Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe - Childhood, Siblings, Education

Childhood, Siblings, Education

Henry and Abbie Rogers already had four children who had survived infancy when Mai was born, and she was their last. Thus, Mai (as she was always called) was the "baby" of the family. She was educated at private seminary schools, spoke fluent French, played the piano, and was interested in art and decoration. She had an older brother, and three older sisters who survived childhood.

As children, Mai and her brother and sisters spent much time at coastal Fairhaven, where some of their grandparents were still alive. They heard tales of the days of the whaling ships. Her maternal grandfather, Peleg Gifford, was particularly well known in the community for his tales of days as ship's captain. Over the years, the Rogers family donated many public facilities to the community, including schools and a Unitarian church.

In 1890, Mai's older sister Millicent (born 1873) died at the age of only 17 years, and the family donated the Millicent Library which was dedicated to her memory. In 1894, a new Town Hall was dedicated to Mai's maternal grandmother only a few months before Mai's mother herself died suddenly on May 21, 1894 following an operation in New York City.

Mai's sisters were Anne Engle (née Rogers) Benjamin, who married publisher William Evarts Benjamin, Cara Leland (née Rogers) Broughton, who married Urban Hanlon Broughton, and later became the first Lady Fairhaven in England after her husband was posthumously elevated to the peerage.

Her brother, Henry Huttleston Rogers, Jr., was better-known as Harry. As adults, Harry and his wife were favorite traveling companions of Mai's father and family friends, humorist Mark Twain and educator Dr. Booker T. Washington aboard the family luxury yacht Kanawha. Harry later changed the spelling of his last name to an earlier version, Huddleston.