Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins Searles

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Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins Searles (born March 8, 1818 in New York City , † July 25, 1891 in Methuen (Massachusetts) ) was an American who married two millionaires one after the other, was one of the richest women in the United States and therefore in the Able to live out their architectural interests.

Life

Mary Frances Sherwood was born in New York City to the headmaster William Sherwood and his wife Lydia Ann. She was educated at Kellogg Terrace School in Great Barrington . She married her first husband, later the railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins (1813-1878), on September 22, 1854 as a member of the Presbyterian Church in New York City . Mark Hopkins was her first cousin. The Hopkins couple remained childless, initially living in Sacramento for a long time and then in San Francisco for the last four years of their marriage .

The apartment building in San Francisco

Even in this first marriage, Mary Frances Sherwood showed an interest in sumptuous real estate. On her initiative, a huge house was built in San Francisco, which Mark Hopkins did not live to see completion. The structure was not completed until 1880, furnished by Herter Brothers and later used by the San Francisco Art Institute . It fell victim to the devastating earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 . Legacy from her marriage to Mark Hopkins included part of the Kellogg Terrace House in Great Barrington, which Mary Frances Sherwood had converted into her summer residence after her husband's death.

Sherwood Hall

An "old building" in Menlo Park , which Mary Frances Sherwood temporarily owned, Sherwood Hall , she gave on the occasion of her second marriage to her adopted son Timothy (1859-1936), the biological son of her long-time housekeeper Catherine Marston. On November 7, 1887, the wealthy heiress married Edward Francis Searles (1841 - 1920), who was over twenty years his junior and worked for Herter Brothers. The couple had come closer when they were planning another magnificent structure, the later so-called Searles Castle in Great Barrington on the property of the Kellogg Terrace, which Mary Sherwood owned since 1881. The French chateau-style structure was completed in 1888 and served as the couple's residence. The cost of this building was around $ 2.5 million. Today it is the seat of the John Dewey Academy, an institution for problematic young people. The future of the building is uncertain. Mary Frances Sherwood also owned a pompous building on Block Island .

Mary Frances Searles spent the last part of her life on the Pine Lodge estate in Methuen. Her husband had her moved there after she fell ill. She died on July 25, 1891 at Pine Lodge.

Edward Francis Searles received most of the inheritance after her death, while the adopted son Timothy, who had married Mary Frances Sherwood's niece, a Miss Crittenden, received only a small portion. A lengthy legal battle broke out over the inheritance. Among other things, Searles had the Methuen Memorial Music Hall built with the inherited money .

Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins Searles as a patron

In an obituary for Mary Frances Sherwood we can read that many people found her to be "unsympathetic and hard". The report continues: “She said little about her benefactions; but they were many and bountiful [...] "and" music, sculpture and painting have received millions from her purse. "Mary Frances Sherwood initially supported the Congregational Church and donated a church organ worth 30,000 dollars to the congregation in Great Barrington, but later fell out with the congregation and joined the Episcopal Church .

literature

  • John N. Ingham, Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders , Greenwood Pub Group Inc 1983, ISBN 0-313-21362-3 , pp. 620 f.
  • June Naugle, The Great American Swindle , Authorhouse 2007, ISBN 1-4259-9003-7 , p. 221 u. ö.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=950DE4D9143AE533A25751C0A96E9C94609ED7CF
  2. ↑ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1891-07-27/ed-1/seq-2/
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greatbarrington.org
  4. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=950DE4D9143AE533A25751C0A96E9C94609ED7CF
  5. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B07E6DA1630EE3ABC4B52DFB066838B699FDE
  6. ↑ http://mysterious-hills.blogspot.com/2007/03/searles-castle.html
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greatbarrington.org
  8. ↑ http://mysterious-hills.blogspot.com/2007/03/searles-castle.html
  9. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greatbarrington.org
  10. ↑ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1891-07-27/ed-1/seq-2/
  11. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A0CE2D7113EE433A25752C3A9639C94639FD7CF
  12. ↑ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1891-07-27/ed-1/seq-2/
  13. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=950DE4D9143AE533A25751C0A96E9C94609ED7CF
personal data
SURNAME Searles, Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sherwood, Mary Frances; Sherwood Hopkins, Mary Frances
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American millionaire and patroness
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1891
Place of death Methuen, Massachusetts