Mary Stearns McGaughan and her husband, Terrence, lived on the Stearns’ family farm abutting the North End lighthouse at the northern tip of Jamestown. In April 1956, Commerce Oil Refining Corporation, backed by Gulf Oil, presented plans for an 800-acre facility north of Carr Lane. The McGaughans joined with other concerned citizens to form the Jamestown Protective Association, to oppose the plan. Although the opponents were a minority, they managed to delay the building of the refinery for four years, and in the end, Gulf Oil withdrew its support for the project. In 1994, Mary McGaughan wrote the story of the opposition in Dismissed with Prejudice: the Epic Battle Against Construction of an Oil Refinery in Jamestown, Rhode Island.
Following up on her environmental interests, McGaughan founded the "Kindness Club" to encourage children to take good care of animals and, in 1972, she developed an educational program about animals for third-graders. Her “Kindness Club” evolved into the Humane Society of Jamestown.
The Jamestown Philomenian Library, founded in 1874, was for over 70 years housed in a tiny building that had once been a primary school. In the mid-1960s while president of the Jamestown Women's Club, McGaughan began to advocate for a new, modern library building. In 1968, along with ten others, she organized the Friends of the Jamestown Philomenian Library. The Friends successfully led the drive to build a new library on North Road which opened in 1971.
Biography and image provided by Rosemary Enright, Jamestown Historical Society
Built with Shorthand