While Mary Jane Piper died long before I was born, it feels like I knew her. She and her sister Bessie lived to a respectable old age, especially against the mining mountain backdrop of Leadville, where many in my family died, young of the dreaded pneumonia.
My grandfather always chuckled when he talked of his grandmothe. The old gals, he called them because in later life Mary Jane was almost inseparable from her sister Bessie, The two widows spent hours in their small Leadville house, stirring tea leaves and trying to read the future.
1910, Mary lived at 516 East 7th Street with her second husband, Henry Wardell.
The 18th of January 1888, Mary Jane filed a quit claim to Henry McKeon for strayhorse addition at $652 (Leadville Herald Democrat)
Mary Jane Wardell 1913 made a visit to England, she returned via Ellis Island on August 10, 1913 on the Caronia from Liverpool. Place of residence is listed as Seadville, Colorado. She travelled with her husband, Henry Sutcliffe Wardell both listed as 49 years old. They are listed as naturalized citizens of Leadville on 20th March 1903 (Wardell is). Address is 516 E. 7th.
Mary Jane Piper Burn Wardell came to Leadville as a young woman with her mother Elizabeth Piper in 1879. Her father had died the year before in Cornwall and her mother died four months after they arrived in Leadville. Her sisters Bessie and Leila went to live with other members of the family. In fact, Leila was adopted by Henry Truro Bray, her uncle, and her name was changed to Charlotte Bray. Mary Jane met a very different fate. Merely a month after her mother died, she married John Lloyd Burn and raised her brother Joseph. She was to spend most of her life in Leadville at 517 E. 7th Avenue. She married a second
time after John died to Henry Wardell. Her sister Bessie also married a Burn and they remained good friends until the end.