Mary McCormick

1870s–1880s

Born in Ireland about 1871–1878 to Peter McCormick and a mother whose maiden name was Callahan. Came to America about 1884–1885.

1890s

A dressmaker on Carlton Street in Philadelphia. Married Peter Paul Bedesem on 15 June 1898.

1900s–1910s

Raised Paul (1900), Mildred, Vincent (1904), and Margaret Rosemary (1906), from 1904 at 132 Apsley Street in Germantown.

1920s–1930s

Moved to North Broad Street, then 67th Avenue, and by 1932 Cheltenham Avenue. Died of lung cancer at Elkins Park on 30 June 1932.

From Ireland to Philadelphia

Mary McCormick was born in Ireland, probably around 1871 or 1872 (one record gives September 29, 1871, and another 1878), the daughter of Peter McCormick and a mother whose maiden name was Callahan. She came to America as a girl, about 1884 or 1885. By June 1898 she was working as a dressmaker and living at 1509 Carlton Street in Philadelphia, and on June 15 of that year she married Peter Paul Bedesem, a linotype operator who had spent his boyhood in California.

Mary and Peter started out on North Napa Street and by 1900 were on North 18th Street; their son Paul was born that February. Mildred followed about 1903, Vincent in 1904, and Margaret Rosemary in 1906, born at home at 132 Apsley Street in Germantown, a house Peter had bought in 1904 for $4,450. The family lived there until 1922, the years when Peter launched his own typesetting business, the Oakdale Composition Company.

Later Years

In the 1920s the Bedesems moved to North Broad Street in 1923, then to 67th Avenue, and by 1932 to 1715 Cheltenham Avenue. Mary saw her son Paul married in 1924 and her first grandchild, Dolores, born that October, and Vincent married in 1929. She developed cancer of the right lung, and she died at Elkins Park at two in the morning on June 30, 1932. She was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham, in the family lot where Peter was later buried. Her daughter Rosemary died of tuberculosis in 1934, at twenty-seven.