Although she only lived in Arkansas a short period of time, Miss Mary Ann Abel had a tremendous impact on volunteerism and community involvement across the state. Mary Ann was born at Birmingham, Alabama on June 1, 1884 into one of the oldest families of that city. Her parents were Henry and Alsa Camilla Abel. Henry had been involved in the wagon business in early Birmingham history and was quite successful. Henry also had a large family and Mary had seven siblings. Mary was lovingly nicknamed Mamie. It was while she lived at Birmingham that Mary Ann began to show an interest in social work.
Around 1915, Miss Mary Ann Abel moved to Framingham, Massachusetts and took a job working with an organization doing research in tuberculosis. This much feared disease was the leading cause of death in America at that time and was characterized by fatigue, night sweats and the wasting away of victims. Mary Ann worked as educational assistant with the Framingham Health Demonstration and was quoted in numerous newspapers about how it took a community to change things. She also was a field worker for the National Tuberculosis Association and worked with schools.
In December 1918, Miss Abel went to work for the southern division of the Bureau of the After-Care for Disabled Soldiers in Atlanta, Georgia. This organization was responsible for helping wounded returning veterans from World War I adjust to civilian life. By early 1919, she was director of this bureau. In a February 1919 visit to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Miss Abel explained the role of the agency, "the purpose of the bureau and the federal board is not to give each man a pension and let that man be dependent on his country for the remainder of his life, but to educate him in such a manner that no matter what his handicap may be, he will be enabled to earn as much, and perhaps more, as he made previous to his enlistment."
After a year at this job, she returned home to Birmingham where she became field representative of the Near East Relief Drive for southeastern Alabama. Her headquarters was set up in the Gay-Teague Hotel at Montgomery. The Near East Relief Drive was the name of the American charity organized in response to the Armenian genocide during World War I. Mary Abel would only have this job a few months though.
Due to her work in Massachusetts and Atlanta, Mary Ann Abel was hired as a field secretary of the Arkansas Public Health Association in September 1920. On October 4, she established her headquarters for this area at Helena in Phillips County, Arkansas. Over the next few months, Miss Abel was able to achieve a number of highly successful goals. Phillips County was first in the state to exceed it's quota in the sale of tuberculosis Christmas stamps. She also aided in creation of the Phillips County Tuberculosis Committee. Her energetic approach so endeared herself to the people of Phillips County that everyone wanted to get involved in ending that disease. The committee urged that a tuberculosis sanitarium be built at Helena and even had tents set up for patients with floors and screens so they could be treated properly.
In addition to fighting tuberculosis, Mary Abel was instrumental in getting the entire city to clean up. She first introduced the Modern Health Crusade into local schools where children were encouraged to bring in dead or alive rats so they could be exterminated. Rats were a major cause of disease spread. Helena was also divided into districts and businesses volunteered to clean them up. Wholesale houses provided their trucks to carry away debris and other unsightly items. The ever energetic Abel was then appointed by the City Council to a Sanitary Commission in charge of mosquito control work. Tall grass was cut and water was drained. Ditches were also oiled and other measures introduced that almost wiped out the mosquito problem in 1921. By April 1921, she had been appointed Executive Secretary of the Phillips County Crusade and was invited by Arkansas Governor Thomas McRae to address the Arkansas Public Health Association in Little Rock. This took place in the Senate chamber of the Old State House. Also in April 1921, Mary Abel was elected secretary of the Phillips County Game Protective Association to combat illegal hunting.
Although Mary Abel often said how much she loved Phillips County, Arkansas, her schedule was starting to affect her. She had been traveling all around the state giving speeches and attending luncheons in 1921. Miss Abel was also disappointed on how much local governments were spending on public health. In October 1921 she related the following to a state newspaper, "At the recent county fair, the people were crowded around the livestock exhibits, while extremely few were interested in the babies being weighed and measured in the Red Cross booth." By late 1921, she was no longer able to provide a weekly letter to the Helena Times because of illness.
