Fourth of July 1962

4th of July parade - Chatham MA

When we were young kids, my family always went to our place in Cape Cod for two weeks centered on the 4th of July. One of the highlights for me was going to watch the parade in Chatham. I remember clowns and all kinds of floats and fire trucks and bands. I'm sure there must have been Veterans from various wars but they don't stand out in my memory. I don't remember parade participants throwing out candy to the watchers which seems to be common in parades now. I think that would have been a highlight for me!

In the evening we would go watch the fireworks in Harwich Center. I remember sitting on the bleachers on the baseball field and being absolutely awed at the fireworks display which seemed to go off right over our heads. I remember my dad taking pictures of the fireworks, trying to capture the perfect exposure - I have all those old slides somewhere. After the show ended, we would drive the mile back home and find our dog frantic and still panic-stricken from the noise even at that distance. Poor Nifty!

Valley Falls, Rhode Island

My Dad's mother, F. Hazel Skinner was born in Valley Falls, RI and her family had lived there for at several generations by the time she was born in 1894. In old family scrapbooks, there are numerous pictures of the area, most taken before 1920 or so, after which time my grandparents moved to New Jersey. Here are a few that were identified.

Valley Falls Station

This station, built in 1883,  was located at the foot of Chapel Avenue in Valley Falls. I found another view of this station at Rhode Island Railroads. This station served the Providence and Worchester Railroad which opened in 1846. According to the Rhode Island Railroads website, there was another station in Valley Falls around 400 feet north of this station on Titus Street. This smaller station served the New York and New England RR.


The two other pictures in this collection show the bridge over the Blackstone River which separates the village of Valley Falls from the city of Central Falls just to the south.  The streetcar used to run across this bridge and continued south to Pawtucket and Providence.

Approach to Valley Falls Bridge

Valley Falls Bridge

Father's Day 2012 - Warren Westcott Grant

Warren W Grant

My father, Warren Westcott Grant was born on 11 January 1922 in Passaic New Jersey and died on 22 January 2005 in Pomptom Plains New Jersey at the age of 83.
I have many old photos of my father and mother taken before I was born and/or before I have my own memories of where the photos were taken and who was in them. This one is probably from the late 1940s. It may have been taken at his friend's 'ranch' in Cedar Grove, NJ. This friend was named Tex and my Dad (and Mom) used to ride there but I don't know anything else about the place except it was long gone before I could remember.

Dad once told me that Tex drove down to Amarillo, Texas to pick him up after he had been discharged from the Army Air Force in late November 1945. They had been planning to make a road trip of it back to New Jersey but Tex apparently started getting very anxious and needed to get back home as quickly as possible. Dad said he drove for as long as he could before he told Tex he couldn't drive any further. Now, I wonder why Tex couldn't drive part of the way back (he clearly drove down to Texas).  In any case, it was not the road trip my dad was expecting!

Moshassuck Cemetery Civil War Memorial

When I was in Rhode Island last summer, I went to Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls. Many of my ancestors on my Dad's side are buried here, including both my Skinner and Grant grandparents and great-grandparents. I noticed there is a monument to the Civil War in Moshassuck Cemetery and thought it made an appropriate post for Memorial Day.



Civil War Memorial - Moshassuck Cemetery
Central Falls, RI

 
 The inscription on the monument reads:

ERECTED BY THE

TOWN OF LINCOLN

AS A TRIBUTE TO

THE BRAVERY OF HER SONS

IN THE

WAR OF THE REBELLION

1861 - 1865

DEDICATED BY

BALLOU POST NO. 3. G.A.R

MAY 30, 1888

Many graves of Civil War veterans surround the monument but my family's Civil War veterans are buried in their family plots - Zophar Skinner is buried with his wife, 3 sons, adopted daughter, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren (including my grandmother, F. Hazel Skinner Grant). Their gravestone is pictured in a previous post here. 

I don't have any direct Grant Civil War ancestors but 3 grandsons of my g-g-g-grandfather, Sylvester Grant served in the Civil War. These three soldiers were the sons of Sylvester Grant, Jr and his wife, Susan L. Boomer. They are first cousins to me, three times removed. Samuel Grant survived the war and died in 1915. George S. Grant, was discharged for medical reasons and died of consumption a month later in 1863. Ira Whitaker Grant died in battle at Bethesda Church, VA on the 3 June 1864. His body was not recovered but according to family records, both he and his brother George originally had gravestones on the Grant plot at Moshassuck Cemetery. Ira's stone is missing and George's in almost undecipherable. I will write more on brothers Samuel, George, and Ira in a future post.

"An appalling scene"

Right as the clerk's office was closing after a day of research in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, last summer, I found the death certificate for my great-great grandfather, Ernest Lord Mellor (1832 - 1892). I noted that the cause of death was listed as "gun shot" and knew I had to find out more about it. I had hoped to return to Rhode Island by now to conduct research in the Rhode Island Historical Society library in Providence where they have an extensive collection of Rhode Island newspapers but finally out of curiosity, I requested an obituary look-up from the reference librarian. She found a very short death notice and no obituary, but did find a page 1 account of the death.
I received the article a few days ago and it is rather shocking. (Transcription below)

The Providence Evening Bulletin, 18 May 1892, page 1.

