Mary McNair Mathews
Born1834
Livingston County, New York
Died1903
Ukiah, California
Scientific career
FieldsNevada history

Mary McNair Mathews (1834–1903) was a Nevada historian. Her memoir and early chronicle of life in Virginia City, Nevada, Ten Years in Nevada or Life on the Pacific Coast, was published in 1880.

She was born in Livingston County, New York in 1834. Widowed early, and learning of her brother's death in Virginia City, she sold her hoop skirt factory and left for Nevada in 1869 with her young son. Once in Virginia City, she ran a laundry business,[1] a school, a boardinghouse, and a soup kitchen; she invested in stocks.

Mathews returned to New York in 1878, published her memoir two years later, and then headed back to the west to be with her son. She died in Ukiah, California in 1903.[2][3]

In 2009, a chautauqua of her life was staged at the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park in Minden, Nevada.[4]

References

  1. ^ Watson, Anita Ernst; Nevada Humanities Committee (June 2000). Into their own: Nevada women emerging into public life. University of Nevada Press. pp. 151–. ISBN 978-1-890591-06-9. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  2. ^ Watson, Anita (November 3, 2011). "Mary McNair Mathews". The Online Nevada Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  3. ^ Glotfelty, Cheryll (1 August 2008). Literary Nevada: writings from the Silver State. University of Nevada Press. pp. 129–. ISBN 978-0-87417-759-6. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  4. ^ Conrad, Bob (August 13, 2009). "Chautauqua of Mary McNair Mathews Saturday at the Dangberg Home Ranch". Nevada Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2012.


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