Our exchanges note the death of Miss Maria J. McIntosh, of Georgia, who died recently in Norristown, New Jersey. Miss McIntosh was a daughter of the famous General Lachlan McIntosh, of Sunbury, Liberty County, and has for many years been engaged in literary pursuits. She was one of the most industrious and successful of native American novelists, and illustrated in her long career that neither the fame nor the fortune of a story-writer depends upon pandering to the sensational tastes of the day. In 1835 Miss McIntosh who was then twenty years of age, left Liberty county to reside with her brother, Captain McIntosh, of the United States navy. She lost her entire property in the financial reverses of that year, and this fact incited her to turn her attention to literature as a profession. Her first story was "Blind Alice," published under the nom de plume of "Aunt Kitty," and this work brought her both fame and money. It was published in1841, and in common with most of Miss McIntosh's subsequent works, was largely read in England, and translated into French. In 1859 Miss McIntosh spent a year in Switzerland, returned to America, and up to the time of her death was an ornament to the social and literary life of New York. It is stated that an early romance, which ended in the death of the hero thereof, was the occasion of the removal of Miss McIntosh from her ancestral home in Sunbury, and this is confirmed by a statement recently made by Colonel Jones, of the Macon Telegraph. Miss McIntosh was the author of more than seventeen volumes, every one of which attained great popularity. her magnum opus is considered by some to be "Woman in American, her Work and her Reward." It is the most thoughtful of her works, speculative in its nature and radical in its views of society, especially southern society. Her style is pure and scholarly and her methods wholly in the direction of morality.

Source: The Daily Constitution, March 12, 1878, Atlanta, Georgia, Page 2

Maria Jane McIntosh, the daughter of Lachlan McIntosh and his fifth wife, Mary Moore Maxwell McIntosh, was born in Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia during 1803. Lachlan McIntosh was a properous plantation owner and lawyer. Maria Jane was primarily reared by her mother, as her father had died whens he was three years old. She was tutored by her mother and continued her education at the Sunbury Academy and later at Baiden's Bluff Academy in neighboring McIntosh County. Her mother died in 1823 and Maria took over the management of the McIntosh plantation in Liberty County. She sold the estate during 1835 and moved to New York City to live with her half-brother, Captain James McKay McIntosh. After loosing her funds in the Panic of 1837, she embarked on a literary career at the suggestion of a friend. During 1859 Maria accompanied her nephew, John Elliot Ward, the American Minister to China, and his family, to Liverpool, England. After traveling throughout Europe, she spent the remainder of the year in Switzerland. Returning to New York city in 1860, she began teaching at the Henrietta Haines school and worked on her final novel. Her literary works gave her financial independence again and later in life she moved to Morristown, New Jersey to live with her niece, Maria McIntosh Cox, due to bad health. Maria Jane McIntosh died on February 23, 1878 in Morristown, New Jersey.

Source: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 248: Antebellum Writers in the South, Second Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Kent Ljungquist, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Gale Group, 2001. pp. 246-251.

Blind Alice; or, Do Right If You Wish to Be Happy, as Aunt Kitty (New York: Dayton & Saxton, 1841).
Florence Arnott; or, Is She Generous? as Aunt Kitty (New York: Dayton & Saxton, 1841).
Jessie Graham; or, Friends Dear, but Truth Dearer, as Aunt Kitty (New York: Dayton & Saxton, 1841).
Ellen Leslie; or, The Reward of Self-Control, as Aunt Kitty (New York: Dayton & Newman, 1842).
Grace and Clara; or, Be Just as Well as Generous, as Aunt Kitty (New York: Dayton & Saxton, 1842).
Conquest and Self-Conquest; or, Which Makes the Hero? anonymous (New York: Harper, 1843; London: Bruce & Wyld, 1844).
Woman, an Enigma; or, Life and Its Revealings, anonymous (New York: Harper, 1843; London: Bruce, 1843).
The Cousins: A Tale of Early Life, as Aunt Kitty (New York: Harper, 1845).
Praise and Principle; or, For What Shall I Live? anonymous (New York: Harper, 1845; London: Routledge & Warne, 1850).
Two Lives; or, To Seem and to Be (New York: Appleton, 1846; revised, 1847); republished as Grace Elliot; or, To Seem and to Be (London: Thomas Nelson, 1853).
Aunt Kitty's Tales (New York: Appleton, 1847).
Charms and Counter-Charms (New York: Appleton, 1848).
Woman in America: Her Work and Her Reward (New York: Appleton, 1850).
Evenings at Donaldson Manor; or, The Christmas Guest (New York: Appleton, 1851).
Letter on the Address of the Women of England to Their Sisters of America, in Relation to Slavery (New York: Crowen, 1853).
The Lofty and the Lowly; or Good in All and None All-Good (New York: Appleton, 1853); republished as Alice Montrose; or, The Lofty and the Lowly: Good in All and None All Good (London: Bentley, 1855).
Emily Herbert; or, The Happy Home (New York & London: Appleton, 1855).
Rose and Lillie Stanhope; or, The Power of Conscience (New York: Appleton, 1855).
Violet; or, The Cross and the Crown (Boston: Jewett, 1856).
Meta Gray; or, What Makes Home Happy (New York: Appleton, 1859).
A Year with Maggie and Emma: A True Story (New York & London: Appleton, 1861).
Two Pictures; or, What We Think of Ourselves, and What the World Thinks of Us (New York: Appleton, 1863).
Violette and I, as Cousin Kate (Boston: Loring, 1870).
The Children's Mirror: A Treasury of Stories, as Cousin Kate (London & New York: Thomas Nelson, 1887).

Genealogical Notes:

1860 New York US Federal Census
City of New York
Page 97, 97-97, Sarah Custis Household (appears to be a boarding house)
Maria McIntosh: 67, F,W, Georgia
Hettie McIntosh: 75, F,W, Georgia

MISS MARIA McINTOSH -- We are gratified to learn that Miss Maria McIntosh, the distinguished authoress, arrived in our city a few days since on a visit to her friends and relatives. There are few writers whose productions have been more extensively read and admired than those of Miss McIntosh. They are to be found on every table in every library. They have become household words to the whole American people, who cherish her fame with peculiar pride. Especially has the South, the place of her birth, many reasons to be proud of a lady, not only herself distinguished in the world of letters, but connected with a family to which Georgia, in her early struggles for liberty, owes so much. The distinguished services of Major General Lachlen McIntosh, and his gallant descendants will be remembered so long as bravery and patriotism are cherished as virtues. We welcome back one of the most distinguished of a remarkable family to the land of her birth. Savannah News.

Source: The New York Daily Times, May 12, 1854, Page 2

Submitted by Bob Franks