United States of America Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal First Lady – Mary McElroy 1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (33.35 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW) MARY MCELROY 1881 1885 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Mary facing left. Mary McElroy 1841 – 1917 Sister of widowed President Arthur; helped raise his family; persuaded many famed women to attend lavish receptions., White House facade atop.
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Mary McElroy (née Arthur; July 5, 1841 – January 8, 1917) was the sister of the 21st president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, and served as a hostess (acting as the first lady) for his administration (1881–1885). She assumed the role because Arthur’s wife, Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, had died nearly two years earlier.
Mary Arthur was born in Greenwich, New York, the last of nine children born to William and Malvina S. Arthur. Arthur’s mother, Malvina Stone, was born in Vermont, the daughter of George Washington Stone and Judith Stevens. Malvina’s family was primarily of English and Welsh descent, and her grandfather, Uriah Stone, fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Her father, William Arthur, was born in Dreen, Cullybackey, County Antrim, Ireland; he graduated from college in Belfast and emigrated to Canada in 1819 or 1820. Her mother met her father while William Arthur was teaching at a school in Dunham, Quebec, just over the border from her native Vermont. William became an American citizen in 1843 after Mary and her siblings were born.
She attended the Emma Willard School Seminary in Troy, New York.
In November 1880, Mary’s brother Chester Arthur was elected vice president. In July 1881, President James Garfield was fatally wounded and died on September 19, 1881. Arthur succeeded him as president, and asked McElroy to care for his young daughter Ellen and act as “Mistress of the White House.” Because she had her own family in Albany, McElroy lived in Washington, D.C. only during the busy winter social season. Although Arthur never officially granted her the protocol of a formal position, she proved to be a popular and competent hostess. The procedures she and her brother developed for the social functions were used by future First Ladies for decades.
McElroy presided over a number of events and honored former First Ladies Julia Tyler and Harriet Lane, James Buchanan’s niece and social hostess, by asking them to help her receive guests at the White House. McElroy’s oldest daughter May and Arthur’s daughter Nell often assisted. Her final reception took place on February 28, 1885, one week before the end of the Arthur administration: 3,000 people attended (including Adolphus Greely) and 48 daughters of officials and of the social elite assisted her.
McElroy and her husband were supportive of civil rights for African Americans and hosted Booker T. Washington at their home in Albany in June 1900. She was a member of the Albany Association Opposed to Women’s Suffrage.
On June 13, 1861, she married John Edward McElroy (1833–1915), the son of William McElroy and Jane Mullen. McElroy was an insurance salesman who was the president of the Albany Insurance Company. They lived in Albany, New York, and had four children:
- May McElroy (b. 1862), who married Charles H. Jackson, and assisted her in presiding over social functions at the White House.
- William A. McElroy (1864–1892).
- Jessie McElroy (1867–1934), who died unmarried.
- Charles Edward McElroy (1873–1947), an investment broker who married Harriet Langdon Parker (1878–1965), daughter of Gen. Amasa J. Parker, Jr. in 1901. Their daughter married Schuyler Merritt II, the son of Rep. Schuyler Merritt.
She died on January 8, 1917 at the age of 75 in Albany, New York and was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km2). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.
During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.
The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.
Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.
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