Rowena (Morse) Mann, 1870-1958

Rowena (Morse) Mann, Unitarian minister, author and lecturer, was born in Ithaca, New York, on June 6, 1870, the daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Fitchette) Morse. The family moved to Iowa, where they farmed on government land; RMM received her B.S. from the University of Iowa in 1891. After graduation, she taught high school in Omaha, Nebraska, where she met Newton Mann, a Unitarian minister who encouraged her to study for the ministry. She went to the University of Chicago Divinity School from 1898 to 1900, and won a travelling fellowship to study philosophy at the University of Berlin, 1900-1903. In 1904, RMM became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Jena. During this period she travelled widely in Europe, visiting Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Russia.

RMM was ordained a Unitarian minister in 1906, and was appointed pastor in Geneva, Illinois (1905-1906), in Keokuk, Iowa (1906-1910), and at Third Church, Chicago (1910-1925). She was Director of the West Unitarian Conference from 1912 until 1916. She married the Rev. Newton Mann in 1912; he died in 1926. In 1919 she took the place of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw on a speaking tour on behalf of the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. She campaigned for Woodrow Wilson in 1920 and participated in the Illinois State Democratic campaign in 1922 and in Roosevelt's campaign in 1932. During the 1920s and 1930s she lectured extensively on art, ethics, peace and politics. Her candidacy for a diplomatic post in Europe was suggested by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1933, engaged the interest of Eleanor Roosevelt, and was supported by Molly Dewson. The appointment of a woman was, however, at the time deemed unacceptable to Europeans. In 1933, when RMM was honored by the University of Jena and lectured there, she experienced first-hand the horrors of Germany under Hitler.

On her return to America, she lectured widely on the dangers of Nazism and German militarism. She died in Chicago in 1958.