MAUD RITTENHOUSE MAYNE

Sources: Review of 1939 American Literature, originally published in Collier's Year Book; article in the Cairo Citizen, "Receives Three Rare Photos of Maud and Her Dear Cairo Home," by Guyla Moreland, published about 1968, donated by Stephen Newell; Surgery in the 21st Century--Mayne Heritage website; biography of Wood Rittenhouse; and additional information about Maud provided by Robin Rittenhouse, grandnephew.

Isabella Maud Rittenhouse, teacher, writer, was born October 29, 1864 in Cairo, IL to Wood and Laura J. (Arter) Rittenhouse. Maud was the only daughter with four brothers, Wood Arter, Harry H., Fred M. and Robin C. Rittenhouse. Maud kept a diary during her growing up years and in 1939 it was published. In a review of 1939 American Literature, which was originally published in Collier's Year Book, it is stated: "Maud, diaries from 1881 to 1895 of Isabella Maud Rittenhouse, edited by R. Strout from personal journals of a typical enterprising young woman living in Cairo, Ill. between 1882 and 1895 and giving her life and loves to her diary in violet ink and in detail delightful to the student of the times; this immense volume at once caught popular fancy."
In a article in the Cairo Citizen, written by Guyla Moreland and published about 1968, it is mentioned about a restoration effort underway to restore the Rittenhouse home in Cairo. Maud is described in this article as an inimitable Victorian belle. Her diary was typical of the period in which she lived. Maud, it says, loved Cairo and her never dying descriptions of the town thrilled all who read her diary. The article also mentioned a quote by Dr. D. W. Brogan, author of "The American Character" and other books, a professor of Political Science at Cambridge University. In his book, Dr. Brogan quoted from Maud's diary the following: "Three years ago people said all the hateful things they could about Cairo. Now they are all lavish in their praise. The paper says we'll monopolize all the trade of the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Our new elevator is one of the largest in the world, new railroads are constantly striking us. We've the most magnificent hotel (run on the grandest scale) in this part of the country; telephone system; her Opera House, elegant one; street cars soon to be running, and we are altogether citified." Dr. Brogan then commented about Maud, " So wrote a very bright, very nice local girl, a girl much nicer and certainly much brighter than any Dickens or Trollope heroine I can remember. Cairo did not become a new St. Louis or Chicago but Maud liked it and believed in it and what was good enough for her should have been good enough for any reasonable body."
Maud wrote about her home in her diary on Sept. 14, 1892 after winning a thousand dollars in a literary contest and having her room done over: "My! Oh! It makes a fellow feel fine to sit down and haul out her check book and dash off her check for $400 at a pop! Next to earning money, there is nothing so delightful as spending it. $350 was for Harry and $50 for redecorating my room. The woodwork is done in light oak; the paper cream with a blue flower, sem conventional and delicate twists of gold. The ceiling is the same only lighter, pale blue plastico is finished against the ceiling with gold beading which meets on the side wall, a handsome 18 inch frieze. Below this is a picture molding, also gold. The floor matting is blue and cream, (and she dreamed of getting a handsome rug); her dress box was upholstered in cream with a dark and light blue cushion to match. Her table was covered with gobelin, blue with pale green fringe and her washstand was a pretty blue."
Maud described herself in the following way, "Edith is lovely and I am homely. Maud has black hair, sallow freckle face, pug nose and big brown eyes."
Maud met Earl Mayne, a civil engineer, while he was working on the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi River at Cairo. They fell in love and became engaged. Earl Mayne became a prominent doctor in New York and they married when he started his medical career. Dr. Mayne and Maud moved to a suburb of Brooklyn, NY, where they lived many years and had three daughters. Dr. Mayne practiced medicine until 1948 and died June 9, 1949.
(Note: In an email from Maud's grand-nephew, Robin Rittenhouse, it has been learned that Maud died on Saturday, March 2, 1946 at her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. Mr. Rittenhouse also said that the Rittenhouse home was located at 703 Walnut St. (now Martin Luther King Blvd.) in Cairo. He said that the house is no longer there, but he has a picture of it which hung prominently in his grandfather's home for many years. His grandfather was Maud's youngest brother, Robin C. Rittenhouse. Go to Maud's obituary).

Maud described in her diary the dress and the scenery for the Opera House play, SUZANNE, in which she had the starring role in April 1884, as follows: "My costume for the third act was as follows: My dress of pink satin with long train, blue satin court front, hand-painted, coat of pink, blouse vest of blue--puffed, hair worn high with pink ostrich tips and gilt dagger ornaments, elegant gloves, white fan and spray of smylax and pink and Marchal Niel roses dropping from side of vest at throat, down below waist, pink boots, handsome lace. The scene was the most magnificent ever set in the Opera House. A conservatory with statues, plants and real plants, studded with Japanese lanterns, fragrant with flowers, spinkled with garden seats, at the rear a flight of marble steps on the posts at the base of which were clusters of gas-jets gleaming through cut porcelain. Mama says that the point where Kate and I in our elegant costumes (Kate in a regal black-velvet with pearls) stood on the portico coming down the stairs, while Prosper and the Baron waged war in the foreground, was so theatrical that it quite carried her away."