The Guest Room

The Guest Room

The Guest Room of the Wylie House presents the life of Seabrook Mitchell Wylie and each of the Wylie women’s experience of widowhood.

Financial Issues and Widowhood

While many women experienced widowhood as devastating, others found independence and strength in their new roles. In reality, widows’ situations greatly varied legally and economically, as exemplified in the cases of Louisa and Maggie. After the death of her husband, Louisa returned with her children to the Wylie House. Maggie, widowed after her children had reached adulthood, went to live near her son, Charles, in Pittsburg, Kansas. She lived there until her death in 1938.

Seabrook’s Story

After leaving Bloomington for Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1880s, the family of Brown and Seabrook Wylie began to experience financial troubles, owing to the inconsistent employment of Brown and considerable debt accumulated by the family. Female impoverishment of the nineteenth-century was caused by economic factors, but also familial conditions. Women depended on their husbands to financially support both themselves and their children. Yet advice literature perpetuated the idea that mothers and wives were largely responsible for the financial security of their families, and blamed women’s wastefulness as a major cause of debt.

In 1890, Seabrook Wylie found employment at St. Luke’s School in Bustleston, Pennsylvania, where she worked as a domestic. Only her eldest son Theo stayed with her. The rest of the family returned to live with Rebecca and Theophilus Wylie in Bloomington, where Brown hoped to find work. Unexpectedly, upon the family’s return, Brown died of Bright’s disease. Still burdened by financial problems, Seabrook remained apart from her children, who continued to be cared for at the Wylie House. She eventually found work at the first Young Women’s Christian Association in Boston. In April 24, 1899, at the age of 42, she died in Springfield, Massachusetts, before reuniting with her children.

For more information contact the Wylie House Museum and for more information about the collections at the museum visit Wylie House Museum: Collections Overview.

Wylie House Museum