Biography

The daughter of a prominent New York family, Mary "Molly" Martin was the eldest of eleven children born to Enos T. Martin, a successful attorney and journalist, and the former Cornelia Williams, a mercantile heiress. Molly and her younger siblings, among them the noted writer Edward S. Martin, were raised in the stimulating atmosphere of "Willowbrook", the Throop-Martin estate on Auburn's Lake Owasco, where her parents and grand-uncle, former New York Governor Enos Thompson Throop, regularly hosted famous visitors. High-spirited and a talented pupil of noted pianist Richard Hofmann, she was a favorite of American statesman and family friend William H. Seward, who had invited her to accompany him on his 1870 world tour--an offer she graciously declined, citing health reasons. While it's possible that she may also have had reservations about joining Seward's recently adopted daughter, Olive, on the trip, Molly had been stalked by tuberculosis since childhood. A stay in the Bahamas during the 1860's had brought about a remission from the disease, but not a cure. Yet despite her fragile health she led an active, productive life, delighting her family and guests at Willowbrook with her performances at the pianoforte. During the post-Civil War recession she also took on much of the responsibility for managing the estate. In the 1870's she created a successful canning business, supervising it with another unmarried Martin sister, Nellie, to offset the family's declining fortunes. But the disease that had been her nemesis since youth, and which had claimed the lives of two of her siblings, eventually forced her to seek relief at a sanitarium in Glen Cove, Long Island, and she died there in 1884 at the age of 45. Predeceased by her father and siblings Harriet. Throop, and Emily Martin Upton, she was survived by her mother, sisters Nellie, Evy Martin Alexander, Lylie Martin Tremain, and Violet Martin Wilder; and brothers John, George and Edward.