Mary Knight Wood

Mary Knight Wood Mason (17 April 1857 – 20 December 1944) was an American pianist, music educator, and composer. She was born in Easthampton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Lieutenant-governor, manufacturer and philanthropist Horatio G. Knight and Mary Ann Huntoon Knight. She attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, where she studied music with Karl Klauser. She continued her education at the Charlier Institute in New York, and then went to Boston to study under Benjamin Johnson Lang. She had further studies in New York under Albert Ross Parsons, John Henry Cornell, and Henry Holden Huss. Knight married Charles Greenleaf Wood of Boston in 1879. Her husband was a merchant and officer for the John Hancock Life Insurance Company. They lived in Boston until 1885, when they returned to Easthampton and soon settled into high society in New York City, living in an apartment in Washington Square. She became an early member of the Manuscript Society of New York, and saw several of her compositions performed during their concerts. She began summering in Onteora Park, where in 1890 she met Mark Twain. In 1891 the Woods built a summer cottage named “Witchwood” at Onteora Park;