I thought I had moved on from the story of Marie Wetherill, the woman who married my cousin Joe Schlesinger, but then Janice Webster Brown, creator of the Genealogy Bloggers group on Facebook and the author of the wonderful blog Cow Hampshire Blog, found this incredible article about Marie’s family. And I decided to write this blog post both to honor Marie and her family and to honor Women’s History Month, a tradition I started a year ago after being inspired to do so by Janice herself.

Although the article does not reveal any additional information about Marie’s elusive father Francis Wetherill, it does reveal a great deal about Marie’s own background and the amazing line of women from whom she is descended. The article, “Fourteen Years Over A Century,” appeared in the February 4, 1892 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer (p. 5) (transcription below):

On Saturday next Mrs. Anna Catharine Sharp, the oldest inhabitant of Pennsylvania, will celebrate her one-hundred-and fourteenth birthday at her little home, 1226 Fleetwood avenue.  The interest of this remarkable case of longevity is heightened by a series of attending circumstances that mark it as unique.  Not only does this remarkable woman live here, but there are living under the same roof her daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter, making in all representatives of five generations living together.

Mrs. Sharp’s history is interesting.  Her maiden name was Dowell, and her mother was of German extraction.  She was born February 6, 1778, in Cherry alley, and at 15 years of age was confirmed in the German Protestant Church at Sixth and Spruce streets.  When she was 22 years old she married John Sharp, a native of this city, and lived with him at Bush Hill, which though now a thickly built-up portion of the town, was then a farming district.  This was the first change of residence that she ever made.

Her husband was in the war of 1812, and died in 1849. Some years before his death they moved to Knight’s court, and in 1850 she settled in her present home, thus making only three changes of residence and never living outside of this city.

A 73-Year-Old Baby

Her youngest child, Mrs. Smith, was born in 1819, and is consequently 73 years old.  She is living with her mother and takes care of the house for her.  Her grand-daughter, Mrs. Anna E. Wilson [Marie’s grandmother]. a professional nurse, is 43 years old.

Connected with Mrs. Frank Wetherill [Marie’s mother], the great-granddaughter, are also some peculiar circumstances. She is 23 years old, and was born in their present home.  Her oldest child was born in the same room as she was, and her great-grandmother was the nurse who take care of her husband [Frank Wetherill] when he was born.  There is a difference of 112 years between the ages of old Mrs. Sharp and the baby, Florie Wetherill.

Mrs. Sharp retains all her faculties with singular clearness, though in the last six months she has grown slightly deaf. Her hair is still black, with only a slight streak of gray running through it.  Her appetite is good and so are her teeth—which she keeps at night in a tumbler upon the bureau–and she can eat any kind of food that is prepared for the family.  She has never been sick, with the single exception of a slight illness a few years ago.

After her husband’s death she labored as a nurse for thirty-three years, principally among the better class of people.

There will be a quiet reunion of the five generations on Saturday to celebrate the good old lady’s birthday.

This article shed so much more light on how Marie Wetherill, the woman my father remembers so warmly, turned into such a devoted caretaker of her mother-in-law, my great-great-aunt Brendena Katzenstein Schlesinger.  Marie came from a long line of caretakers and women who were devoted to their families. Both Marie’s great-great-grandmother Anna Catharine Dowell Sharp and her grandmother Anna Smith WIlson were nurses. And how strange that Anna Catherine was the nurse who delivered Francis Wetherill, who would later marry her great-granddaughter, Mary Wilson.

They all lived together under one roof for so much of their lives in this little house supposedly at 1226 Fleetwood Avenue in Philadelphia, an address I could not find; however, I think it was at one time called 1226 Nagels Avenue, as Anna Catharine is listed there as John’s widow in the 1861 Philadelphia directory, and then in 1900, Marie, her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were living at 1226 Jessup Street.  I believe that the street name was changed, but that Anna Catharine and her family continued to live in the same house, as the article reports.

