Mary Harriet Boudinot (1828 - 1853) 05 October 1828, The second child and second daughter of Elias and Harriett, was Mary Harriet Boudinot born in the Cherokee Nation, East, Georgia.

December 08, 1829, Benjamin Gold describes his grandchildren, Eleanor and Mary as "two beautiful and interesting children: would pass in company for full-blooded Yankees. My wife says she thinks they are rather handsomer than any she has seen at the north."

January 23, 1829, Elias and Harriett Gold Boudinot, New Echota, Cherokee Nation to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill in River Head, Connecticut "Mary does [prime] she has real Indian black eyes. People say she is handsomer than Eleanor. You must not think we brag."

April 14, 1830, Benjamin Gold, New Echota, Cherokee Nation to his daughter and son-in-law, Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, East Lyme, River Head, Connecticut "Little Mary looks out of as handsome pair of black eyes as ever was seen."

June 03, 1830, Elias and Harriett Gold Boudinot, New Echota, Cherokee Nation to Benjamin and Eleanor Johnson Gold, Candy's Creek Elias writes, "When I got home, according to your request, I kissed our dear little creatures. I told them it was grand ma's kisses. Ask Mary where grand ma is, she replies, yon and points towards the East." Harriett writes, "We are well here, Eleanor and Mary often talk of you."

March 29, 1832, Harriett Gold Boudinot, New Echota, Georgia to her sister and brother-in-law Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, River Head, Connecticut "Eleanor and Mary go to school and are remarkably fond of their teacher and their books. They can both read."

1832, Sophia Sawyer, the teacher of the Boudinot children, to David Greene, comments about Mary "Mary is a superior child in all things-she has just entered her fifth year, can read correctly in the Testament on any common readings. Your attention would be directed to her among fifty children. Her punctuality to her lesson as it regards recitation and committing and her general conduct as it respects attention, is such as would give credit to a scholar of twenty years."

August 16, 1836, Elias Boudinot, New Echota, Georgia to Benjamin and Eleanor Johnson Gold, "Last Hours of Mrs. Boudinott," New York Observer, 26 November 1836; reprinted as "The Death of Harriet Gold Boudinot," Journal of Cherokee Studies 4.2 (1979):102-107 In this letter, written hours after the death of his wife, to his in-laws, Elias writes in detail about the last days and hours of their daughter. She had died August 15, 1836 at 1:19 am and was buried the same day around 3:00 pm. Elias writes, "She said to Mary, who stood at the head of the bed sobbing, "you told me, Mary, that you wanted to be a christian-you must ask God to give you a new heart-you must pray to him continually. Cannot you pray now for your mother. Come, my dear, go to your room and pray for your ma." The little girl retired, as she was requested.

May 20, 1837, Elias Boudinot, New Echota, Georgia, to Benjamin and Eleanor Johnson Gold, Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut Elias has married a second time to Delight Sargent, a missionary, and daughter of John and Delight Bell Sargent of Pawlet, Vermont. Elias writes, "I enclose you a letter which I received from Mary the other day. It will show you a little how they feel, and how Mary improves. She did not begin to write, I believe, until late last fall, and the letter I enclose had not a single correction whatever, even the punctuation, and not even copied. Mary bids fair to make a [illegible] scholar."

September 24, 1845, Letter from Mary to her grandparents, Benjamin and Eleanor Johnson Gold "Ours is indeed a broken family. Three have already entered that unseen world from whence there is no return, while the remainder are left in different places to mourn their early departure. We do not lament them for their sakes, knowing that they are far better than they could have been on Earth; but we mourn our own loss which is great indeed." Mary is writing about her younger sister, Sarah, who died the month before this letter was written and then of course her parents Elias who was murdered in 1839 and Harriett who died in 1836.

July 31, 1846, Letter from Mary Harriet Boudinot to her uncle Stand Watie Mary is living in Manchester, Bennington County, Vermont with her step-mother Delight Sargent Boudinot, and her brothers Cornelius and Frank. She expresses her desire to come home to the Cherokee Nation West, "I intend to return to my country whenever it is best-for that is where I most wish to live but if not I must be still longer an exile from home."

