Mary Ellen Reid – A Name to a Face

YWCA bible class 1907, Mary Ellen Reid bottom row second from right

January 26, 2024

By Shannon Butler

There are lots of photographs of interesting people in our collections here in the Local History Room. Some of those people have been properly identified, while others have not. It can be somewhat difficult to put a name to a face, when everyone who might have remembered that face is gone. However, sometimes we get lucky and a research request can yield an answer that we never expected, and even a story that was lost to history. Not long ago, I received a request from a man looking for his Great-Aunt Mary, and as soon as I began my search, I was able to finally identify some of the ladies in our Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) photo collection.

Mary Ellen Reid was born in 1873 in Aurora, Illinois, where she studied in local schools before becoming heavily involved with the YWCA. She was sent by the organization to Oxford, England, where she trained in bible studies. By 1901, she had made her way to Poughkeepsie, where she began her work as an executive secretary for the YWCA of Poughkeepsie. Reid took part in just about every activity, from bible classes to gymnastics. She even lived at the YWCA building that once stood on Cannon Street. During World War I, Reid grew even busier, as she and the rest of the young ladies joined the war effort. The YWCA was the first organization to send administrative workers overseas to assist the U.S. Armed Forces during World War I. Reid toured several cities in 1917, giving speeches to large audiences about the importance of the War Work program.

In the 1920’s, the old Cedarcliff estate off of Bancroft Road, with its mansion and 90 acres, was given to the YWCA, and Reid moved there to begin work on improving the property for use as the new headquarters and facility. By 1927, a swimming pool and a clubhouse were added to the property. During the Great Depression, Reid saw to the needs of unemployed women in need of shelter by offering up the club’s reading room and reception room where any girl could, “come in and read, rest, wait for interviews, or occupy herself in some way to relieve the hours of unemployment.” During this time, Reid had earned a place on the Board of Education for Poughkeepsie, which she held until 1935.

While uncovering her story, it became clear to me that through the course of these years, Mary Ellen Reid had only one person by her side who she clearly cared very deeply for; a woman named Dr. Alice Stone Woolley. The two met while employed at the YWCA around 1910 and from that point on, they were pretty much inseparable. Dr. Woolley is listed on the 1910 census records as Mary's “companion” (which is a term we rarely see in the census records). When she went to serve her country as a doctor overseas during WWI, Dr. Woolley listed Mary as her next-of-kin. Finally, when Dr. Woolley died in 1946, she left the bulk of her estate to Mary! After Mary’s companion died, she moved to Southbridge, Massachusetts, where she died in 1957. But all these years later, after finding her and Dr. Woolley in a Poughkeepsie Journal article, I was able to connect those faces to the ones seen in several of our YWCA photos. A win-win for historical research!