In fact, by searching on stevemorse.org on the 1880 census for 1226 Jessup Street, I found Anna Catharine’s family living at 1226 Fleetwood Street, so the street name must have been changed from Fleetwood to Jessup sometime after 1892 when the article was written:

1880 census for the family of Anna Catherine Dowell Sharp
Year: 1880; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1179; Family History Film: 1255179; Page: 116D; Enumeration District: 391; Image: 0430

Not surprisingly, the relationships as listed are confused on this census report.  First listed is  Anna (Smith) Wilson, Marie’s grandmother, a 32 year old widowed housekeeper. Below her is Jeremiah Smith, a single unemployed 28 year old man, presumably Anna’s brother. Then comes Catherine Sharp, Marie’s great-great-grandmother, then an 82 year old widow.  Following the boarder listed below Catherine is Mamie Wilson, Marie’s mother (also known as Mary), then eleven, and finally a four year old boy named Jeremiah Wilson.  Although it looks like Mamie and Jeremiah are listed as the children of the boarder, quite clearly they are the children of the head of household, Anna (Smith) Wilson. Then I noticed that above Anna Wilson is a listing for Mary Smith at 1226 Fleetwod, this being Marie’s great-grandmother, Mary Ann (Sharp) Smith, a 61 year old widowed dressmaker.

Thus, as of 1880, Marie’s grandmother was a widow raising two children and living with her own mother, a widow, and her grandmother, a widow.  It appears that Mary Ann Sharp Smith, Marie’s great-grandmother, was the only one employed outside the home.

Anna Catharine Dowell Sharp lived almost another full year after her 114th birthday, dying on January 22, 1893.  Her daughter Mary Ann Sharp Smith lived until January 30, 1909; she was 89 when she died.  Anna Catharine’s granddaughter, Anna Smith WIlson (Marie’s grandmother) died just two years after her mother on June 5, 1911; she was only 64. Marie’s mother, Mary/Mamie Wilson Wetherill Pierson, died on June 13, 1948, when she was 78.  And Marie lived to age 93, dying on August 31, 1981. No one came close to reaching Anna Catherine’s almost 115 year long life span.

So in honor of Women’s History Month, I salute Anna Catherine Dowell Sharp.  She was born during the Revolutionary War, married a man who fought in the War of 1812, was a nurse, and was the foremother of a long line of women devoted to their families, including Marie Wetherill Schlesinger, who married my cousin Joe. Anna Catharine Dowell Sharp lived from the early days of our country’s founding through the civil war and almost made it to the 20th century.  What stories she would have to share if we could talk to her today.

But now it really is time to turn back to my own family!

In my last post I described how I found my cousin Marie on the 1900 census. Marie was born August 15, 1888, to Francis M. Wetherill, a driver, and Mary Agnes Wilson, in Philadelphia.  Her parents were Philadelphia natives who had married in 1887, and according to Marie’s marriage license for her marriage to my cousin Joe Schlesinger in 1915, her father was deceased by that time.

The 1900 census showed Marie living with her great-grandmother Mary Ann Smith, her grandmother Anne Wilson, her great-uncle Jerry Smith, her mother Mamie Wetherill, and her four siblings: Frank (1883), Florence (1890), Catherine (1893[sic]), and Harry (1897).  (Mary Wilson Wetherill is sometimes listed as Mary, sometimes as Mamie.)

Marie Wetherill and family on 1900 census
Year: 1900; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1461; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0416; FHL microfilm: 1241461

There was one other odd thing about this census record. The child Frank Wetherill was seventeen on this report and born in 1883.  Mamie/Mary Wilson had not married Francis Wetherill until 1887. Was the child Frank really her son?

Then I noticed that although Mamie/Mary reported on the 1900 census that she had only four living children, there were five Wetherill children listed on the census report.  I assume therefore that the seventeen year old Frank Wetherill must not have been Mamie/Mary’s biological son.

