1855-1884
Born in Newark to Nicholas Stilwell and Margaret Crane. Nicholas was a lawyer and in 1860, the family lived in the 5th Ward, today’s Ironbound. The city directories put Nicholas at 89 Jefferson St. (also listed as 75 and 92) through Mary’s marriage.
Mary worked at the News Reporting Telegraph Company punching telegraph tape where she met Edison. An alternate story says she came to the factory to get out of the rain on the way home from school. She taught Sunday School.
They married Christmas Day 1871, when she was 16 and he was 24. After their marriage they lived at 107 New St. before moving to Menlo Park.
W.K.L. Dickson, wrote that Mary was “greatly beloved by the men in Edison’s employ” at Menlo Park. “They were proud of her–for she had been one of their own rank in the Newark shop and yet remained as gracious and friendly to them as ever.”
She died at 29, after having 3 children with Edison. She is buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
Portrait (featured image c. 1880). First image below around time of marriage. Second image c. 1880s.
Bibliography
Portrait Source (Second image) (Third Image)
Newark City Directories on digital.npl.org
Ancestry.com
Newark Sunday Call Obit, Aug 10, 1884