Biography:
Ms. Mary Jane Sappington (Dorsey) is buried in an unmarked grave in Ellsworth Cemetery in Westminster, Maryland.
The child of Private Perry Sappington and Louise Sides, Mary Jane was born shortly before the Civil War in about 1861. Her parents were both from Virginia, although she was born in Maryland. Later in life, she would adjust her birth year. We find her in the 1870 Census with her mother and stepfather. Her father, Perry Sappington/Savington had died during the Civil War. He is buried in his home state of Virginia. Her stepfather, James Dorsey, had served with her father, in the 4th USCT.
Mary Jane lived with her mother for her entire life. She worked as a laundress, likely alongside her mother as well. While she had grown up in post-war Maryland, Mary Jane never learned to read or write. She never married, and likely never had children. She attended the Baptist Church on Green Street in Westminster.
In the spring of 1909, Mary Jane Sappington died of exhaustion. She was buried in Ellsworth Cemetery, likely near her mother and stepfather.
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