Following her husband's death in 1910, Mary's life was drastically changed. She had been looking forward to having the house all to herself, Henry, and their children as Henry's sister had been hired to work as a house mother at a fraternity on campus, but now she could not afford to stay in the house. Bills were mounting and there was no money coming in.
Mary prepared for the house to be sold, but she was later able to rent it. Her daughters continued in school and they all began staying at Mary's father's home nearby. Dr. Winston had remodeled the top floor to include a room for his granddaughters, Caroline and Josephine, and one for Mary's sister, Alice, who had given up her room for Mary and baby Henry.
Caroline claimed later in life that they were welcomed with enthusiasm and "'never once made to feel unwanted.'"
Mary had been hoping the math department at the University of Kansas would hire her to fill her late husband's position. In fact, Henry had told Mary's father that if anything were to happen to him, the university would hire Mary for his position.
Although the faculty was familiar with Mary's skills, they searched for a male mathematician instead. The nepotism rule in place at the time prevented them from hiring Mary while her sister Alice taught in the English department.
Also important to Mary following Henry's death was how to finish his book. He had proofread and returned the first 272 pages to the state printer in Topeka the last day he was alive but there were still fifty unproofed pages.
Mary worked diligently with a few of Henry's colleagues at the university to finish. The manuscript was finally finished, and published as Volume VI No. 1 of the "Science Bulletin" in the Bulletin of the University of Kansas, dated December 1911.
Henry had also nearly completed the preface, giving a history of the theory of collineations. Mary followed it with her own note:
The above incomplete draft of the preface probably includes nearly all, except acknowledgements, that the author intended to say. Otherwise the manuscript of. this volume was complete and the proof had been read and correct through to page 272, when his sudden death on the night of February 17, 1910, put an end to his labors. Others have read the remainder of the proof. Doubtless, errors have crept in which the aughtor would have corrected if he had lived to read the proof himself. It is to be regretted that a series of unfortunate circumstances has so long delayed the publication of this work.
With Henry's manuscript finally published, Mary needed to find work. She knew her chances of finding a position commensurate with her knowledge and training would be increased if she returned to the University of Chicago for a term. By taking some courses there, she would be able to receive recommendations from professors.
She was hesitant, however, to leave her children. Although there were many family members and friends in Lawrence who could offer help and encouraged her to go, she was still too worried about her children to leave them for an entire college term.
In the fall of 1913, Mary was hired at Washburn College in Topeka. When Mary was hired as an assistant professor of mathematics, there was a lack of public high schools, so Washburn, like many other colleges of the time, enrolled many students first in its Academy. It functioned like a preparatory school, offering high school classes in English, history, mathematics, and other subjects. The Academy continued at Washburn until June 1918, and even Caroline and Josephine attended there for at least a year.
The faculty at Washburn was made up of both men and women who had earned bachelor's or master's degrees at Yale, Washburn, KU, and West Virginia. However, few members had doctorates. Mary was the only woman with a doctorate and the mathematics department chair, William Harshbarger, was the only other member of the department.
A Washburn graduate, Harshbarger was named department chair in 1895 following his graduation in 1893. He had taken some graduate courses at the University of Chicago during the summers of 1895 and 1896, but he had never earned an advanced degree.
He and Mary were acquaintances before she joined the faculty at Washburn. Harshbarger had given a eulogy at a memorial service on the KU campus about a month after Henry's death. He praised Henry for promoting "'better teaching of mathematics in the colleges and high schools of the state.'"
Mary moved into a boarding house on campus with other members of the faculty. She knew her position was not prestigious and that she had considerably more training than Harshbarger. "Harsh," as he was known on campus and especially to his students, was quite popular. Mary's daughter Caroline later claimed that Mary never received the same high student evaluations as he did. Harsh knew when he recommended her for the appointment at Washburn that she was well-qualified. However, she was never promoted during her eight years there.
Teaching at Washburn allowed her to leave her children in Lawrence and travel the twenty-five mile journey by train on the weekends. Josephine, however, eventually grew homesick for her mother, and in the fall of 1914, she joined her mother in Topeka and was enrolled in a nearby elementary school. Caroline also joined her mother and sister the following fall. She was ready to begin high school and rode the city bus to the high school about two miles from the Washburn campus. After a semester, however, she decided to attend the Academy on campus.
At Washburn, there were between thirteen and sixteen possible course offerings each semester in the mathematics department. Mary usually taught Trigonometry, College Algebra, Modern Analytic Geometry, Solid Geometry, and a "Teachers Course," which was designed to instruct prospective teachers in the methods of teaching branches of elementary and high school mathematics.
Contemporaries and Related Figures
