14 May 1883 – 5 Mar 1953
Great-Granddaughter of Philip Cardon and Martha Marie Tourn
Granddaughter of Marie Madeline Cardon and Charles Guild
Daughter of Mary Madeline Guild and John William Cross
Mae was born 14 May 1883 in Piedmont Wyoming. Named Mary Mae Cross, she was known as Mae. She was the fourth child of seven. Her grandparents decided there was a need for a hotel in Piedmont. Her mother, Mary, worked alongside grandmother Marie running the hotel. Mother Mary’s responsibilities included cleaning the rooms, carrying water from the well, and hand washing all the linens. After she married John Cross Mae was the daughter that spent most of her life helping her mother and grandmother in the hotel, constituting 3 generations of Cardon descendant women who had the entrepreneurial spirit.
Mae went on to open a store and she became postmistress in Piedmont. When automobiles first came to Uinta County, Mae saw an opportunity to make money selling gasoline. She had gas shipped in by the barrel. Motorists had to hand pump the gas out of the barrel and into their cars. Mae was probably one of the first service station owners who combined a store with a gasoline pump. The three generations of Cardon-Guild-Cross entrepreneurs diversified their business interests each time an opportunity arose and they made successes of each venture with little assistance from the men in the families.
June 6th, 1900 census taker Thomas D OFlynn made his 63rd census visit to the John and Mary Cross residence in Election District 8 (Piedmont), Uinta, Wyoming. 17 year old Mae was living with her parents along with siblings Katie, Elizabeth, Emma, Earl, Florence and Guild. Mae was listed as “at school.” Mr. OFlynn’s next visit was to the next door residence of Mae’s grandparents, Charles and Mary Guild. In 1910, 26 year old Mae was living with her parents John and Mary, along with siblings Earl D., Florence, and Guild L. Also at this time grandmother Marie M. Guild had moved in with them. Mae was employed as a book keeper in her father’s store. By 1920, 36 year old Mae was living with her mother Mary. Still in the household was Earl and Guild. Mae’s occupation was that of a store manager. By 1930 the family, still in Piedmont, consisted of her mother Mary, herself and her brother Guild and his wife Marie. By this time Mae was the post mater, working for the U.S. Postal Service. In 1940 she was listed as the “Post Mistress”, with one year of college education. She was 56 years old and the household consisted of herself and her mother.
About 1900 the Union Pacific began digging a tunnel through the Aspen Mountain that eliminated the steep winding grade from Piedmont to the summit. The tracks bypassed Piedmont by several miles and the population dropped from two hundred people to only thirty-five. Although the small community struggled to survive until the 1940’s, lack of business forced the closing of the Guild Mercantile Store and eventually, in 1951, the hotel was sold to Joseph Slade who tore it down and moved the lumber to Lyman.
Mae’s mother Mary died in 1944 and did not see the demise of her beloved hotel and town but Mae lived until 1953 and it was one of the saddest days in her life when she saw the last remnants of her long and successful career vanish into the sagebrush. (Some portions above were extracted from Piedmont – Uinta County, Wyoming Ghost Town by Susan Thomas Tippets, based on information submitted by Delmar and Mary Dean.)
May 12th, of 1952, Mae made a life claim with the U.S. Social Security office under SSN: 540-30-3829.
In 1953, just short of 70 years of age, Mae died in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon on the 5th of March. Arrangements were under the direction of Edw. Holman & Son, Hawthorne at 27th as reported in the Oregonian on Friday, March 6, 1953, page 47. The notice was also in the March 7th edition of that paper. Her body was laid to rest in the Evanston city cemetery in the Cross family plot next to her mother and father. The Oregonian reported on March 25th 1953, under “Estates Probated” that she died March 5 with an estate worth $4000.
Her brother Earl and his wife Nan had left Piedmont for Portland Oregon shortly after their marriage and they remained there until 1956 when Earl died. His remains were also transported to Evanston to be buried in the family plot.
Mae was preceeded in death by her parents; her sister Katie Alvina Culley and Katie’s husband John Culley; her sister Emma Thomas (Will); and her brother-in-law Ephraim Thomas Williams Jr.. She was survived by siblings Elizabeth Dean Williams (Ephraim Thomas – deceased), Earl Dwight Cross (Nan), Florence Adele Sellers (Allen) and Guild LeRoy Cross (Marie) as well as her brother-in-law Will Thomas.
Evanston City Cemetery, Evanston, Uinta, Wyoming
