Mary E. Cobb
Mary E. Cobb was the first known American manicurist and introduced modern nail manicuring to Britain and the United States.
Mary E. Cobb was born in May 1852 in Lynchburg, Virginia to Pleasant A. Cobb, a carpenter and Mary Wade. Cobb was a descendant of Ambrose Cobbs, the founder of a prominent and politically powerful southern dynasty who came from England as early as 1635. After the Civil War Cobb moved to New York City with her mother and two brothers. It was in New York in 1874 that she met and married Dr. Joseph Parker Pray, a New England podiatrist who made a fortune purveying foot powders and ladies cosmetics.
Source: Wikipedia