Mary Newmarch Prescott (1849–1888) was a 19th-century American author and poet, popular as a magazine-writer.
Mary had several siblings, including the writer, Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford,[2] as well as Annie, William, Katherine, Otis, Edith, and Sarah.
[5] Her father, Joseph Prescott, was then a lumber merchant in Calais; afterward, he studied and practised law.
In 1849, he became attracted by the Pacific coast, and, leaving his family in their Maine home, went out among the host of California Gold Rush pioneers to seek his fortune.
In the midst of strenuous work, he developed lingering paralysis,[6] that made him an invalid for life.