Mary C. Seward
Mary Holden Coggeshall Seward , commonly known as Mary C. Seward, was an American poet, composer, and prominent parliamentarian serving humanitarian and womans club movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A number of her works were published under the pseudonym Agnes Burney , including several developed in collaboration with her spouse, Theodore F. Seward, an internationally known composer and music educator in his day. She became a groundbreaking advocate for the care and education of blind babies and young children during her later years, serving as president of the department for the blind of the International Sunshine Society.
Seward was born Mary Holden Coggeshall in New London, Connecticut. Her father, William Holden Coggeshall, was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a descendent of John Coggeshall, first president of the colony of Rhode Island. She was educated at the New London Female Academy where she studied under Hiram W. Farnsworth. In 1860 she married Theodore F. Seward, a composer and music teacher who had previously worked as organist of a New London church. They lived in Rochester and Brooklyn in New York before relocating to East Orange, New Jersey in 1868.
Source: Wikipedia