Mary Wilson (1779 - 1849)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Mary's lifetime.

In 1809, by the time she was 30 years old, on May 5th, Mary Dixon Kies (March 21, 1752 – 1837) became the first recipient of a patent granted to a woman by the United States. She had developed a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread to make hats. While her hats were popular at first, fashion changed and she died penniless.

In 1815, she was 36 years old when on February 3rd, the first commercial cheese factory was founded in Switzerland. The first employee of the factory was a man named Loris Federspiel and his title was “Käse Schneidemaschine” - "Cheese Cutting Machine". His job was to taste the cheese to see if it was aged enough to sell.

In 1822, by the time she was 43 years old, was the year that coffee was no longer banned in Sweden. Originally used as a religious drink in Arabia more than 1100 years ago, coffee was banned in many European countries until the 18th century.

In 1834, when she was 55 years old, on August 14th, the Poor Law Amendment Act was enacted in the United Kingdom. The Act stated that no able-bodied British man could receive assistance unless he entered a workhouse (a kind of poorhouse). The Act was intended to curb the cost of relief for the poor since workhouses were designed to be unpleasant. Many workhouses used the men as free labor and employed them in such tasks as breaking stones, crushing bones to produce fertilizer, or picking oakum - tarred fiber used between planks on ships -using a large metal nail known as a spike.

In 1849, in the year of Mary Wilson's passing, on March 4th, a Sunday, Zachary Taylor became the 12th US President. However, he refused to be sworn in on a Sunday - the Sabbath - so he was inaugurated the following Monday.