The Women:
Life in the Mansion on Pleasant St., Part II
by Helen Seager
Read Part 1
It appears that Mary Macy (1799 - 1822) was a model Quaker daughter: “From early childhood, she manifested ... traits of a religious nature; ... dutiful to her parents, kind and obliging to her acquaintances,” and she got along with her school companions. Growing up, she took care to attend religious meetings, dressed modestly, and “in a loving manner...to her associates” would give advice “if she discovered any extravagance” in their dress or in other matters. “Her parents rarely had to chide her for any misbehavior even during her youthful years.” (Family Mirror). By trade, she was a Tailoress.
Mary started to cough up blood, which “daily increased...(and) very soon became troublesome, and impaired her health.” She lost her appetite and ran a fever; “(S)he kept an account of more than fifty different medicines that were used,” but she got worse anyway. She stopped making clothes for herself, “impressed with a belief that she would not live longer than twenty four years.” Yet, “when persons of her acquaintance would come into the room to see her, if their dress was extravagant... she would speak and desire them to leave the room.” Mary died at age 23, and was the first of Abigail’s and Obed’s children to die.
Curiously, Obed’s written reminiscence of Elizabeth (1797- 1827), their oldest daughter, opened with “there may not be found in this biography anything of a remarkable nature.” Elizabeth, “was found to be uncommonly mild and pleasant, always kind ... to her equals, never given to quarrel or any conduct that required chastisement.” Studious from an early age, she was given a school education such as her parents felt “most suitable to promote her proficiency ... likely to be most useful to her at adult age.” By ten years old, she was gathering neighbors’ children to instruct school subjects. “Her parents thought it best to encourage her in opening a shool (sic.), which she steadily kept up for a number of years.”
She married Edmond W. Macy in 1817 when she was twenty; he had been at sea, returning to Nantucket in January of that year after nineteen months on the Dauphin. We can assume that he used his “lay,” as the wage of a whaling crew member was called, to set up housekeeping. His father, who died in 1809, owned a house and shop on Main Street . Edmond W. may have inherited this property, and thus owned a home for Elizabeth and their children, the first of whom was born in 1826. In the nine years after her marriage she was “mostly devoted to domestic affairs of an increasing family” — three daughters and two sons — including “many close trials with sickness.... As her family increased, her constitution became more ... enfeebled... (which) seemed more than she could bear, (yet) she was never heard to complain.” As she grew “more poorly” she withdrew to her room. “The youngest child a daughter of ten months old was taken from her and put out to nurse. She was assured by a doting husband that her children, who were “all young and constantly needed a mothers care, the eldest had not arrived to age nine years”, would be taken good care of.” Her other nearest relations also tried to comfort her regarding their “care and right education.”
The mother of five died in November of the following year, at age 30. Although Obed thought “nothing remarkable” about her story, he did allow that her story “may be enough to find true peace and quietness in this life. “
Named for her grandmother, Judith (1806 - 1831) was also born in the Pleasant Street house. At first, “she appeared to be a very promising child, fair to look upon....(A)fter a few years, it was plainly discoverable that her mental faculties were rather on the decline. They tried “a variety of remedies’...; Among which, a small Dog was procured and kept with her ...both day and night; this seemed pleasing to the child, and the Dog became closely attached to her and would not willingly leave her.” The fits subsided; she studied hard in school and displayed an interest in becoming a teacher. “But Alas! ... Almighty Goodness .... did not see meet to grant her a long continuance in this life.” Her episodes returned when she was seventeen years old “with redoubled violence....This seemed the more alarming, as her parents flattered themselves that her disorder had wholly ceased.” They acquired another Dog, “but she could not bear to have him come near her.” Her weight increased “until it amount to 200 lbs.;...her intellectual faculties were visibly on the decline.” Consumption set in “which caused a general belief that her time was short.” Her body was wasting away, and, sadly for Obed, her “mental faculties were so impaired that she was not fully sensible of her approaching end....(S)he breathed her last without the least struggle or groan, but like one falling into a sweet sleep.”
Abigail’s third daughter, Eunice (1804 - 1833), also born in the Pleasant Street house, “had ever been a dutiful child from her youth.” She married Rhode Islander David Mitchell in 1824, at age 20. Their son James was born the next year. Obed’s account of Eunice’s adult life emphasizes her habit of keeping her feelings and “bodily infirmities to herself.” yet she was so eager to do her housework that she “became emaciated almost to a skeleton.” He quotes an exchange between Abigail and Eunice: “ ‘It seems to me, Mother, that thee is worried;’ ‘Why no, I don’t know that I am worried, we think thee is very sick;’ her answer would be, ‘I feel quite smart.’ ” She was their last surviving daughter. She did eventually confide in one of her cousins that she was “easy in her mind” about dying, “except the thoughts of leaving a disconsolate husband, and her little son James, who was the only surviving child.” Eunice died when James was eight years old; he survived his mother by only three years. David Mitchell's three subsequent marriages brought forth only one child who survived infancy.
Although Abigail’s and Obed’s daughters reached adulthood, the parents outlived them all. “The loss of her (Abigail's) children although afflicting to their parents(,) their (sic) was good reason to hope they died in a state of innocency, therefore it might be said, there was comfort in trouble.” So did Obed write years later.
Helen Seager has lived at 15 Pleasant Street year round and is an occasional writer or speaker on topics of history for island publications organizations. Her articles this summer are based on research in the NHA research library and elsewhere about residents and owners of 15 Pleasant Street.
