Background
Lydia Avery Coonley was born at Lynchburg, Va. , the daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Susan Howes (Look) Avery. She was a descendant of Christopher Avery who emigrated from England and settled in Salem, Massachussets, about 1630.
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Lydia Arms Avery Coonley Ward
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Her life was spent chiefly in Louisville, Ky. Removing to Chicago in 1873, she soon won a prominent place in the social and cultural life of that city. For nearly a quarter-century her home was a center of "light and leading" for all who were in any way identified with Chicago's higher interests, and for many distinguished visitors to the city as well. "In that home, " wrote Jane Addams, "I first unfolded plans for founding a settlement in Chicago, and met with that ready sympathy and understanding which her adventuring and facile mind was always ready to extend to a new cause she believed to be righteous. " After about 1909, save for rather frequent periods of travel, she lived at Wyoming, N. Y. , in which village the Avery family had maintained an ancestral summer residence for many decades. Here, as previously in Chicago, she kept a kind of "open house" for the world at large and, in particular, for young and struggling workers in the arts. Here, also, she organized an elaborate summer school, liberally attended sessions of which were held in 1914, 1916, and 1917. A beautiful community hall was dedicated in 1902 in the village of Wyoming as a tangible expression of her generosity and public spirit. Although she was a frequent contributor to various periodicals from about 1878 onward, her first book, Under the Pines and Other Verses, did not appear until 1895. This was followed by Singing Verses for Children (1897), Love Songs (1898), and in 1921 by a collected edition of her poems in three volumes entitled The Melody of Life, The Melody of Love, and The Melody of Childhood. She also wrote the words for Dr. George F. Root's cantata Our Flag with the Stars and Stripes (1896), and for several other musical compositions. While a few of her poems are reprinted in some of the standard anthologies and have become widely known, her literary work was more of a recreational and ephemeral by-product than the chief concern of a life spent in untiring human service. She was one of those whose peculiar genius finds its most congenial expression in the exercise of direct inspirational influence through personal contact, and in this sphere she made a notable contribution to American life - a contribution which was vicariously reflected in the work of many men and women who became prominent in various cultural activities. She died in Chicago, survived by four of six children by her first husband.
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In 1867 she married to John Clark Coonley. Her first husband died in 1882, and on March 18, 1897, she was married to the scientist, Henry Augustus Ward.
