Poe Archive

HISTORY
Mary R. Patrick wrote each of the two letters in this series, one to her friend Carrie and one to her sister Caroline. Each letter would seem to have a number of leads for research as many names are written into each; however, to date, all attempts to connect the names and determine Mary's lineage have been fruitless. The first names mentioned tend to be too common and the full names mentioned, except in one or two instances do not appear in census records. Each letter is written from Leed's Point, New Jersey and detail her life there as a school teacher and it would seem that the two young women she is writing to are living in the same county (Atlantic County) as she describes their attendance at some local events. The search is made more difficult because the covers that came with the letters are both addressed to Miss Caroline Williams, although the letters are two different individuals; thus one, if not both covers have been incorrectly matched to its letter. This is compounded by the fact that each recipient may have had the same first name since Carrie may well be a nickname for Caroline, not to mention there are two additional Caroline's mentioned in the letter. Despite the fact that the first letter was written to Mays Landing in August and the second written to Mays Landing in October and the 1850 Census was taken in between from September 3, to September 16, 1850, there was no one enumerated by the name Caroline Williams anywhere in the county. The one bright spot in the search is that Mary R. Patrick has been located in the 1850 Census as indicated below. This is the only Patrick living in the county and in her letters she notes that she is boarding with the elderly Mr. Leeds.

1850 CENSUS
Mary R. Patrick, 20, is enumerated in the Census as living in Galloway township (Leed's Point) in the household of Robert Leeds 76, Darcus Leeds, 71, female, and Hazel Bird, 11. It is noted that Mary Patrick was born in Massachusetts.