M. A. Pierson to Frederick Douglass, November 15, 1873
Mowbray Cottage 15/Nov 1873
Dear Friend
Today I send you the leaves and grasses, they are not all I could wish but I hope you will be pleased if not much with them, at least with the effort I have made to please you in this direction, If in some sort of distant way they carry your spirit away from the noisy street to the far off woods with their
"Grey old trunks that high in heaven
Mingle their mossy boughs"
and serve to rest you a little, I shall be very glad I sent them,
They will require some care in arranging in the vases I have made—the loose leaves are to stick in among the grasses, and the leaves in strings for the picture frames, they should be unpacked in a warm room
I am much gratified to learn that
my hanging basket has received such good attention
I thank you for your good wishes and hope I shall always have them
I count it among my greatest pleasures to receive a good letter from you, but I don't want you ever to write when it is a burden to you—such things are only beautiful so long as they are spontaneous.
I am very glad for your better health and I hope for an old fashioned skate write you some time this winter
Yours truly
M. A. PeirsonPierson (Peirson), Mary Ann
A native of Yorkshire, was sister to Elizabeth Pierson and one of ten children born to the English Quakers Thomas and Hannah Smith Pierson. The Piersons left England in 1849, and by 1850 were living in Lockport, New York. Charles Douglass lived with the Pierson family for a period of time after John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and both Mary Ann and her elder sister Elizabeth seem to have maintained close, lifelong friendships with Frederick Douglass and other members of his family. 1850 U.S. Census, New York, Niagara County, 121; 1870 U.S. Census, New York, Niagara County, 73; 1900 U.S. Census, New York, Niagara County, 163; Fought, Women, 170–71, 179, 241, 270; “England and Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578–1837,” Ancestry.com; “New York, Alien Depositions of Intent to Become U.S. Citizens, 1825–1871,” Ancestry.com.