Mary Elizabeth (Wisner) Hersh (1873 - 1941)

Born 10 Mar 1873 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Wife of Harvey Elmer Hersh — married 11 Feb 1892 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Feb 1941 at age 67 in Allentown, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wisner was born 10 March 1873 at the family home, 2524 March St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On 11 February 1892 in Philadelphia she married Harvey Elmer Hersh (his second wife). The wedding was officiated by Rev. Charles Torrence Morgan, with the bride's sister-in-law, Mrs. C. Wisner, as witness.

Harvey Elmer Hersh was born in 1870 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the son of James N. Hersh and his wife, Emma Jane Mertz. He had previously married in 1887 Rebecca N. Kocher. Harvey E. and Rebecca had a son, Ralph James Hersh who was born 1888. The couple were divorced in 1891 in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Not too long after Harvey and Mary Elizabeth were married, they moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where all but one of their children were born. About 1921 the family lived on a farm in Montgomery County near Sigmund for a short while. They then returned to Allentown.

While the family lived at 8th and Union Streets, a large property with several buildings, a bridge was built connecting the south side of Allentown with the center of town. Mary Elizabeth was the first person to walk across this bridge on the day it opened. She was a member of Grace Evangelical and Reformed Church which was located at 9th and Gordon Streets. Several children were confirmed at this church.

Harvey Hersh died in 1924 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Allentown.

After her husband's death Mary Elizabeth lived for many years with her daughters - Grace, Marion and Dorothy - in New York City and in Flushing, Long Island. In the fall of 1940 she returned to Allentown and lived with her daughter Marie. She died there 6 February 1941 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery beside her husband.

Her granddaughter, Jean Hersh Barshay, called Mary Elizabeth "Foxy Gama" because she put some things high up on a shelf when Jean came to visit, so that she could not reach them. Mrs. Barshay often visited her grandmother in New York and remembers: "She had two things which fascinated me, a framed picture of Jesus whose eyes seemed to follow you as you moved about the room, and a small white figurine of a little girl who resembled Shirley Temple, popular in the movies at the time. Both of these items were given to me many years later by her daughter." An unconfirmed tradition in the family says that one of the Albert "Al" Wisners invented air brakes and sold the pattern to Westinghouse for a "song".

The children of Harvey Elmer and Mary Elizabeth Hersh were as follows:

i. Grace Emma Hersh was born 11 Nov 1891... ii. Roy James Hersh, born 26 May 1893, died 8 Sep 1894. iii. Marie Adele Hersh, born 23 Oct 1894. iv. Paul Elias Hersh, born 12 Jun 1897. v. Maggie Hersh, born and died 5 Jul 1898. vi. James Franklin Hersh, born 10 Sep 1899. vii. Marion Sophia Hersh was born 2 Nov 1900... viii. Harvey Elmer Hersh, born 17 Jan 1903. ix. Mae Hersh, born 1904, died 1905. x. Dorothy Virginia Hersh, born 17 Sep 1907.

• Excerpt taken from Mountjoy Omnibus: Every Mountjoy/Montjoy/Munjoy (or whose mother or grandmother had the name) born before 1900, and who resided in the area now in the United States

Sources

• Death certificate; Obituary; Memorial Booklet; Marriage Certificate; cemetery records; tombstone; Family Bible; Photos; Will of George W. Wisner; Will of Harvey E. Hersh; Personal knowledge of Jean Hersh Barshay.
• Kinsey, M. B. (2001). Eighth Generation. In Mountjoy Omnibus: Every Mountjoy/Montjoy/Munjoy (or whose mother or grandmother had the name) born before 1900, and who resided in the area now in the United States (pp. 366–368). essay, Gateway Press.
• United States Census, 1910, database with images, FamilySearch ([1] : accessed 26 April 2023), Mary E Hersh in household of Harvey E Hersh, Allentown Ward 4, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 140, sheet 8A, family 187, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1363; FHL microfilm 1,375,376.
• Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Marriage Indexes, 1885-1951, database with images, FamilySearch ([2] : 2 March 2021), Mary Elizabeth Wisner and Hersh, 1892.