Biography

The widow of Enos T. Martin and the mother of their eleven children, Cornelia (nee Williams) Martin died at the age of 80. A native of Utica, NY, and heiress to a mercantile fortune, she was born on Christmas Day 1818 to John Williams, an immigrant from Wales, and his wife, the former Eliza Sickles. On June 1, 1837 she wed the prominent attorney and journalist Enos Thompson Throop Martin, nephew of a New York governor, Enos Thompson Throop. The couple subsequently lived in New York City and Utica before settling at the Throop-Martin estate, "Willowbrook", on Lake Owasco near Auburn. There Mrs. Martin, who was known to be a gracious, attractive, and intelligent woman, entertained many prominent figures of the 19th Century, including Washington Irving, Jenny Lind, President Grant, William H. Seward, and George Armstrong Custer. A devout Christian, she was particularly supportive of missionary work among the Chinese. She was widowed in 1883, and died sixteen years later at "Willowbrook". Of the Martins' eleven children, all but one, (the four-year-old Harriet Byron Martin), survived to adulthood, and several achieved prominence, most notably the writer Edward Sanford Martin (1856-1939). Mrs. Martin did, however, experience the grief of seeing three of her adult children die of tuberculosis at relatively young ages: Emily Martin Upton in 1871, and Mary and "Throop" in 1884 and 1885, respectively. At the time of her death her survivors included three sons, George, John, and Edward, and four daughters: Cornelia, Evelina Martin Alexander, Eliza Martin Tremain, and Violet Martin Wilder.