Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
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probably taken at time of Dr. Isadore Geetter visit January l945 -with those photos Main TEXT HAWAII chapter from hotmail July '99 --On Sunday morning December 7,l94l I got up early hoping to go for a swim before breakfast.My next door neighbor Mr. James Needles (a Mormon with a wife Edythe a Christian Scientist from Wales) knocked on the window & told me Jack should proceed at once to Pearl Harbor as the Japanese had bombed the ships,& all service personnel were required to report to duty stations.Mr. Needles told me the bombing was at its height.An Army wife at #24ll Ala Wai Mrs. Means had a miscarriage that morning.A little later Gertrude Rice drove up in a private car.She lived near the Army Fort DeRussy.She said she was going to "the hills"&asked John & me to go with her.I refused, telling her Jack had gone to Pearl Harbor & wouldn't know where to find me if he came home safely.Then an Army jeep appeared,& the driver told me to stay in the house,not use the telephone, boil all water,& observe a six o'clock curfew & complete blackout as soon as darkness fell.Around dark Jack appeared in full white uniform with sword,gun & gunbelt with ammunition.Tears filled his eyes as he told me that professionally,as he had feared, the Japanese had done a superb job,crippling our battleships,killing our men,& destroying planes at Ford Island, & Army planes at Hickam Field & other installations.Jack repeated the fact that he had been "shut up" by the brass when he harped on the likelihood of just such an attack & the need for better Army-Navy cooperation.Driving to Pearl Harbor that morning Jack had to pass hot ashes where someone had been killed shortly before (possibly by antiaircraft "friendly" fire from American ships.)While I served his supper in complete darkness, he told me the ARIZONA was sunk with great loss of life- the OKLAHOMA was capsized- the WEST VIRGINIA & CALIFORNIA were hit & damaged-the NEVADA got under way but later met difficulties- the PENNSYLVANIA was hit in dry dock & badly damaged.. He became silent when neighbors came in, but they soon had to observe the curfew & go home.At curfew we put two cots together in our back bedroom & had John sleep with us there in the "Crack" between the cots.Jack went to bed when John did saying he would have the emergency duty at Pearl Harbor the next few nights & might get little sleep.About midnight I was startled when the telephone rang.I heard Captain Rice anxiously ask me if I knew where Gertrude was. I answered ,"Yes, she went to the hills."Of course he asked me what hill & to whose house she went,but I had no more information.He gallantly told me I had helped him & he would telephone everyone he knew who lived on a hill - Oahu was full of them-Round Top, Saint Louis Heights,Wilhelmina Rise, Pacific Heights.At dawn December 8 Captain Rice appeared, grey & unshaven,with Gertrude safely in tow.Since he would have duty for some nights to come,we arranged to have Gertrude occupy John's usual cot in the front bedroom = she would arrive just before blackout & leave before breakfast every morning.Jack left after breakfast Monday December 8 & I picked up a broom to sweep the living room while John was reading one of the Christmas books we bought the previous Saturday at Liberty House.There was a ring at the door & two men entered in civilian clothes.When one flashed an FBI badge,I almost passed out.He asked,"Does Walter Glockner live here?"Walter Glockner was my landlord who lived upstairs & had just returned with a large load of groceries.They went upstairs & took him off in their car,& I never saw him again until after the war.He was interned on Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor - the Hawaiian territory civilian courts held military governor Richardson in contempt of court for disregarding a writ of habeas corpus-the fine of five thousand dollars was never paid as President Roosevelt pardoned the governor- but Mr. Glockner agreed to spend the rest of the war years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he wrote us frequently. He worked there as a brewer, returned in l945, swam every day at Waikiki Beach, & offered to give blood when I had surgery in May l947 before leaving Hawaii.We soon were outfitted with gas masks & required to carry them at all times.We also were finger printed,had our blood typed (mine was probably done wrong-my metal dogtag said "type O",but years later I found out I was type B.) We were vaccinated & given tetanus toxoid & typhoid shots.We had to turn in our money & receive bills marked,"Hawaii."Even five-year old John was fitted to a special smaller gas mask made at Pearl Harbor & had to carry it everywhere.We were no longer allowed our daily swim at Waikiki as the Army strung miles of thick barbed wire fence all along the beach with no entrance gates.Jack worked seven days a week & some nights without any holidays off-neither Christmas,New Year's Thanksgiving or any other day from the first day of the war through the last.We could no longer walk along the banks of the Ala Wai Canal for exercise,as the Army strung barbed wire the entire length.Barbed wire was strung in downtown Honolulu near the Academy of Arts on Beretania Street,where one rainy day my irreplaceable big black umbrella was caught by the wind,& a large hole ripped in it.I really believe that my umbrella was the only thing the Army caught in all those miles of barbed wire.I thenceforth got properly soaked in Honolulu's "liquid sunshine" as I walked a great deal.Jack became friendly with Riley Allen,editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin-Riley invited Jack to meet his friends & reporters one Sunday afternoon at their home on a steep hill.Several Sundays later Mr.& Mrs. Allen invited the three of us to have dinner with them at the Honolulu Country Club.Since Jack had to work,we met at 5:30 in the lounge,& Riley hurried us to the dinner table as the waiters & waitresses were all "enemy aliens" according to martial law.& had to be in their own homes by six PM.Young John refused to eat,on the grounds that he had not washed his hands.I tried to persuade him he could just use the knife & fork,but without being cross the childless editor calmly took the boy to the washroom, & they returned happily to eat their meal in lovely surroundings.They were neighbors of our friend Dr.Paul Withington and his ward Rose, whom he later married- Irish,Chinese, & Hawaiian. (In l990 she took John junior to visit the Administration Building where Jack worked & the site of their former home near Round Top & to lunch at the Honolulu Yacht club in which Paul was long active). After December 7 Jack's office was a very busy thoroughfare where requests poured in from the hospitals for evacuation of those wounded who could be moved,for the evacuation of outside non-residents caught in Hawaii on the day of the attack,evacuation of Navy & Army dependents & evacuation of some local civilians whose idea was to get out of there to the mainland. Jack's office had the tremendous job of sending Navy & Army personnel with orders to the forward areas of the war or to the mainland for reassignment.The lines of applicants were never ending.He had several very able assistants. Matson p.86 Navigation Company or from Castle & Cooke & worked as a Lieutenant as assistant to Jack.His knowledge of ships and of Hawaii was invaluable.From l943-5 Jack also had a young Lieutenant Martin Williams from Kentucky.In charge of the clerical force was a Chinese-American Wilfred Pang-Jack's right-hand man who relieved him of a great deal of the routine work.Secretaries Violet Ho & Blossom .. were under Pang's direction. Also there was a Marine officer present to take care of transportation requirements for the Marines.In addition to his office in the Pearl Harbor Administration Building,Jack had a downtown office for the convenience of women & children,as the rationing of gasoline & the crowded buses made it difficult for them to go to the Pearl Harbor office.The downtown office reduced the crush at the Pearl Harbor office PANG letter from Sophie Barrett l=notebook #4:"WILFRED S. PANG Executive Secretary State of Hawaii (John A.Burns governor)Department of Social Services -Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission-l390 MillerStreet-PO Box 339 Honolulu Hawaii 96809 August l4,l970 Dear Mrs.Barrett,This will acknowledge receipt of your nice letter of June 28th,which was forwarded to me recently. I am no longer with Matson Navigation Company-I left Matson in l966 & am now employed by the State of Hawaii.I saw an item in the local newspaper when Commander Barrett passed away.I am very glad you & John are preparing a family memoir of your experience.I went to work for the United States Navy in December l94l.However,I was not assigned to Overseas Transportation Office until April or May l942.Actually I was loaned to the Navy by my employer at the time,Castle & Cooke Inc.(General Shipping Agent).The Overseas Transportation Office handled surface transportation for the Fourteenth Naval District (Pearl Harbor).It was our responsibility to get personnel to their ship or station (command).In addition,we arranged transportation for dependents of naval personnel.Much of the work was of highly confidential nature.I was sort of an administrative assistant or right hand man to Commander Barrett.I coordinated activities & supervised the work of several persons-Robert Choy,who is employed by Castle & Cooke Inc, Violet Ho,& Blossom Anyong.Besides my office in Pearl Harbor, I also maintained an office in the Castle & Cooke building in downtown Honolulu. Lieutenant James Murray l94l-2 & Lieutenant Martin Williams l943-5 were assigned to the office also. I reported directly to Commander Barrett.The Commander demanded the best in a person.Because of my background & experience he entrusted me with most of the detailed work.We worked very closely & got along extremely well.I enjoyed working with him & had the deepest respect & admiration for the man.He talked to me about John often.I left Pearl Harbor shortly after thee end of World War II September l0,l945 to return to my civilian job at Castle & Cooke,Inc.My responsibility was to help reorganize the Passenger Department.In l947 I was transferred to Matson lines. I worked in the Booking or Reservations Division until l960,when I was promoted to Sales Representative.In this capacity I worked closely with airlines & travel agencies.In September l966 I joined the Mid-Pacific Insurance Agency,Limited, as an account executive.I resigned in May l968 when I was offered a job with the State Government.I am the Executive-Secretary-Administrator for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission,State of Hawaii.I manage the statewide program which aids victims of a criminal act.There are only six states with this type of legislation.The other states are California,New York,Maryland,Massachusetts & Nevada.I have an Investigator & a Secretary working for me,& I enjoy my work very much.Also the pay & benefits are good.Ever since l960 I have become deeply involved in community service activities.In l964 I was appointed by the Governor of Hawaii to serve as a Commissioner on the Commission on Children & Youth.The Commission is advisory to the Governor & the State Legislature with respect to any & all problems affecting children & youth in the state of Hawaii.I worked as Chairman of the Commission from l965-l969.I am now serving my seventh year as a commissioner.Under the statute the statutory maximum is eight years.Because of my interest & concern for children I have been asked to serve on many boards of private & public agencies.Among them are: Member,commission on Children & Youth,state of Hawaii=-Member of Board of Trustees,Palsina Settlement-Past President Honolulu Theatre for Youth -Past President Hawaii Eye Bank -Vice President & Director Waikiki Lions Club Vice President & director Big Brothers of Hawaii, Inc. Member of Task Force on Juvenile Delinquency- Law Enforcement Planning Agency, state of Hawaii -Director Hale Kipa Inc. (runaway shelter for girls- chairman of board Services to Girls) Blind Advisory Board. In addition I am an active big brother & spend weekends with two fifteen year old boys (twins).They are fatherless & live in low housing area.I also devote considerable time to the Lions organization. As past president of the Hawaii Lions Eye Foundation & the Hawaii Eye Bank I am deeply involved with programs for the visually handicapped.Some of my activities are glaucoma clinics,used eyeglass project,pre school vision screening program,eye bank, diabetes treatment center. I was awarded the LIBERTY BELL Award for the State of Hawaii in Conference on citizenship held in Washington DC in September.As a member of the YMCA I see Robert Choy occasionally.I have not seen Violet Ho or Blossom Anyong since I left Pearl Harbor in l945.Kindest personal regards to you & John.WILFRED S. PANG" Letter from Captain Harold F. FULTZ USN Retired July 29,l970:"8 Ridley Court,Glen Ridge,New Jersey 07028 Dear Sophie,Any people of any color who really mean business I am willing to help.I tutor black kids (age l4 to 40)-& it requires real study at age eighty-one.I am free for a week or two now & want to answer your two letters,which were quite nostalgic.I remember MARBLEHEAD Captain Miller well- I was later his Executive Officer at the U.S. Navy Ammunition Depot, Hingham, Massachusetts- and Alex Sharp (MARBLEHEAD "exec") was well known & greatly looked up to. The MARBLEHEAD was a relatively new ship,& a fine one.I was assistant engineer officer & later went to the cruiser OMAHA as Engineer Officer,where I remained over the usual tour of duty to repair her after her serious grounding on Castle Island in July l938.We eventually put her through a highly successful full power test & restored her in time for her to serve valiantly in the war.The MARBLEHEAD had a good baseball team largely because of an officer named"Shorty" Milner,who was almost major league stuff.Bumphrey was a supervisor at the Standard Oil Compound, Shanghai,& a good friend to us all.He introduced us to the Ashleys.If you look up Jack's civil war uncle in Somerville, New Jersey,come insured. It's notorious for auto deaths.I was Executive Officer of Republic-the big transport.We evacuated civilians from Honolulu.Some of the kids we evacuated had never worn shoes or even wanted to.One of my duties aboard was to play the piano in the large theatre space to quiet passenger nerves.Our warning to mothers that in event any child got overboard we would not stop was not exactly a happy prospect.Your husband,who was always able to see the real root of things,would have been amazed at the navigational problems of a hospital ship in wartime.Except in rare places all navigational coastal lights were extinguished,& we had to "grasp at a straw" to get around,because we were on the move day & night. Without forest fires, the moon &lightning we would often have been in difficulty.Off New Guinea is a passage known as the Tufi Leads (Leads means Range).A dozen times I ran it at night following very excellent range lights,which were never extinguished during the war.Finally I ran it in daylight & saw the angry,jutting rocks-& I've had a slight shake in my knees ever since,thinking of the disaster had I not followed exactly those lights.A range is a line to keep you on course by lining up two lights.