An invalid who suffered from tuberculosis for the majority of her lifetime, she was a member of a wealthy family who also are the namesake of the Fletcher Free Library, also located in Burlington, Vermont.

In 1846, the sisters enrolled in the Burlington Female Seminary, with Mary concluding her formal education in 1847.

[2] In 1876, Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch diagnosed Fletcher with "a slow and lingering form of consumption," from which she had apparently suffered for twenty years.

[3] Her gift was "the largest public beneficence ever recorded to that time in the State of Vermont."

[4] In 2007, a state roadside historical marker dedicated to Mary Martha Fletcher was placed outside her house.