Mary Tenney Castle
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Mary Tenney Castle (October 26, 1819 — March 13, 1907), known as Mother Castle, was an American missionary and philanthropist in the Hawaiian Islands.
Mary Ann Tenney was born in Plainfield, New York, the daughter of Levi Tenney and Mary Kingsbury Tenney. She attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.[1]
In Hawaii
Mary Tenney arrived in Hawaii as a new bride in 1843. She raised her niece, Mary, and had nine more Castle children, all born in Hawaii between 1844 and 1862. She was known as "Mother Castle".[2] She was interested in progressive education, with advice from John Dewey, a family friend.[3] "Mother Castle lived with a serenity and cheerfulness that made her home a Mecca to all visitors interested in the better side of Hawaiian life," recalled one obituary in 1907.[4]
In widowhood, she set up the Samuel N. Castle Memorial Trust, to fund educational scholarships, health programs, and building projects in Honolulu. Her gift of $10,000 started the Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Society of the Hawaiian Islands in 1895.[5] The trust is now the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation.[6][7]