-like two trees in the woods so you won't go in a circle.I've dreamed a sailing (small sailboat) back to Tufi with my wife to show her those rocks.It's only ten thousand miles as the crow flies,& a sailboat does not follow a crow.In the October 20 typhoon the COMFORT (hospital ship) came through by the grace of God. Forty nurses that night were scared to death,but not one even let their helpless patient(s) know it.Seventy craft were lost that night,I am told. My quartermaster shouted,"The barometer has reached bottom & has risen a bit. Best to you... Harold Fultz." _Another friend from TULSA days Commander Myron Thomas,was on Admiral Calhoun's staff, & through Jack he made arrangements for his wife & son to be evacuated on Christmas Day.He appreciated all Jack did to help & wrote to me recently that except for confusion on the dock his wife & son had a good trip on the Lurline. "I well remember he booked my wife & son for the LURLINE on Christmas Day l94l & I didn't see them again until Christmas Day l943.He enjoyed the reputation of being a good shipmate & always willing to help a fellow officer or enlisted man-Myron Thomas." Commander Thomas wrote that when he was on Admiral Calhoun's staff (Commander Service Force) he knew what a difficult time Jack was having trying to provide transportation with so little available space. "He performed his task in a most creditable manner & then with his tact,careful planning,foresight & diplomacy in dealing with many anxious wives & husbands at this critical time was able to satisfy the majority of naval personnel who had to remain in the (war) zone & were anxious to get their dependents to the mainland." #78-#78B Thomas Jefferson School Waikiki l942-1946 #78B Thomas Jefferson School Hawaii I entered John in the public English Standard primary Thomas Jefferson School, Waikiki near the head of the Ala Wai Canal, where Ala Wai Boulevard intersects Kapahulu Street about five blocks east of our home near Kapiolani Park with its remarkable zoo & bird collection & Sunday band concerts.At that time in Hawaii there were two school systems. For those children who passed an exam in proficiency in English a very fine education was offered. We estimated a large majority of the pupils were of Asian backgrounds, with Japanese the largest group many exceptionally gifted & hard-working.Another gifted pupil was Robert Ho of a Shanghai background. His mother lived in Waikiki & was proficient at block printing.At least one student Sam was part Hawaiian, and the students knew and used common native Hawaiian words like the greeting "Aloha" kapu keep out - Pau finished-Mauka toward the mountains - Makai toward the water, & opu - stomach.The teachers were well qualified & in many cases had experience on the United States mainland.Three of John's teachers, were of Portuguese backgrounds, Mrs Celestine Silva Barbour in the first grade, who was our neighbor on Ohua Street, Celia Ponte of Kaimuki in the third grade,& Mrs. Silva in the fourth grade. In the fifth grade John's teacher Mrs. Agnes Davidson came from an old New England family - her names was Agnes Dee Mason before her marriage, & her ancestor Mason in l630 received the original royal charter as founder of the New Hampshire colony. One of her daughters was on the staff of Honolulu radio station KHON, and her son Douglas Davidson was a professional photographer who photographed her class in l946 at Valentine's Day & also did nature photography including Hawaii's major waterfalls.Mrs. Barbour the first grade teacher had an exceptionally warm & friendly personality.Her parents had come from Portugal & Madeira in l883 to work on sugar plantations at Kohala on the northwest coast of the "big" Island - Hawaii.She remembered seeing Queen Liliuokalani around l9l5 at the girls school she attended in Kaimuki.She remembered the musicologist Sigmund Spaeth "the tone sleuth" & other interesting visitors in Hawaii over many years.She had previously taught on the Islands of Hawaii & was later a high school principal - probably at Kamehameha school Honolulu.Her first grade classroom was a small cottage at the south tip of the long covered corridor with the first, second &third grade classrooms. An art classroom was next door.A large vegetable garden run by Mr. Chong was on the west side of the building & shared by the neighboring non-English standard Waikiki school. Crown flower plants hosting monarch butterflies grew between the classrooms & the garden & furnished material for science projects.John had been reading & writing for more than two years, but he was in the habit of printing all-capitals & had to learn to use the small letters also. There were hot lunches in the centrally located school cafeteria, where pupils took turns working under head cook Mrs. Billie. A small pomegranate grew at a little fishpond near the lunch room.In the dining & assembly area a Christmas show produced eight Christmas carols, including "Silent Night, Away in a Manger" &" Joy to the World" & relatively little-known "Love Came Down at Christmas Love our lovely love divine Love came down at Christmas Stars & angels Gave the Sign." Pupils acting as angels had to stand very still while the others sang the songs.Naps were required in rest period. In January l943 John was transferred to Mrs. Elsie Mattoon's second grade classroom, where the children were six months to a year older than John. Again the teaching was excellent..One day a week Mrs. Mattoon & the other second grade teacher Mrs. Fisher sent their pupils to the other teacher's room, & Mrs. Fisher read an interesting story titled,"Billy the Goat." John was sick a couple of sessions & never found out how the story turns. out. The children used to play on swings & seesaws & jungle-jims & play games like "Go in & out the window -as we have done before-Go skipping round the village- Go kneel before your partner..." Nancy Kawamura was frequently a leader in these games & songs.Rose Lee lived on the golf course across the Ala Wai Canal in front of our home, where her father was a caretaker.Her mother was deaf. Joseph Kinoshita, who became a Honolulu lawyer (& Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate) would often walk home with John along Ala Wai Boulevard after school. Sometimes he would stop at our house & practice wrestling on the front lawn (despite the crabgrass). Miss Celia Ponte was a conscientious & understanding third grade teacher with a large number of students in her classroom.She later became a school principal.During this time John was becoming more nearsighted & got glasses after testing at school & with Dr. Withington's encouragement.Janet Ikeda was an outstanding student in spelling bees & in races to answer arithmetic flash cards quickly.The other third grade teacher Mrs. Evans always wore a flower in her hair fresh every day & like to recite a poem about the Hawaii cup-of-gold flower "made for fairies to hide in."Mary Lou Gilares & other girls acted as Junior Police Officers "JPO's" holding STOP signs after school so that pupils could cross Kapahulu Street on the east ("Diamond Head") side.Students learned to sing a melodic rendition of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; of restricting the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. All of the fourth grade class voluntarily took religion classes once a week- our Ala Wai neighbor Mrs. McCarthy covered the Good Samaritan & other parables & the Golden Rule & Sermon on the Mount & managed to convey the joyous, charitable side of religion without getting hung up over doctrinal controversies. The librarian Miss Becker was friendly & popular & one book John discovered there was Richard Halliburton two travel books - the Wonder Books of Marvels. Sometimes pupils would be assigned to assist in the school office, answering telephones "Thomas Jefferson School- office monitor speaking"- ringing the bells at proper times & taking messages to teachers.It was an opportunity for the principal Mrs. Vance to get to know the students.She was actively involved in all phases of school life.North of the school buildings were softball fields & exercise bars for chinning & arms exercises.A very active Cub Scout pack met on the bleachers near the softball field under the leadership of scout master Mr. Paul Ishimoto, who later became a top official of the Honolulu Boy Scouts.At that time the official age for entering Cub Scouts was nine years, but John did a lot of the Cub achievement tests in early l945 before his ninth birthday in his fourth grade year, looking up family history & learning scout pledges & lessons. The group climbed Red Hill & went on other hikes.After the war ended l945-l946 some of the other pupils would ride with Jack & John to the waterfall on the Pali road & other sites.In the fourth grade Mrs. Martin was friendly & sometimes rode home with us in Waikiki, but she had health problems & left Honolulu around January l945. For one week Mrs. Jepson was a substitute - one day she explained a method of thinking in terms of "aliquot parts of the dollar." The spring of l945 Mrs. Silva was an effective, hard-working teacher who stressed arithmetic achievement. One day April l2, l945 in rest period news came President Roosevelt had died & students were sent home.In the fifth grade Agnes Davidson had students memorize many poems- "True worth is about being not seeming, Of doing each day that goes by Some little good - not in dreaming of great things to do by & bye. Oh better than the riches of a gold crowned king Is the heart-felt memory Of a lovely thing." Mrs. Davidson knew a great deal of American history. She had lived in Arizona & subscribed to the photo magazine "Arizona Highways".She lived west of us on Lewers Road, where we visited after she retired.She once saw John & me after school sitting at the north edge of the school grounds under monkeypods trees near Ala Wai Boulevard & sang, "Don't sit under the monkeypod tree with anybody else but me" - a Hawaiian adaptation of the current American hit, "Don't sit under the apple tree."(*Monkeypods are members of the Bean or Legume family in the mimosoid subfamily - also known as "rain trees" because leaves fold up when it rains.We used to see sixth grade teacher Mrs. Hazleton near her home on Kuhio Street not far from the school, where she sometimes gave us ripe mangoes from a tree in her yard. In l942 there was an art teacher, who passed away not long afterward at a young age, but usually the home classroom teachers supervised periods in the art room. Mrs. Harrison,Mrs. Barbour's first grade teacher was often friendly though John was not in her class - she worked with Mrs. Barbour on the l942 Christmas Pageant, which was very well done & a welcome contrast to the war tensions of Christmas l94l when schools were closed. Air raid drills were held in bomb shelters at school,& effectiveness of gas masks was tested in a room full of tear gas.-#76-#76 Sam King from notebook p.107"The first native Hawaiian to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy was Samuel Wilder King class of l909.He resigned his seat as elected Hawaiian territorial delegate to the United States Congress to return to active Naval duty during the war.He served as Military Governor of American Samoa during the war.During his absence his wife Pauline went to see Jack about a lost trunk belonging to her son in the Navy.She was pleased by the personal interest she felt Jack took.She used to say she was "Part-Hawaiian & proud of it."Jack knew her husband either in person or by reputation from his several visits to Hawaii in the l920's.Her husband also had New England ancestral roots & was a distant relative of the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes.One day Pauline paid an afternoon call on me in Waikiki.When I told Mrs. King I could not find a small lahalla straw mate for John's daily nap at school in rest period,she said that she would ask Sam to try to get one in Samoa.A few weeks later she returned,carrying a Samoan straw mat.- a little too large & pretty for school naps where the mats were stuffed into a wooden chest for storage, but since Sam had taken the trouble to ship it via a Navy ship going to Pearl Harbor, & Mrs. King had picked it up there & delivered it herself to us in her car,we used the mat for naps at Thomas Jefferson School.Frequently after that I would find wonderful bananas, pineapple, papayas & lettuces on the bench on my front porch & once I found some macadamia nuts there- a nut I had never seen before- hard & most delicious.These delicacies were left for us by Mrs. King after her occasional visits to her family on the other side of Oahu.During the war mr. & Mrs. King & their children lived in a rented home in Kahala because of the gasoline rationing & blackout. When the war ended,Sam returned to Oahu, & Mrs. King telephoned inviting the three of us to a supper party in honor of Sam's return home.Jack was no longer working on Sundays.As we were preparing to leave the house about 5:30 Sunday evening to go to Kahala, Colonel William Winchester Paca,commander of the Marines at Camp Catlin came to call. He was an old friend from our TULSA days in North China in l93l, & his family were descendants of the William W.Paca of Annapolis Maryland who signed the Declaration of Independence in l776. Paca's home in Annapolis became Carvel Hall at th Naval Academy.Paca was one of the few Marine officers who was a graduate of West Point military academy.He was known to some of his friends as "Soldier" because of this background- he visited us several times during his Hawaii duty l944=l946.That Sunday afternoon he was cold & tired& soon after he arrived he asked me for a cup of coffee, which I tried to make it my large Silex. i am afraid I gave him a rather poor cup of coffee because my mind was on the King party, where we were to eat at six o'clock - still I didn't like to desert Paca. Without consulting him I telephoned Pauline King to ask her if she could have the commanding officer of Camp Catlin as her guest for supper, and she agreed.At the supper we met Captain Edward D. Washburn, junior, who like Jack, had formerly been in charge of a Branch Hydrographic office. Washburn had the one in San Francisco at the same time Jack had the one in New York City l939-l94l.At the party were Captain Sam King, Captain & Mrs. Lewis- Jack's boss as Personnel Officer during the war,& the woman who headed the Women's Marine Corps.There were also a number of young people, including the King & Lewis families. When Mrs. King asked me to fill glasses of milk in her kitchen,I was amazed that she was handling all the cooking herself with no maid to cook or serve.The senior guests were served at numerous card tables in the living room, while the young people were served outdoors.Mrs. King had prepared an enormous pot of spaghetti & meatballs-just right for that rather chilly evening.We were seated at Captain Washburn's small table for four- he,Jack, John & I comprising that group.At first I did not sit with them as Mrs. King asked me to serve the dishes of spaghetti as she ladled them out & told me exactly whom to serve & to whom to give milk.So I rushed back & forth serving Captain Washburn,Jack, Colonel Paca, the woman Marine,Captain & Mrs. Lewis exactly as she told me to-& when I asked about the people outdoors, she said they understood that the kitchen would be theirs after the guests were served.Then she filled a plate for me,& when I realized it was the last of the spaghetti,I asked her about her own spaghetti, & she told me to forget it.So reluctantly I went to my seat, feeling I had done a good job.Suddenly I heard the guest of honor Sam King inquiring loudly, "Don't I get anything to eat?" We had forgotten to serve Sam.After dinner the young folks came into the living room, played dance records, & danced. Colonel Paca enjoyed himself very much dancing with the young people, & when we finally left, he continued at the party.While waiting for his supper, Sam King said," This informality is just Pauline. It reminds me of an incident that happened shortly before I resigned as Delegate to Congress.We usually came home (to the windward side of the Island) when Congress closed each year to relax.I had often said to friends in Congress 'if you come to the Islands, let us show you some Hawaiian hospitality'. One afternoon when I was not home,three Congressmen did call- & a maid told them, 'Just go out back'- because that's where Pauline was. ."