Manuscripts Collection
Mary Theresa Mehegan was born in New York City July 1, 1846, the daughter of recent Irish immigrants. Mary’s father, Timothy Mehegan, moved the family to St. Anthony in the newly organized Minnesota Territory in 1850. They quickly moved to St. Paul where Mr. Mehegan worked tailoring clothes and selling real estate until his death on Christmas Eve, 1854. Mary and her sister Eliza attended St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Paul and Mary worked as a waitress at the Merchant’s Hotel where she met James J. Hill in the early 1860s.
The couple became engaged in June 1864, but before the marriage Mary attended finishing school at St. Mary’s Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, paid for by James. There she learned French, history, music, calisthenics, and needlework.
James and Mary were married August 19, 1867 in the home of Bishop John Ireland in St. Paul. They honeymooned in Milwaukee and moved into a home on Pearl (later Grove) Street in the Lowertown area of St. Paul.
Mary gave birth to ten children between 1868 and 1885: Mary Francis, known as "Mamie" (Mrs. Samuel Hill, 1868-1947); James Norman Hill (1870-1932); Louis Warren Hill (1872-1948); Clara Anne (Mrs. Erasmus C. Lindley, 1873-1947); Charlotte Elizabeth (Mrs. George T. Slade, 1877-1923); Ruth (Mrs. Anson Beard, 1879-1959); Rachel (Mrs. Egil Boeckmann, 1881-1967); Gertrude (Mrs. Michael Gavin, 1883-1961); and Walter Jerome Hill (1885-1944). A daughter, Katherine Theresa (Katie), died in infancy (1875-1876).
Mrs. Hill managed her family’s numerous large households, which included more than 10 servants at their Summit Avenue home completed in 1892 and at their North Oaks Farm home in northern Ramsey County, Minnesota. She was also active in charity work in St. Paul, particularly for the Catholic Church and the Red Cross.
In the early 1880s Mary was diagnosed with a “consumptive condition,” possibly tuberculosis, and her health was often poor from then on. She died of heart failure on November 22, 1921, at the age of 75, and her funeral was held at the Cathedral of St. Paul.
The papers document the private lives of one of Minnesota's most prominent and influential families. Of particular interest are Mary Hill's diaries, which describe life in the Hill household and Mary's own activities as a devout Roman Catholic, a mother, and the wife of a railroad baron.
Routine financial records document income and expenses for the years after the death of James J. Hill, when Mrs. Hill was financially independent.
Also included in the papers are materials of four of Mrs. Hill's children. Of special interest are Walter Jerome Hill's sometimes poignant letters home from Siglar's Preparatory School (Newburgh, N.Y.), and later the Taft School (Watertown, Conn.), while a young boy.
The papers are organized into the following sections:
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota
Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics should
Inventories to the
The Mary T. Hill Papers are part of the Hill Family Collection.
Major portions of this collection were previously held at the James J. Hill Reference Library. These portions were transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society in March, 2008.
Accession number: 15,401; 15,568; 15,569; 16,137; 16,297; 16,486
Processed by: Jillian Odland, September 2009.
Work on the Hill Family Collection was supported entirely with funds granted by the Northwest Area, Grotto, and Jerome Foundations.
Catalog ID number: 6980479
Series is comprised of annual daily diaries, most of which contain sporadic entries, and additional record books and notebooks kept by Mary T. Hill. There are multiple diaries for some years; it appears that some of the volumes are travel diaries or diaries kept at North Oaks Farm or other homes. The diaries focus on daily personal and family activities, including callers and visitors to the Hill home, the children's illnesses, trips taken, summers spent at the family's North Oaks Farm, letters written and received, books read, luncheons, attendance at church, drives around the city, and James J. Hill's final illness and death. The daily diaries are accompanied by typed transcripts; most of the transcripts combine all diaries for a given year into a single conglomerated document.
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4 pages listing artworks and furnishings.
Incoming and outgoing correspondence between Mary T. Hill and her family members and incoming correspondence regarding legal and financial concerns. Includes letters to her sister A. E. Mehegan, then at St. Mary's Institute (Milwaukee, Wis.), describing her life as a young wife and mother (1866-1869); medical advice and a diet plan (1919) from Hermann M. Biggs, M.D. (New York City); and letters from John J. Toomey (Mr. Hill's long-time bookkeeper and private secretary) concerning disposition of the contents of the Hills' New York house (8 E. 65th St.) following Hill's death. Additional Mary T. Hill correspondence is contained in the Louis W. Hill papers, particularly within the family correspondence files.
Files include records of Mary T. Hill's own estate planning and creation of trusts as well as materials related to the resort at Jekyll Island, Georgia, where the Hills had a vacation home.
Includes information on the Dunbar, Hill, Riggs, and related families, and Timothy Mehegan. May have been prepared by Clara Hill Lindley for her family history book.
Handwritten history and ephemera.
Photocopies of handwritten and typed transcriptions of recipes from the kitchens of the St. Paul and New York City homes of James J. and Mary T. Hill. The handwriting may be that of Mary T. Hill or her daughter, Rachel Hill Boeckmann. The recipe designations refer to Boeckmann or to Hill servants or family members, including Mary T. Hill and cook Lena Peterson.
Routine records of Mary Hill's personal income and expenses in the years after her husband's death in 1916. Later records are contained in the Mary T. Hill Estate series of the Louis W. Hill papers.
Correspondence, diaries, and other materials of four of Mary T. and James J. Hill's ten children, which primarily dates to the children's teenage and adult years.
Two diaries describe an 1899 trip to Europe including sightseeing in England, France, and Switzerland, with pictures pasted into each volume.
Birthday book received by Gertrude Hill, Christmas 1897, in which she recorded birthdays of friends and family.
Walter's letters home to his mother while away from home attending preparatory schools on the east coast (1895-1898, 1901-1902), on a cruise to the Orient (1905), and while working in Nebraska (1905) and Montana (1903, 1906) on railroad construction projects. A few of the letters are addressed to his father, brothers, and sisters, and there are a few letters written by school officials and others to Mrs. Hill.
Chronologically-arranged, sequentially numbered transcriptions of most of the letters described above. There are 105 letters; two are numbered 79.