Rest and getting away from the mosquitoes and other conditions along the Mississippi River must have helped Mary Ann because she soon took a new position as District Representative of the American Red Cross in North Carolina. She spent much of 1922 visiting and making speeches around that state and lived at Raleigh.
In January 1923, Miss Mary Ann Abel accepted a position at Leaksville-Spray Institute. She would be in charge of the female students at this educational institution. With her acceptance, she said the following about her career, " Early in my college life I knew I wanted to enter social service and all my public life has been devoted to helping others and to making this old world a cleaner, healthier, better and happier place in which to live and let others live."
Never staying anywhere long seemed to be a feature of Mary Ann Abel's life because she was living at Rochester, New York by the end of the 1920s. Mary Ann worked with a number of local charities in that city. By 1930, Miss Abel was working as a salesperson in a plumbing company at Manhattan, New York. In 1940, she listed her occupation as investigator but still resided in New York. Her beloved mother passed away in 1945 and not much is known about Mary Ann after that tragedy. She passed away on September 7, 1971 at the age of 87 and is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama. For such a person who traveled the country and was involved with so much social work, her latter years must have been spent in relative quiet as not much is recorded. Perhaps, a quote by Mary Ann about her life in 1923 is the best way to end this biography.
"My public work has been done in Memphis, Tennessee, Rochester, New York, New York City, Boston, all over the Middle West, Arkansas, California and the Dominion of Canada. I have done a varying line of investigations and studies, newspaper work, tuberculosis work, health educational work and factory recreation work. All these lines of endeavor have made me a broader and a more understanding woman and have helped me to appreciate the difficulties which beset our paths whether we live in a small village or a roaring city, on a farm or in a lofty tenement. I can only hope sincerely that in each instance the work I did helped the community in which I lived as much as it helped me personally."
Sources:
The Boston Globe (Boston, Mass) 18 Jan 1918, Fri - Page 3
The Boston Globe (Boston, Mass) 8 June 1918, Sat - Page 4
The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) 29 Dec 1918, Sun - Page 6
Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee) 7 Feb 1919, Fri - Page 6
Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, Tennessee) 8 Feb 1919, Sat - Page 6
The Manning Times (Manning, South Carolina) 14 May 1919, Wed - Page 1
The Watchman and Southron (Sumter, South Carolina) 13 Sep 1919, Sat - Page 2
The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama) 11 Jan 1920, Sun - Page 6
The Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama) 22 Feb 1920, Sun - Page 10
Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) 14 Sep 1920, Tue - Page 5
Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) 16 Oct 1920, Sun - Page 9
Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) 27 March 1921, Sun - Page 12
Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) 13 April 1921, Wed - Page 10
Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) 15 April 1921, Fri - Page 5
Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) 23 April 1921, Sat - Page 2
Little Rock Daily News (Little Rock, Arkansas) 26 April 1921, Tue - Page 6
Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) 2 Oct 1921, Sun - Page 6
Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) 16 Oct 1921, Sun - Page 34
The Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana) 21 Nov 1921, Mon - Page 7
New York Herald (New York, New York) 6 Dec 1921, Tue - Page 10
Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, North Carolina) 21 Oct 1922, Sat - Page 3
The Charlotte News (Charlotte, North Carolina) 1 Nov 1922, Wed - Page 2
The Reidsville Review (Reidsville, North Carolina) 31 Jan 1923, Wed - Page 3
Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York) 22 Dec 1927, Thu - Page 25
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York) 12 Jan 1931, Mon - Page 2
The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) 5 May 1945, Sat - Page 2
(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/164436439/mary-ann-abel: assessed 21 October 2021, memorial page for Mary Ann Abel (1 June 1884 - 7 Sep 1971) Find A Grave Memorial ID 164436439, citing Forest Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama. Maintained by Ed Stallings (contributor)
Ancestry.com Mary A. Abel