Howard M Grant, Moshassuck Cemetery, and the Saylesville Labor Riot

I wrote about my great-uncle Howard Mellor Grant and his service during World War I in this post a few months ago. Since then, I have come across a few more photos of Howard, and an interesting account written by my great-uncle George H. Wood. George was married to Howard's twin sister, Marion Mellor Grant. In Uncle George's account of Howard's service and burial in Moshassuck Cemetery, he writes:

"Lot is in front row - turn right as you enter the cemetery and it has a large stone with a marble statue of Christ, with arms extended and mounted on the same base as the stone. His grave was marked with the usual granite marker on a base, as used then for veterans. The stone was broken off from the base during a strikers riot at Sayles Bleachery. Several fingers and the head of the statue was broken off at the same time. The statue was repaired by the Taylor Monument Works just across the street from the cemetery and the stone was laid against its base and partly buried. In the years since, the stone has almost completely sunken into the ground."

In his notes (written in 1980), Uncle George talked about his plans to order a new stone marker for his brother-in-law and to see if he could get a new bronze VFW flag holder to denote a veteran's gravestone. I do not know why this work was never completed - Howard's stone is still partially buried. Another veteran gravestone in the same family plot, that of George S Grant who served in the Union Army in the Civil War and died 16 January 1963 from consumption after being discharged, does not appear to have been damaged in the riot, but is almost totally unreadable today. In the photo below, Howard's stone is on the right, and George's Civil War Veteran's stone is just behind and to the right of the statue.

Grant Family Plot
Moshassuck Cemetery, Central Falls, RI
Clematis Avenue, Section A, Lots No. 123 & 124

When I last visited the cemetery, I enquired about getting Howard's gravestone reset. I also placed flags on both graves, indicating their service in two of our country's wars.

Howard M. Grant Gravestone
Moshassuck Cemetery

When I drove through Moshassuck Cemetery last summer, I noticed a monument commemorating the riots of 1934. It is located not too far from the Grant plot, on the same side of the road. I had not previously known of the 1934 Labor Riots or the history of damage both to Howard's gravestone and the family monument statue. From an account of the riots by the Rhode Island Labor History Society :

"On Labor Day, 1934, a national textile strike began in Rhode Island and spread to southern cloth mills in an attempt to raise wages and improve working conditions during the Great Depression.

The event turned ugly when local management ask for protection at the non-union Sayles Finishing Company. National Guardsmen, with fixed bayonets, confronted hundreds of unarmed strikers and chased them into the Moshassuck Cemetery. Ironically, union picketers too cover behind headstones in the graveyard. The bullet holes remain dozens of stones to this day. Strife there lasted almost three weeks resulting in the injury and wounding of hundreds of protesters and the deaths of several others. The strike would erupt in violence in Woonsocket as well."

Saylesville Massacre Monument
Moshassuck Cemetery

 

Christmas 1954

Before my parents bought their first house on Reiners Road in Little Falls, New Jersey, they lived in an apartment in Clifton. The apartment was on the 2nd floor of a house at 75 Gourley Avenue, and I think my father had been living there for several years prior to his marriage to my mom in 1952.

This is my brother in the photo and he was around 11 months old here. It was his first Christmas. By the next Christmas, my parents had moved into the Reiners Road house.

I recognize many of the ornaments on that tree - they were ones that we had throughout my childhood. And when we split up my parents' possessions after they died, I ended up with some of those ornaments. They are hanging on my tree now and I treasure them and the memories of many Christmases past.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My Great-Aunt, Marion Grant Wood

 

I was setting out Christmas decorations yesterday and found these in the bottom of one of my boxes. Both are quite small lacquer metal trays, about 6" on the longest side. They have sepia-toned drawings (cut-outs from Christmas cards?) glued to the tray and painted on decoration. The trays are shellacked. I'm not really sure that they can be used for anything other than decoration. They were made by my great Aunt Marion years ago and were given to my parents at some time in the past.

My great aunt, Marion Mellor Grant,  was born in Central Falls, Rhode Island on the 27th of January 1898 to William Sprague Grant and his wife, Mary Helen Mellor. Marion and her twin brother, Howard Mellor Grant, were the younger siblings of my grandfather, Ralph Westcott Grant.

Aunt Marion was the wife of  George Henry Wood, Jr. They were married in 1920 in Central Falls and lived in the Grant home there until around 1939 when they moved to East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

When I was a kid, we would stop by Uncle George and Aunt Marion's house on our way to Cape Cod. It was from Aunt Marion that I learned alot of our family history but unfortunately I never took notes and was unable to recall much of what she had told me when I started doing genealogy years later. As a kid, it was just a jumble of names of people who I never knew and were no longer living. I remember her showing me many old family photographs, but to me at the time, they all looked the same - lots of  black and white photographs of stiff looking people dressed in what to me were formal and funny-looking clothes. Now I have all those photographs and wished I knew who was who in them. Aunt Marion did mark the names on some of them, but not all. I would give anything now to have ten minutes with her - I bet she could give me the answer to many of my brick walls! And I think she would be very pleased to know that even though alot of the family history didn't soak into me back when I was a kid, she did plant a seed in me. It just took many years to take hold.

