My Genealogy Hound

MRS. MARY C. WASHBURN, widow of the late Luther Ingersoll Washburn, was born in Boston, January 5, 1822, daughter of William and Sarah (Skelton) Todd. Mrs. Washburn comes from Revolutionary ancestry. Her great-grandfather, William Todd, was a Lieutenant in the Colonial army. His commission, which bears the date of October 10, 1778, and sixteen signatures, including the names of John Hancock and John Avery, Secretary, was issued by the Council of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay.

William Todd, the father of Mrs. Washburn, was a Bostonian by birth and education, but spent his last years in Northampton, dying June 23, 1846, aged sixty-seven years. While staying in London, England, in 1806, he was united in marriage to Miss Skelton; and they afterward made that city their home for several years. Their eldest child, Emma Todd, was born in London, August 20, 1810, and became the wife of Calvin Darling, of New York. She died in Boston, January 5, 1841; and her body was laid to rest in the family tomb in the Central Burying-ground on Boston Common, near Boylston Street.

Their second child, William, died in London in 1817. Mrs. Washburn, the third child, is the subject of this sketch. Julia, the youngest child, was born in 1823 in Boston, and died in Northampton, January 10, 1890, having been a lifelong invalid. The mother also passed her closing years in this city, and died November 10, 1853, aged sixty -five years.

Mrs. Washburn was educated in a Quaker school, under the tuition of Dr. Earle’s sister, and later at a school in Northampton. She lived with her parents until her marriage with Mr. Washburn, October 30, 1851. Prior to his death, which occurred in October, 1859, Mr. Washburn was one of the leading merchants of Northampton. Although a comparatively young man, being then in his fortieth year, he had won an assured position in business circles and among the most influential citizens of the place. He dealt extensively in hardware, and had a large patronage in the town and the surrounding country. He was a son of Luther Washburn, a well-known lawyer of Pittsfield, Mass., where his birth occurred July 18, 1774, and his death in 1838. He married Mary Ingersoll; and they reared but two of their children, a daughter and Luther Ingersoll Washburn, the husband of the subject of this sketch. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Washburn, Jared Ingersoll, was a lifelong resident of Pittsfield, born October 29, 1745, and dying February 2, 1835. He married Hildah (Kilborn) Brown, the widow of Colonel John Brown, of Revolutionary fame.

Mrs. Washburn has two sons, namely: Henry Todd Washburn, a salesman in the wholesale establishment of Walker, Stetson & Sawyer, Boston; and Frank Ingersoll Washburn, a manufacturer of jewelry in Springfield, Mass, neither of whom is married, Mrs. Washburn is a very agreeable woman, an intelligent and entertaining conversationalist, and has a large circle of warm friends. Her home has many valued relics, among them being a silver tankard made by Paul Revere from silver melted down by her grandmother.