Mary McCormick

     Mary McCormick was born in September 1885 at Ohio.² She was the daughter of Daniel McCormick and Hannah Gavin.

Mary was enumerated with Daniel McCormick on the census of 1 June 1900 at Mineral Twp, Scammon, Cherokee County, Kansas, as Mary McCormick. Mary is a 14 year old white single female born Sep 1885 in Ohio. Her father was born in Scotland and her mother was born in Ireland.³

Mary McCormick married Luther Thayer.⁴

Mary is head of household on the census of 15 April 1910 at Mineral Twp, Scammon, Cherokee County, Kansas, as Mary Thayers. May is a 25 year old white female indicated as a widow. She was born in Ohio and both parents were born in Ireland. She earns her living as a motorman for a street car company. Enumerated with her were Joseph Thayer and Ramon Thayer.⁵ Mary also worked in the Collin's Hotel in Scammon.

The time between 1910 and 1924 was the most active period of the Joplin & Pittsburg Electric Railroad. Carrying freight and passengers, the Joplin & Pittsburg Electric Railway spread its electrical grid over a sizeable area of the coal field. The line connected Croweburg and Mulberry camps in the north; Girard, the county seat of Crawford County, in the northwest; Cherokee in the west; Pittsburg in the central part; Columbus, the county seat of Cherokee County, in the south. and finally its electrical tentacle reach Joplin....The Joplin & Pittsburg Electric Railway, besides connecting the larger communities of the coal field also connected numerous mining camps; the line connected or passed near the camps of Frontenac, Kirkwood, Chicopee, Fleming, Scwab, Daisy Hill, Weir City, Scammon, Stippeville, Turck, and Mineral.
Because the J. &P. Railroad connected many of the camps, many miners journeyed on the line to their places of employment cheaply and rather quickly. An article in a 1926 issue of The Pittsburg Daily Headlight summarized the importance of the Joplin & Pittsburg Electric Railroad to the coal field:

'The 110 miles of the J. & P. railroad serve a territory with a population of more than 200,000. This system is the connecting link between the coal fields of Southeastern Kansas, Southwestern Missouri and Northern Oklahoma. From these three areas the J & P not only draw passenger traffic but a heavy freight business'.

The Joplin & Pittsburg Electric Railroad became defunct in 1929 because of strikes, legal entanglements, decline of business, the increase of automobiles, and hardsurfaced roads.

If we look at a map, it is impressive to see the area that was served by the J & P Electric Railroad. Marge Thayer rode the line south of Scammon to Columbus to attend high school and comments on the presence of miners. It only operated between 1910 and 1929 but played a important role in that short time. A spur came into Scammon and one could make connections to go Mineral, Columbus or Pittsburg.⁶

Sometime after 1910, Mary McCormick Thayer left her two boys with Hannah and went to work in Pittsburg. She married a barber by the name of Anderson. They moved to Oklahoma and her husband would not let her contact her mother, Hannah, or her children. In 1938, her husband died and Mary wrote a letter adressed to the postmaster of Scammon asking if Hannah McCormick was still alive. The postmaster was Mary's brother, Dan. The McCormicks wrote back and Mary came for a visit with her mother, Hannah, and her son, Ray. Joe Thayer was in New Mexico and never got to see her.⁴

Mary McCormick died in 1938 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.⁷ She was buried at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.⁷