After meeting in
Newport, Rhode Island in 1890, Mary was married to Count Johannes von Francken-Sierstorpff (1858–1917) in April 1892. At the time of their marriage, she was reportedly worth $750,000 in her own right and heiress to another $2,000,000. and the
Ambassador James W. Gerard in 1914. They were the parents of: • Count Edwin von Francken-Sierstorpff (1893–1915), a member of the
Imperial Hussars who died in France during
World War I. • Count Hans Clemens von Francken-Sierstorpff (1895–1944), who married Princess Elisabeth zu
Hohenlohe-Öhringen (1896–1975), the granddaughter of Prince
Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen, a politician and mining industrialist. Hans "fled Hitler's Germany, leaving his wife, a Nazi sympathizer, and their grown children behind" and married Clotilde Knapp (1908–2004) in 1942. After his death, his widow remarried to American
Under Secretary of State for Administration Charles E. Saltzman. During World War I,
A. Mitchell Palmer, the
Alien Property Custodian took over the trust funds of various women of American families who had married Germans and Austrians, and their descendants, including Mary and Countess
Gladys Vanderbilt Széchenyi. Mary died in
Berlin,
Germany on 21 July 1929. Her son inherited the income from a $1,200,000 Knowlton Trust created by her father. Her will directed that "the chief heir of the family lands and fortunes over which she has power of disposition shall be the eldest son of her son or, if he has no son, to his eldest daughter." From his second marriage, she was the posthumous grandmother to Michael M. Sierstorpff. == References ==