Mary E. Haviland (1856-1928) was born in New York and died in Manhattan, New York. She moved with her family to Paterson, New Jersey, sometime prior to 1870 and became a public schoolteacher. She resided with her parents in Paterson until their passing. Thereafter she lived first with her brother James F. Haviland, and after his death in 1910, with her brother Frank W. Haviland in Manhattan, where she remained for the rest of her life. Frank had been a prominent medical doctor but became interested in Christian Science in the late 1880s, studied with Laura V. Lathrop, a student of Mary Baker Eddy's, and by 1896 had converted his practice to Christian Science treatment. In 1886 Mary Haviland wrote to Eddy to order a pamphlet and to inquire about purchasing a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She went on to study Christian Science with J. Edward Smith, a student of Eddy's. She became a member of the Christian Science church in Passaic, New Jersey, and of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 7, 1904. She was a practitioner listed in The Christian Science Journal from 1904 until her passing.

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