Mary Adams Sharpe
1883-1959
After Edna Sharpe's death, John Sharpe left his daughters with his Mother-in-Law in Auburn, NY, while he made a new life for himself. It is not known how much time passed before he returned to retrieve his daughters, however it is safe to say that it was several years. The photos of Jeanne and Madeline as young children, ages 1-4 and 4-7, are presumed to have been taken in Auburn.
Jeanne told the story that when she was 2-3 years old and a man came to her Grandmother's door, she asked, "Are you my Daddy".
When John Sharpe did return to pick up his daughters, he had married Mary Adams Sharpe, the woman who became "Mother" to Jeanne and Madeline. Mary was known to family as Mimi.
Mary Adams Sharpe
1916
Mary Adams Sharpe seated, third from the left, on the porch of the Hemingway family porch, most probably during her first meeting with her new step-daughters, Madeline and Jeanne. Seated with infant on her lat is Lydia Josephine Dangerfield Hemingway, matriarch of the Elwood Hemingway family. Elwood had died in 1906. Seated with Jeanne, far right, is Lydia Hemingway, youngest sister of the late Edna Hemingway Sharpe. Madeline is seated with a large bow in her hair, behind her Grandmother, Lydia, and beside the person we think is her Great Grandmother and Mother-in law of her Grandmother, Marilla Moore Hemingway.
Notice the somber atmosphere in this photograph. All but one person, Mary Adams Sharpe, are Hemingway family, including the two little girls, Jeanne and Madeline, who were transplanted with this family after the death of their mother. Presumably, John Sharpe is the photographer.
One day, John Sharpe, their father, returns with Mary Sharpe, his new wife, to retrieve his daughters. The two children don't know their father and are bound by love with their family, from whom they are soon to be taken.
Notice the stature of Mary, sitting upright with her hands in her lap and looking away from the camera lens. Magnification of this image reveals her furrowed brow, as she uncomfortably sits among the Hemingways, the new step-mother, who is about to take these peoples' two lovely girls.
Truly, this picture says much about the difficulty this family was experiencing.
John Sharpe is not in the two pictures that we have from this encounter. We can only imagine what he might have been feeling on that difficult day.
Mary Adams Sharpe with Jeanne (4) in 1917
at the Hemingway home in Auburn.
Mary Adams Sharpe with Grandmama in 1917,
at the Hemingway home in Auburn.
Mary Adams Sharpe with Jeanne (4)
and Madeline (7), in 1917
Mary Adams Sharpe
Mary Sharpe, Mimi with Madeline, Johnny, Carolyn, Bobby (sitting with eyes shielded), and Jack, (pointing), with Jeanne, Bud, Johnny, and Jim (in hat), circa 1950
The Sharpe, Family, John, Jeanne, Mary, and Madeline
John Sharpe and Mary at Martins Ferry Hospital, circa mid-1950's
John and Mary Sharpe
Mimi is pictured with Jeanne, age 46, at Jim's Linsly Military Institute graduation May 29, 1959.
Mimi was age 76 and died on June 26, less than a month later.
Mimi at a family Birthday Party
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