A Quiet Life, A Quiet Death

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On this image from the 1926 Plat Book, the farm of William and Mary Boldt is outlined in red.

She lived a quietly useful life, and died younger than she should have. She was Mary Sullivan Boldt, daughter of Patrick and Sarah Sullivan.

She had been born November 11, 1857, at Kendallville, Indiana, but as she was only six years old when her parents settled in this area, she probably remembered little of any other home. She grew up south of Ainsworth. In her twenties, she spent several years teaching in the Hobart public schools. In 1888, at the age of 30, she married William Boldt, a German immigrant turned Hobartite and a bricklayer by trade. For the next two decades they lived on the 80-acre farm shown above. They had five children: Carl, John, Theresa, Margaret and Helen.

Around 1909 William and Mary left their farm and moved to Hobart. William continued to do some masonry work. Mary was active in St. Bridget's Church as well as the Woman's Sodality. Their nieces and nephews (children of her brother Thomas and his wife Augusta) came up from Ainsworth now and then to visit.

Although Mary had not been in the best of health for a few years, her death came as a surprise; she was suddenly taken ill one evening after dinner, lost consciousness by the next morning, and quietly passed away within three days. She was just short of 60 years old.

William survived her. By this time only two of their children, Margaret and Helen, remained at home — John had joined the U.S. Army and was stationed at Borden, England (and by December would be in France); Carl was somewhere in the south (I believe he had joined the army as well, or soon would); and Theresa had married Fred Collins of Crown Point.

Mary is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery. Her grave marker is slowly being covered by the earth and a tree.


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Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 4 Aug. 1916.
♦ "Ainsworth Pick-Ups." Hobart Gazette 1 Aug. 1910; 26 Aug. 1910.
♦ "Funeral of Mrs. Wm. Boldt Held Wednesday Morning." Hobart News 11 Oct. 1917.
♦ "Local U.S. Service Items." Hobart Gazette 14 Dec. 1917.
♦ "Mrs. Wm. Boldt Dies Suddenly." Hobart Gazette 12 Oct. 1917.