federation of Women's Clubs and the Woman's Kansas Day Club. Of her record as an official, Margaret Hill McCarter wrote: "She stands for patriotism, progress and peace." was born in Springfield, Ohio, February 14, 1838.

She was educated in Cincinnati, at the Wesleyan College.

Career

In 1861, Miss Vance came out to Kansas, stopping at Manhattan where she had intimate friends. There she met James Humphrey, a young Englishman, who had settled in Manhattan in 1857. October 23, 1861, in Topeka, Kansas, they were married and took up their residence in Manhattan, where Mr. Humphrey was serving a term as county treasurer. They shared the experiences common to pioneers. Mr. Humphrey was a man of many interests, and his wife had her part in every one of them, and together they were involved in the social and political life of their time. While serving as the organization's president, she published a booklet entitled "The History of the Woman's Kansas Day Club".

She was a member of the Purity League, Reading Club, Authors' Club (Topeka, Kansas), Kansas Woman's Press Club, Woman's Kansas Day Club, and the Equal Suffrage Club,

In February 1917, Humphrey's friends in Junction City established a scholarship fund of the Kansas State Federation of Women's Clubs in her name.

Selected works Novels The Squatter Sovereign, or Kansas in the Fifties, a historical novel of pioneer days (1883) (text, via Internet Archive)

Booklets "The History of the Woman's Kansas Day Club"

Stories "King Lear in Kansas" "The Legal Status of Mrs. O'Rourke"