Lucy Gardner Ives

Burial Location: Magnolia Path, Lot # 202 Grave # 8

Lucy Gardner was born in Hingham, Massachusetts to parents Perez Gardner and Silence Gardner. She was one of nine children. Her siblings were: Perez, Thomas, Sybil, Hosea, Silence, Alexander, Ruth and Aaron. Nothing is known of her early life or education.

She married William Ives of Salem Massachusetts on May 12, 1824. The location of the marriage is not known. The couple had seven children: Mary Bradshaw (1825), Lucy Gardner (1826), William Hale (1829) Susan Shillaber (1831), Franklin Gardner (1834), Benjamin Franklin (1837), Helen May (1843).

Lucy became a member of the North Church in Salem on April 2, 1825. Both she and her husband William were active abolitionists. The Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society was first organized in 1832. At that time all the members were women of Color. It was the first society of its kind in the United States. Its initial purpose was to found secular and Sabbath schools for free Black men and women, and also to assist newly freed or enslaved people who had escaped. The women wanted to voice their opposition to racial segregation or discrimination in the northern states. They were not allowed to be members of the same organizations as men. Many members were self-supporting members of the working class.

By 1834, members also included white women. In 1835, Lucy Ives was elected vice president of the organization and held this office from 1835 until 1841. In 1843, she was elected president, although she was reluctant at first to serve in this position, she held it until 1865, when the Salem Female Antislavery Society disbanded at the end of the Civil War. Meetings were held in members’ houses. Fundraising was done through bazaars, and supported local Black churches as well as the continuing issues faced by Black families and individuals. Lecture series helped to educate members and to inspire them in the continuation of their work.

After the death in 1875 of William Ives, Lucy moved to Chicago Illinois, where she lived with one of her daughters until her own death on October 24, 1882.

Sources Consulted: ‍

• New York Public Library Members of the North Church, Salem Massachusetts, 1827 edition ‍
• Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum. Salem Massachusetts. Phillips Library Finding Aids. William S. Ives Papers 1814-1854. Collection Identifier Mss. 272‍
• Wikipedia: Salem Observer Wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Salem_Observer&oldid 1010704782.
• Wiki tree:
  • Lucy Gardner Ives (1800-1882)
  • William Ives (1794-1875)
• Book: Julie Roy Jeffrey. Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement: The Great Silent Army of Abolitionists. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London: 1998.