biographical statement

Mary Titcomb Fitch was born June 8, 1831 in Portland, Maine, and she married Henry Enoch Perley circa 1851. That she was born and married into a middle to upper class family is indicated by her discussion of servants and other help, her ability to purchase luxury items, her ability to travel and move with a degree of freedom, and her engagement in certain social activities. She wrote frequent letters to her sisters, but usually did not indicate the specific recipient.

Letters indicate that from 1848 to 1852 Mary lived in Portland, Maine. However, in January 1853 she decided to join Henry Perley in Florida, where he had gone in an attempt to improve his health. Mary planned to travel to New York with her brother Andrew, then travel on to Charleston or Savannah by Steamer, even though she believed that Henry might have gone to Cuba. In Florida, Henry joined the temperance society, and Mary reported that she wished to start going to church. Henry’s health continued to be poor but his specific illness is not mentioned.

By June 1853 Mary had moved back to Portland. She stayed in touch with her sisters, offering to take care of her unnamed sister’s child Nelly while her sister traveled to New York. In October she wrote her sister indicating her need for another servant to help with Thanksgiving because her servant Mary had left to get married and she was still looking for a new servant girl to “teach her her duty”.

Letters describe the Fitch family celebration of Christmas. During several years of her mid-December correspondence, Mary asked her sisters for gift ideas. She also sent her sisters products from Portland that they may not have been able to obtain in their respective towns. For example in 1863, Mary sent a hood and shoes for Almira’s baby but stated that mittens were hard to find and “scarce.” This quite possibly could be because most of the knitted woolen products were going to support soldiers fighting in the American Civil War. Requests from her sisters for products, such as special fabrics, foods, or books, did not only occur around Christmas but during all times of the year.

In March 1854, in a letter to an unnamed sister, Mary “rejoices” over the gloomy prospects of the Nebraska Bill. In February 1856 She helped her sister Adeline in move into a new house and choose the furnishings. In 1858 Mary and Henry again moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Their young son, George, died shortly after the family’s arrival in Florida. During this period she wrote to her sisters of her loneliness and desolation. While in Jacksonville, she hired a “negro” girl to help with the house.

By May 1863 Mary returned to Portland. In January of the same year she was ill and advised by the doctor not to travel to Naples, ME for a visit with her sister. Although the date of his death is not known, Mary’s husband Henry probably died around this period. His death may have been what prompted Mary to return to Maine. Mary’s niece Lena visited her several times during her life, and she wrote to her sisters about the visits. In a visit in 1875/76, Lena went sleigh riding and skating, and worked as a waitress in the refreshment room at a ball. In other visits she took dance lessons and participated in church and other social activities.

In the spring of 1875/76 Mary noted that many people were going to the U.S. Centennial in Pennsylvania, a major event of the year. At the same time Mary considered traveling to England. Mary also discussed her sisters’ sugar and butter making.

In April Mary and her sister Harriet were sick, while in May Almira’s husband Sam Perley was also ill. Mary recommended that Almira and Sam travel to Philadelphia, as the warmer weather might improve Sam’s health. From March 20th through November, 1876, Mary apparently was ill. This confined her movement and her ability to visit her sisters. In 1890 her father Luther and her sister suffered from the “grippe.”

Throughout her life Mary enjoyed gardening, flowers, music, and concerts. She attended the opera, concerts in the park, and enjoyed the theater. She sewed and made shoes and dresses for herself and her sisters. That she discussed financial matters, her ownership of bonds, and invested as she wished indicates that she had control, at least in part, of her finances. She also took part in the buying and selling of the family horse. She traveled and moved many times in her life, even in the absence of her husband.

Mary’s date of death is not known.