Name given as Mary Packer Cummings in
Had erected, in 1886, Packer Memorial Church on the L.U. campus.

Mary was born on January 20, 1839, the third oldest of seven Packer children. A bit of a bohemian, Mary was a great patroness of the arts. She was quite fond of art, music and literature as her acquisitions from her travels will reflect.

By 1885, Mary, who was single and 46 years of age, was the only member left in the immediate family. Women were viewed as second-class citizens, but their rights had been greatly expanded after New York’s passing of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1848 which many states had effectively mirrored. In order to gain control of her father’s fortune, Mary decided it was time she married. This entered into the picture Mr. Charles Cummings.

Charles was a close family friend who worked for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Mary was very intelligent, and definitely ahead of her time: husband-to-be Charles signed a pre-nuptial agreement - the first pre-nuptial agreement to be filed in Carbon County, Pennsylvania! It stated Mary would receive the home, the property and more importantly, the family fortune. In return, Charles would receive $100,000 dollars in Lehigh Valley Railroad stock. They were married on April 7, 1885. Mary retained the title of Mrs. while inheriting the family fortune - $54 and a half million dollars - which made her the wealthiest woman in the United States; second in the world just behind Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England. Mary and Charles divorced in 1893. Charles would eventually remarry Sarah Ormsby. Remaining the close family friends that they were, Mary named Charles, Sarah and their family in her will.

Mary was vacationing in Cape May, New Jersey in August of 1912 when she fell ill. She entered into rest on October 29, 1912 at the age of 73, passing away peacefully in her sleep. She was the only child to see the 20th Century. An interesting fact, in Mary’s lifetime, she saw 22 states come into the Union.