Mary Lydia Branch

Born Mary Lydia Bolles in New London, Connecticut, in June 1840, she later became Mary Lydia Bolles Branch after marrying John Locke Branch. Sources available here describe her as an American writer best known for stories and poems for children, and note that she also served as an assistant editor of the Saturday Evening Post in Philadelphia in 1865.

Her writing ranged beyond children's literature. Records tied to her published works and public-domain editions point to books such as The Kanter Girls, The Old Hempstead House, The Manner of Life of Nancy Hempstead, and the travel narrative A Visit to Newfoundland. She is also remembered for the poem "The Petrified Fern," which is often singled out as her best-known piece.

Branch died in 1922. A few sources also note a family literary connection: her daughter, Anna Hempstead Branch, became a poet and social worker. I wasn't able to confirm a reliable portrait from the sources I checked, so no image is included here.