At sixteen, Mary traveled alone to America. According to family stories, she worked as a domestic on Nob Hill in San Francisco for a time. Somehow Mary ended up in Chicago where she married Norwegian-born Peter Thompson in January of 1883.
Mary and and her husband had two sons and two daughters. At the height of the Great Depression, Peter traveled to Norway to help during a family emergency. He contracted pnemonia on the return trip and died before reaching Chicago.
After losing her husband, Mary was swindled out of money she deposited on an apartment building. She moved to Wisconsin and farmed with her son for a few years until he had an accident that prevented him from farming successfully. Mary returned to Illinois and lived her last years with a grandson and his wife in suburban Chicago.
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