I did find a birth record for a Frank Wetherell born April 6, 1883, in Philadelphia to a Frank Wittersall [sic, I assume] and Angelina. I assume this was the same child as the one living with Marie’s family in 1900. Francis Wetherill, Mamie/Mary’s husband, must have been married previously, and the younger Frank must have been his son from that marriage. But why had young Frank stayed with his stepmother Mamie/Mary? Had both his biological parents died by 1900?

Now that I had other family names to use in my search parameters, I was able to locate Marie and her family on the 1910 census.  Again, the census report had some confusing entries. Anna Wilson, Marie’s grandmother, was a head of household, but there was a second head of household listed beneath her: Harry Pearson. He was 44 and worked as a driver for “stove works.”

Marie Wetherill and family on the 1930 census
Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1394; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0342; FHL microfilm: 1375407

I would have thought that these were two unrelated households, but then I saw the other names in Harry’s household.  His wife was Mary A., a 44 year old woman who had had six children, five of whom were still living. Listed below her was Marie E. Pearson, a twenty-one year old woman born in Pennsylvania.  Although she is listed as a Pearson here, I believe this is my Marie Wetherill.  The age fits, the birth place fits, and her mother’s name was Mary (or sometimes Mamie).  The listing of Anna Wilson, her grandmother, also supports that assumption.

In addition, two other children listed below Marie had the Wetherill surname, and their ages and names match those of Marie’s siblings from the 1900 census: Florence (20) and Catherine (17). Harry (13), who had been listed as a Wetherill in 1900, here is listed as a Pearson.  In addition, there was a new sibling, Annie Pearson, who was only seven years old. My guess is that the enumerator entered Marie’s surname incorrectly; like Florence and Catherine, she should have been listed as Wetherill. In 1910, Marie was working as a saleswoman at Gimbels; her sister Florence was a dressmaker, and her sister Catherine was doing ironing at a laundry.

Occupations listed for Marie and her sisters on the 1930 census

There are a few other confusing things about this census report.  The last entry in the household is for Jerrie E. Wilson, a 34 year old man born in Pennsylvania, listed as the son of Harry Pearson. This must be Anna Wilson’s son, not Harry and Mary (Wilson Wetherill) Pearson’s son. (Or maybe it’s really Jerry Smith, Anna’s brother?)

The census record indicates that Mary and Harry Pearson[1] had been married for sixteen years, meaning since 1893 or 1894. That means that Marie was no more than five or six when her mother remarried.  But on the 1900 census Mary had not been living with a husband, and her name was still given as Wetherill at that time. I don’t know why Mary was listed as a Wetherill in 1900 nor do I know why her son Harry was listed as a Wetherill in 1900 when he was clearly the son of Harry Pearson and, in fact, his junior. [2] I assume just another enumerator mistake.

Thus, Marie’s mother Mary aka Mamie Wilson Wetherill had remarried by 1894 and had had two more children, Harry, Jr., and Annie, with her second husband Harry Pearson. Why Mary and her children were living without Harry and with her mother and grandmother in 1900 remains a mystery.

I also remain perplexed as to why the seventeen year old boy named Frank Wetherill was living with Marie and her family in 1900. If he was not the biological son of Mamie/Mary Wilson Wetherill Pearson, why wasn’t he living with his biological parents?  I’ve had no luck finding the “Angelina” named on the birth record. And I had assumed that Francis, Sr., must have died by 1900, but then I found evidence suggesting otherwise.

First, there is a listing for a Francis M. Wetherill, a driver, in the 1895 Philadelphia directory; this had to be the same man: same exact name, same occupation as that listed on Marie’s birth certificate.  But Mary/Mamie had married Harry Pearson before 1895, so Francis was not deceased when she remarried; they must have divorced.

