Hanna Basin Museum
  • Museum
    • 2020 Carbon Cemetery Association and Hanna Basin Historical Society ​Spring Newsletter
    • 2019: Hanna Basin Historical Society and Carbon Cemetery Association Newsletter
    • Visitors to the Museum
    • Books and Magazines to Read Online about the Hanna Basin
    • Books Available for Purchase at the Hanna Basin Museum
    • Order Form for Materials Available for Purchase at the Museum
    • Membership and Support
    • Links to Other Wyoming Museums >
      • Medicine Bow, Wyoming, Museum and Hanna Basin Neighbor
      • Rock Springs, Wyoming, Historical Museum
    • Copyright Infringement Notification
  • Carbon
    • Hanna Basin Museum - Time Line
    • CARBON CEMETERY RECORDS
    • Carbon Mine Fatality Records
    • Visitors to the Carbon Cemetery
    • Carbon - Wings of Imagination - A Letter From Old Carbon
    • Carbon - A Poem by Mrs. C. E. Ellis
    • 2003: Carbon Cemetery Restoration
    • 2011: Carbon, Carbon County, Cemetery Restoration 2011
    • 2011: Bow River FFA Community Service Project: Carbon Cemetery
    • 2014: The Carbon Cemetery
    • 2015: The Old Carbon Cemetery Privy
  • Hanna
    • HANNA HAPPENINGS
    • THE HANNA CEMETERY: From the Bottom of the Mine
    • HANNA CEMETERY RECORDS
    • Hanna Burial Plots and Lots >
      • Hanna Blocks and Lots 1 - 6
      • Hanna Plots 1 - 50
      • Hanna Plots 51 - 80
      • Hanna Plots 81 - 129
      • Hanna Plots 130 - 175
      • Hanna Plots 176 - 209
      • Hanna Plots 210 - 298
      • Hanna Plots 299 - 349
      • Hanna Plots 350 - 379
      • Hanna Plots 380 - 419
      • Hanna Plots 420 - 500
    • Hanna Early Churches >
      • Introduction to Hanna’s Early Churches
      • Episcopal Church - History, Bell and Cross
      • Methodist Church - Organ
      • Colored Baptist Church
    • Hanna Military in the Hanna Cemetery >
      • Hanna Cemetery - In The Military
      • Arthurs, Peter Killed in Action World War I
      • Love, Michael V. Killed In The Line Of Duty
      • Jones, William D. Died of Wounds Received In Action World War I
      • Lucas, Bernard R. Killed In Action World War II
      • Lucas, William C. Died of Wounds Recieved In Action World War II
      • Luoma, Arvo A. Killed in Action World War II
      • McAtee, William J. Killed in Action Vietnam
      • Saari, John Killed in Action World War II
    • Hanna Cemetery - Japanese Monuments Transcribed
    • Grave Headstones for Hanna Miner Fatalities Buried Elsewhere than Hanna
    • Hanna Where Did They Come From?
  • The People
  • Schools
  • Coal Mines
    • A History of the Hanna Coal Miner from 1868 to 2017: Bob Leathers' Notebook
    • Hanna Basin Mining Companies and Mines
    • Men Injured in the Hanna Mines
    • 1903 June 30: Explosion of the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 mine in Hanna >
      • Hanna 1903 Explosion Explained
      • List of Miners Killed in the June 30, 1903 Explosion
      • 1904 State Mine Inspector's Report for 1903 Explosion
      • 1903 Explosion Coroner's Inquest
      • 1903 Explosion - Earle Holmes Letter to Wilson Gobble
    • Hanna 1908 Mine Explosions Explained >
      • List of Miners Killed in the March 28, 1908 Explosions
      • 1908 Explosion Coroner's Inquest Report
      • Noah Young's 1908 Hanna Explosion Report to Governor B.B. Brooks
      • 1908 State Coal Mine Inspectors Report - 1908 Hanna Mine Number 1 Explosion
      • David M. Elias - State Mine Inspector Killed in 1908 Explosion
      • 1908 Explosion - Gov. B.B. Brooks Communiations
      • April 3, 1908 Chums From Boyhood Died Side By Side
      • April 16, 1908 U.P. May Not Be Liable
      • 1908: Newspaper Articles from The Wigan Observer in England About the March 28, 1908 Explosion of the Union Pacific Coal Company's No. 1 Mine in Hanna
      • Death of Noah Young - State Mine Inspector for the 1908 Explosion of Mine No. 1
    • 1916 Labor Agreement Between the United Mine Workers of America and the Southern Wyoming Coal Operators
    • 1917 Labor Agreement Between the United Mine Workers of America and the Southern Wyoming Coal Operators
    • 1970 - 1980: Bill Becker's Hanna Strip Mine Blasting Videos
  • Gallery
    • 1889-1912: ​ Elmer Larson - The Butvier Collection from Sally Hafdell and David Eriksson in Sweden
    • Images from Early Hanna Basin and Wyoming
    • Early History of the Union Pacific Railroad
    • 1910-1920: McNulty Family Photo Collection ​Albert Film - Hanna Basin Adventurer
    • 1920 -1930: Gert Milliken's Photo Collection of Unknown Children, Women, Men, and Families in Hanna
    • 1963 October 2: A Large Cattle Drive from Palm Livestock Company at Elk Mountain ​ to Hanna's Union Pacific Railroad Stockyard
    • 2017 April 18: Un​ion Pacific Steam Engine 844 Stopped at Hanna, Wyoming
    • 2019 May 17 and May 4: Big Boy​ 4014 and Engine 844 Were Running the Rails Again
    • Images of Old Carbon Today
  • Notebook

