Not my choice of words, and I hesitate to
label her such, as my admiration and respect for such an estimable lady go far
beyond any such appellation. This designation
was made shortly after her death in the summer of 1878, when a number of
citizens of New Albany imagined her spirit had possibly not yet left this
earth. ["Her Spookship"]
Much can be written about Mary Ann Silliman
Ayers Lindsley Richardson Lapsley, who was as formidable a woman as her name
might imply. She had quite the pedigree
and more than enough panache to scare the bejeebers out of many an ordinary
folk. She demanded and warranted
respect. Piety was a descriptive word
often attached to Mary Ann and particularly her husbands (of which she had
four). She also had given birth to eight
children and seen them all to an early grave, none surviving to adulthood. As her eloquent obituary so aptly stated, “She had her share of experiences, bitter in
sorrows, tragic in disappointments, and acquainted with grief.” [New Albany Daily Ledger Standard 03 Jun 1878]
A chronology is
best utilized to depict Mary Ann’s life.
A recollection of Fairfield, Connecticut in the late 1700s only touches upon the heritage that was Mary Ann’s. Her grandfather, Gold Selleck Silliman, was a
graduate of then Yale College; an attorney for the crown prior to the revolution
and subsequently commander of the local militia. He was later promoted to Brigadier General
and skirmished alongside Brigadier General Benedict Arnold at Danbury,
Connecticut in April of 1777, in an attempt to defend supplies of the
Continental Army. His actions as
prosecutor of local Loyalists prompted his capture and imprisonment in May of
1779 by the Loyalists. His son, William
Silliman, Mary Ann’s father, was also captured but released due to ill
health. The elder Silliman remained a
prisoner for about a year until his wife, Mary Fish Noyes Silliman (Dickinson),
was instrumental in his release. [The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family
in Revolutionary America, written by Joy Day Buel & Richard Buel Jr., and the subsequent
film/documentary “Mary Silliman’s War” are an interpretation of these historic
events.]
 | |
| Elias Ayers Plot at Fairview Cemetery |
Mary Ann’s parents, William and Phoebe Jennings Silliman, had
removed to New Albany, where they died just a week apart from typhoid
fever in October 1816, and are buried at Fairview Cemetery on the Elias Ayers
plot. [Elias, Mary Ann, their eight
children, Mary Ann’s parents, her sister and Mary Ann’s last husband, Rev. Lapsley, are all
buried there, as are others.]
Following the death
of her parents, Mary Ann lived in the home of Cuthbert Bullitt (of Oxmoor and
Bullitt County connections), where her sister, Martha Ann and Martha’s husband,
Rev. Daniel Chapman Banks, were living. Rev. Banks had been a Congregationalist missionary
in Kentucky when he received the call to accept the pastorate of the first
Presbyterian church in Louisville in 1816.
Mary Ann began teaching in a school established by Rev. Banks on his
arrival in Louisville. These same
individuals, along with Elias Ayers, were instrumental in establishing the
First Presbyterian Church in New Albany.
“The first communion of the Presbyterian church of New Albany was
solemnized on the day of the organization, Rev. D. C. Banks officiating at the
ceremony.” [History of the Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties, Vol. II,
p. 186] Mary Ann and Elias, who was already an established merchant in Louisville, were married
in the Bullitt home on the 27th of July in 1819, remaining in
Louisville for a few more years until they relocated in New Albany.
