The Unstoppable Aunt Mary

The inspiring life of hotel owner Mary Sackrider is a story of female independence, strength, and perseverance.

By Liz Dommasch, Archivist

Mary (nee Sweazey) Sackrider was born in Pennsylvania in March ca. 1857, though soon after her family arrived in Canada, where they settled in Hamilton, Ontario. At the age of fifteen, she came to the Norwich district where she was taught the art of cheese making by Henry Losee at his Ontario Cheese Factory on the south side of Evergreen Street, Norwich. Within a few years, she had not only won a medal at a cheese exhibition in Ingersoll but had gained recognition by certification as a first-class cheesemaker.

In 1879, she married Sylvester Sackrider and would go on to have eight children in sixteen years, though not all her offspring survived childhood. Sadly, by 1900, her husband had disappeared and she was left to take care of herself and her remaining family at home. Fortunately, Mary was used to hard work and she quickly landed on her feet working at a hotel in Brantford, Ontario. From 1907, she was employed by Mrs. Harlow at the old Brown House in Norwich. Later she would open the Brady House, at the corner of Main and Stover, where she gained wide recognition for her excellent cooking. She operated the hotel quite successfully for many years, before temporarily relocating to Lobo, Ontario where she operated another hotel. She would return to Norwich where she would operate the Norwich Inn until 1934 when she announced her intention to retire at the age of seventy-seven and sold the business.

A view of Main Street in Norwich, Ontario. [J. Gruszka PC 0288]

However, rest and retirement were foreign to her make-up, and no sooner had she moved to her home on Carman Street, did she decide to buy a ten-bedroom hotel in Brownsville, Ontario. The hotel was located on three acres where Mary raised farm animals and grew fruits and vegetables; all for preparing meals for her guests that were deemed fit for a king! When a reporter from the Woodstock Sentinel-Review suggested to her that she should have a man around to help advertise her business, she quickly retorted that “[she] wanted nothing to do with any man unless he ha[d] a fat bankroll, and a real bad cough” (W-SR March 6, 1934, pg. 1). She went on to explain she was confident in her success and intended, at her age, to continue to do her own washing, cooking, baking, pickling, curing, quilting and remodeling. It was these personal touches that made her better known, as Aunt Mary, to hundreds of commercial travelers throughout the province. At the age of eighty, she was operating the hotel in connection with a small grocery store and was still doing a major share of the daily work and all the cooking.

A bird's eye view of Brownsville, Ontario. [J Gruska PC 0022]

Windsor Star news article: “She’s Too Busy at 78 To Think of the Time” – 27 November 1934.

In 1937, she would return to Norwich to once again manage the Norwich Inn, almost single-handling until her death two years later. For her 82^nd birthday, Mrs. Sackrider would host a party for sixty friends which included a fifty-pound three-story birthday cake adorned with eighty-two candles. Within the months before her death, she had been hostess to the board of directors of the Otter Mutual Insurance Company at their annual dinner, had catered to several private parties, and had even assisted Mrs. T.M. Cayley with the preparation of a family Christmas dinner. Although she had recently discontinued serving meals at her hotel, she had been intending, in the near future, to renovate and redecorate the building, with no plans to slow down any time soon.

The Dake House/Norwich Inn. Courtesy of the Norwich District Archives.

Mrs. Mary Sackrider would pass away suddenly shortly before midnight on Christmas night 1939 and was interned in the New Durham Cemetery. Although the newspaper reports differed on her age at the time of her death, she was fondly remembered by all as being one of Oxford County’s best-known residents for her hard work, forward outlook, and quick wit.