Salem sites:
• The House of the Seven Gables

Susannah Ingersoll (ca. 1783-1858), inherited what we now call The House of the Seven Gables from her parents and remained there during her entire life. She ran a farm in nearby Danvers from which she derived a substantial income, and was actively involved in bringing her products successfully to market. She never married, but adopted a young boy named Horace Connolly who became the main interest in her life.

Letters in the collection of the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum written to Horace while he was away at Washington College in Connecticut (now, Trinity College) show her concern for her son as well as her fascination with books and cultural and political goings-on.

Susannah was active in Salem's antislavery movement and may have been involved in the Underground Railroad; however, recent scholarship has proven once and for all that The Gables' hidden staircase was not used to hide escaped slaves.

One regular visitor to Susannah's home was her second cousin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who listened to her stories about Salem history and their family. It is thought that Susannah inspired the writing he published years later.