Fab Female Friday!
A mom’s gotta do, what a mom’s gotta do! Even back in the mid 1600’s!
Mary Peck Butterworth had seven children and a hubby whose paycheck didn’t cover the bills. The cost of living was sky high—an economic hardship to which we can all relate.
This desperate mom hatched a brilliant plan to garner more cash. While the kiddos frolicked outside, Mary gathered her quills, ink, and some leftover fabric and got busy! Making money!
Seems Mary was quite the artist! And she used her skills to counterfeit. But creating individual bills was very time consuming. With hardly enough time for the cooking, washing, cleaning, and mending, Mary needed a brilliant idea for a more efficient method of making the dough. And she did!
Voila! The first disposable counterfeiting plate. Actually, it wasn’t a real plate but a piece of her petticoat. (We woman are so practical)
When Mary was done, she tossed the fabric into the fire—the evidence gone in a puff of smoke.
Pretty soon, Mary hired a few employees. Let’s see… there were a few family members who wanted in on the biz, some like-minded neighbors, a few god-fearing churchgoers, and the deputy sheriff.
Yup! Life was good! And Mary enjoyed about 7 years of blissful phony bill passing.
But her crimes caught up with her when an eagle-eyed shopkeeper noticed something amiss and called the law.
Lucky for Mary the police never found any evidence to convict her.
Mary must have learned her lesson because there’s no proof she ever took up paperhanging again.
Mary Butterworth: Mom. Wife. Artist. Entrepreneur. Small Business Owner. Funny- money maker.
Related Links: Other Fab Females
Click Amazon link for novels.
