Hazard, Mary Frances

Mary Frances Hazard (1852-1938)

Nelson, NH

As a young child, Mary Frances Hazard (b.1852) moved from Ayer, Massachusetts, to Nelson, New Hampshire with her parents and siblings.  During the 1860s, she attended school in Nelson before working as a domestic servant in private homes in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire as a teenager.  Mary married her first husband James F. Hazzard, at the age of 22, on November 26, 1874. The marriage record lists her place of residence as Harrisville, NH, at the time of her marriage.

James Hazzard was originally from Woodstock, VT, but as an early adult he had relocated to Ayer, MA, where he worked as a Black holster, a groomer of horses. Three years into Mary and James’ marriage, they had a daughter named Mary Isabel in 1877.  James, however, accidentally drowned the following year at the age of 27. Historical records don’t indicate where Mary (Hazard) Hazzard moved with her baby soon after her husband’s death.

Documents reveal that in 1898, Mary F. Hazard resided in Lowell, MA. It is where she married for a second time, to Jewell C. Marsh on July 28, 1898.  At the time of her marriage, Mary was 45 years old working as a cook.  Her husband Jewell was 49 years old, having been born in New Orleans, and worked as a barber in Lowell.  It was his third marriage.

The Marshes rented a house at 72 Congress Street and remained there into the early 1900s.  Daughter Mary Isabel lived with her mother and step father, working as a housekeeper in private homes until her own marriage.  She later married a bootblack (shoe polisher) named Edward F. Jones and the couple moved to Manchester, NH.

In 1910, Mary F. (Hazard) Marsh’s husband became very ill with stomach cancer.  They moved to Manchester, NH, to live with Mary’s daughter Isabel and her family, the Jones.  Jewell Marsh passed away on March 26, 1910 and was buried at Edson Cemetery in Manchester, NH.  Mary Marsh continued to live with her daughter’s family into the 1910s and also worked as a housekeeper.  

The 1910 census for Manchester, NH, documents the Jones family including Mary Isabel (Hazzard) Jones and her mother Mary F. (Hazard) Marsh.  Also listed within the household was Alice Hazard.  Most likely a relative, 15-year old Alice was identified as a maid living within the household. 

By the 1920s, Mary F. (Hazard) Marsh had moved back to Massachusetts, living for a short time in Groton.  At 68 years of age and a widow, she found work as a laundress out of her home.  Later in the 1930s, she moved into her brother-in-law Peter F. Munroe’s home in Everett, MA, until she could find her own place in Ayer, MA.  

At some point in the mid-to-late 1930s, Mary Marsh was admitted to the Worcester State Hospital. On Aug 25,1938 a newspaper account revealed that she had attempted suicide in the State Hospital by stabbing herself in the stomach with a butter knife. It was her 3rd attempt. A few days later she wandered away from the state hospital; the police were called in to conduct a search for her but she was nowhere to be found. 

Eight months later, a janitor at the state hospital opened a heating system door to fix a leak in the pipes.  Mary Marsh’s body was found lodged in a steam pipe on April 27, 1939.  Investigators believed that she had climbed through an opening while trying to escape the hospital and had fallen into the steam pipe to her death. 

GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY

MARY FRANCES HAZARD was born in Ayer, MA in 1852 to TOWER HAZARD (1828-1892) and JULIA HARDY (1832-). She married 1st in Ayer, MA to JAMES H. HAZZARD (d.1878). They had: MARY ISABEL HAZZARD (b.1877). Mary F. Hazard married 2nd in Lowell, MA, to JEWELL C. MARSH in 1898.

MARY ISABEL HAZZARD was born in Ayer, MA, in 1877. She married EDWARD F. JONES in Manchester, NH in about 1906.
They had: Julia Adel Jones (1907), James Sylvester Jones (1909), and Edward Randolf Jones (1910).

SOURCE MATERIALS

Boston Globe, 27 April 1939, page 8.- Newspapers.com

Find-a-Grave.com

Massachusetts Vital Records, Births- 1877, 1907, 1909- Ancestry.com

Massachusetts Vital Records, Deaths- 1878, 1910- Ancestry.com

Massachusetts Vital Records, Marriages- 1874, 1898- Ancestry.com

Massachusetts Census, 1855- Ancestry.com

Massachusetts Wills and Probate, 1890- Ancestry.com

U.S. Federal Census, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930- Ancestry.com