1831-1905
Children’s author best known for Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. Founding editor of St. Nicholas Magazine.
Born in New York. Sources vary for when she first came to Newark, however, her father, a chemist, agriculturist and professor, is shown in New York on the 1840 census. By 1848, the Newark City Directory lists him in Lyons Farm, which later became part of Newark.
On the 1850 census “Elizabeth Mapes” is shown with her family in Clinton Township, which would later become part of Newark. The Mapes farm was described by the Newark News as “on the West Side of old Elizabeth Road”. It is close to the current Elizabeth and Renner Aves.
On Sept 18, 1851 Mary was married to William Dodge.
She had two sons: James and Harrington.
Though the family is missing from the 1860 census, newspaper accounts say that after her husband’s death she moved back with her parents on the family farm.
Starting in 1859, she began writing and published her most famous book Hans Brinker in 1865.
In 1870, she is still listed on the census with her mother on the farm under “M E Dodge” with her sons “James M” and “W H” Dodge. In this year she was contacted to help found St. Nicholas Magazine and the first issue was published in 1873.
In 1872, she is listed at 74 E Kinney St. In the 1873 city directory, The Olms Brothers landscape farm advertises themselves as being located at “Professor Mape’s Place” and Mary is no longer listed.
By 1877, the Sunday Call reported she was “formerly of this city” and reported on the furniture being removed from “the Mapes place”.
Later Mrs. Dodge lived in New York where she died in 1905.
Bibliography
U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930
The Museum – Volume 26, Issue 4 – Page 20
Halsey, Francis Whiting (1903). Women authors of our day in their homes: personal descriptions & interviews (Public domain ed.). J. Pott & Company.
Dodge, Mary Mapes (1905). “In Memory of Mary Mapes Dodge. Died August 21, 1905. By William Fayal Clark”. St. Nicholas. Vol. 32, Part 2 (Public domain ed.). Scribner & Company.
US Federal Census, 1840 (“James P Mapes / James J Mapes”), 1850 “James J Mapes”/”Elizabeth Mapes”), 1870 “M E Dodge”
Cummings, Charles, “From Cundict to Dodge Women with the Write Stuff” Star Ledger Mar 9, 1998
D-23 Dodge, Mary Mapes, Newark News Morgue, Newark Public Library
Wright, Catherine Morris. Lady of the silver skates : the life and correspondence of Mary Mapes Dodge, 1830-1905
“Familiar Recognitions” & “The Mapes Place” Sunday Call Oct 14, 1877
“Mrs. Dodge’s Life Closes” Newark News Aug 22, 1905
