Mary Agnes Chisholm, age about 2 years old c. 1896.

Mary's mother descended from the Snows and the Stephen Hopkins (the Pilgrim's guide who sailed aboard the Mayflower from England, landing in Plymouth in 1620). Her descendants qualify to be members of the Society of Mayflower Descendants with proper birth, marriage and death certificates.

Mary's mother died when she was 6 years old. When Mary was 9 her father remarried. There were already 6 children from the 1st marriage. This new marriage brought in 3 more children from the 2nd wife's 1st marriage. Then with her father remarrying, over the next 7 years 4 more children were added to the household.

They first lived at 33 Bartlett Street in Malden, a house that was owned by her mother's brother, Hugh Hopkins. After her mother's death, and her father's remarriage, the family moved to North Readingtown, later changed to North Reading, now Wakefield.

Her father made woodenware products: chairs, ladders, steps, etc. He learned his trade from his father who had originally been a sea captain, but when he retired from that, he turned to carpentry work. Mary often rode with her her grandfather on his horse-drawn wagon when he made his rounds to his customers and selling his wares.

Mary Agnes Chisholm -- graduation from North Reading High School. c. 1913.

As Beulah, Blanche and I graduated from Reading High School and went to work in Boston, we came to live with Grandma and Grandpa Chisholm on Cross St. When Grandma and Grandpa died the house was sold and made into a three tenement house (on the corner of Cross and Henry St.) and there's nothing now to remind anyone of the former building. I wonder what became of Grandpa's barn in back of the house. He kept his ladder and chair wagon and his horse in there. Mary can remember riding in her Grandpa's wagon as a young girl as he made his deliveries.

Uncle Earl (my father's brother) who lived with his folks until he married, had a driving horse and a carriage which he kept in this barn. He also had a dog, Pete, who used to go to all the fires (and there were plenty in those days in Suffolk Square). Pete was always within inches of the fire apparatus, and the firemen always looked for him.

Beulah went to live on Summer Street with friends, before her marriage to Ward Foote, and Blanche and I soon went with her to an apartment on Bartlett St. around the comer from the house where we were born (in the house that Uncle "Or" owned, and where my mother died). After my mother's death, on New Year's Day, 1900, Uncle Or went to live at Grandma's. We enjoyed his company there. Every weekend he went to Annisquam, where he owned a boat. He never married, and at the age of 59, he died from blood poisoning, caused, everybody thought, from moistening his brush on his tongue. He was an artist, working for Forbes Lithographing Company in Boston, at the time of his death. (memoirs of Mary Chisholm Sweetser)

Mary graduated from Reading High School in 1913 and became of member of the Girls' Gymnasium Glass of the Malden Y.M.C.A. She attended the newly built First Baptist Church in Malden and as a member she and her sisters, Beulah and Blanche, attended Makoniky Camp at Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod. Swimming, eating and sailing were some of the items in stock for the leisurely days.

In February 1915 the girls of the Malden Y.M.C.A. took a trip to the White Mountains of Vermont to snowshoe up and around Mount Kearsarge. They took the train as far as Intervale and then a horse drawn sleigh got them to Abbott Farm where they would be staying at the foot of Mt. Kearsarge. Heavy woolen clothing and deep snow made it a difficult trek.

Between 1914 and 1918 summer weekends were spent at the Y.M.C.A. camp in Lanesville where a regular "camp" was set up. The "Chisholm" camp included Mary, her sister Blanche and her cousin Harry's wife, Ethel Sweetser Chisholm. More excursions into New Hampshire where swimming, boating, hiking and climbing were mixed into the set. Mary climbed White Face Mountain [it is not known at this time if this is the one in New York or if there is one in the White Mountains of New Hampshire as well]. During any leisure time they had they were busy knitting socks for the soldiers that were fighting during W.W.I. - "sisters in misery" Mary captioned these photos in her scrapbook.

In July 1918 they stayed at The Abida near Lake Wentworth "helping" with the farm duties of haying, as well as the usual hiking routine.

She attended Massachusetts School of Practical Arts in Boston during her lunch hours while she worked clerking in an office. She was a seamstress and made her own dresses throughout her adult life and made a small income making dresses for others.

April 23, 1962 - at Mary & Sid's home at 10 Kneeland Street, Malden, Mass.

