Born: March 16, 1820, Boston, Massachusetts.
Died: November 25, 1905, at the home of her brother, Daniel W. Pepper, Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett, Massachusetts.
Pseudonym: Minnie Waters.
Mary was the daughter of Daniel Freeman Pepper and Betsey Burke, and wife of Ellis Usher Kidder (married 1844).
She was blinded as a teenager, but fortunately for hymn lovers, had her sight restored after a few years.
She belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and lived 46 years in New York City.
There is many a rest in the road of life,
If only we would stop to take it;
And many a tone from the better land,
If the querulous heart would wake it!
To the sunny soul, that is full of hope,
And whose beautiful trust ne’er faileth,
The grass is green and the flowers bright,
Though the wintry storm prevaileth.
Better to hope, though the clouds hang low,
And to keep the eye still lifted;
For the sweet blue sky will soon peep through,
When the ominous clouds are rifted!
There was never a night without a day,
Or an evening without a morning;
And the darkest hour, as the proverb goes,
Is the hour before the dawning.
There is many a gem in the path of life,
Which we pass in our idle pleasure,
That is richer far than the jeweled crown,
Or the miser’s hoarded treasure:
It may be the love of a little child,
Or a mother’s prayers to Heaven,
Or only a beggar’s grateful thanks
For a cup of water given.
Better to weave in the web of life
A bright and golden filling,
And to do God’s will with a ready heart,
And hands that are swift and willing,
Than to snap the delicate, slender threads
Of our curious lives asunder,
And then blame Heaven for the tangled ends,
And sit and grieve and wonder.
Mary Ann Kidder (1820–1905)
If you know where to get a good photo of Kidder (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),