Kehew, Mary Morton (1859–1918)

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Kehew, Mary Morton (1859–1918)

American labor and social reformer. Name variations: Mary Kimball Kehew. Born Mary Morton Kimball in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 8, 1859; died in Boston of nephritis on February 14, 1918; fourth of eight children of Susan Tillinghast (Morton) Kimball and Moses Day Kimball; educated privately in Boston and in Europe; married William Brown Kehew, on January 8, 1880; no children.

Served as president, Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston (WEIU, 1892–1913 and 1914–18); was trustee, Simmons College (1902); served as president, National Women's Trade Union League (WTUL, 1903).

As the daughter of a banker, the granddaughter of a Massachusetts governor, and the wife of a wealthy oil merchant, Mary Morton Kehew was a member of Boston's social, economic and political elite. Like so many women of her class, Kehew devoted herself to volunteer activities. However, those causes she espoused—especially labor reform—were not the most popular. Secure in her standing as a Boston Brahmin, Kehew sought to use her social position, her political connections, and even her own economic resources on behalf of the working class.

Mary Morton Kehew joined the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU) in 1886. Within four years, she became a director and in 1892 she became president, an office she would hold for 25 years. Founded in 1877, the WEIU was an organization of middle- and upper-class women interested in the plight of working women. Kehew transformed the WEIU from a charity group to a more pro-active agency interested in educating and organizing women workers. In 1892, through her sister Hannah P. Kimball , Kehew brought Mary Kenney O'Sullivan to Boston. Two years later, Kehew, the Boston socialite, and O'Sullivan, the Irish-American AFL organizer, founded the Union for Industrial Progress, an adjunct of the WEIU devoted to trade unionism for women. In 1903, Kehew became the first president of the National Women's Trade Union League, a cross-class alliance formed by O'Sullivan and various other reformers.

Uncomfortable in a public role, Kehew was most effective behind the scenes, lobbying legislators, meeting with political bosses, and raising money among her wealthy friends. She served on numerous legislative committees investigating Massachusetts labor conditions and played a leading role in several social-reform organizations, including the Boston settlement, Denison House, the Tyler Street Day Nursery, and the Milk and Baby Hygiene Association. As president of the WEIU, she encouraged that organization to pursue vocational training, some of which it turned over to Simmons College after its founding in 1902. On the first board of trustees of this Boston college was Mary Morton Kehew. Struck down by kidney disease at the age of 58, Kehew would be remembered by her friend and fellow reformer, Emily Greene Balch , as "the never failing fairy godmother" of Boston social and labor reform during the Progressive era.