May Wright Sewall

Mary Eliza Wright was born on May 27, 1844, in Greenfield, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. She was the second daughter and the youngest of four children born to Philander Montague Wright and his wife, Mary Weeks (Bracket) Wright. Mary Eliza's parents migrated from New England to Ohio, where they met and married, then moved to Wisconsin, where Philander, a former teacher, became a farmer. As a child Mary Eliza called herself May, a name she would retain throughout her life.

Philander Wright taught May at home, but she also attended public school in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and Bloomington, Wisconsin. He believed in equal opportunities among men and women, and encouraged his daughter to pursue higher education.

After teaching in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, from 1863 to 1865, May left the state to pursue studies at Northwestern Female College in Evanston, Illinois. The college was a respected school for women's education that was later absorbed into Northwestern University. May was awarded a laureate of science in 1866 and a Master of Arts degree in 1871.

May began her teaching career in 1863, when she took a job at Waukesha County, Wisconsin, but left in 1865 to attend college in Evanston, Illinois. She returned to teaching after earning a college diploma in 1866, and took a job at Grant County, Wisconsin. She later moved to Michigan. In 1869 May became a high school teacher at Plainwell, Michigan, and subsequently its first woman principal.

In 1871 May moved to Franklin, Indiana, where she taught German at the local high school. She returned to Michigan in 1872 to marry to Edwin Thompson. The newlyweds moved to Franklin the following year. May became principal at Franklin's high school; Edwin was superintendent of schools. In 1874 the Thompsons resigned their positions at Franklin and moved to Indianapolis, where they became teachers at Indianapolis High School. May taught German and English literature; Edwin taught business classes.

After her marriage to Sewall in 1880, May resigned her position at Indianapolis High School. May taught German and literature at the Indianapolis Classical School for boys; Theodore was the school's principal.

May's first husband, Edwin W. Thompson, was an educator, as was her second husband, Theodore Lovett Sewall. She had no children from either marriage.

May and Edwin W. Thompson, a mathematics teacher from Paw Paw, Michigan, were married on March 2, 1872. The couple met while she was teaching in Plainwell, Michigan. In 1873 the Thompsons moved to Franklin, Indiana, where they continued their careers as educators and school administrators, but they resigned the following year to assume teaching positions at Indianapolis High School, later known as Shortridge High School. The Thompsons moved to Indianapolis in 1874 and lived in a neighborhood known as College Corner. They became members of the College Corner Club, joined the Indianapolis Woman Suffrage Society, which was formed in April 1873, and were members of a local Unitarian church. After contracting tuberculosis, Thompson went to a sanitarium in Asheville, North Carolina, to try to regain his health. May joined him at Asheville, where he died on August 19, 1875. May returned to Indianapolis after his death to resume teaching.

May married Theodore Lovett Sewall on October 31, 1880. The two met at a Unitarian church service in Indianapolis. Sewall was born in Ohio and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He graduated from Harvard University in 1874, and opened the Indianapolis Classical School for boys on September 25, 1876. Their marriage was an equal partnership. Sewall's steady disposition balanced his "energetic" and "sometimes impractical wife. "

May and Theodore Sewall were liberal-minded progressives, whose home became a social center in the city. The couple hosted weekly gatherings of Indianapolis's intellectual community at their home to discuss the major topics of the day. They also welcomed numerous overnight guests, many of whom were well-known authors, artists, politicians, suffragists, and other social activists. Theodore, a supporter of women's rights, encouraged his wife's interests in social reform, specifically educational advancement for women and women's suffrage. He died from tuberculosis at their Indianapolis home on December 23, 1895.