Mary Louisa (Taylor) Stocker writes in January 1976:
My mother’s family is a mystery. Her mother, Margaret Hayes, was an English schoolteacher who married Irish Maurice O’Connell. Mother was born in Queenstown, Ireland, and came to the United States as an infant. The family lived in South Boston, where her father worked in a livery stable. She had a brother, Daniel, who was two years younger. When she was 10, her mother died, and through the help of a Congregational Church, Mother was sent to Barre, Mass. to work on the farm of Sam and Ester Hamilton and continue her schooling as far as the 8th grade. She never heard from her father again!
After working in several Barre households, she became a housekeeper for the Cooks, who treated her like a daughter and to whom she was devoted. I was named for Mrs. Cook and the Cooks were my surrogate maternal grandparents. No story of my life would be complete without mention of them, so their pictures are also included in the family albums.
Mary Louisa Stocker (27 Algonquin Rd. Canton, Mass.) 1976