October 15, 1846, Letter from D. B. Brinsmade to Stand Watie Daniel Bourdon Brinsmade was the husband of Mary's aunt Mary Wakeman Gold. He writes to Stand Watie, "Mary Boudinot has gone to Mount Holyoke school at South Hadley which we are all happy to hear. I think it will be a first rate place for her. I regret that her mother had not allowed her to go there last year while Mary was there." Mary was a student at Mount Holyoke from 1846 to 1848. When Mr. Brinsmade refers to Mary's mother he is referring to her step-mother, Delight Sargent Boudinot. Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts was originally founded by Mary Lyon as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary on 8 November 1837. Mount Holyoke School The imagine on the left is Mount Holyoke School in 1837.

September 20, 1847, Letter from Mary Harriet Boudinot to her uncle Stand Watie Mary writes, "I am pursuing my studies here with cousin Mary, and hope to make this winter as profitable to me as though I were at South Hadley. In the spring, if nothing prevents and my health is good, I shall return there. I hope I may go to my old home at the West, before many years if it is best." Cousin Mary is Mary Maria Brinsmade (1827-1887), youngest child and daughter of Daniel and Mary Wakeman Gold Brinsmade.

April 26, 1848, Letter from Mary's brother, William Penn Boudinot to Stand Watie, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania "Elinor is going to marry Frank Brinsmade's clerk Henry Church. Mary is getting Matrimonial also; who the unlucky man is I am unable to tell." Now, what in the world does William mean by "unlucky"? He does not make a derogatory remark about his sister Eleanor. Perhaps Mary is headstrong.

07 August 1849, Mary marries Lyman W. Case in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut. Lyman was the son of Lyman and Emily W. Case. He was born 1828 in Connecticut. Lyman's death date; unknown

September 02, 1850, Federal Census, Winchester, Litchfield, Connecticut. Lyman, age 22, and Mary age 21, are living with his parents, Lyman, age 49, and Emily, age 43, Case. The senior Mr. Case was a manufacturer with a real estate valued at $6300.00. Lyman's younger brother, Charles R. Case, age 19, was a student. Rebecca Taylor, age 30, born 1820 in Ireland also lived in the household. She was likely the Cases' servant.

August 28, 1850, Federal Census, Washington, Litchfield, CT Henry was a merchant. He and Eleanor were living with Thomas Franklin and Elizabeth Leavitt Brinsmade and their two children: Isabelle, age ten and Silence, age six. Thomas was a farmer with a real estate value of $3500.00 There was a lady, Mary A. Hutchinson, age 29 and born in Ireland, living with the family. Thomas, son of Mary Wakeman Gold and Daniel Bourdon Farrand Wooster Brinsmade, and Eleanor, daughter of Harriett Ruggles Gold and Elias Boudinot, were first cousins. Their mothers were sisters

1853, Mary died at age 24 just 4 years after her marriage to Lyman. She is buried at the Washington Cemetery, Washington, Litchfield, CT.

June 12, 1880, Federal Census, Winchester, Litchfield, Connecticut, Lyman, age 52, a retired lawyer, is living with his mother Emily W., age 73. Also in the home is Nellie Hays, servant, age 24, born in Massachusetts in 1856.

Lyman and Mary had no children. I have not found evidence that Lyman married again. Email me at gertrude2@juno.com if you have further information

Sources: Dale, Edward Everett, and Gaston Litton, eds. Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondence of the Ridge-Watie Family. @1939, University of Oklahoma Press, Paperback @1995, University of Oklahoma Press, Foreward by James W. Parins Cooper, Karen Coody, Artifacts, The American Indian Archaeological Institute, Vol. X, No. 4 Summer 1982, A Tale of Two Nations, Part III: The Brinsmades and the Boudinots Gabriel, Ralph Henry, Elias Boudinot, Cherokee and His Amercia, @ 1941, University of Oklahoma Press Gaul, Theresa Strouth, editor, To Marry and Indian, The Marriage of Harriett Gold and Elias Boudinot in Letters, 1823-1839, @ 2005, The University of North Carolina Press Parins, James W., Elias Cornelius Boudinot, A Life on the Cherokee Border, @2006, University of Nebraska Press Parins, James W., John Rollin Ridge, His Life and Works, @1991 University of Nebraska Press 1850 Federal Census, Winchester, Litchfield, Connecticut 1880 Federal Census, Winchester, Litchfield, Connecticut