Mary and Thomas Town

Images and notes from John Baldwin in Preston, England, Tim Smith in Wigan, England and Bob Leathers

St. Michael & All Angels Church, Swinley, Wigan, England.  

Picture
PLAQUE IN ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS CHURCH (2014) (TIM SMITH)
In early 2014, Tim Smith from St. Michael & All Angels Church, Swinley, Wigan, England contacted the Hanna Basin MuseumWebsite in search of information about Mary (Sedewick) Town. Tim shared with us that a memorial plaque for Mary Town is on display in the church and Hanna, Wyoming is listed as her place of internment. The church would like to know if we have any information about Mary and her death.

Who was Mary (Sedewick) Town? What happened to her?

July 1913, Mary Town sailed from England to New York arriving on the 18th. Between the 18th of July and the 24th of September 1913, only 68 days, Mary arrived in Scranton, moved to Hanna, got married, died and was buried in the Hanna Cemetery. A very sad story indeed! 

Mary (Sedewick) Town was born Mary Sedewick in 1887 in the town of Wigan in the County of Lancashire.
Her parents were Thomas Sedgewick a tailor and her mother was Frances Harriett (Nee Rigby) also a tailoress.
Mary was the fifth female child out of seven girls.

Wigan was a prominent Coal Mining town in the Northwest of England and coal mining was the main industry of the town. The population size at the end of the 19th Century was about sixty thousand. Many miners were becoming aware of the opportunities in the coal fields of the United States and there was a small exodus of miners to the coal mines of Pennsylvania and Wyoming. Two of Mary’s older sisters married miners who both subsequently emigrated to the United States to work in the mines in Scranton Pennsylvania, Flint Michigan and Hanna Wyoming.

On the 19th December,1887, Thomas Town was born in Wigan. Thomas lived a short distance away from Mary and both attended the same church. Thomas became a miner and along with others made the move to the United States in 1911.
Thomas and Mary were obviously romantically involved and so on July, 18, 1913, Mary arrived in New York on her way to stay with her sister Edith Martha Millhouse in Scranton Pennsylvania.

On August 4, 1913 Thomas married Mary in Hanna, Carbon County, Wyoming and sadly Mary died on September 24, 1913, only 51 days after having marrying her childhood sweetheart.

Thomas was known in the Hanna mines as a godfearing man who stuck up for his beliefs.

Thomas remarried in 1921 in Flint Michigan to a Mae Loder who was born in the County of Devon, England.
The last mention of Thomas was in 1942 in Flint. 
Picture
ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS CHURCH, SWINLEY, WIGAN, ENGLAND, 2014. (TIM SMITH)
Picture
MARY TOWN WIFE OF THOMAS TOWN (2014) (BOB LEATHERS)

Hanna Cemetery Record

Town, Mary
Link: Headstone: "1887-1913"
Plot: 94
Age: 26

Hanna Basin Museum Website – A Connection To The Past