Thanksgiving 1953

These photos are from before my time - This is my father's side of the family celebrating Thanksgiving dinner in the Skinner family home in Valley Falls, RI. My Aunt Shirley had been married earlier  that year and she and her new husband Malcolm, drove up from Connecticut. Annie Betts Skinner was the matriarch at this table - she was 83 years old here and her husband, J. Frank Skinner had died four years earlier. One of her daughters, F. Hazel Skinner (my grandmother) was also gone but her daughter Myrtle Skinner Blackmar was there, along with at least 3 of her 4 sons. My Mom and Dad drove up from New Jersey - my mom is in the pink sweater. My father took the photo. Aunt Shirley and Cousin Allan - enjoy! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Howard Mellor Grant - Veteran of World War I

I read last night that the last remaining veteran of World War I died just last year. In some respects, it is astounding that any veterans from this war were still alive. However it is sobering that no one alive has a remembrance of this war for which Veteran's Day was originally founded. And in the not too distant future, there will also be no surviving World War II veterans.

Howard Mellor Grant
1898 - 1922

Howard Mellor Grant was my great-uncle. He was born on 27 January 1898 in Central Falls, Rhode Island to William Sprague Grant and Mary Helen Mellor, and had a twin sister, Marion Mellor Grant.

According to family documents, Howard enlisted on 5 June 1917 and served in the 104th Ambulance Company, 26th Division, of the American Expeditionary Forces. Since this Division drew most of its members from New England, it was called the Yankee Division.

According to family papers, Howard was called into service on 25 July 1917 and sailed for France 2 Sept 1917. He landed in England on the 17th of October. He participated in many of the important battles and engagements of World War I in France, including Chemin des Dames on the Toul Sector, Seicheprey, and Chateau Thierry during the spring and early summer of 1917. Howard and the Division also served in the Aisne-Marne Offensive and saw battle near St. Mihiel, and participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on the Trojan and Verdun Sectors.

After the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Howard's unit sailed from Brest in Brittany, France and arrived in Boston. He was honorably discharged on 29 April 1919 from Camp Devens in Massachusetts.

Howard received shrapnel wounds in the leg during the Aisne-Marne Offensive on 22 June 1918. He rejoined his command and was gassed in the battle of Seicheprey and severely wounded by shrapnel over the left eye.

Howard worked as a clerk before the War and I assume he returned to that occupation upon his discharge. He probably returned to the family home on Jenks Street in Central Falls, but his family was missed being enumerated there during the 1920 census. He was active in the Valley Falls Baptist Church.

Howard died suddenly on the morning of 20 February 1922 probably due to a blood clot breaking loose from the piece of shrapnel still in his head, according to a report from the Medical Examiner in family papers. He had just turned 24 years old less than a month before. He is buried in the Grant Family plot in Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls.

Sixty years ago today

Sixty years ago, on 11 October 1952, my parents were married in Harwich Port, Massachusetts. In 2002, my sister and I flew to New Jersey to spend a few days with them and to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They had both decided they did not want a large celebration and instead, just wanted to have dinner at a nice restaurant. We went to the Chart House in Weehawken NJ and had a great time.

Scrapbook page commemorating Warren and Dot Grant's 50th anniversary

Mom and Dad were married for 52 years. My dad, Warren Westcott Grant died in 2005. Mom, Dorothy Veith Grant, died in 2007.

Last year on this day, I created a post that included some of their wedding photos.

Home again

I'm back home again after exactly 2 months away. I put over 10,000 miles on my car, which is about what I usually drive in an entire year! I only got one speeding ticket (41 in a 25 mph zone) and it came on my 2nd to last day of the trip. Who knew that in Montana you could pay your ticket in cash to the policeman right after he finishes writing it... He said I could have given him a check too.

I saw two of my father's cousins, and spent time with a 6th cousin once removed who I met through DNA. We had a good day trying to find a gravestone for one of his ancestors and chatting about genealogy in general. Although I did not get as much genealogy done as I wanted (do we ever?), I did visit cemeteries where I have ancestors in MA, RI, and PA, and made a few finds. I also visited a bunch of courthouses in RI and MA trying to track down some ancestors with only limited luck. But I did find bits and pieces of information that may provide clues once I sort through everything.

I visited a few old friends and drove around my college and old haunts of mine in Vermont. I did not get to visit everyone I had planned to see because of time and routing constraints but there are always more trips to come. I loved having my own car back east and may contemplate driving back again next year. I am truly my father's daughter when it comes to driving. As long as there is a new route and new things to see, I never get tired of driving. And neither did he.

Autumn color near Manchester, Vermont