Mary Ann van der Hayden
Born: September, 1812, in Rensselaer, New York
Died: March 31, 1874, in Vermontville, Essex County, New York
Married: John Thomas
Children: Richard N. Thomas, Charlotte Ann Thomas (married Stephen Warren Morehouse), Rachel Caroline Thomas
Mary Ann van der Hayden was an African American pioneer and farmer. She was born near Troy, New York, and married John Thomas there. In 1849 they moved to the Adirondacks, where they raised a family and ran a prosperous farm together. Mary Ann died in 1874 and was buried in Vermontville's Union Cemetery.
Mary Ann van der Hayden was born in September of 1812 in Rensselaer, New York. It is not known whether she was enslaved, or who her parents were. By the early 1840's Mary Ann was living in Troy, about ten miles away from where she was born.
It was there that she met John Thomas, who had escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1840. Their first child together, Richard, was born in 1845. Although they were relatively safe there, racism and gangs were common.
In 1846 her husband, John, ventured into the Adirondacks to seek a better life for their family. John had been offered a free property by abolitionist Gerrit Smith, but its location near Plumadore Pond was too remote and rugged. John sold the property and returned to Troy. In the winter of 1848-1849 John purchased a farm in Vermontville and the family moved there.
John and Mary Ann's second child, Charlotte Ann, was born in March of 1849, shortly after they arrived in Vermontville. She would later marry Civil War hero and fellow African American Adirondack pioneer Warren Morehouse. In 1851, Rachel Caroline was born.
By 1855 the Thomas family farm, located on Lot 284 beside Muzzy Road, was producing oats, potatoes, and hay.
Tragedy struck the family in 1860 when Richard died at the age of 15. Despite the loss of their son, Mary Ann and John continued to improve their farm by raising cows, pigs, and sheep, and purchasing horses and oxen. Their crops now included corn and buckwheat, as well.
Mary Ann was likely involved in both the ownership and upkeep of the farm. In the 1870 Franklin census she is listed as "keeping house," but she dealt with several of the land dealings associated with the farm in the late 1860s and early 1870s. In the town's 1873 assessment records she is listed as the owner of Lot 284.
Mary Ann died of pleurisy on March 31, 1874, and was buried in Vermontville's Union Cemetery. She was 61 years old. John died on April 30, 1894, at the home of their daughter Charlotte. He was buried next to Mary Ann in Union Cemetery.