- so they went out back to see the perfect Washington hostess they had known impeccable in dress when in Washington-& they were amazed when she hailed them from high up in a tree.She nonchalantly climbed down & offered the Congressmen some of the mangoes she had collected. Pauline verified that the story was true.There was a parent-teacher association at the Thomas Jefferson School through which I met some of the other parents.We met Peter Perser & his mother from nearby Tuisitala Street in the first grade on the day school opened in September l942- & later the families of Robert Ho, Nicholas Vaksvik, Rose Lee on the golf course, & the Cook family who lived half a block east of us at 2465 Ala Wai. Edric Cook worked with a shipping company,& his wife Anne was from Seattle. Her father born in Europe came for an extended visit about l945. Ether Trease was an officer of the Honolulu Parent Teachers Association.We attended the tenth birthday of her daughter Diane at their large house on a hill in Kaimuki.Mrs. Trease commented that nobody ever bothered to celebrate her own birthdays because they fell two days after Christmas on December 27.Dr. Paul Withington was a Navy Reserve doctor who advised Jack on ship facilities & priorities for the sick & wounded.His mother was the first woman principal in a Massachusetts school (in Brookline) The Withington family developed a sugar plantation on windward Oahu before l900,and five sons attended Harvard. Paul Withington played football & rowed on the crew in the class of l909.After medical school l9l3 he coached football at University of Wisconsin & became an Army doctor in World War I. In Hawaii he was interested in yachting & worked with swimmer Duke Kahanamoku improving the breathing & timing of the Australian crawl stroke. In the l930's he knew General Patton, who was stationed in Hawaii several years.One time we had dinner at Dr. Withington's home high up in a valley near Mount Round Top & saw several rabbits in cages there & met his ward Rose, whom he later married.There was a tidal wave tsunami in l946 - the most serious damage was at Hilo.In March l945 the Navy sponsored a swimming met at which we saw the famous champion Duke Kahanamoku.Jack arranged transportation for a number of prominent athletes & entertainers mostly in the Navy who entertained troops in forward areas. He had an autographed catchers mitt from Yankee Bill Dickey a baseball from Johnny Mize then with the New York Giants, & a photo of Gene Tunney, all of whom visited the Transportation Office, as did Bing Crosby's sons.We also saw exhibitions of prominent tennis players.-#28ee- the dog, except I had seen her several times with her owner. I dared not go to his apartment to look for dog food,as the large dog might have attacked me.I had stocked nothing.& the military governor had ordered all stores closed to halt the hoarding that started the day after the attack.The dog went back & forth between my front & side doors & the entrance to Mr. Glockner's upstairs apartment at the back of the house.She would not let the milkman, laundry man or newspaper boy approach.When Gertrude Rice came to spend the night,she would rush in when the dog was going to his own door, & in the morning she would rush out. I called the police to remove the dog,but they refused, saying they had more to do than be concerned about than the dog.Jack was on duty at Pearl Harbor day & night December 8-11.Finally I called the police to come at once for an emergency.The dog would not let them ring the doorbell - I called out that I had a small boy in the house & was out of food.Finally they did send the dog catcher. Later that month I had a postcard from Mr. Glockner asking me about his property & asking me to put mothballs in his clothes.Then it happened.When Navy women learned Jack had a wife in Waikiki,they began calling me on the telephone & came in droves to the little house,thinking I might plead their cases with Jack.Eventually Jack established priorities-the wounded-surviving widows & their children -pregnant women-women with very young children-& women with medical problems.Naval Reservist Dr. Paul Withington-who had grown up on a Windward Oahu sugar plantation & played football & rowed at Harvard l909 -& who was in charge of the Navy Dependents' Dispensary- advised Jack on medical cases needing to leave for the mainland.Mrs.Clorinda Low Lucas,one of the first native Hawaiian social workers advised about civilians who needed immediate transportation because of health or social need,& Pacific Fleet Chaplain Captain William Maguire haunted the Transportation Office,as he was familiar with the hardships of Navy women & children.Jack found it hard to refuse Chaplain Maguire's requests. because he was the Navy chaplain who in l93l found a room for me in Chefoo in l93l when the whole Asiatic fleet was in town & there was no place for me in the hotels.All sailings of ships in & out of Pearl Harbor were top secret..So when Jack got word from the Port Director, Lieutenant Commander Martin Derx, of the exact number of spaces he could have in the ships to evacuate personnel & dependents on Christmas Day l94l,his staff immediately started telephoning the hospitals to prepare the wounded for the trip to the mainland. They telephoned Navy & Marine personnel to be ready to sail,& then secretly notified the Navy dependents as all Navy women with young children were required to leave the Islands whether or not they wanted to.The order came from Admiral Bloch that ALL Navy dependents were to be evacuated as quickly as ships could be made available.When Gertrude Rice learned that Jack would be working on the dock all Christmas Day loading the evacuees aboard several ships, to be convoyed by three destroyers & a cruiser,she invited John & me to share Christmas dinner with her & Paul -risky as she lived near the Army's Fort Derussy in Waikiki, but it was within walking distance of our house.Carrying our gas masks,John & I walked to Gertrude's apartment, where she gave us a most delicious turkey dinner.When John asked for more peaches with his turkey,Gertrude hesitated, as they were brandied peaches.We had just finished eating when Jack appeared-tired & unfed at three o'clock in the afternoon.Gertrude gave him a good dinner,but he had to leave immediately because he was evacuating thousands of frightened wounded & dependent women with unruly children-with lines miles long waiting to get on the ships.Many women & children had given up their homes & were unfed. Jack saw our friend Mrs. Gene Nelson (from Panama days) standing in line with her two sons-ages about five & seven-at least a mile from the ship trying to control the two boys & watch her luggage at the same time.Jack called a couple of sailors to help her with her bags,& then he went aboard with her & gave her a lovely big room on the Matson Line's LURLINE.She was very pleased when he had an extra cot put in for Eric,the younger boy,so the family could be together in one cabin.Jack ordered her trunk taken to her cabin-a great privilege as most passengers could get nothing from their trunks during the voyage,because the trunks were in the hold.Later Gene Nelson wrote me that many of the children had no warm clothes for the cold weather of San Francisco about New Year's Day,& many had no shoes or stockings, which children generally do not use in Hawaii.One evening when the order came to "Darken Ship," some women thought they heard,"Abandon Ship," & there was temporary panic-but that soon subsided.The destroyers of the convoy occasionally dropped depth charges for suspected submarines,but the voyage was not too harrowing.GENE NELSON letter June 24,l970 "widow of Captain Paul Nelson,who had been a young boat officer on the survey ship HANNIBAL when Jack was "exec" & who was aboard the mine layer OGLALA on December 7,l94l, when she was sunk & who died some time ago- a letter about her evacuation by Jack on the LURLINE Christmas Day l94l.Her son Paul junior was graduated from the Naval Academy & became a submariner- & her son Eric became a Naval aviator,but Eric was killed in a mountain accident recently.Gene herself passed away from a heart condition in March l97l. There were our good Navy friends,who visited at our house in West Roxbury in the l950's for Sunday dinner. In her letter Gene wrote,'Dear Sophie: Paul had (p.ll9f)the duty December 6-7 l94l aboard the OGLALA usually referred to as THAT old minelayer.I did not know he was alive until 2;30 pm The wife of the skipper 'Colonel' Speight located me at Kay Tompkins' where I had gone after I picked up the children at Saint Andrews Episcopal Church.Kalaimaku Street was an evacuation area,so that it was senseless to try to go home. I went on home with the boys-Paul junior & Eric after spending the day getting up & down a rickety ladder with them & hiding under a reinforced concrete culvert.Later Paul & the paymaster came home-Paul trying to whistle & in khaki as the uniform was changed from whites to try to catch any possible saboteurs.I forget how I got the word,but I went downtown to have the boys evacuated right away.Later I was informed I had to go along.A might telephone call told me to report for evacuation at a downtown pier.Somehow I had trunks,suitcases & even a toy or two with us.All our Christmas presents had sunk on the OGLALA December 7, l94l.(Paul jr was about eight & Eric about five) A cot was put in a lovely room on the LURLINE now renamed the MATSONIA.It was made up about sundown for Eric.The sheets felt odd,& next morning we found they were pure linen from the lanai suites! We had nothing to bathe in for 4 l/2 days but cold salt water. We had sailed on December 26,l94l accompanied by two cruisers- one of them the St. LOUIS,& five destroyers.The destroyers ran around like mad that afternoon tossing over "ash cans" (depth charges).They were kept very busy tossing over depth charges p ll9g as we had all four of the Matson liners in convoy.We had aboard I believe thirty-eight of the burn cases.The boys went belting down a main staircase & almost ran into one, one day.I threatened them with everything I knew if they did it again. The gallant suffering burned boy (sailor) kept telling me he knew they meant no harm. have keen hearing.One night over the loudspeaker came "Prepare to darken ship."Over a hundred people paniced,as they [thought they]heard,"Prepare to abandon ship." My table mates bolted,but I grabbed an arm of each boy & told them to stay seated.Took quite a while to restore order.One evening some others were in our assigned places.We were put at a small table against the wall-I had some words,believe me with the steward- & we went back to our table for breakfast & kept on there.The stewards were quite surly. I heard later that at disembarkation at San Francisco they were marched off & sent to a recruiting office - or else...I cannot vouch for the story.They should have been,because the children were given a patented cooked cereal every day & diarrhea was rampant,you may imagine. One morning I was talking to a lovely older lady & mentioned I was worried about all the children I saw barefooted & in cotton only.Our boys had their little but too small coats & caps & were warm enough to land in San Francisco within two days. I bet it was twenty minutes later when over the loud speaker came a request that anyone who could spare clothes report to deck room- I had been talking with a General's wife.She got things done that I a Lieutenant's wife could only worry about.We docked on a beautiful day at Pier 32 San Francisco.I managed to reach a phone & called Paul's sister-at work of course.I could hear her call over her shoulder,"My brother's wife & boys are here from Pearl Harbor-'bye,boss."When she came to pick us up, I told her "Open the front & back doors. We've had only cold salt water in which to wash for 4 l/2 days." On the dock were plenty of warm donations which should have been sent to Honolulu.Plenty of time for it. The Red Cross was there selling orange juice, coffee, milk for a nickel apiece. A good friend of mine had on the same slacksuit for three days & I asked if she had any other clothes.Everything of hers had been put in the hold & no person could go look.She came down to our room & I outfitted her with a brand new suit from Sears Roebuck & even had thread & needle for her to shorten the pants- all thanks to your Jack having given orders for all our baggage to go in our lovely big room. This is July 5 now- I get sidetracked by this lousy heart & my sixty-first birthday on July 3. As ever,Gene Nelson." THE OGLALA haD PREVIOUSLY BEEN A FALL RIVER liner But she was almost always tied up at Pearl Harbor. On December 7,l94l she lay next to the cruiser HELENA at 1010 dock & capsized. She was tied up so long that a family of birds built a nest in her funnel. End addition rest from #28:Another friend- from TULSA days in China-Commander Myron Thomas-was on Admiral Calhoun's staff,& through Jack he made arrangements for his wife & son to be evacuated on Christmas Day.He appreciated all Jack did to help & wrote to me recently that except for confusion on the dock before departure his wife & son had a good trip home on the LURLINE.Since I refused to accept my Navy quarters at Makalapa in July l941 chiefly because it was located so near the oil storage tanks,I was interested to read later in Samuel Eliot Morison's official history of the Navy in World War II that the greatest mistake the Japanese made on December 7 was their failure to bomb the huge reserve supply of oil at Pearl Harbor-& their failure to destroy the repair yards & docks & command & information facilities at the Administration Building. Commander Myron Thomas on Admiral Calhoun's Service Force staff wrote l970 about Jack: "He performed his task in a most creditable manner,& then his tact,careful planning,foresight & diplomacy with many people at this critical time satisfied the majority of naval personnel who had to remain in the (war) zone & were anxious to get their dependents to the mainland. I well remember that he booked my wife &^ son for sailing on the SS.LURLINE on Christmas Day '4l- & I didn't see them again until Christmas'43." Soon after the attack I learned a lot about it from Jack & from Captain Paul Rice,who worked for Admiral Furlong in the Navy Yard in charge of civilian workers in the repair shops.When Jack was Operations & War Plans assistant at Pearl Harbor in August l94l, he tried hard to get his superiors to work with the Army & alert the navy to the real threat of an attack by the Japanese, but he was ignored-& transferred by Bloch to the Overseas Transportation Office,where his warnings could not disturb their golf.Paul Rice told me the civilian workmen voluntarily returned to work at the repair shops even while the attack was in progress-they worked well to prepare the ships for the trip to the mainland for permanent repairs.Early in the New Year l942 Jack was notified that several ships were en route to Honolulu to evacuate a large number of Navy dependents.Accordingly they secretly notified many women to give up their homes & be prepared to sail at a specified secret time.Not until the day of planned departure did Jack learn that all the ships had been sent elsewhere-the Navy women & children were stranded without places to live & without much ready