Mrs. Pleasant stated she was indentured/employed by a Grandma Hussey (pronounced HUZZY) when living on Nantucket. There has been some confusion about “which” Mrs. Hussey ran the store. MEP maintained close friendships with the widow Phebe Folger Hussey and her daughter Phebe Hussey Gardner (often referred to as Phebe Jr.) However, Mrs. Mary Mooers Hussey, widow of Peter Hussey, ran the general goods business.
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Prior to his death, Peter Hussey ran a thriving general goods business, his ledger book is available at the Nantucket Historical Association . After his death, Mrs. Hussey sold several parcels of property as is evident in the Town of Nantucket records. There are mentions in other records and interviews that Grandma Mary had to help support a widow in the family. This would can also help explain why money MEP’s father sent annually for her education was not utilized as he wished. The families needed all available funds to exist. The whaling industry which supported Nantucket was beginning to encounter a financial slow down due to fewer whales, less profit, and soon crude petroleum would overtake whale oil for lighting America. Whaling vessels would be gone anywhere from 2-4 years with the women left behind fending for themselves financially.
Finding MEP in the census proves difficult. However, the federal 1820 census for Mrs. Phebe Folger Hussey has a slave boy under 13 in her household. However, a review of the Nantucket handwritten record shows the boy to be “Mary Pompey, daughter of John”.
Photo: 1820 Nantucket Census-courtesy of Nantucket Historical Association.
John Pompey was a well regarded Nantucket Negro sailor/captain. A review of his life does not find a daughter named Mary but Almira, Mercy and Nancy. Might this be a simple misidentification by the census worker? While the years differ slightly there could be explanations: (1) it is not Mary Ellen Williams, (2) they ‘aged’ Mary as she was “working” for Grandma Hussey, (3) Mary’s year of birth which has been reported as between 1812-1815 may have been even earlier, 1810. It could also be a combination of 2 and 3.
Strangely, Mary’s name does not appear in Grandma Mary Hussey’s or Phebe Folger Hussey’s households for the 1830 census. The 1830 Nantucket census records are curious as it appears the census was conducted several times by different persons. A clearly identifiable Mary Ellen Williams is not easily identified. One census taker noted specifically people of color within households, the others do not; the other census takers listed people of color at the end of the census.
On another note, Grandma Mary Hussey per reference of the Barney Genealogic Record at the Nantucket Association, was not the grandmother of either Phebe Folger Hussey or her daughter Phebe Hussey Gardner, rather they were cousins. Grandma Mary and Phebe Folger Hussey’s husbands were first cousins, their fathers were brothers. As a small, close-knit community, there are likely more familial ties, but this one is the most obvious. And confusion about identities is likely due to the reuse of family names, reviewing the census finds several Phebes and Marys.
[Note: an I895 San Francisco Examiner interview with MEP misidentifies “Grandma Hussey” as Phoebe Folger Hussey.]