Mary Dillingham Frear

Mary Emma Dillingham Frear (1870-1951) was First Lady of the Territory of Hawaii from 1907 to 1913, and was a regent of the University of Hawaii for two decades. The granddaughter of missionaries, she was the first Hawaii-born wife of a governor of Hawaii. Background and family She was born as Mary Emma Dillingham in Honolulu on June 30, 1870, but was nicknamed May. Her father Benjamin Franklin Dillingham was the founder of the Oahu Railway and Land Company. Her mother Emma Louise Smith was the daughter of missionaries Lowell Smith and Abigail Willis Tenney, who arrived in Honolulu on May 31, 1833. They were part of the sixth company of missionaries from New London, Connecticut. Her brother Walter F. Dillingham became a successful industrialist in Hawaii. Two other brothers died in infancy. Marion, her only sister, became the wife of Presbyterian minister John Pinney Erdman. At Punahou School in Honolulu, her Greek language instructor was Yale graduate Walter F. Frear. When she enrolled at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, he returned to Yale Law School to pursue his LL.D. After graduating from their respective schools, they returned to Honolulu and married on August 1, 1893. They adopted two daughters, Virginia and Margaret.