cash.Jack was hounded day & night by displaced women & children=he was the victim of a situation which he had done nothing to create. For months no ships for dependents were made available to him, as they were all occupied in transporting troops & supplies for the crucial battle of Midway,which occurred June 4.Late in May l942 my friend Lillian Arroyo visited me in Waikiki as she had learned that her husband was scheduled to leave the Islands shortly.She used her precious gasoline to drive me to a Japanese store in Honolulu where they put new covers on my chair cushions & sold me their last three Philippine teakwood bookcases & the only two unpainted pine rocking chairs in the place, which was practically empty.Lillian told me the awful secret of the preparations for Midway,& I promised to say nothing to anyone-not even to Jack.But the secret worried me,& I understood why Jack had no ships for the wounded & Navy dependents.But we won the Battle of Midway- & after that Jack could transport all the people who wanted to leave. Since Admiral Bloch put pressure on him to send us away,& since we had no home to go to on the mainland, we declared Hawaii our legal residence & remained throughout the war until June 4,l947.In the spring of l942,the Army cut some of the barbed wire at our entrance to the beach at Waikiki,& we joyfully resumed our daily swim just before dinner each evening.One late afternoon May l942 I lit the oven to bake a few very old potatoes & the last four old yellow onions.When Jack finally came home,he had with him a young man in civilian clothes-a soiled white shirt & really dirty white civilian trousers.Jack took me aside & whispered that his guest was a Lieutenant junior grade just in from a forward area of the war exhausted & afraid of the Shore Patrol because he was out of uniform-he had no time or funds to get a uniform before he left for the states to receive a Presidential citation from Franklin Roosevelt on behalf of his unit that had been in the Philippines.We took Henry Brantingham for a walk to the beach & loaned him a swim suit.The four of us walked hurriedly to the beach, swam-& in the walk home Henry was relaxed enough to laugh & talk like a normal young person.I raced into the kitchen-where my potatoes were overcooked -& my few little onions almost burned. I cut some stale cold roast beef cooked the previous Sunday.By the time they had showered & dressed it was dark,but we sat down to our simple meal.But we had a pleasant time & when I asked Henry if he would like to join us for a swim & supper the next night,he merely replied,"That is up to the Commander."Jack walked to the Moana hotel with Henry so he wouldn't get lost & picked up by the Shore Patrol. Jack told him not to leave the hotel until he had heard from the Transportation Office. Brantingham had been skipper of a PT boat evacuating MacArthur & his family- then in mountains of Cebu-a Filipino loaned him a civilian shirt & trousers so he could have his dirty uniform .washed. Before the uniform came back from the laundry, Brantingham flew out on one of the two last planes to leave the Philippines.So that is why Brantingham reached Australia in soiled civilian clothes.Later in the Solomons he commanded one of the four PT boats that were with Lt. John F. Kennedy & was involved in picking up Kennedy, as described in Donovan's book "PT l09."Brantingham remembers us well in l970 & expressed appreciation in his l970 letter from La Jolla,California. |
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Front lawn 24l5 Ala Wai Boulevard.Hibiscus on right was oin edge of Needles property 2421 Ala Wai Boulevard. Ala Wai gold course, St. Louis Heights, and Wilhelmina Rise visible in background. An anestheiologist grad of Jefferson Medical School P{hiladelphia, Dr. Geetter had been administrator of New Britain General Hospital married June 16, l929 to Rebekah Meranski father of five children drafted into U.S. Navy l944 p 14 {S}{F} |
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July l938 -John Robert Barrett letter followed by grandson's essay [notebook 1-p 60] 640 E 7 St. Dec. 21st l935 Well Folks i am at it again and as usual i Have Nothing to say Other than Wish You both a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year We Wluld Like to have You With us, but as the Weather will be cold and stormy at this time, it would take the pleasure out of the trip. But I will keep a pack of cards ready so you can beat me. Bill said he would be here for Christmas. I was at the beach yesterday with the Pup. i bought 4 chickens and I would be Better without Them as They Don'tLay and I don't think they will very soon. But if they have any in their Jeenes (genes) I will get them. I have ordered a nice fresh turkey so I will be ready. The two calendars from the Tow Boat Company came yesterday.If you come up, I will give you one.Joe Buckley called up asking for you both.i hope you have a good trip in your new boat and that you will like it.Ma is comfortable as can possibly be expected. My- OldJack Frost is here now and i Expect his chum Jimmie Snow will Call to see Him - Pa" "To Lt Commander John B. Barrett c/o Phila Navy Yard"37 }C3{}} John Robert Barrett's paternal grandparents were named Robert Barrett and Catherine Sullivan. They remained in Cork, Ireland, as did one daughter Mary, who married Cornelius Kerrigan in the Ballymartyle area near Kinsale.Tax censuses of Cork in 1827 and 1852 show a Robert Barrett on the east bank of the Bandon River, south of Bandon not far from Ballytmartle and Kinsale. The main source of early history is a September 1911 letter by Robert Joseph Mehegan, Boston Herald printer 1857-1925 to his son Robert junior working in land office Evanston Wymong, who was about to visit relative in San Francisco. It tells that a group of five children of the above couple came to Boston in 1841 - Robert, Kate, Ellen, Johanna, and Margaret. Of these Robert the eldest was probably born about 1815, worked as a milkman, married and moved late 1840s to near St. Peter and Paul Church on West Broadway, and had four children that grew up- records suggest a baby named Robert died, Michael may have been born 1850, Mary is definietely l852 while family was near A and West Third or Athens corner Second. The family was on Goddard Street Dochester when John Robert was born November 29, 1854, but the location near old wetlands and Lark Street and Saint Augustine Church was part of the 1855 Washington Village annexation to Boston and a few years later was renamed West Eighth Street. While living in downtown Boston in 1840s Robert Barrett appears to have placed an advertisment in the Irish newspaper "The Pilot" seeking to locate his maternal cousin surnamed Sulllivan, who had emigrated 1846 from Cork to St. John New Brunswick. Of the four sisters who accompanied him to Boston 1841, the older two Kate and Ellen married brothers Charles and John Mehegan from Ballyheedy, Ballinhassig, county Cork. These two families have numerous descendants whose surnames have included Hoarde, Maloney,Carty, Brennan,Soger, Craig, Sullivan. The two younger girls Johanna and Margaret crossed Panama by muleback to Panama 1854 and lived many years at 2023 and 2043 Polk St, -Johanna became Mrs. Hession marrying an engineer- one daughter married Emil Fahrbach, an executive of Dinkelspiel stores. The milkman Robert Barrett had a second daughter Kate in 1855 or 1856 and died December 18, 1859 of lung disease. Little is known of his wife Catherine Daly. Records conflict whether she was born in Masschusetts or Ireland. Daly is a strongly localized West Cork name, especially from around Skibbereen. The Dalys were bards and associated with the powerful O Mahony landowners of the area. Spelling of the name varies in records and often followed the preference of clerks and centsus takers. The Irish form properly should be O Daly or O Dailey. When her grandson John Berchmans Barrett was born August 28, 1888 his godfather was Andrew Dailey at the christening by Rev. Johnson at Gate of Heaven Church at I and East Fourth Streets - possibly some kin. It is not possible to identify him positively in Boston directories - a few years earlier an Andrew Dailey was listed as a cigar maker on West Seventh Street - he does not appear thereafter in boston directories, but John Robert Barrett kept plumbing shop account records 1890 to 1894, and in these D. Dailey of West Seventh Street appears several times as a customer, and another Dailey on Second street was also a customer. Mrs. Robert Barrett nee Catherine Daly died of tuberculosis in 1863. Jack Barrett stated that her sister-in-law Ellen Barrett Mehegan adopted the two daughters Mary and Kate while their mother was still living, but that his father John Robert Barrett preferred to live with a baker Michael Thompson "at City Point" in one of the oldest houses east of L Street, at 640 East Seventh Street. Jack Barrett apparently learned that his father had some resentment on his sisters being taken away while their mother was still alive, but quarantine for tuberculosis was probably the reason. Jack Barrett in later years did much probate and land court legal work and historical research also, and he may have found probate procedings concerning his aunts, with whom he corresponded regularly until their deaths in May and November1923. The trancontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and they went in 1871 to San Francisco, where Kate lived with the Barrett immigrants on Polk Street, while Mary entered the teaching order of Presentation Nuns 1871 under the name Sister Mary Joseph. She was many years in San Francisco, at Sonoma 1890, where she sent newspaper articles and postcards and a photo in which she was standing in front of the convent with mountains in the background - then for many years she was Mother Superior of the Presentation Girls High School in Berkeley California, where Robert J. Mehegan juinior visited her in 1911. She selected Jack Barett's middle name Berchmans, honoring a Belgian child canonized as a saint 1887. When her sister Kate died May 1923, she wrote Jack Barrett explaining a complex will under which Kate Barrett in 1915 received half of the estate of her immmigrant aunt Johanna Hession, for whom she made a home many years - thye remained stayed in the Hession -Fahrbach family. Then Jack Barrett received a legacy from his aunt Kate Barrett in 1926, after a life estate to her cousin Kate Kerrigan, who came from Ballymartle Cork to San Francsico in 1897. This led to tracing several Kerrigan relations because Kate Kerrigan's sister Johanna Kerrigan had married John Ring from the Ballymartle-Ballinhassig area, and his nieces Mrs. Joan Finn and Peg Ring and their cousin Ella Collins of Moskeigh took an interest and were extremely helpful in 1971. They kept in touch with a Ring descendant Eva Kimbrough of Berkeley, whose daughter had attended the Presentation School there. Nano Nagle was the founder of the Presentation Order in Cork. Interest in this history was whetted because Robert Barrett's landlord 1855-1859 on Goddard Street-West Eighth Street was named Michael A. Ring, and he played an active role in charity and church affairs in the South Boston Irish community. He started out in junk and gunny cloth according to directories, and he had a number of children, including Thomas Ring, who became a trustee of Saint vincent de Paul, which look out for the needs of the poor, especially children. A will of Michael A.Ring some years later lists twenty-four grandchildren. He lived near Vinton Street, across south of Old Colony Boulevard, also in the 1855 Washington Village annexation.In the 1970s John Barrett junior had an extended telephone conversation regarding this history with retired United States House of Representatives Speaker John W. McCormack, who lived on Vinton Street as a child and was most interested in the local history.Directories indicated that one of the Goddard Street neighbors was a Mrs. Welch,who was a sister of the baker Michael A. Thompson who adopted John Robert Barrett 1862. Her photo and that of another sister Mrs. McGlinchy appeared in the oldest Barrett family photo album. John Robert Barrett was listed as a resident at 640 East Seventh Street the Thompson home in the 1870 United States census. For a year or so at some point John Robert went somewhere in the Middle West to live and work with his older brother Michael, but he returned to Boston and was apprenticed to the master plumber William S. Locke in the 1870s, and he later worked for Locke prior to establishing his own plumbing shop first on Atlantic Avenue and Federal Street near South Station and after 1908 to 1922 aT 112 HARRISON AVENUE near present day Tufts Dental and Medical School and Chinatown. JohnRobert Barrett's Boston poll tax payment records from 1875, l876, and 1877 were found in the South Boston home after the death of his daughter Mollie october 11, 1967. John Robert Barrett married Catherine Agnes Buckley April 19, l884 at Gate of Heaven Church - ceremony performed by Reverend Lee. They lived for a time a Thomas Park on dorchester Heights and also at P St City Point. Their son John Berchmans Barrett was born August 28, 1888 at 654 East Sixth Street, but his mother died of unknown causes June 8, 1889, when he was less than ten months old. John Robert Barrett went to live with the Buckley in-laws, who had moved to Park Street. Melrose in 1884. Aunts Minnie and Maggie Buckley and grandparents looked after young Jack while his father commuited by train to the plumbing shoip on Boston. Many of John Robert Barrett friends can be identified from old family photo albums. There were at least fine photos of his wife Catherine Buckley, and onew of her mother and one dated 1872 or her brother John - a separate locket of her youngest sister Minnie - a tintype of John robert Barrett's older brother Michael, and shots of his sisters Mary and Kate in San Frnacisco- photos of plumber William S. Locke and his brother Ned - photos of Mrs. Welsh and Mrs. McGlinchy - two Buckley cousins in Milford an older man an younger woman- of Civil War Veteran George Varnum in uniform -Jack Barrett recollected that he was in parades in 1890s- or Con Crowley, whom Jack believed a plumbing inspector and a friend Wally Sweeney.Also cousin [Robert Joseph] "Mehegan" and next to him "Kate" his sister Mrs. Craig who later lived near Blossom Street and Massachusetts General Hospital.bert Joseph] "Mehegan" and next to him "Kate" his sister Mrs. Craig who later lived near Blossom Street and Massachusetts General Hospital. After working many yeazrs for master plumber William S. Locke, John Robert Barrett started his own shop near South station October 1890 and continued until 1926. He was an authority on underground pipes in Boston, and even after his retirement he was often consulted when an emergency leak occurred affecting subways.He lived to age eighty-seven years and nearly nine months, and sometimes regretted retiring, saying "I didn't know I would live so long." We have his first account book covering the years 1890-1894, and a number of sections in his handwriting are bring posted on website http://ccilink.com/barrett.One shows Christmas presents Dec 1892 to his landlady and mothger in law Mrs. Buckley opf Melrose and his son John and nieces and nephews including Frances, Gertude and Catherine (Agnes) Buckley. Another tells of purchase of large photo of his son John Berchmans Barrett and frame March 1892 =Jack was three and a half years - photo was taken to West Roxbury 1968 and stolen 1993. Another page describes purchase of oranges, grapes, frequent railroad commuter tickets and the milk and board patyments to Mrs. Buckley, who gave free baord to your John the final week, before his