Their son Don, his wife Margie (far right), and their 2 children, Krista & Kimberley, are visiting from their home in New Jersey. Kim is celebrating her 8th birthday.

Sid's sister, Anna Moore Sweetser is also with the family as she also lives in town, is the Head of the Children's Department at the Malden Library, and over the years gave many books to her grand-nieces & nephews.

This house had a double front door with colored square glass lites in the upper half. It has a narrow oval mail slot with a plaque above with "S.M. Sweetser" engraved on it. These doors were drafty, however, and when she had a new front door installed, the old doors were taken off and Don's family brought them to their house in Tennessee. They were building an addition onto their home at the time and they installed the doors onto the addition. These doors came with them when they moved to New York and now adorns their back porch entrance at 606 Chapel Street in Fayetteville, New York.

Mary and Sid had the driveway paved and a swing set installed for the neighbor children and her own grandchilden to play on.

When their son Don and his family would vacation on Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod each summer, they would stop and stay in Malden for a couple of days so the children could play with their cousins, Jean's children. Once they'd leave for the Vineyard, Mary and her granddaughter, Eileen Kelley, would travel by bus to spend a week on the Vineyard.

In 1968 Mary travelled down to Tennessee to visit Don's family for Christmas. Another granddaughter, Torrey, had been born in July, and this was a very special time for Mary. She enjoyed her visit seeing Don's family in their own home instead of just when they were on vacation for a couple of days.

Each year she would gather a monarch caterpillar that had settled on milkweed. She would take the caterpillar, stalk and all, and place it in a jar to watch it turn itself first into a chrysalis, then into a butterfly. This process never ceased to amaze her and she would share this metamorphosis with her grandchildren as they grew up.

She loved flowers and had planters placed on the wooden railing of her porch, usually filled with red geraniums in the summertime.

Mary had a favorite hat made of straw resembling the classic Chinese style. She was quite the picture with her squat frame and round sunglasses peeking out from under that straw hat! She usually wore open-toe shoes as her feet were so wide and short. It was difficult for her to find comfortable footwear. She also tried to get furniture makers to design chairs that would be comfortable yet easy to get out of for an adult that was only 4'10" in height. They're still trying.

One year Mary bought a rice paper parasol for her granddaughter, Torrey, when she visited them on Martha's Vineyard. Torrey still has it.

Mary was 4'10" with auburn hair and blue eyes.

Mary wrote childrens’ stories and published may articles for magazines under the pseudonym "Ted Sweetser." She wrote mostly for outdoor magazines and magazines geared toward young people, such as Boy's Life. She took writing lessons from a woman down on Cape Cod whose last name was Snow B somehow related on her mother's side.

In the 1950's she published a bunch or articles that were printed in various church publications. She sent a bunch to her sister Doris which found their way back to her granddaughter, Krista Sweetser in 2010.

In the early 1960's she became president of the Malden Manuscript Club. She attempted to get her books published for many years, under either her pseudonym or her own name. Finally, in 1967, she accomplishing this under her own name with the children's Danish Christmas story, The Extra Gift, illustrated by H. Tom Hall. She dedicated this book her 8 grandchildren. In 1970 she travelled to the United Kingdom and Ireland on a guided tour from the proceeds of her book. She booked this without making full inquiries as what type of tour this would be. When she came back, she said they must have stopped at every pub in Ireland.

After this she attempted get another story, Molly Pigtails published, but failed. The manuscript for this story is in the possession of her granddaughter, Janet Kelley Wolohan.

In 19__ she founded the Star Island Writers' Conference in New Hampshire. She organized annual retreats for writers who came from around the country to bounce ideas off each other and gain insight into various writing styles and techniques. Mary became friends with such notable writers as writer/poet Robert McCord and Finnish writer Tove who wrote the Moominsummer and Moominsummer Madness books. Little stuffed versions of the Moominsummer characters were made and Mary had several. The grandchildren loved playing with them. They resembled what nowadays look like the Boynton cartoon characters on greeting cards -- the hippopotamus in particular). She liked to cut and and put into notebooks the nature stories of Thornton W. Burgess and read them to her children, Don and Jean, when they were little.

1972 Mary and her son Don Sweetser
At the ferry terminal at Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard.

Mary and her granddaughter, Eileen Kelley (her dau. Jean's middle dau.) had just spent a week with Don and his family at the camp on Martha's Vineyard. Mary and Eileen had travelled by bus. It was always a good time.