Mary J. Doudna, a lifelong member of Somerset Monthly Meeting, was born on 2/15/1876, the daughter of Joseph W. and Rosetta (Hall) Doudna. When she was twelve, Eliza Varney, a minister of Bloomfield Monthly Meeting, Ontario, Canada, visited Ohio Yearly Meeting (1888), and her visit then and the next year made a deep impression on Mary, and doubtless also on her twin sister Sara. Eliza paid much attention to he children. In 1891 Mary and Sara attended Boarding School at Barnesville. In 1908 they went as helpers to Tunesassa Indian School near Salamanca, N.Y., maintained by Philadelphia Friends.
Mary was appointed elder by her meeting in 1943. She taught the meeting's primary school from 1934 to 1944, in the brick schoolhouse across the road from Chestnut Ridge Meetinghouse, the same schoolhouse where she went as a child. She lived an exemplary life, and was consistent in her dress and was a familiar figure in town with her bonnet and shawl. She would often have a few words of encouragement or exhortation in meeting. She manifested a meek, humble, loving spirit over the years and to the very last. Her health failed noticeably toward the end, during which time she was cared for by her niece Beulah M. Hall. Death came on 10/30/1968, and her funeral was held at the Chestnut Ridge Meetinghouse on 11/3/1968. |
