Hyatt, Audella Beebe, 1840-1932

Audella Beebe Hyatt was born in Kinderhook, N.Y., on Feb. 14, 1840. Little is known of her early life. Her father was a farmer. Audella had a brother and sister four years older than herself, Aurelia, and together with their mother often traveled to New York City to buy new clothes. Audella attended a local academy for her education. Following the Civil War and the death of her father, she was living in New York with her mother when Mrs. Alpheus Hyatt of Baltimore asked her to come for a prolonged visit to Baltimore. Mrs. Hyatt (Harriet Randolph King) had recently become a widow. She and Audella had met during the war when they both were doing volunteer work. At the Hyatt estate, "Wansbec", Audella met Alpheus Hyatt II, and they were married Jan. 7, 1867. She had three children, Harriet, Alpheus III, and Anna Vaughn, a fourth child died in infancy.

Mrs. Hyatt was talented as an artist and painter of landscapes. She assisted her husband in his research by painting the sketches and diagrams for his books and lectures and copying his paleontological data. She moved with her husband to Cambridge, Mass. and made the Massachusetts area her home for more than thirty years.

She was also well known for her researches in family genealogy, the fruits of which placed with the work of her daughter Harriet are contained in the Hyatt-Mayor Genealogical Collection. Mrs. Hyatt had great wit and retained her charm until her death at the well-advanced age of 92.

From the guide to the Audella Beebe Hyatt Papers, 1858-1957, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)