father ramarried November 1894 and removed to South Boston. Mary Lane, who became Mrs. Barrett 1894 to l938 lived onGrove Street Melrose, one of eight children. Several of her brothers were plasterers who were working at 640 East Seventh Streeet South Boston when Sophie Barrett first visited there April 1932 returning with Jack from China.The history of the Lane family is recounted elsewhere in memoir, but their mother was a Lynch from Kenmare-Glengarriff area Kerry with Palmer and Sullivan-Christian ancestors.In the 1890s John Robert Barrett became trustee of baker Michael Thompson's house at 640 East Seventh Street, and on his marriage he moved next door at 634 East Seventh Street, where he rented until May 1902. A lost photo showed him holding his three youngest children Bill, Mollie and Kate, with Jack standing next to him aged twelve wearing a cap formally dressed in back yard at #634 East. Seventh.John Robert BaRRETT then bought the house at 640 East Seventh St. where he had grown up from the Thompson estate and lived there until August 21, l942, and his daughter Mollie lived there until she passed away October 11, l967 from bowel cancer. Her nephew William Joel Barrett in 1970 sold the property to Alphonsus and Catherine Roche downstairs tenants since 1942 natives of Ferryville, Newfoundland. John Robert Barrett employed a number of helpers at various times in his plumbing shop,but in later yearssd labor laws made this more difficult, and he reduced his operations. He was at 112 Harrison Avenue 1908-1922 and on Hudson and Tyler Streets in 1920s near present Tufts Medical-Dental Schools.One story tells when he ran into some tourists who were admiring and handling brightly colored autumn foliage, which he wanred them was poison ivy.He advised Jack to ride in the middle cars of subway trains, as the firsxt and last car were more vulnerable to accidents.In the 1920s Jack and Bill were concerned when their father develop a sizable grow near one eyebrow, and after some urging they persuaded him to see Dr. Boland of City Point, So8th Boston, who successfully removed it.John Robert Barrett and his son Jack both wore eyeglasses prescribed by Dr. Peter Hunter Thompson ophthalmologist on Commonwealth Avenue Back Bay.In the 1930s he took care of his wife, who was disabled for several years with diabetes, for which insulin treatment was not yet avilable - much worse prospect than today.Up to 1938 when he was 83 years of age John Robert Barrett frequently traveled to visit his sons Jack and Bill and their families. He was photographed with Sophie and John May 1936 Norfolkl Virgina when John was six weeks old, and with Jack and John and Sophie in Bala Cynwyd near Philadelphia 1937 and l938. He visited Bill Barrett l935 and other times at Ten Mitchell Place New York, and was photographed 1939 at Darien Connecticut with Bill and Virginia and newborn William Joel his grandson.He kept in good physical condition, as then-Lieutenant Warren McClain commented when he visited Jack's destroyer CLAXTON at Norfolk Virginia 1936.In August 1939 Sophie and John spent three weeks at the Barrett home 640 East Seventh Street, South Boston in extremely hot weather.John banged his head on the corner of old set-tubs in the kitchen, so grandfather Barrett cut off the corner, and it remained that way until Mollie replaced them 1938 with modern kitchen sink.The Barretts saw the old set tubs when they stayed with Mollie August 12 to Thanksgiving 1947.The Barretts visited grandpa June 1941 before leaving for Pearl Harbor and continued to send photos and letters to grandpa until he died fairly suddenly of circulatory causes August 21, l942. Bill, Virginia, and Billy arrived for one of their frequent weekend visits and learned from Mollie that Bill's father had passed away.Bill stayed to make funeral arrangements while Virginia and Billy aged not-quite-three went home to Darien.In the 1930s granpa and Mollie had a wired-haired fox terrier Skippy.There were old barns and garages in the small lot behind the house, where once horses were kept.There was a peach tree, and asparagus, tomatoes, and hollyhocks and lilacs were grown. Next door at 642 East Seventh Street a house was moved in 1912 from L and East Fifth Streets, moved to make room for the Lincoln School construction. The Kinnaly family lived there - Mr. Kinnaly had a plumbing business but not connected to the Barrett shop. His children Edward (merchant marine) Dan (post office) and Katherine were good friends of the Barretts though a few years younger.One of their Kinnaly cousins was an asssistant in Washington first to Congressman Gallivan 1920s and them many years to John W. McCormack. At 632 East Seventh Street Father Harkins grew up, who had a long missionary career in Buenos Aires,and his sister was in the conventy of the Good Shepherd, Springfield Massachusetts |
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lava rock visible on small porches of French window-doors.This appeared with l984 Genealogy article requested by Jason Korell of West Roxbury Transcript - probably taken Sep l941 - - -Anita Douredoure, native of Philadelphia contributed remarkable reminiscences after dating Jack's widower brother Bill Barrett l933-l937. A fortune teller told her Bill would be married three times. It proved to be true. Anita corresponded with Sophie and John until l988 with many amusing stories.She was a Philadelphia native - attended Army-Navy game l937 with Bill. see Douredoure letter in memoirs. Chapter W-I-L-L-I-A-M J-O-S-E-P-H B-A-R-R-E-T-T, M-O-L-L-I-E, and their LANE Relatives Sequence- Anita Douredoure letter, Sophie Barrett text, Mary Lynch genealogy letter,possible future additions of Mollie Barrett, William Joel Barrett and family, and the younger Lanes Many photos on website ANITA D-O-U-R-E-D-O-U-R-E letter I wrote to her for her recollections of Bill.On the eighteenth of March l970 she wrote "Dear Sophie,I will try to give you my memories of Bill from around l932 to l938. Around Easter I was with some friends, & a Mrs. Pfeffer a friend of one of my friends remembered that she was in somewhat of a quandry.She had just returned from a cruise with her husband.On the cruise he had met an attractive widower named Bill Barrett. He was coming to visit them at their home in Penn Valley for the weekend. They had invited a girl named Frances Diamond,but she couldn't keep the engagement. Bill had said he would like someone not too young & a Catholic- two specifications. Frances Diamond fitted,& since she wasn't available what was she - Bobbie Pfeffer- going to do to amuse Bill over the weekend? I said, 'What about me? I fit the bill.' To my surprise she accepted with alacrity.Perhaps you remember Penn Valley- it is a very beautiful suburb, & the Pfeffers' house was in a wooded spot on Moreno Road. It was a lovely house with an outside swimming pool -p.419-Mr. Pfeffer was connected with the American Standard Sanitation Company or some such corporation. They had one son & were a very pleasant couple.I arranged to stay with one of my friends who lived near them.They invited me to dinner & to spend the evening.There were either four or six of us, & we had a very good time.When it came time to leave, Bill took my arm & said, 'Here we go on our honeymoon.' He came to my friends' the next morning to take me to church. That started our romance that lasted until l937 or l938.It was strange that things happened exactly as a fortune teller told me they would. My aunt & I had lunch at the Warwick, where the hand reader entertained.She told me that around Easter she saw me in evening dress at a small party where I would meet a man who would show plainly that he was very much attracted to me. She said that we would never marry each other but that we would go many places together.It was a real blueprint of what actually happened.Later on at a private party she read Bill's hand & told him he would marry three times.I think I told him I would catch him on the third round.From Easter on I saw Bill about every weekend.He would stay in Germantown at my aunt's or at my brother's home in Cynwyd near where you used to live.Shortly after I met Bill, my brother took me on a 'trip to nowhere' -one of those short cruises during Prohibition.It was on the old MAJESTIC, & the destination was Bermuda, which we never reached because the ship couldn't land because of rough seas.I met two other widowers on the boat & had a grand time.Bill sent me a huge basket of flowers or fruit- & I had to put it on the sink in my cabin.Then Bill invited me to New York & got me a room in the Pan Hellenic Women's Hotel next to his apartment at 10 Mitchell Place.His program of entertainment nearly exhausted me.He bought theater tickets for matinees on Wednesday & Thursday & took me to another show at night.I remember we had box seats, & I dozed & nearly fell out of the box. I loved New York, & we always got along better there than in Philadelphia.. I spent a lot of long weekends in New York.Bill took me to a lot of places. I remember the Rainbow Room very well.His cousin Myles Lane had a girlfriend- one time Bill gave a party for them. Bill & I & my brother Bernard & his wife Edna went on several cruises at Christmas & Easter. One was to Cuba & Jamaica on the EMPRESS OF BRITAIN, another to Nassau on the EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA & another to Bermuda. We had a congenial foursome & lots of good times.Now to answer your questions: I met Fred Erb of Detroit. Bill & I saw him off on a trip of eighteen days. He seemed to be not well, & I saw him only for a few minutes. When Bill & I arrived back at 10 Mitchell Place, the phone rang, & Bill was informed that Erb had died a couple of hours after sailing.His poor wife had to continue the trip with his body until they reached the first port of call. I do remember the (EAGLE l9) boat ride with you in Boston- don't recall fishing or catching anything.But I love the water & enjoyed the boating..I remember visiting the Barrett home in South Boston- then their wire haired terrier, who scared me.I stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston. I think it was at Christmas time.Bill took me to Longwood Gardens in Delaware- my brother lent us his car & we met Pierre Dupont, a very shy man who showed us through the greenhouse.In a train we met Lamont (Lamotte?) Dupont. I believe Bill used to ghostwrite some of his speeches.Also I went with Bill to a cocktail party, a kind of business party -where I met Juan Trippe, Pan American airlines founder & president.Also at that party I met Alfred Sloane (General Motors) & Igor Sikorsky (helicopter pioneer). I heard Bill talk about working on the National Recovery Administration (NRA) with General Drum, & his meetings with Edward Stettinius afterward Secretary of State.The only thing I remember about Jack was Bill's saying his mother was thrilled when Jack gave her fifty dollars for Christmas.I remember I thought Bill resembled his mother (he did- Sophie M. Barrett note). Bill, Mr. Barrett senior & I took a trip to Cape Cod. We stayed at an old hotel iin Osterville- & Bill & I played not even facsimile golf.The caddy laughed, & Bill was furious & sent him back to the caddy house.I liked Bill's father - he looked like a very nice clean baby- his bald head shone, & he kept his derby hat on most of the time so that the flies wouldn't worry him.One time the three of us went to the Brass Rail in New York City when Pa Barrett was visiting 10 Mitchell Place- & they had some music records- the Brass Rail is a delicatessen type restaurant. Mr. Barrett & I danced- did an old-fashioned hop dance which almost floored me. He was very agile- really remarkable for his age. Another time we went to Atlantic City & we all had Brighton punches - a really potent brew.Mr. Barrett was in better shape than either Bill or I. I remember the political talks Bill had with my brother about Roosevelt.We were charmed by Roosevelt,& Bill told us New York state was glad to set rid of him when he ran for President.I was in the Metropolitan Life Building only once to see where Bill worked.He was a very hard worker & deserved to be successful.When I met him he was head of the Policy Holders Service Bureau & his big complaint was that he was not allowed to eat in the officers' dining room.The only friends of Bill's I remember well were Lloyd & Charlotte Miller, who lived in Old Greenwich.We spent New Year's Eve at their house one time & saw them at other times.Bill had another friend named Benziger who married an airline stewardess named Signe- she was Swedish.We went on a trip to some quaint old inn.Both Bill & I had colds. He worried more about his 99 degree fever than my hundred-degree fever, & that cooled the romance somewhat.Bill & I used to borrow my brother's car & play golf at Valley Forge or go to Ocean City.He told me his father would pay for his education only if he didn't waste his time at athletics.He was a bright man, & I enjoyed listening to his opinions.Just before the (l933) bank holiday he told me & my aunt to draw out any money we had in the bank as the banks were going to close.He advised me how to invest the little money I had, & over the years I have rejoiced because his advice was profitable,& I have been able to live comfortably without having to work.We fell out of love about l937- he came over (to Philadelphia), but the spell was broken.When his mother died (January l938) I sent a check & a sympathy letter. Your husband called me to ask where Bill was to tell him of his mother's death.I didn't know where he was,as by then I wasn't seeing him.He called me to thank me for my sympathy, but we did not renew our romance.In l936 we talked of getting married, but he went on a trip with some men from General Motors, I was piqued & took off for Mexico without telling him.When he called my apartment, he talked to a friend who borrowed the apartment, & she told him where I was.That must have been when he took the trip to Norfolk to see you when your son was four months old.I burned all letters & keepsakes when we no longer saw each other.Poor Bill was unfortunate too lose two wives by death.I'm glad he had a son- he must have been very happy when he was born. He was a fine man & deserved to be happy- Anita Douredoure" SOPHIE BARRETT text W-I-L-L-I-A-M J-O-S-E-P-H B-A-R-R-E-T-T Red Headed Stepchild - The Memoir of the century" William Joseph.Barrett, Jack's brother: Jack's half brother William Joseph Barrett was born at 634 East Seventh Street on October 24, l895, the oldest child of Mary Lane, second wife of John Robert Barrett. He attended the Frederick Lincoln School on Broadway between I and K Streets, the future site of the South Boston branch public llibrary.When he was about nine years old, Jack tells the story that when some older boys started to pick on Bill, his younger sister Mollie went to the fight and beat them up. She was seven years old. Both Mollie and Bill attained good height as adults, a characteristic apparently inherited from their Lane relatives. The Lane family originated in Kenmare and Glengariff in the south part of county Kerry Ireland. Mollie's second cousin Dr. Mary Elizabeth Lynch, many years in Hyde Park, Massachusetts furnished the information that going back in the maternal ancestors, Bill-and-Mollie's mother's mother was named Lynch - one of a family of eleven, and her mother was named Palmer, and her grandmother's name was Sullivan-Christian.Bill-and-Mollie's uncle Tate was supposedly very large and strong, and many other members of the family were tall. John Robert Barrett was comparatively short though healthy and long-lived.Bill Barrett was a member of the Boston Latin class of l9l2.Of his many good friends in that class, John Vaccaro of Third Street, South Boston