Mary Newmarch Prescott

Mary Newmarch Prescott (1849–1888) was a 19th-century American author and poet, popular as a magazine-writer. She was the author of Matt's Follies, a juvenile tale, and Poems (1912).

Biography

Mary Newmarch Prescott was born in Calais, Maine, August 2, 1849.^[1]

Her parents were Joseph Newmarch Prescott (1807–1881) and Sarah Jane (Bridges) Prescott (1811–1883). Mary had several siblings, including the writer, Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford,^[2] as well as Annie, William, Katherine, Otis, Edith, and Sarah.^[3] When Mary was still very young, the family removed to Newburyport, Massachusetts,^[4] Many notable people were allied with the Prescott family, notably Sir William Pepperrell, John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos, and the historian, William H. Prescott, while more recently, Secretary of State, William M. Evarts and the Hoar brothers, Ebenezer and George.^[5]

Her father, Joseph Prescott, was then a lumber merchant in Calais; afterward he studied and practised law. In 1849, he became attracted by the Pacific coast, and, leaving his family in their Maine home, went out among the host of California Gold Rush pioneers to seek his fortune. He was one of the founders of Oregon City, Oregon, and three times elected its mayor. In the midst of arduous work, he was seized with lingering paralysis,^[6] that made him an invalid for life.^[7]

At the age of 15, she published the first of the hundreds of sketches and poems. Close to nature, even in colloquial writing, she did not exaggerate. Her writings were almost entirely confined to the magazines of the day, her only publishers' volume being Matt's Follies. Her contributions to Our Young Folks and the several publications of the Scribners and Harpers were well-regarded by her readers. ^[8]

Mary Newmarch Prescott died June 14, 1888, in Newburyport, Massachusetts.^[9]

Selected works

• Matt's Follies: And Other Stories, 1896 (text)
• The Pet of the Family: Stories, Sketches, Poems and Pictures for the Youth (with Mrs. D. P. Sanford, Clara Doty Bates, Emily Huntington Miller), 1896 (text)
• Poems, 1912 (text)

References

1. Poems of sorrow, death and immortality. Holt. 1912. p. 3637. Retrieved 15 December 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
2. Adams, Oscar Fay (1897). A Dictionary of American Authors. Houghton, Mifflin. p. 303. ISBN 978-1-4047-0842-6. Retrieved 15 December 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. "Mary Newmarch Prescott Female 2 August 1839 – 14 June 1888". www.familysearch.org. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
4. Holloway, Laura Carter (1889). The Woman's Story: As Told by Twenty American Women. Hurst. pp. 33–35. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Moulton, Charles Wells (1892). The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review. Vol. 4. C.W. Moulton. p. 249. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
6. Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart; Stowe, Harriet Beecher; Cooke, Rose Terry (1884). Our Famous Women: An Authorized Record of the Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times ... A. D. Worthington & Company. p. 522. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
7. Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. Moulton. pp. 673–74 – via Wikisource. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
8. "Obituary. Mary N. Prescott". Chicago Tribune. 16 June 1888. p. 6. Retrieved 15 December 2023 – via Newspapers.com. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
9. Herringshaw, Thomas William (1914). Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits ... American publishers' association. p. 511. Retrieved 15 December 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.