Mary (Hamilton) House (aft. 1815)

Ancestors

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import. It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Note

George W. House's wife, Mary (Hamilton) House (later Thompson), is represented in the Orr Collection by twenty-eight letters written from 1839 to 1880, many of which are addressed to her husband. Probably the most interesting subject of Mary House's correspondence is Jenny Lind's visit to Nashville in 1851. On March 31, 1851, the Swedish Nightingale was in Nashville preparing for two concerts, one to be given that evening and one on April 2. Mrs. House wrote that "every hotel and boarding house in the city are ful[sic] and the cry is 'still the come' the town will be literally cramed [sic]." She also reported that P. T. Barnum had been in Nashville and held an auction of concert tickets in the Odd Fellows' Hall. Mary House paid the high (for that day) price of $5.00 for her ticket; but the prize one had been bought by Mr. Turner for $200.00. The excitement caused by Jenny Lind's appearances is indicated by Mrs. House's description of crowds in Nashville. "You cannot imagine what a crowd we have in N[ashville]. The square and the streets near the square, are thronged almost equal to Broadway for almost the entire population of the surrounding country, both village, town, and hamlet are now with us, and from neighboring states."

Like her husband, Mary (Hamilton) House saw the comet which appeared in the spring

of 1843 and commented in her letters about when and where it could be seen and how its

appearance alarmed people. With relatives spread about the South, Mrs. House had to travel a great deal in order to visit them. In February of 1846 she visited her brother and sister-in-law, Oscar and Sigismunda Mary (Taylor ) Hamilton, in Clinton, Mississippi. Letters written enroute describe her journey from Nashville to Memphis via the Cumberland River, the boat trip down the Mississippi River from Memphis to Vicksburg, and the train tide from Vicksburg overland to Clinton. In other letters Mary House wrote about the cholera epidemic that raged in Nashville in 1850. On June 24 she observed that "...as last year, it is confined to that portion of the city south of Broad south." By July 16, however, with only three to six or eight deaths over a period of twenty-four hours, she could report that the epidemic was subsiding. George W. House himself died in September of 1850, but the cause is listed as fever, not cholera. By the late summer of 1851 his widow was writing her brother Joseph Daviess Hamilton (1826-1855) about her impending marriage with the thrice widowed John Thompson (1793-1876) of

Nashville. --from online description of the Mary Orr Papers, Tenn. State Library & Archives

Marriage

FAM

@I994@

@I3972@

@I1008@

@I4042@

@I4045@

@I4046@

@I4044@

3 AUG 1815

Russellville, Logan Co., TN^[1][2]

Sources

• Source: S214 Author: [donated by] Mrs. Samuel Holt Orr Title: The Mary Hamilton Thompson Orr Papers, 1791-1896, and Addition 1779-1955 Abbreviation: Orr, Mary "Papers" Publication: Manuscript Sect., Tennessee State Library and Archives/6 May 1998 Note: Data derived from online summary of contents of these papers, plus perusal of genealogical sheets[on microfilm] contained in Box 4, file 6. Repository: #R88 Media: Electronic Italicized: Y Paranthetical: Y
• Repository: R88 Name: Internet Web Address: http://www.state.tn.us/sos/statelib/techsvs/manud/155.pdf
• Source: S59 Author: William C. McKee Title: McKee Genealogy Abbreviation: McKee, William C. Publication: RootsWeb/16 Sep 2003 Repository: #R31 Media: Electronic Italicized: Y Paranthetical: Y
• Repository: R31 Name: William C. McKee Files E-Mail Address: w.mckee@verizon.net

1. ↑ Source: #S59
2. ↑ Source: #S214

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Bob Nichol for creating WikiTree profile Hamilton-4421 through the import of Hamilton.ged on Mar 9, 2013.

Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Bob and others.