Appendix: A Brief Look at Mary Amelia Brierly
Mary A. Brierly - later Mrs. Mary A. Forgie - was born in 1839, in Washington County, New York, several miles east of Glens Falls. Her father was a shoemaker from Michigan; her mother had been born in Canada.
She taught in at least two places: in the 1870s at the Union School in Hicksville, and around 1880 at the Academyat Glens Falls.
Glens Falls Academy, c.1880
Collection of Chapman Historical Museum
https://chapmanmuseum.pastperfectonline.com
She also may have taught elsewhere on Long Island: at the time of the 1870 U.S. Census, she was living in the Township of Oyster Bay and working as a teacher. This would be three years earlier than the newspaper account of the Dedication ceremony states she had taught at Hicksville.
In Glens Falls, on May 13, 1884, she married a widower, one John Forgie. As early as the 1850s, Forgie had worked in Hicksville, selling real estate and conducting estate auctions. He must have had a curious, active mind, for in 1876 he was granted a patent for a new type of propeller to be used on boats and ships. In the 1890s, he ventured into the metal-beating business, opening a shop on a property near Jerusalem Avenue and Newbridge Road. It manufactured no gold leaf, but it did produce silver leaf, and also something new: aluminum leaf. The latter was thought quite desirable for applying to the edges of the pages of bound books, as unlike silver, aluminum would never tarnish.
After returning to Hicksville, Mary became a respected and well-liked member of the community. She was remembered fondly by her one-time students, who by now were active in business and local government. In the mid-1890s, she was likely the only woman who sat on the committee that determined how much tax-based funding the village's School Board would receive to build and operate the new school. She also was active with many charities, especially ones that helped young children. When the Spanish-American War began, disease ran through the troops quartered at nearby Camp Black in Garden City. Mary regularly made the trip to the camp to "look in on the boys" and bring them little gifts.
Life became hard for her after her husband died. During his final illness, he had changed his will, which laid the groundwork for legal proceedings that would pit Mary against the children from his first marriage. The children won, and she soon was nearly penniless. She tried starting her own silver leaf business, but her age and health did not permit her to succeed for very long. Major cancer surgery in 1904 led to a slow and only partial recovery; in 1907 she moved back to Glens Falls to live with a niece. At that time, the people of Hicksville appreciatively gave her a send-off, including a financial gift in honor of her years of kind service to the village.
She died in 1909. Three days later, this tender note about her appeared in the Long-Islander:
Huntington Long-Islander, March 19, 1909
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