Mrs. Mary Woolsey

I am Mary Esther Cogswell Woolsey and I was born in Upstate New York on May 17, 1832. I married Luther Smith Woolsey and when I was 21 gave birth to our son William Jerome in 1853.

In 1865 a decision to move to Sacramento, California was almost unbearable for me as a mother. Our son was to remain in New York with family so that he could continue with his education. I had no idea what schooling would be available in California.

Our first home in Sacramento was at 86 M Street. Luther worked as a machinist and pattern maker for the Sacramento Iron Works for four years and then as a machinist for the Central Pacific Railroad. We purchased property at 10th and E Streets and 916 E Street but when little May Hollister was born on November 13, 1866 we quickly outgrew our home at 10th and E Streets and began to build at our 916 E Street property.

In 1868 we returned East to be with our son and my husband went to work as a clerk in a family business in Sandusky, Ohio. In 1876 we returned to our home on E Street in Sacramento and I plan to remain here for the rest of my life.

Little May was doing exceptionally well in school and on May 25, 1877 she graduated at the top of her class in Primary School. After a long hot carriage ride to Davis, that was made even more unpleasant by the mosquitoes, our little girl became ill and was in bed for several days before she died on September 21, 1879, just before her 13th birthday from encephalitis. Unable to reconcile ourselves to May’s death, we consulted two spiritualists, which at the time was quite common.

In 1892 I gathered up over 500 of May’s personal mementos and some of our family ‘s personal items and without anyone knowing, not even my husband, I sealed them in a trunk and hid it away in a closet under the stairs. This was a common Victorian obsession with the death of a loved one. In my mind, I felt the trunk might be found someday and in some way become a tribute to the little girl we loved so deeply and was taken from us much too soon.

EPILOGUE: Mrs. Woolsey died at her E Street home on February 19, 1895 from unknown causes. Her husband remained in their home until his death on January 24, 1914. Their estate was left to their only grandchild, Jenny May, who was living in the East when her grandfather died. The trunk that Mary Woolsey hid away in 1892 with so many family memories was discovered in 1979 by a new owner of the Woolsey home and it has indeed become a living memorial for the little girl who died in 1879. You can see the trunk today on display at the Discovery Museum in Old Sacramento.