Mary Cheney Greeley

Mary Cheney Greeley - wife of Horace Greeley (1811-1872) - the American newspaper editor. Early in their marriage he used her $5000 in savings to fund a newspaper. The marriage was not a happy one and although Horace Greeley avoided his wife and their house, he kept her almost constantly pregnant. Five of their seven children died quite young, at least some of them of neglect.

Greeley was an advocate of the Graham Diet and a Spiritualist. It's likely that she was clinically depressed and a sufferer of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. She believed one of their children, a 4 or 5 year old boy, was a spirit medium and constantly demanded that he relay communications from the afterlife. After his death, she hired the 11-year-old Margaret Fox to stay at her house and contact him. Little is known of her early life and her oppressive relationship with her husband colored her life.

She died on October 30, 1872. Her obituary in the New York Times stated that the cause of death was a severe attack of lung disease, from which she had been suffering for nearly twenty years. Horace Greeley, who at the time was running for President of the United States, died soon after.

Other Powers, The Life of Victoria Woodhull contains a chapter on the life and beliefs of Mary Greeley.