Conner, Ann S.

Ann S. Conner was born in Concord, NH in 1826. She was educated at the Exeter Female Academy in 1839, and sailed for the Washington Territory in 1866 as one of the women that Asa Mercer transported to Seattle as a settlement venture. She sailed on January 17, 1866 from New York. After arriving, Mercer gave her a letter of introduction to the then Territorial Governor Pickering. She taught school in Elma, WA. In 1869 she married Mark E. Hartsuck in San Francisco, CA. Hartsuck had arrived in Thurston County, WA in 1852. He was one of the pioneers of the area. He was a cabinet maker, miner, fireman and an elder in the Presbyterian Church for many years. He passed away in 1898. Ann (Conner) Hartsuck passed away in 1918. She and her husband are buried in the Masonic Memorial Park in Tumwater, WA.

In 1864 and again in 1866, Asa Mercer, Seattle pioneer and first president of the University of Washington, led groups of young women known as Mercer Girls on journeys from the East Coast to Seattle. These women were asked to come to Seattle to increase the numbers of marriageable women in the young city. They were also needed to fill jobs, mostly as teachers. Most, but not all, of the Mercer Girls did end up marrying and settling in the Puget Sound area.