Marie Wetherill birth record

Then I found a marriage record for a Frank Wetherill to a Maggie Schramm in Camden, New Jersey, dated March 18, 1895. Although I could not find them on the 1900 census, the 1910 census for Camden has a listing for a Frank M. Wetherill married to Margaret, aged 31, married for 14 years; this must be the same couple as that on the marriage record. Frank was a hostler in a livery stable on that census.

Frank Wetherill marriage to Maggie Schramm
Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Marriage Records, 1670-1965 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

As of 1910, Frank Wetherill (the elder) and Maggie/Margaret were living in Camden and had seven children, including a daughter named Katherine, aged 4.  How odd that Frank named a daughter Katherine in his second marriage when he already had a daughter Catherine from his first marriage. There was also a daughter named Emma, the same name given to Marie on her birth certificate.

Perhaps this is not the same man who was Marie’s father? Maybe it is just another man with the same name, same age, and also born in Pennsylvania? What do you think? Maybe a cousin? But since I’ve found no death record for any Francis/Frank Wetherill before 1915, I am inclined to think that this was in fact Marie’s father.

Frank Wetherill and family on 1910 census
Year: 1910; Census Place: Camden Ward 5, Camden, New Jersey; Roll: T624_873; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0033; FHL microfilm: 1374886

This Frank M. Wetherill remained married to Margaret/Maggie and lived with her and their children in Camden until his death in 1942. If he was in fact Marie’s father, it is rather sad that she either believed or at least considered him dead back in 1915 when she married Joe.

There are many unanswered questions remaining about this family, and I could get buried in searching for more about the two men named Frank/Francis M. Wetherill. I cannot find any later record for the younger Frank Wetherill after the 1900 census (although there was another man born in Philadelphia in 1883 named Francis M. Wetherill, but after researching him, I’ve concluded he was from an entirely different family.)  I also remain unsure about whether the Frank Wetherill who married Maggie Schramm was the same Frank Wetherill who had married Mary Wilson and fathered Marie.

But the Wetherills are not my blood relatives, and I’ve unwound enough yarn to get a sense of what Marie Wetherill’s life was like before she married my cousin Joe Schlesinger. So I am making myself stop before I unravel so much yarn that I can’t untie the knots!

Putting together the pieces I now have, it appears that Marie Wetherill Schlesinger did not have an easy childhood.  Before she was six years old, either her father had died or her parents had divorced.  Her mother remarried and had two more children with her second husband, Harry Pearson. Perhaps her mother started calling the child born Emma Virginia Mary/May by the name “Marie” after starting her life over.  One record I found suggests that Francis M. Wetherill’s mother was named Emma; maybe Mary Wilson Wetherill Pearson did not want to carry that name forward.

Marie’s father Francis M. Wetherill may have died, but it seems more likely that he remarried and moved to Camden, where he and his second wife had a large family.  Who knows whether Marie had any contact with him after the divorce. Maybe that’s why she reported that he had died.

When she was 27 in 1915, Marie married my cousin Joe Schlesinger and remained married to him until he died in 1936. Then she lived with her mother-in-law Brendena until she died in 1945. Marie was 57 by then.  Eventually she retired to Bradenton, Florida where her sister Catherine as well as her half-sister Anna Pierson also were living. Marie had thus remained close not only with the family she married into but also with her family of origin.  Despite her interrupted childhood, she is remembered by my father as a loving woman who spent much of her life caring for others.

[1] Some records spell Harry’s surname as Pearson; others as Pierson. I don’t know which is correct. I’ve chosen to use Pearson here just for clarity’s sake.

[2] Three records establish that Harry was the child of Mary/Mamie Wilson and Harry Pearson: a Philadelphia birth record indexed on FamilySearch shows Harry Pearson born on May 20, 1897, son of Harry E. and Mame Pearson; a 1903 baptism record for both Harry, Jr. and Anna Pierson lists their parents as Harry Pierson and Mary A. Pierson; and Harry, Jr.’s military record identifies his parents as Harry Pierson and Mary Wilson.