By JIM KOSKI

and BETH GRUBER

Marquette Regional

History Center

Special to the Journal

MARQUETTE — In the 1880s, Mary Ann Peck was a notorious resident of south Marquette.

Her early life is a mystery. She was born in Michigan around 1845-1850, apparently of Mitis ancestry. In 1873 she had a daughter, Mary, but more commonly called Maud.

The first official record, the 1880 U.S. Census, shows Mary Ann and Maud in Marquette. Mary Ann was a seamstress but as a single mother, her employment opportunities were quite limited and she eventually turned to an illicit profession to provide for her daughter.

The Mining Journal documented Mary Ann’s first brush with the law on May 7, 1881, with florid vocabulary and judgmental asides.

“For keeping a place of resort for men of evil reputation, contrary to the ordinance of God, and the city of Marquette in particular, Mary Peck, of west Superior street, was, on Tuesday arraigned… at the police court.

The complaint was made by persons living in the vicinity, who have been greatly annoyed at the carryings on of Mary… The evidence against Mary was ample, but as it was her first offence, the judge let her go on payment of a fine of $5.00 and costs of suit, to which he added a lecture on the hideousness of sin and the fearful effects of moral depravity. Mary drank [in] the lecture… promised a reformation, and is again on the town. Should she be brought up a second time his honor will pronounce a judgment more binding.”

Just a month later on June 25, 1881, “Mary Ann Peck, a half-breed of the lowest order, got boiling drunk in a Washington Street saloon last Thursday and made so much music that she had to be arrested to preserve the dignity of- the gin mill … his honor … fined her three dollars and costs. Peck is one of the dirty creatures in the town who will be sent to an institution below unless she mends her ways.”

A few years later, on April 23, 1885, “Mary Ann Peck, a female of unsavory reputation, is getting herself into a peck of trouble. Mary is one of those females who are always raising a disturbance… yesterday she was caught in the act and locked up… The charge against her is a double one, viz: being a disorderly person and keeping a disorderly house [i.e. a brothel].”

The next day, no punches were pulled.

“Mary Ann Peck, a worthless specimen of humanity who has disgraced this community with her presence for the past 15 years, is in trouble again… charged with being a disorderly person and with keeping a disorderly ranch in the Rolling Mill district. At the county jail she acted like an insane person, pulling her hair out in handfuls and crying and moaning over her fate in a manner that would have created sympathy in the breasts of those not acquainted with the hardened old sinner. She presented a most frightful appearance, with her hair streaming down her back, bloodshot eyes, and bloated features. Her clothing was torn and filthy… Recorder O’Keefe who, taking into consideration that this was her second or third appearance before him, sentenced her to six months in the Detroit house of correction. When Mary Ann heard the ruling of the court, and again commenced to cry and pull her hair, and between each yell bemoaned the fate of her daughter.

The judge told her it was too late to think about that. She ought to have done so years ago, and she would not now be occupying her present degrading position, which is the lowest a human being could reach. Her daughter, if ruined, would have no one but her mother, who would have to answer for her sins, to blame. The judge’s talk, instead of calming down the woman, made her rave the more, and her face, distorted as it was by rage and inflamed by pour liquor, presented a most disgusting appearance. The scene was one that could not easily be forgotten. The daughter is said to be an unusually bright child, not yet beyond redemption, and a number of our people will see that she is provided for and brought up in a way that will prevent her following in the footsteps of her mother.”

June 11, 1887, Mary Ann again appeared in The Mining Journal.

“Another old offender on the list, Mary Ann Peck, who, for having imbibed too freely and for disorderly conduct, was fined $20 and costs or sixty days in jail. She was committed.”

We don’t know what happened to Maud in the intervening years, but following this last incident, Mary Ann reformed her ways. By 1897 the two women lived and worked as domestics at the Franklin, a hotel and boarding house owned by Mrs. M.J. Hollister. Two years later, Mary Ann was still working as a domestic, but Maud, now aged 24, was teaching at the Hampton Street School.

On May 28, 1900, Mary Ann appeared in The Mining Journal one last time. “Mary A. Park [sic] died yesterday at her home, No. 328 Washington street, after a long illness. She was aged fifty-five years. The funeral will take place tomorrow morning from St. Peter’s cathedral, with interment in the old Catholic cemetery.”

As the do-gooders had intended, Maud led a respectable life. In 1901 she married Stewart Zryd, a local painter who grew up just five houses away. They had six children: Joseph, Dorothy, Mary, Ita, Phillip and Patricia. The family was active in the Catholic church; Maud was Altar Society treasurer and the children attended parochial schools.

In a perhaps surprising twist, Mary Ann’s oldest grandson became a priest, rising to the position of monsignor. Joseph Zryd was the founding pastor of St. Michael’s Church in Marquette, advocated for the canonization of Bishop Baraga and later served as superior of Rome’s North American College. Maud died following a car crash while visiting Detroit in August 1928.