was particularly close in later years, and we think he was best man at Bill's first wedding in l923. John Vaccaro attended Harvard College l9l6 and was a classmate of poet Archibald MacLeish at Harvard Law School in l9l9.After law school, John Vaccaro had to earn money as a barber before going into law practice. He was with the firm of Lyne, Woodward, and Evarts for some years before opening his own law office at 11 Beacon Street with Anthony Iovino, Boston Latin School l922. Land conveyancing was a specialty of his.His wife came from Dorchester, and they lived in the Waban section of Newton in later years.Other classmates of Bills at Boston Latin School included Archibald Dresser- later an appraiser and bank official and William L. Langer, modern history professor at Harvard.Langer was widely known at the editor of the fifteen=volume Langer series of splendidly illustrated texts on modern history.Myron Gilmore on the sixteenth century and Crane Brinton on the eighteenth were among the contributors.In the l980's we got to know another of Bill's classmates, Walter Gillis, who lived at 324 Bellevue Street, West Roxbury near the top of Bellevue Hill, with one of his sons next door. He had been Superintendant of Boston Public Schools and taught business administration at Boston College. He wrote storybooks for one of his granddaughters to keep in touch with her when he father was in military service during the Vietnam war. In l985 we had extensive conversations with Mr. Gillis when preparing a program for the West Roxbury Historical Society in observance of the 350th anniversary of Boston Latin School. Bill Barrett was only sixteen years old when he was graduated from Boston Latin School, and he had to receive special permission from the governor of Massachusetts to enter Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September l9l2.A large number of Bill's notes from Boston Latin and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have survived in the attic at 640 East Seventh Street.He took the mechanical engineering course at MIT.Left-handedness was sometimes a handicap in the mechanical drawing, but he was a good student, and he had many warm friends among the faculty and students. At one period of his freshman year apparently he was angry about the management of the MIT coop bookstore, and he wrote Jack a letter to the effect that he was arranging a boycott.The letter also mentions that Jack had investigated employment with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, although he stayed at the Naval Hydrographic Office.Bill spent the summers of l9l3, l9l4 and l9l5 at an MIT summer camp in New Brunswick, Canada, near Campobello just over the line from Eastport, Maine, near the St. Croix River.Bill obtained an Army commission in artillery during World War I though he was barely twenty-one years old, and again special permission was needed to waive age requirements.He apparently was in the Reserves after the war in l9l9 and l920 and saw Jack at Norfolk, Virginia February 23, l9l9 - a photo was taken in front of Jack's cottage.Jack was then nearly at the end of his duty as senior instructor in seamanship and regulations at the Officer Material School.Bill took pictures during l919 at serveral Victory parades in Washington.During the summer of l9l9 and l920 he apparently had artillery duty at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and in August l920 Bill and Jack and their sister Mollie got together for some time on vacation around Sandy Hook at the north end of New Jersey coast overlooking New York Harbor.Captain and Mrs. Marvin S. Richardson, Jack's Norfolk friends from the ships MONTGOMERY and WESTERNER were along in the party.In the early l920's Bill learned a lot about the steel industry, taking part in the negotiations on the sale of several plants.He was well acquainted for many years with the future Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, junior,- of US Steel- and other prominent steel executives.Bill became an expert on safety and accident prevention and toured extensively in the midwest and south in l920 on business, sending home cards from Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Eastport, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey.About l922 Bill attended the Wharton School of Finance in Philadelphia. In l922 when merchant marine opportunities were scarce, Bill devoted considerable effort to finding Jack desirable civilian employment. Correspondence indicates Jack was interested in a position as editor of an engineering journal in Philadelphia in l922. Bill made some inquiries, but nothing came of it. Bill saved Jack twelve hundred dollars in June, l922 by going around to collect that amount of money owed to Jack by Fuller brokerage house of New York.That company had sold some stocks for Jack and was slow in handing over the money to him.Jack was at sea on the WYOMING and had written to request prompt payment,but the company delayed.Finally Bill had to go and collect the money personally about June 14, l922. The involuntary bankruptcy of the brokerage house appeared in the newspapers about June 28.Around 1923 Bill was engaged to marry Catherine Miley of Dorchester, Massachusetts and felt that he might improve his earning capacity by attending business school.In the l950's he lectured at the Wharton School of Business Administration as a faculty member.In 1923 Bill went to work for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and stayed with them for thirty-nine years, retiring at the beginning of l963.He made a very favorable impression in his work in the Policy Holders Service Bureau advising business companies how to improve employees' health and reduce accidents and insurance claims and employee turnover.During most of Bill's career the Met was the world's largest insurance company and the world's largest financial corporation.It financed considerable publicity and research in prevention of tuberculosis, detection of cancer and the like, and it pioneered the development of private group health insurance plans for employees. The Ecker family and Leroy Lincoln were the top executives. Bill was acquainted through his work with a great number of prominent executives, including former associates in the steel industry and top executives of many companies that used the Metropolitan employees' group plans. Bill was a friend of Walter Teagle of Standard Oil. I was interested in the work of Met actuary and public health statistician Dr. Louis Dublin, one of the first American investigators of statistical approaches to tuberculosis, venereal disease and other widespread illnesses.Dr. Dublin had much professional contact with Amy Hewes and other Mount Holyoke faculty, and he advised the Commonwealth Fund and initiated their effort -on which I worked l926-l929- to develop statistical reporting techniques for child guidance clinics. Bill married Catherine Miley of Dorchester in l923. They lived in an apartment in Bronxville, New York,and Catherine taught kindergarten for a few years.She and her sisters Fanny and Mary Miley were interested in the New England Wild Flower Preservation Society. Catherine and Bill honeymooned in the Bahama Islands, where some good photographs were taken. After a few years of marriage, it was learned that Catherine had some type of abdominal cancer.A year and a half of intensive treatment in Boston prolonged her life until February l93l during which time Bill spent thousands of dollars trying the latest methods of treatment. He even flew to the West Coast to inquire aboutr a new method of treatment.The Miley family remained very close to Bill after her death and always spoke very kindly of Bill's efforts during the ordeal.Catherine's mother also died of cancer in August, l930.Mollie Barrett and her sister Katie often made beef broth to take to the hospital for Bill's wife.Dr. William Manary, who later became superintendant of Boston City Hospital, was Bill's personal friend and did what he could for Catherine.Bill's sister Katie was also sick at this time, having entered a convent in l928 and having left in poor health with influenza and exhaustion. She died in January l93l, one month before Bill's first wife.When Catherine Miley died, Bill, exhausted, as he had commuted to Boston every weekend, was also badly upset by his sister Kate's death. and his financial assets were reduced, and he was concerned about his mother's poor health with diabetes and a nervous condition since l925.The news of the two deaths of Jack's sister Kate and his siter-in-law were was broken to Jack and me in Tientsin at Bill's request by John Herlihy, an East Seventh Street South Boston neighbor who was a Naval Officer and Annapolis graduate class of l923. (John Herlihy died in the Philippines in l935.)Some months later in l93l Mollie wrote to Jack details about Kate's death.Bill broke up his Bronxville home, giving most of the furniture to Pa, Ma and Mollie at the family home at 640 East Seventh Street.He moved to an apartment at 10 Mitchell Place on the East Side of New York. In November l93l he had a private twenty minute interview with President Hoover,who was trying very hard to improve the unemployment situation.About the time Jack and I returned from Europe in March l932 he was dating Miss Anita Douredoure of Philadelphia. He gave us the l926 Buick which he and Catherine had used.In l933 Bill was an adviser to President Roosevelt in the National Recovery Administration. (415-l6) On Jahn Vaccaro, Catherine Casey and the Miley sisters: One of John Vaccaro's friends was Catherine Casey of K Street, South Boston. They had studied together in school days. John had one brother "Rutzie" (Orazio) and two sisters, one of whom- Rose-married Hugo Trio and came to call on us in Panama when Jack had duty there on the HANNIBAL in l935. Once when John Vaccaro was taking Catherine Casey to an dance (either at Harvard or at an Itlaian club) Her mother Mrs. Casey got a partner for Bill Barrett, who was at MIT and going to the dance.She got Catherine Casey's cousin Fanny Miley of Dorchester to go to the dance with Bill. Eventually Bill Barrett met and married Manny Miley's sister Catherine, who was a kindergarten teacher in Boston.Shortly after Jack and I moved to 422 Columbia Road, Dorchester in April, l932,we invited John Vaccaro and his fiancee Mary Burke of Dorchester for dinner. I did not see him again until we came to West Roxbury in l947, although Jack and John had dinner with him in downtown Boston soon after our return from Hawaii. He showed John the memorials Benjamin Franklin put up for his father and mother in an old graveyard near 73 Tremont Street.He recommended Jack talked to Father Kenealy, the dean of Boston College Law School about study under the GI Bill, which Jack successfully completed in l95l. In autumn 1947 John Vaccaro searched the title of our new Emmonsdale Road home in West Roxbury, and classmate Archie Dresser made the appraisal - $11,500. John Vaccaro had three daughters, Rose, Mary, and Claire. Claire married John Leitao of Lisbon Portugal and had one child.Catherine Casey eventually entered the teaching order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.In July l970 we learned by telephone from Fanny Miley in Milton that her cousin Catherine Casey was now Mother Catalina at Mount Saint Joseph Academy on 615 Cambridge Street, Brighton in charge of many teaching nuns, about to retire. Claire Vaccaro was a nurse.John Vaccaro attended Bill Barrett's funeral in January l967 in Darien and Mollie's in South Boston,October l967 after she died of colon cancer.John Vaccaro survived prostate removal but passed away February l969..-NOTEBOOK IV-[p91] August 23, 1922 Hotel William-Wallion? Philadelphia [to] Miss Catherine Miley, Dorchester Dearest Catherine, My address will be 508 S. 44th Street instead of Ardmore. I liked Ardmore very much indeed, but it has now served its purpose, and I am moving back where things are more convenient. As for business matters, I have decided not to enter the brass foundry business. First, because to operate as we could, there wouldn't be enough money in it for the effort expended. Second, To secure equipment to operate in production - production machines would require thre times as much capital as we have. Third A study of the costs at the foundry I was to take over, and talks with people intimately associated with the business convinced me that to enter the business would give one the privilege of working for oneself as a moulder and earning a moulder's pay only. I talked with the President of the Ajax Smelting Company, the President of the Metal Manufacturers Association, and the head of a moulding machine manufacturing company, and they showed me by logical argument that under the conditions of competition found in Philadelphia - cutthroat in the brass game- I would save time, money, and worry by staying away. I could go on and show cost data to demonstrate the inadequacy of the charges possible with the competition,but the above is sufficient. But why did it look so favorable and everyone seem so enthusiastic- even people who were in a position to know - until these three men I struck at about the same time and who knew the game from A to Z? Evidently they [the others]did not know that due to the relatively small amount of capital required to enter the business, there are a large number of small shops, -seldom heard of- throughout the city and they are all out for business and will take it at almost any price. The head of Ajax said he did not know of any brass founder who had become rich from the business.While I was willing to dig in, I could not see moulding for the rest of my days. Everything considered, I concluded that it was best to stay out, even at the expense of ridicule, slams, and the like. But it hurt me and still does, for your sake, to give it up. However, I know now that it's the best thing. Now, as to the future. I shall occupy my time with Crane Packing, who have been good enough to say, 'Come on'. But I have put out lines in other directions and shall hold out until they materialize. Under the circumstances you may do as you think best in this matter of the future. I had hoped this would settle me on my way and expected it would work out so we could be on our way together. I know now that it would not. While this was indeed discouraging,I'm not down yet and don't intend to be.As soon as this disturbance is over with and I get settled, I'll let you know how things stand for the future if you care still.- Most affectionately yours, Bill." {Not long before this Bill had helped Jack withdraw stock proceeds from Fuller stock investment company in May or June 1922. Jack was at sea on the MARBLEHEAD, and the brokerage was slow in paying out for a stock he sold. Bill went around and collected the check, so Jack avoided losing his money in the bankruptcy.] 1922 Business Card of William J. barrett Sales Engineer 15 Park Row New York City. Crane Packing Company 1800 Cuyler Avenue Chiacgo. Foundries at Chicago, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Manufacturers of John Crane Metallic Packings.