DIAZ, Mrs. Abby Morton

Abby Morton Diaz was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on November 22, 1821.  During the 1840s, Abby and some of her family members spent time at Brook Farm, the Uptopian community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.  Recalling her friends hip with Abby there, Ora Gannett Sedgwick later commented: "Among these I must not omit to mention Abby Morton (Mrs. Diaz), who became very dear to me, and whose peculiar combination of liveliness and  dignity, together with her beautiful singing, made her a favorite with all the members, old and new" [Atlantic Monthly, 85 (509): 401]. 

Abby's career included being an industrial reformer, an Anti-Slavery advocate, a teacher, a housekeeper, a social worker, and an author.  She was writing fiction by her early forties and contributed to The Arena, The Atlantic Monthly, Hearth and Home, The Independent, New England Magazine, Our Young Folks, and Wide Awake.

Diaz's three 1864 pieces in The Atlantic Monthly were "The Schoolmaster's Story,"  "Some Account of the Early Life of an Old Bachelor," and "The Little Country-Girl."

A popular juvenile fiction writer, she often published with James R. Osgood and Company.  Her The William Henry Letters was published in 1872.  During the Christmas holiday of 1877, her The Jimmyjohns & Other Stories received high praise from The Independent: "The Jimmyjohns and Other Stories, by the charming juvenile writer, Mrs. A. M. Diaz, is one of the very best children's books of the year."  Some of her other works were: William Henry and His Friends,  The Cats' Arabian Nights, or King Grimalkum, and  Bybury to Beacon Street, 

While writing, she also continued lecturing on topics such as "Women's Work for the Millenium."

In 1889, Abby wrote a piece about her hometown, "A Plymouth Pilgrimage," for New England Magazine.  Ten years later, Diaz penned "Antislavery Times in Plymouth" for the same periodical.

Abby continued to write and publish into the new century.  Her The Flatiron and the Red Cloak; Old Times at X-Roads was published by T. Y. Crowell % Company in 1901.  She passed away in Belmont, Massachusetts on April 1, 1904 and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Abagail “Abby” Morton Diaz Find A Grave

• St. Paul daily globe. (Saint Paul, Minn.), 08 Nov. 1889. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1889-11-08/ed-1/seq-2/>

• The Wichita daily eagle. (Wichita, Kan.), 23 Aug. 1903. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014635/1903-08-23/ed-1/seq-22/>

• Abagail “Abby” Morton Diaz Find A Grave

• Sedgwick, Ora Gannett, "A Girl of Sixteen at Brook Farm," Atlantic Monthly, 85 (509):401.

• The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa), 27 Dec. 1877. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038485/1877-12-27/ed-1/seq-2/>

• The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.), 15 Dec. 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016025/1883-12-15/ed-1/seq-4/>