My great grandmother, Mary Hartwell
This is a very rare photo of my great grandmother, Mary Hartwell, standing next to her adopted father, Jesse Boardman Hartwell, Jr. They are with Jesse’s daughter Anna and Mrs. Kwah, who was Anna’s nurse and who was rescued by Jesse while in Shanghai.
I was not able to expand upon the life of Jesse Boardman Hartwell in my book but I do want to honor this man who started my family. Had he not saved my great grandmother and adopted her, Mary Hartwell would not have gone on to bear three sons, one of whom was my grandfather Frank (my mother’s father).