Mary Ware

Mary Roper Harris Ware (born April 11, 1828 in Monroe County, Tennessee; died May 25, 1915 in Birmingham) was a writer and poet, published under her pen name Gertrude Glenn.

Mary was one of three children born to George and Matilda Roper Harris of Madisonville, Tennessee. The family relocated to Shelby County in 1844 where her younger brother, Edmund had already begun a career in writing. With his encouragement, she began contributing poems to newspapers, and was first published in the Mobile Advertiser in 1852.

After Edmund's untimely death, Mary continued to compose poems, which were published in numerous newspaper, magazines and journals, including The South, Home Circle, and Godey's Lady's Book. Her poems for children appeared regularly in Burke's Weekly. She also wrote prose features, recounting Native American legends and romantic stories.

In September 1863 she married recently-widowed Shelby Iron Company executive Horace Ware. The couple moved to Birmingham in 1883. Though they had no children of their own, Mary was close to her four neices, daughters of her other brother, Bruce.

Horace Ware died in July 1890. In the 1910s she published a 260-page volume of her collected verse, under the title, Poems. She died in May 1915 and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.

References

• Tardy, Mary T., editor (1872) The Living Female Writers of the South Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger
• Sawyer, Benjamin F. (January 1893) "Mary Ware", in The Magazine of Poetry. Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 14–17
• McKenzie, Robert H. (July 1973) "Horace Ware: Alabama Iron Pioneer." Alabama Review. Vol. 26, pp. 157–172
• "Mary Ware (writer)" (January 22, 2021) Wikipedia - accessed January 22, 2021

External links

• Mary Ware at Findagrave.com