Mary Fletcher

Mary Martha Fletcher (September 19, 1830 – February 24, 1885) was an American philanthropist and a founder of the largest hospital in the U.S. state of Vermont, now the University of Vermont Medical Center. An invalid who suffered from tuberculosis for the majority of her lifetime, she was a member of a wealthy family who also are the namesake of the Fletcher Free Library, also located in Burlington, Vermont.

Biography Fletcher was born in Jericho, Vermont, on September 19, 1830, to Thaddeus Fletcher and Mary Laurence (Peaslee) Fletcher. Her father was a merchant, investor, and Vermont state senator. Her mother came from a prominent New Hampshire family (her brother was U.S. Congressman Charles H. Peaslee). Mary Martha was one of five siblings, two of whom lived to adulthood. Mary and her younger sister, Ellen, experienced poor health throughout their lives. In 1846, the sisters enrolled in the Burlington Female Seminary, with Mary concluding her formal education in 1847. Ellen died of consumption on September 23, 1857. Her gift was "the largest public beneficence ever recorded to that time in the State of Vermont." Fletcher named the hospital, which opened in 1879, after her mother, Mary L. Fletcher. It was the largest hospital in Vermont and the first public hospital in the state. In 1882, the Mary Fletcher Training School for Nurses was established there. In 2007, a state roadside historical marker dedicated to Mary Martha Fletcher was placed outside her house.