Finger Lakes history · regional story
The Mary and Hannah: a newspaper, an urn and different names
Barbara H. Bell’s investigation of a Seneca Lake schooner found a problem in the celebration: the newspaper and the silver presentation urn did not name the same owners.
A silver urn ought to have settled who deserved the credit. In Barbara H. Bell’s account of the Mary and Hannah, it did the opposite. The 1823 newspaper report she reproduced named Jackson and Osborn as owners. Her transcription of the presentation urn named John J. Osborne and Samuel S. Seely. The Mary and Hannah.
The newspaper item appeared in the Geneva Gazette on November 26, 1823, credited to the New-York Statesman of November 17. It described Captain Jackson and supercargo Osborn bringing the schooner from Hector, with 800 bushels of wheat, three tons of butter and four barrels of beans. Its owners lived beside Seneca Lake. The Mary and Hannah.
Bell followed the competing names through her investigation, but her Fall 2000 article still left questions about the wives behind the boat’s name and the vessel’s eventual fate. Those were unresolved in her account; we have not established that no later researcher found an answer. The Mary and Hannah.
For this story, the discrepancy is more useful than a tidy choice between owners. The original newspaper, the urn itself and business or property papers should be compared before either version becomes the only one readers see.
Sources & research notes
Review status: Developing history. Human editorial review is pending.
Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- Bell’s inspected published investigation preserves a newspaper transcription and an urn inscription with conflicting owner names. The conflict remains visible rather than being silently reconciled.
- What remains uncertain
- We have not independently inspected the original newspaper or urn. Ownership, variant spellings, wife identities, the boat’s fate and present object custody remain open. Claims of first passage and Bell’s conjectures are not adopted as established facts.
- What we are researching next
- Retrieve the original Gazette and Statesman issues and an authoritative object record or image of the inscription. Compare named owners with dated business and property records without merging Jackson, Osborne/Osborn and Seely/Seeley by guesswork.
Sources
- The Mary and Hannah — Barbara H. Bell; Fall 2000. Locator: Inset THE GENEVA GAZETTE, Wednesday November 26, 1823, From the New-York Statesman Nov. 17, INLAND NAVIGATION: Captain Jackson, supercargo Osborn, owners Jackson and Osborn on Seneca Lake; cargo wheat, butter and beans. Narrative after the newspaper inset, paragraphs beginning Shipping concerns, Several were recorded and Maybe the reporter: Bell’s transcription of an 1823 silver urn names John J. Osborne and Samuel S. Seely; Bell explicitly notes the conflict with Jackson and Osborn. Later research narrative beginning The family name is spelled and To date: Bell records unresolved wife names, variant spellings and boat fate as of her Fall 2000 investigation. Later urn-custody narrative not used as a current access statement. Accessed October 22, 2026.