Mary Bell Selby (1893–1907)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 16 Jan 1893, Guernsey or Muskingum County, Ohio

Death: 30 Apr 1907, Seattle, King County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Woodruff Wilson, Alice Wilson Hite, Sarah C. (nee Wilson) Stillwell, Margaret W. (nee Stillwell) Stout, Margaret C. (nee Wilson) Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Mordecai Selby (Maryland) A101655, Nicholas Selby (Maryland) A101659, William Rogers (Maryland)

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

Mary Bell Selby was born on January 16, 1893, in Ohio, the sixth of seven children born to Stanton Selby and Margaret “Maggie” Wilson Selby. She grew up in a working-class family that lived primarily in Cambridge and Zanesville, Ohio, where her father earned a living as a coal miner and her mother managed the household while also contributing through sewing work when needed.

Mary’s early childhood was shaped by both family closeness and hardship. In June 1899, when Mary was just six years old, her father was fatally injured in a mining accident at the Trail Run Mine in Cambridge, Guernsey County. While being lowered into the mine shaft, the cage rope snapped, sending him plunging 120 feet. Though he survived the initial fall, he died the following day from internal injuries. His death left Mary’s mother a widow with seven children ranging in age from sixteen to two, and it permanently altered the course of Mary’s young life.

Following her father’s death, Mary lived with her mother and siblings in Jackson, Guernsey County. Margaret supported the family as a seamstress, while Mary and her younger siblings attended school. Mary was known to have heart problems, a condition that affected her health throughout her short life.

In 1906, when Mary was thirteen, her mother made the decision to move west to Washington State to reunite with extended family. Mary traveled with her mother and four siblings to Seattle, where they settled in the Wallingford neighborhood. The move marked a significant transition for Mary, placing her far from the Ohio communities where she had spent her childhood.

Tragically, less than a year after the move, Mary’s health declined. In the spring of 1907, she contracted diphtheria. Compounded by her existing heart condition, the illness proved fatal. Mary Bell Selby died on or about April 30, 1907, at just fourteen years of age, likely at home in Seattle.

Following her death, Mary’s remains were transported to Seabeck, Washington, where she was buried in Seabeck Cemetery near her maternal grandfather, Dempsey Wilson, a Civil War veteran. Although no gravestone for Mary survives today, the late historian Fred Just’s cemetery plot map indicates that she was buried near her grandfather. While one plot (#88) was once labeled as Mary Bell Selby and marked as a cremation, Mary’s death record clearly states that she was interred whole, suggesting that the plot may belong to another family member. It is therefore believed that Mary was buried intact near the Wilson family graves.