[p72] "Washington, November 11, 1931 [from] William J. Barrett The President's Commission on Unemployment Relief 1734 New York Avenue, Washington D.C. [to] Lieutenant John B. Barrett c/o Postmaster Seattle, Washington USS TULSA Asiatic Station Dear Jack,- I'm anxious to do anything possible to assure your making the grade on your promotion. I know that under ordinary circumstances there would be no difficulty, but this economy move struck me as a possible interference. I'm here in Washington for reasons I'll soon tell you, and I think I'm in a position to get things done. Senator Walsh of Massachusetts is on the Naval committee of the Senate. Tell me immediately when the time is right, and I'll see that there is everything done possible. Since the first of March I've been loaned by the Metropolitan to President Hoover's committee on unemployment. At first I was working under Colonel Woods, -now under Mr. Gifford, President of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. My job is to bring out any ideas which will make for greater stability of employment and for better future planning against such depressions as the present. I've had interviews with everybody worthwhile so it seems in the country - I had a fine talk with President Hoover - about twenty minutes in his office - then referred to his confidential advisor for a further thirty minute talk. I appeared before the LaFollette Committee of the Senate as representative of the president's committee. It's been lots of fun, and I've enjoyed every minute, although there's plenty of work trying to hold down two jobs. From the foregoing I'd like to see what we could do down here to be sure you get that half-stripe. I'll do anything you suggest. I'll go to Senator Walsh right away after hearing from you and tell him what we'd like done, and I'm pretty sure we can get it. If necessary, cable me the time when - at my New York office. Everything at home has been fine. They enjoy, as I do, hearing from you, and I know it would add ten years to Pa's life if we could tell him that you had made the promotion - besides everybody else is expecting you to make it. I'm back in New York for this week, and I'll close now and expect to hear from you soon. Regards, Bill" [John Barrett note: Jack consistently told Bill that the Navy resented any political efforts at influence on promotions or assignments, and that they usually backfired. Nonetheless, he appreciated Bill's sincere friendly intentions, especially as regards the possible effect on their elderly father. The issue came up again in 1938,when Jack was ordered to serve as Executive Officer on the tanker TRINITY, traveling to PHilippines and East Indies. Bill argued that it would be traumatic for their then eighty-three year old recently widowed father to be separated from Jack, Sophie, and his two-year-old grandson. Nonetheless Jack wanted sea duty and urged Bill not to interfere.] [p 66]postmark November 23, 1933 The Shoreham, Washington, D.C. [to] Lieutenant Commander John B. Barrett USS HANNIBAL Navy Yard Norfolk, Virginia Dear Jack, I received the Army-Navy tickets, and they are very good. I got tickets for the Princeton game and went last Saturday. They were also excellent. Had a nice interlude after the game as Doug Brown a Princeton professor asked us to come to tea after the game at his home- just what you need after sitting out in the cold. Also, the nice box of candy arrived, for which I thank Sophie and you - here again I have no manners for not telling you long ago. I had planned to go to Boston after the Princeton game, but certain changes down here made it necessary to come back right away. I think I'll go up there this weekend after Thanksgiving. This work down here will probably end as far as I'm concerned about December 15. It's sure a merry whirl now, with lots and lots of activity. I want to get down to Norfolk soon and had hoped to before this. Last Saturday was the first I've had off for ages. Some Navy Lieutenant from your ship called me last night. I tried to take him to lunch, but he was apparently too pre-occupied. It's time to go to work. Regards to Sophie. Bill" [SOPHIE note: This letter seems to prove that Jack and Sophie went to Norfolk in the fall of 1933. We stayed at the Heart of Ghent Hotel in Norfolk- then lived in an apartment in Portsmouth, where Pa Barrett visited, also Mollie Barrett and Eileen Lane. At the Heart of Ghent we saw Bill Keester and Mrs. Keester of the Coast Guard, and visited them at their home in Norfolk soon after - then we moved to Portsmouth. On Christmas Day 1933 we were at 640 East Seventh Street, South Boston - stayed four days- and then were at Geetters' in New Britain New Years Eve 1933 and New Years Day 1934. We returned to Portsmouth the day after New Years Day. I remember stopping at the Shoreham in Washington to see Bill for lunch on our way down to Norfolk in the Buick in the fall. He had been loaned to the National Recovery Administration NRA by the Met and was offered a full time job in the Roosevelt administration but preferred to return to the Met.There was also a letter from Captain John Nelson at Boston Navy Yard to Jack on the HANNIBAL in Norfolk in the fall of 1933 and he sent regards to me. Captain Nelson was Jack's immediate superior at Boston Naval Shipyard 1932-1933.] [p34] New York City January 22, 1935 Dear Jack and Sophie, Sophie, if you'll let me know the exact silver you want, I'll get you quotations. My friend says that he can get the real inside at Gorham's, so all I'll have to supply is the patterns and quantities. I see by the papers that you all have arrived at your stations. I was home over the weekend, and the Times of Saturday announced the arrival of the HANNIBAL at Balboa. Everyone is fine at home. They are still talking of how much they enjoyed your visit- Pa is talking so much of Sophie that I think we have just cause to be jealous. Skippy was asking for you and semed to wonder why she didn't get more food from the seat against the wall at the kitchen table. I am enclosing [William] Perry's address [master of Lincoln school] but I know it's too late as Jack always rushes off and writes immediately about state troopers who rescue him in the rain - and why --- Perry's address is 49 Addington Avenue Brookline, Massachusetts, and he always was so fond of "Reddy". Shall I tell him to expect the letter? How is the Canal looking this year? Let's hear, but mostly, let's know how's everything. -Bill" [p53] to Lieutenant Commander J.B. Barrett USS CLAXTON c/o postmaster New York [from] Milwaukee August 11, 1936 Dear Jack, I've wired you from here today but wasn't quite sure where you'd be, so this letter. I'm on one of the U.S. Steel lake cargo boats - five hundred foot, carrying coal Detroit to Milwaukee this trip. I'm guest of Fred Erb of Detroit. It's been a beautiful trip and a wonderful vacation. Now - to get to the point. It is most important, if you can arrange it, in any way that Mr. Fred Erb get aboard the boat for the trip you are fixing for me. I'd like to have him along, and I know he'd love to go. He is the President of Eaton Erb Company of Detroit, an important subsidiary of the Eaton Manufacturing Company of Cleveland. He is a prominent citizen of Detroit and a great friend of mine.In fact, he is largely responsible for the success of the foundry survey - my first job with the Met, which I think had a lot to do with my getting known in the company. What I'd like to have is that he and I board the CLAXTON at New York Monday August 24, 1936 and go back to Norfolk and Annapolis with you. If at all possible, do this favor for me. If you get an answer before Friday, wire me c/o Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Group Division, General Motors Building, Detroit. I expect to be back there Thursday. I'm returning to New York Monday August 17. See you next week. Regards, Bill" [p 51]"July 1, 1942 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company William J. Barrett, manager Policy Service Bureau [to] Fourteenth Naval District Honolulu Hawaii, Dear Jack, I have been planning for so long to write you a letter that I am going to have to dictate it if I expect to get it to you soon. You will please excuse this. Today Mr. Frank Midkiff came in to see me at your suggestion, and I very much enjoyed my visit with him. He is an extremely well informed individual, and in fact he is well acquainted with a lot of my personal friends. We had all too short a visit. I had hoped that he could stay a little longer, but apparently having such a brief time in this country, he has practically every minute taken. It was interesting to hear that you have been asigned with Admiral Bagley. This must make it very pleasant for you. I was up home recently and found everything in good shape. Pa is holding up very well. In fact, I found him much better than I thought he would be in view of the apparent shocks which he suffered last year. He is naturally weak now and is very restive at the fact that he cannot do what he used to do, but under the circumstances I think he is in pretty good shape. We bought a house in Darien as I felt it was most advisable to hedge against what is to come and to know exactly where I was as far as the rental factor was concerned. This is not as large a piece of land as the other house, but has about an acre. It is a more practical house in many respects. I received your photographs and was very happy to see everyone looking so well. I learned tht your furniture is in Boston, and I understand that it is still on the pier, apparently there being no instructions as to what storage place to put it in. If there is anything I can do, let me know. Best regards to Sophie and John. As ever, Bill." [p.138] 1951 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company newspaper heading: William J. Barrett named Secretary picture of Bill in write-up.William J. Barrett, formerly Third Vice President was appointed Secretary of the Company on August 25th to fill the vacancy which occurred when James R. Herman passed away on July ninth. In announcing the appointment, the President said that Mr. Barrett will continue to head the Publications Division in his new capacity. He will also have responsibility for the operation and management of the Investigation Division, Filing and Tracing Division, Inquiry and Information Bureau, Mail Division, Supply Division, Transcription Division, Bronxville Hall of Records, and Kingston Hall of Records and will have Assistant Secretary Broadbent associated with him in the management of these units. In addition the Library, formerly under the supervision of the Health and Welfare Division will be transferred to the Secretary's office. Mr. Barrett joined the Company in 1923 as a member of the Policy Holders Service Bureau staff and rose to become Manager ten years later. In 1942 he was appointed an Officer of the Company with the title of Assistant Secretary. He became Assistant Vice President in 1944 and a Third Vice President in 1947." SOPHIE TEXT: Going back to January l938 Jack and Bill were both in Boston for the funeral of Bill's mother (Jack's stepmother, Mary Lane Barrett). In September l938 Bill flew on business to the West coast, and narrowly escaped injury in an airplane accident. He visited the Presentation Convent at San Francsico where some of the nuns had known his father's sister, Sister Mary Joseph and unsuccessfully made inquiry for Robert Fahrbach in San Francisco. Then he visited us in Coronado, swam, and told us he would soon marry Virginia Brady. The wedding took place at St. Patrick's cathedral in New York city, and Grandpa, Mollie, Katherine Kinnaly and John and Anna Lambert were there. Bill and Virginia honeymooned in France and sent us the Becassine children's books and several toys for Christmas.That year Bil and Virginia had Thanksgiving dinner at 640 East Seventh Street.They rented a lovely home in Darien Connecticut.Virginia had grown up in the Bronx and was about twenty-two years old.Billy Barrett (William Joel) was born August 26, l939. We saw him a few months later while Miss Blanche Caffey, John's former practical nurse, was working at Darien.Bill visited us once in Brooklyn, bringing John a toy steam shovel from Macy's.Billl also called us up in Brooklyn to give us the first news of Jack's promotion from Lieutenant Commander to Commander, as Bill had read about it in the New York Times.The promotion occurred in the spring of l940 retroactive to the summer of l939.We visited Darien after receiving orders to Hawaii in l94l. Bill and Virginia invited us to the Darien Country Club, where Jack took pictures of John and Billy.Bill wrote to us frequently during the war.He regretted Jack's absence because of his father's age and had attempted through a Congressman in l938 to prevent Jack's assignment to the TRINITY in the Pacific. He thought Jack's presence near Boston would be beneficial for his father.Mrs. Paul Rice met Bill for lunch at the Metropolitan Life offices in New York City after she left Hawaii in February l942. Frank Midkiff, a Hawaiian businessman who worked with Jack on evacuation matters l941-42, also visited Bill in New York.Billy had come to Boston to see his father the weekend of August 2l, l942, but found his father had suddenly died aged eighty=seven years, eight months.Virginia wrote immediately, as she went back to Darien with Billy while Bill made the funeral arrangements.Bill and Mollie wrote a couple of weeks later.Bill had been going forward steadily in the company and soon made Vice President.His work in the Policy Holders Service bureau and in liaison with large industrial customers warrented mention in a book about the Metropolitan sponsored by the Company, "HEALTH AND WEALTH."Bill eventually became Secretary of the Company, and his name appeared on policies from 1951 until he retired at end of 1962. During World War II he was loaned to the War Production Board headed by Donald Nelson. In the l950's he taught at the Wharton Business School in Philadelphia.He was a trustee of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, and of American Heritage Foundation. A neighbor in Darien was the writer Louise Hall Tharp, whose husband worked at the Metropolitan.Bill gave John a copy of her book "Company of Adventurers" about the Hudson Bay Company of Canada and the northwest. She wrote "The Peabody Sisters of Salem", an account of Nathaniel Bowditch and many other historical books.Virginia died of cancer in May, l945 while we were still in Hawaii. Her mother went to live in Darien, and "Gram" became very close to Billy Our first reunion with Bill and Billy was at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire in l947..John visited at Darien for several days around l952 and had a chance to get acquainted with Bill, Billy and "Gram". His aunt Mollie was there also, and she frequently spent weekends at Darien. After "Gram's" death in l953 Mollie went to0 Darien nearly every weekend, as Billy had long trips commuting to work.In l951 Billy attended summer Camp Idlewild on an island on Lake Winnipesaukee New Hampshire. He devoted time to sailing and collected stamps, attended Darien High School and in summers Culver Military camp in Indiana- then tried freshman year at his father's alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.One time on a visit he introduced us to cranberry juice, which was starting to become popular. Later his uncle Jack drank a lot of cranberry juice when his doctors discouraged the use of orange and lemon juice because of his prostate condition. Billy transferred to Depauw Universitry in Indiana, where he was graduated in l963. His wife Sara is an Indiana native, and her sister and brother-in-law lived at 640 East Seventh Street for a time after Mollie died.Billy worked in the Investment section of the Metropolitan Life Company until 1966 and settled in Rumson, New Jersey on the coast near Sandy Hook.He joined Gregory and then Saxton Company as a securities underwriter. Bill senior remarried in l958. His third wife was Mrs. Margaret Floyd, a widow with four children ranging in age from nineteen to age four. After a honeymoon in Spain, Bill and Margaret sold Bill's home at Wakeman Place to buy a larger house on Oxridge Lane, Darien.Bill Floyd the eldest was Billy's age. He attended the Portsmouth Priory, Rhode Island and Brown University, studied in England and later