Mary V. Tingley Lawrence

Mary V. Tingley Lawrence (née Tingley; pen name, Ridinghood; ca. 1840 – 1931) was an American writer and customs inspector.^[1]

Mary V. Tingley Lawrence
Portrait of Mrs. Lawrence, oil on canvas, by John Singer Sargent, 1881
Born	Mary Viola Tingley ca. 1840 Indiana, U.S.
Died	April 24, 1931 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Pen name	Ridinghood
Occupation	writer journalist customs inspector
Spouse	James Henry Lawrence

Early life and education

Mary Viola Tingley was born in Indiana, ca. 1840,^[2] and came to California in 1852.^[3] Her father was Col. George B. Tingley of Kentucky, a pioneer.^[1] Col. Tingley, a lawyer, was a native of Ohio. He removed to Indiana, and there served in the Legislature with Vice-President-elect Thomas A. Hendricks and Thomas J. Henley. Tingley served as an officer in the Mexican–American War; came across the plains to California in 1849 with Henley; was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate; was defeated for Congress in 1851. He died at San Francisco, 1862.^[4]

Louise Clappe was Mary's teacher and friend.^[5]

Career

Lawrence in an 1893 publication.

It is as "Ridinghood," her pen name, that Lawrence was best known. Using that pen name, she was a correspondent for The Union, writing a letter each week from San Francisco on social matters. The letters attracted significant attention, and the name "Ridinghood" became a household word among the families in the mining centers of California and Nevada. They also received favorable notice from the New-York Tribune and the Springfield Republican. She did work in many journalistic fields for The Daily Alta California , San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner , San Francisco Evening Bulletin, and The Argonaut, as well as in her sketches for Overland Monthly on "A Summer With a Countess", relating to Theresa Yelverton or Lady Avonmore, "A Mountain Posy," "College Charlemagne", and others. She also traveled in the western U.S. as correspondent for different California journals. Amid all the temptations and inducements to write personals of a spicy or acrid nature, Lawrence took pleasure in thinking that she never wrote a line in her life that hurt someone.^[1]

Probably the best known is her name in connection with the collection of the poems by early Californian writers known as Outcroppings. She was also the author of a novel.^[1]

She served as the Honorary President of Pacific Coast Women's Press Association (also Charter Member);^[3] President Emeritus of the Ina Coolbrith Circle; and was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution.^[2]

For 30 years, Lawrence served as Customs Inspector of the Port of San Francisco,^[3] her responsibility being Inspector for Ladies on the Pacific steamships.^[6]

Personal life

She married Hon. Senator James Henry Lawrence (or Laurence),^[1] who became a California State Senator.^[2]

After an illness of several months,^[3] Mary Lawrence died in San Francisco, April 24, 1931, age 91.^[2]