Transcription:                              "HORRIBLE SUICIDE

-----

BLEW PART OF HIS HEAD OFF WITH A SHOT GUN

-----

Ernest L Mellor of Valley Falls Cut His Throat and Then Fired a Gun with Fatal Effect.

     Back among the trees at the east of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad track in Valley Falls, stands the house of Ernest L. Meller, [sic] a life-long resident of the village. For many years Mr. Meller was an overseer in the mills of the Valley Falls Company, but for the past 12 or 13 years he has suffered from dropsy, and within the past year or so complications have arisen in the malady that caused life to become almost unendurable to him. Of late the disease has become more and more painful. At 2:30 o’clock this morning Mr. Meller called to his wife in the next room and asked her to prepare him a lemon so that he might suck the juice. The wife did as requested and that was the last time that she heard her husband’s voice or saw him alive.

     Soon after this Mr. Meller arose and attempted to cut his throat with a jackknife. Although a terrible gash was cut in the fleshy part of the neck, death was not produced, and the unfortunate man went to another room, took down a rusty muzzle loading shot gun from its fastening over the street door, and retraced his steps to his bedroom. Here he stood upright in the centre of the room, placed the muzzle of the weapon upward in line with his chin, and pulled the trigger. Meller fell to the floor with the left side of his head entirely blown off, and it was in that position that his relatives found him. Dr. Haines was immediately summoned and gave it as his opinion that death must have been produced instantly. Medical Examiner Garvin viewed the remains this morning, and said that the death was undoubtedly that of a suicide and deemed an inquest unnecessary. An inspection of the bedroom this morning showed an appalling scene. In one corner of the room, where the suicide fell there was a mass of gore an inch or more in depth, while the bed was covered with blood and pieces of flesh. The ceiling was a covered with spatter of blood and filled with the load of shot that crashed upward through the head of the suicide. Mr. Meller leaves a widow and three married children. He was a member of Good Samaritan Lodge of Pawtucket, and was insured for a considerable amount in the John Hancock Insurance Company of New York."

-------------------

I read this obituary with growing disbelief and horror and had to put it down and out of my head for a bit before I was able to re-read it. I cannot imagine what pain could have driven my g-g-grandfather to attempt suicide in this fashion. I also cannot imagine what the effect was on his remaining family.  The gruesome description of the scene is more detailed than what one would read in a modern paper!

No surviving member of my family has ever heard of this suicide before, not even my aunt who was born roughly 30 years after her g-grandfather's death. I would imagine that everyone wanted to forget such a tragedy ever happened in the family.

I have some research to do. I have a general idea where the location of the house must have been but need to look up deeds. I also need to check probate records and tax records. I need to do more research to figure out what kind of Lodge the Good Samaritan Lodge was - many of my ancestors were Masons but I don't recognize this name. It may be another group such as the Odd Fellows.  I am also intrigued by the last line... Do suicide victims collect on insurance? Or is it forfeited? I wonder why it was even mentioned in the article. And lastly, what was sucking on a lemon supposed to do??

One year later

My cousin Jane Veith died one year ago today. It's hard to believe that it's been that long already. I often find myself thinking of something I want to talk about with her and I guess that will continue for quite awhile.

Here's the cover and biography from the booklet created for Jane's Memorial service last June 5th.

Jane at Oak Beach

Jane about age 15

Jane and her Dad, Harold Charles Veith in Florida

Jane and her Mom, Anita Scanlan Veith

Jane about 2010 on cruise with her husband

My Mom - Dorothy M. Veith - Part 2



Dorothy M. Veith 1942 Age 20
Chicago

My very first blog post a year ago was on Mother's Day and it was about my mom, Dorothy Minna Veith Grant. It seems appropriate to celebrate my mom in another post on this Mother's Day 2012

I've recently started scanning the photos in my mom's old scrapbooks and have found some great photos of her. Here are a few of her, possibly taken by her old boyfriend who was a professional photographer.


Dorothy M Veith 1943  Age 21
Lake Mohawk, New Jersey

My mother was born 19 August 1922 in Englewood, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Harold Theodore Veith and Minna Bertha Badendick. Mom grew up in Englewood and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in 1940. She then attended Stephens College in Columbia Missouri for 2 years and graduated with an Associate's degree in 1942, when she was 20 years old. She worked as an executive secretary for her father at the furniture store he owned, Franklin Furniture, in Englewood until after she married my father, Warren Westcott Grant in 1952.


Dorothy M Veith 1944  Age 22
Bear Mt, New York

My mom worked part time at Franklin Furniture when we were young kids until my grandfather sold the store. She and my dad lived in their house in Little Falls, New Jersey until 2002 when they moved to a retirement community in Pompton Plains, New Jersey. Mom died just before Thanksgiving on 17 November 2006 while she was napping. She was 84 years old.

Mom was artistic and fun-loving and always looked on the bright side. My sister and I often said that she never remembered anything bad. She hated to cook, yet took on a cooking class with a bunch of girl scouts when I was around 10. I remember the theme was 'international' and we made sukiyaki out of "The Joy of Cooking". I never remember her cooking it another time! She was also a Den Mother for my brother's cub scout troop for several years

Happy Mother's Day!