| Younger sister of Civil War hero Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Mary Sheridan Wilson, age 33, was the fourth of six children born to their Irish immigrant parents, John and Mary Minah (Meenagh) Sheridan, and the first in the family known with certainty to have been a native of Somerset, Ohio. (Historians still debate the exact whereabouts of Philip's birth.) The nearest in age to her famous brother, she was his only surviving sister and the most frequent of his correspondents during his years as a West Point cadet. During the third year of the Civil War, when Mary was 29, she married John Wilson in a wedding ceremony which took place on August 16, 1863. The couple's marriage ended with Mary's death less than five year later, and their only child, an infant son, is interred here with her. Although her life was relatively brief, Mary lived to see her favorite brother rise to become one of the most celebrated men in 19th Century America. Predeceased by her siblings Rosa (d.1831) and Patrick (d.1851), her survivors included her parents and her brothers Philip, John, and Michael. All are now reunited here at Holy Trinity Cemetery with the exception of Rosa--an infant who was buried at sea en route from Ireland--and Generals Philip and Michael Sheridan, who were interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. |
Mary Sheridan
Unnamed