Tappan, Mary Ellen
Mary Ellen Tappan was born on April 04, 1872, in Westerlo to John Tappan (b. 1820 England) and Susan Stewart (b. 1842, Ireland). Mary married Fletcher D. Tallman when she was 13 years old in December 1886. Mary and Fletcher had two children, Hilda Salina Tallman and an infant male who died at one month old. By 1900, Mary and Fletcher had an "adopted daughter", Lulu, in their household. It is believed that Lulu was just staying with them and was listed on the census erroneously as "adopted".
By 1904, Mary and Fletcher were separated by 1904, and family research revealed they divorced in 1917, thirteen years after separating. By 1910, Fletcher was living in Rensselaerville with Alice W. Freleigh while Mary was living in Albany with their daughter Hilda and son-in-law, Herbert Miller. That year, she is listed as a dressmaker working from home.
After 1910, Mary remarried but there is no information on her second marriage. She went on to operate a restaurant on Main St. in Chatham and retired in 1949 at the age of 78. She died five years later on February 15, 1954, at 83 years of age, and is buried in Memory's Garden in Colonie, NY.
