San Diego County Biographies

MRS. MARY J. BIRDSALL

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

   When the advocates of female suffrage advance arguments in support of 
their cause they are too apt to appeal to sentiment, and to overlook one of the 
most forcible arguments, and that is, the ability with which women direct those 
branches of business that are popularly supposed to fall within the special 
province of men. When we find a woman who combines executive ability with 
attention to detail, who has a talent for direction as well as a faculty for 
managing�who is, in fact, a thorough woman of business�the most ultra opponent 
of equal rights to the gentler sex is apt to surrender his opinions. When we 
find a specimen of this stronger type of womanhood, she not only excites our 
admiration but commands our respect. We admire the gifts with which nature has 
endowed her, and respect the manner in which she has applied them. Among that 
body of able, enterprising, and progressive pioneer residents that gave the 
impetus to San Diego's growth, there is to be found the name of a woman�Mrs. 
Mary J. Birdsall. Coming to San Diego when it was but a hamlet, she has lived to 
see it advance to a bustling, commercial city, and by her business prescience 
she has been enabled to participate in the general prosperity that has attended 
its wonderful growth.
   Mrs. Birdsall was born near Jefferson City, Missouri, but was raised in 
Tennessee, and educated at the Young Ladies' Model School in Summerville, 
Tennessee. She graduated at the age of fifteen, and within a year afterward was 
married. About twenty years ago she came to California, by way of the Isthmus, 
and for two years lived in the northern part of the State. Then, in 1870, she 
came to San Diego. At that time what is now the city of San Diego contained but 
a few board houses. The erection of the Horton House, the first brick building, 
had just been completed, and it gave little promise of the great future before 
it. In company with her husband, Mrs. Birdsall started the Home Restaurant on 
the ground where the Commercial Hotel now stands. It was afterward known as the 
Lyon Restaurant. In 1880�'81 she kept a hotel known as the Commercial, situated 
below the Horton House, on the ground now occupied by the Chadbourne Furniture 
Company. In 1881 she began the erection of the fine house at present occupied 
and managed by her, the Commercial Hotel, on the corner of Seventh and I 
streets. It contains 115 rooms, and is admirably arranged for the purpose for 
which it was designed. It is strictly a temperance house, and no liquor has ever 
been sold in it. It is especially popular with the old residents of this section 
of the State. Being cast upon her own resources, Mrs. Birdsall cultivated her 
natural business ability, and by strict attention to her duties she has acquired 
a most enviable position in the community. While directing her hotel in an 
admirable manner she has, by the exercise of judicious investments, acquired a 
handsome competency. Besides the Commercial Hotel she owns considerable city 
real estate and county property. During San Diego's darkest days, Mrs. Birdsall 
never lost faith in the future�her confidence in the city's ultimate importance 
was unbounded.
   Mrs. Birdsall has two sons and one daughter, the latter being married. 
One son is a graduate of St. Augustine Military College at Benicia, Solano 
County, California, and one resides in Arizona. her father died here in 1880. 
Mrs. Birdsall is a lady of retiring disposition, never seeking publicity. She 
is, however, very
charitable, and has contributed liberally to all good objects.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  288-289