Mary Frances Hopkins Searles ( Sherwood; March 8, 1818 – July 25, 1891) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

millionaire. After her first husband's death, she was one of the richest women in the United States, and used her wealth to realize her architectural interests.

Life

Mary Frances Sherwood was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the daughter of

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...

William Sherwood. She was educated at Kellogg Terrace School in

Great Barrington, Massachusetts Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut, ...

. She married her first husband, railroad tycoon

Mark Hopkins, Jr. Mark Hopkins Jr. (September 1, 1813 – March 29, 1878) was an American railroad executive. He was one of four principal investors that funded Theodore D. Judah's idea of building a railway over the Sierra Nevada from Sacramento, California ...

, on September 22, 1854. Hopkins and Sherwood were

first cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

s. The childless couple lived for most of their marriage in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, moving to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

for the last four years of Hopkins' life. Mark Hopkins mansion

Mary Hopkins developed her interest in grand architecture during this marriage. She convinced her husband to build a grand estate in San Francisco to match those of the other railroad tycoons of the era. The house was furnished by

Herter Brothers Herter is a German occupational surname for a herdsman. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Herter (1871–1950), American painter; son of Christian, the furniture maker * Christian Herter (1895–1966), American politician; son of ...

, and was completed in 1880 (two years after Mark Hopkins' 1878 death). The house was later used to house the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

. The house was destroyed in a fire resulting from the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

On November 7, 1887, Mary Hopkins married

Edward Francis Searles Edward Francis Searles (July 4, 1841 – August 6, 1920) was an interior and architectural designer. Biography Searles was born on July 4, 1841, in Methuen, Massachusetts, US to Jesse Gould Searles (1805–1844) and Sarah (Littlefield) Searles. ...

. On the occasion of this marriage, She gave her home in Menlo Park to her adopted son Timothy. The Searles together built Searles Castle in Great Barrington on the grounds of the Kellogg Terrace home that Mary Searles had owned since 1881. The bulk of her estate passed to Searles, while her adopted son Timothy, who had married Sherwood's niece, received only a small portion, resulting in a prolonged dispute. When Edward Searles died in 1920, he left his inherited estate to the Methuen Memorial Music Hall.

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Searles, Mary Hopkins 1818 births 1891 deaths American socialites People from New York City People from Great Barrington, Massachusetts