Thayer, Martin

Born: 1792-08-17 Amherst, Massachusetts

Died: 1862-12-28 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Flourished: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

As a young man, Thayer moved from Amherst to Petersburg, Virginia, where he engaged in business. In August 1814, Thayer married Mary Russell of Petersburg, with whom he had four children. Mary Thayer died in 1821, and Martin closed his business in Petersburg and returned to Amherst. In May 1831, he married Mary Borland of New York City, with whom he had three children. The couple settled in Philadelphia, where Martin opened a dry goods store. Thayer's business proved prosperous, and by 1850, he had retired to life as a gentleman and owned real estate valued at $50,000. By 1860, he was living in Philadelphia's Ninth Ward and owned real estate valued at $50,000 and had a personal estate of $3,000.

Gravestone, Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA; Bezaleel Thayer, Memorial of the Thayer Name, From the Massachusetts Colony of Weymouth and Braintree, Embracing Geneological and Biographical Sketches of Richard & Thomas Thayer, and their Descendants, from 1636 to 1874 (Oswego: R. J. Oliphant, 1874), 75; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 710; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Middle Ward, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 72; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), 9th Ward, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 37.