Mary Onahan Gallery

Mary Onahan Gallery (July 22, 1866 – January 12, 1941) was an American writer and editor. She was a critic, and did much work for newspapers and magazines.[1]

Mary Josephine Onahan
BornMary Josephine Onahan
July 22, 1866
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJanuary 12, 1941(1941-01-12) (aged 74)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting placeCalvary Cemetery, Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
Occupationwriter, editor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSacred Heart Academy
Spouse
Daniel Vincent Gallery
​
​
(m. 1898)​
ChildrenDaniel V., Jr., John Ireland, William Onahan, Mary Margaret, Phillip Daly, Martha Nancy

Early years and education

Mary ("Molly") Josephine Onahan was born in Chicago, Illinois, July 22, 1866.[2] She was the daughter of William J. Onahan and Margaret (Duffy) Onahan. There were five older siblings in the family, all of whom died in infancy.[3]

Gallery was educated at the Sacred Heart Academy, from which she graduated at an early age.[1] Her aunt was one of the most valued and accomplished members of the order. Her education continued in St. Louis and in her father's house, which was lined with books and curios from attic to cellar, and in whose library included many of the history-making men and women of the day.[4]

Career

On September 5, 1898, she married Daniel Vincent Gallery (born Chicago, 1865), lawyer, who was the son of Daniel J. and Mary A. (Daly) Gallery. Their children were Daniel V., Jr., John Ireland, William Onahan, Mary Margaret, Phillip Daly, and Martha Nancy.[5]

Gallery was a contributor to all of the Chicago daily papers, and a number of her articles were copied by the dailies of New York City. She believed that one of the important duties of American Catholics was to see that the church was done justice to in the columns of the daily press.[4]

She also did regular editorial work for the Catholic papers, and articles from her pen appeared in a number of magazines. These articles covered a wide range of subjects, literary, musical, philanthropic; but the ones in which she took special interest were those telling of efforts for the practical betterment of the world, for, as one writer said of her:— "'Molly' Onahan would take more pleasure in the approving whoop of a lot of 'newsies' than in prim congratulations from all the prelates of a general council." Her work was the more effective because it was entirely free from obtrusive religiosity and air of controversial championship. She was constitutionally and everlastingly a bright woman whose blue-stockingism was but one side of her character.

Gallery also wrote verse, though she seldom owned up to it. Her papers at the Representative Women's and the Catholic Congress were among the best read. Of her style Walter Lecky said:— "Although the youngest of Chicago's literary coterie, she is a writer of marked ability. There is a graceful mingling of strength and delicacy in her writings. If she will have patience, learn to use the pruning hook, her future is assured. The product of Ireland in America, a Celt in artistic environment—the only environment natural to a Celt—she points to what the Celt must be before another century lapses."[6] Gallery died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 12, 1941.[2]

Selected works
  • John Mitchel's Daughter
  • Pierre Loti
  • Chicago's White City by the Sea, 1893
  • Catholic Women's Part in Philanthropy, 1893[7]
  • An Incident in Old Bologna, 1895
  • Life of William J. Onahan : stories of men who made Chicago, 1929

References
  1. McBride 1897, p. 433.
  2. Pahorezki 1942, p. 6.
  3. Illinois State Historical Society 1919, p. 641.
  4. Paulist Fathers 1897, p. 712.
  5. Marquis 1911, p. 256.
  6. Paulist Fathers 1897, p. 713.
  7. Sewall 1894, p. 818.

Attribution
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Illinois State Historical Society (1919). Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 11, Part 2 (Public domain ed.). Illinois State Historical Society.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Marquis, Albert Nelson (1911). The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, 1911 (Public domain ed.). A.N. Marquis.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McBride, D. H. (1897). Immortelles of Catholic Columbian Literature: Compiled from the Work of American Catholic Women Writers (Public domain ed.). D. H. McBride.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Paulist Fathers (1897). Catholic World. 65 (Public domain ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Sewall, May Wright (1894). The World's Congress of Representative Women: A Historical Resume for Popular Circulation of the World's Congress of Representative Women, Convened in Chicago on May 15, and Adjourned on May 22, 1893, Under the Auspices of the Woman's Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary. 2 (Public domain ed.). Rand, McNally.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Bibliography
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