returned to be a teaching brother at the Priory.Mollie in l960 spent a week in Bay Saint Louis Mississippi on the Gulf coast visiting Mrs. DeSta, the mother of the Floyd children's father, who had been killed in an auto accident.Bill had a heart attack in l962 but was sufficiently recovered by September, l963 to accept the presidency of an arts and crafts marketing company on Forty-Second Street, New York, with a staff of forty-five or fifty.He was taken ill at work on January 20, l967 and died at at a Stamford, Connecticut, hospital the next day of an aneurysm. Mollie had fortunately had a particualarly fine extended Christmas visit with him a month earlier. Despite cold snow eather Jack drove to the funeral, attndd by Bill's classmate and close friend, Boston lawyer John Vaccaro, and the sisters of Bill's first wife - Fanny and Mary Miley of Milton.Margaret gave a luncheon, where Jack saw Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe, Bill's cousin Myles Lane,then a judge in New York, and H. Kennedy McCook, who had traveled with Jack and Bill on the EAGLE l9 to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor in l932. In their later years both Mollie and Bill traveled to Europe. There are photos of Mollie in Rome in 1963 with her neighbors the Pistorino sisters, and Bill visited Ireland in 1966, including a stop at Kenmare, where the Lane family once lived. From the Boston Latin School Register: William Joseph Barrett entered Out-of-Course Fourth Class in l908 from the Frederick Lincoln Grammar School. He won a classical prize in l908, a Fidelity Ring (for perfect attendance) in l909 and a prize for conduct above criticism - l9l2. {attach Lane-Lynch genealogy?] Tharp: Louise Hall Tharp Box 28 Darien Conn 06820 Feb l8,l974 My dear Mr. Barrett: Your letter of February 11 is most interesting. I saw little of Mr. William j. Barrett in Darien, but during the life of his second wife, VIRGINIIA, she and I were good friends. Their son "Billy" used to go to the beach with us, and my two boys regarded Billy as a sort of younger brother.I am happy to hear that he has sons of his own. I once met Virginia's father-in-law at her first home in Darien, which was near us. My husband suggested that you get in touch with Mrs. Grace Pugh 56 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10015, who used to work with him and knew him very well.Ask her for the address of Mrs. Spain, who was his secretary for many years. Good luck on your project. Sincerely your, Louise Hall Tharp. (Auhor of "Company of Adventurers" "Down to the Sea" (Nathaniel Bowditch) and "The Peabody Sisters of Salem." |
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Dean Father Kenealy, S.J. Professor Slizewski, Moynihan, O'Reilly, Sullivan, Grimes, librarian Steven Morrison #1208 p 70 John jr and Jack Barrett Winsall giant tomato plants West Roxbury 1948 H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R Year: 1948Winsalltomato Jack Barrett had limited success with tomatoes in Waikiki, growing small "pear" and "plum" tomatoes that had to be enclosed in bags for protection agiainst insects. At 52 Emmonsdale Road, West Roxbury from 1948 to 1965 he had excellent results especially with three-pound red Winsall tomatoes and as related "Crystal White" variety obtained from Burpee and Breck seeds, now probabl;y extinct. Conservation of plant species and varieties and agricultural-horticultural cultivars in a huge challenge. These home tomatoes were mush more tender and tasty that store varieties. H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R with Boston College Law School I am thinking of dividing RED HEADED STEPCHILD into Three VOLUMES. The first is fairly complete - Young Sophie Meraanski and her family, Hartford, Mount Holyoke College, social work marriage. The SECOND VOLUME follows JACK BARRETT AT SEA - Revenue Cutter School, briefly LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, RESERVE + REGULAR NAVY 1909 to 1947, most of the time away fom Boston except 1912 and 1932-3. This VOLUME is getting near completion, as this week I have got the very long CHINA- TULSA chapter 1931 in near final form - a very important chapter that had to be pieced together from many sources, which has a great deal of Sophie's personal reminiscence. Most of VOLUME TWO will soon be ready for proofreaders. The EAGLE 19 chapter 1932-3 and NEW YORK- BROOKLYN HYDROGRAPHIC 1939-41 chapter have been put together during August 2000. There remains VOLUME THREE - THE BARRETTS in BOSTON - The WILLIAM JOSEPH BARRETT chapter with important ANITA DOUREDOURE material has been on the website for some time, and in AUGUST the BOSTON PUBLIC LATIN SCHOOLS chapter has been re-edited with many additions, including materials on Dan Lyne, David Niles, John Carroll Poland of West Roxbury Historical Society, Dr. James . Moloney Captain USN and more. Sophie Barrett's chapter on {early) "BARRETT FAMILY HISTORY" may be split and expanded, as a great deal of material is available, and also materials on Cork Ireland and South Boston and the chapter "CHILDHOOD + SCHOOLS." A considerable portion of a chapter on Jack Barrett's father "JOHN ROBERT BARRETT" 1854-1942 is in existence, and there is material for Chapters on Jack's half-sister Mollie, various Buckley O Farrell Hartigan Lane Lynch Mehegan and Fahrbach relations, which will require comsiderable time and effort. Current Sophie's chapter H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R 1947-1969 is the next priority, partly because Jack Barrett's Boston College Law School 1951 classmates will be observing their fiftieth reunion in 2001. Jack's legal interests probably will deserve a separate chapter - he began law school nights 1927-9 at Fordham Bronx campus- completed LL.B 1951 at Boston College and wrote master's tax thesis at Northeastern Law 1963. His thesis on abolition of Sixty-Five Day Rule in federal income taxation of Trusts and Estates appears on lower portion of web. page ninety-one. Jack and Sophie took a great interest in the debating at Roxbury Latin School under Albert Kelsey and in the music of Giuseppe deLellis, and Sophie raised a great deal of money for Roxbury Latin School TRIPOD magazine - they lived three blocks from the school, and this part of their story can be put together. Many photos survive from their West Roxbury years,and these will be listed and described. They both were active in Wet Roxbury Historical Society - Sophie for more than a decade. Comments of interested persons might be very helpful, especially those with photos or other material, and proofreaders specializing in particular chapters could help enormously - John Barrett H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R web page 84-1334 Dean Father Kenealy, S.J. Professor Slizewski, Moynihan, O'Reilly, Sullivan, Grimes, librarian Steven Morrison H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R with Boston College Law School account -H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R from 58x exc 88A- #88A+ Hartigan,Pops,RLS- #88A+telephonedTEXT:l947 Home is the Sailor - South Boston - West Roxbury-(p. 144) There were many interesting curios at 640- some from Jack's trips.One was an alligator with a pencil inserted into the jaws, with an African native's head sticking out on the head of the pencil.Jack had an old Boston Traveler l907 World Atlas in the cold front room by the stairs, where he used to sleep, and where John slept August to November, l947. There was a fancy lampshade which Jack's deceased sister Katie had made, and some cushions she had embroadered.On the front stairway, a slightly phosphorescent glass knob hung down from the electric light so that Mollie could find it when she came home and up the stairs after dark. I wish we had photographs of the old set tubs and barn before Mollie modernized everything in l948. The things provided quite a link with Grandpa Barrett. The refill water closet of the toilet, which he had made years earlier, was up overhead to utilize gravity.There were coal stove in the parlor and kitchen. A portion of the house dated from before 1860, but additions were made several times.Grandpa had a victory garden in l9l8 and peach trees. An old asparagus plant and many hollyhocks grew in l948 and lilacs.Jack had to report at Boston Navy Yard to show he had completed his authorized travel to Boston. Before long we took a trip to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire to see Jack's brother Bill and his son Billy and "Gram" (Billy's mother's mother) and Billy's aunt Vivian Walsh, Virginia's sister.Jack made inquiry at Phillips Andover Academy thst day but learned their school had a four year course starting in the ninth grade, whereas John was entering the seventh grade. We began house hunting very soon after we arrived in Boston.At this time we expected John would enroll in Boston Latin, and his father had started him learning "Adeste fideles" and other Latin materials.However, Peggy Hurley, entertaining the four of us at dinner at her house, suggested we look into Roxbury Latin School, a private day school in West Roxbury, where her son-in-law Broderick had been a member of the l944 class. This ultimately influenced our choice of a house. Mr. William Cunningham, a school teacher who did part-time realty work for the Fowler agency of Jamaica Plain. showed us a number of houses- Allandale Road and Ardale Road- then on August 28, l947 - Jack's fifty-ninth birthday, he showed Jack and John a house at 52 Emmonsdale Road, West Roxbury, which we later bought.That day after showing the house, Mr. Cunningham bought a round of ice cream cones to celebrate Jack's birthday.The house was only two and a half blocks from Roxbury Latin School, and Mr. Cunningham with nine children lived only two blocks from us himself, so we were ready to believe him about the neighborhood, and he was friendly for many years afterward.He became principal of Roslindale High School, and one of his sons was President of Wang computer corporation.The house on Emmonsdale was owned by the Van Steenbergen family.Mr. Van Steenbergen taught at Boston Latin School, where John was actually enrolled for three days.He was in Mr. Jamieson's room there, along with our neighbor Eddie Brickley of Tennyson Street. John was somewhat upset when his father changed his plans and went rather unwillingly to an interview at Roxbury Latin The new head master Frederick R. Weed without applying pressure either way permitted John to take the entrance exam with some other late applicants including G. Robert Macdonald of Dedham. John scored very well and was admitted. Rather to John's surprise, Jack made the decision to send John to Roxbury Latin and buy the Emmonsdale Road house where no commuting would be necessary.The tuition at Roxbury Latin was only one hundred dollars per year at that time for residents in the area of the old town of Roxbury. The school had just celebrated its third centennial in l945 and received publicity in Life magazine as 'the oldest continuously operating Independent school in the Country" and the "biggest educational bargain in the country." At one time it was very heavily endowed, but its finances suffered severely in the l930's. A new school building was opened in l926 in West Roxbury, but a planned gymnasium was deferred until l955.Peggy Hurley, widow of Jack's South Boston friend Joe of the Boston Post, who had died in l94l, was very friendly when we arrived back from Hawaii.Besides having us to dinner, she invited us to her daughter's wedding in Duxbury spring l948 and introduced me to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Collins one block away from us on Emmonsdale Road.They visited us at our new home two days after we moved in on Thanksgiving l947. Jack also found his former French teacher at Boston Latin School William Pride Henderson living in West Roxbury -aged eighty-four in l947. Bill Barrett's Latin School l912 classmate John Vaccaro was one of the first people John Barrett met in Boston as he had John and his father to lunch at Lockober's Restaurant in August.He also searched the title to the new house, and another l9l2 Latin School classmate of Bill's Archie Dresser appraised the house at a value of eleven thousand dollars.We ultimately paid Mr. Van Steenbergen twelve thousand dollars plus the commission. Jack's l906 classmates Dan Lyne and Edward Illingworth wrote recommendations for John at Roxbury Latin. Illingworth an organist and vocal and piano teacher lived at 64 Hastings Street West Roxbury and was very well acquainted through the Highland Club of West Roxbury with Roxbury Latin French master Joseph Henry Sasserno.Our house is on the slope of Bellevue Hill, the highest ground within the city limits of Boston.Survey maps say the top of the hill is 328 feet, and the Boston state house is visible, and the South Boston waterfront. Our house is at about 210 feet elevation. Mr. Illingworth, who Jack knew from the fourth grade in South Boston onward through Boston Latin School, was nicknamed "the eternal question mark." He studied in Rome with the composer and virtuoso Ferruchio Busoni. His wife was a South Boston neighbor from L Street.He invited Jack to join the Highland Club, but Jack was not much of a joiner, and also passed up the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars as well. Mr. Illingworth one time drilled John on the dotted rhythms of Beethoven's "Minuet in G." Mr. Joseph Sasserno had a considerable conversation with Jack at the Roxbury Latin parking lot the first day of school.He was one year older than Jack and had attended Boston English High School and Harvard College- then taught seven years at Norwich Military Academy in Vermont l911-l9l8. He later was a close friend of his former pupil General Harmon,who became President of Norwich and asked Mr. Sasserno to write a history of Norwich, which was incomplete when he died in Genoa, Italy August 12, l962. Mr. Sasserno and his sister Mary and brother Henry lived in apartments near us at 30 Bellevue Street. Their family were from East Boston and Dorchester.Henry was later our investment broker at Kidder Peabody Company.Joe was active in the Italian Historical Society and West Roxbury Historical Society.Jack's conversation with Mr. Sasserno undoubtedly helped sell him on Roxbury Latin School, where John attended for six years. There was a high attrition rate among the students, but a very fine education was available, and all twelve members of the small faculty were of great ability and became our very good friends.John began piano lessons with Giuseppe deLellis, who took a very wonderful special interest in Jack senior in his last two years, l967-l969.He and his family have been wonderful friends throughout more than twenty-two years.For the first two months Jack drove John from South Boston to school. John was unfamiliar with the Boston streetcars, and the trip was slow and roundabout, with several changes of cars and trolleys.Sometimes Gil Hoag would ride to Dorchester with us to his home in Savin Hill, and Ronald Havelock would ride to the Elevated to connect to Cambridge.We later often regretted that Mollie was not closer to us. Mollie at this time worked in a Metropolitan Life Insurance local office on West Broadway near F Street just beyond Dorchester Street, ten or fiteen minutes walk from her home. She received weekly cash collections at the cashier window and so knew a great many people in the neighborhood.At this time she frequently saw the Barretts' former next door neighbors Katherine Kinnaly and Mr. and Mrs. Daniel and Emily Kinnaly who lived on Clement Street in West Roxbury. Danny worked in the Post Office and was very cordial when he heard we were copming to West Roxbury.Our new house was painted by Meissner Brothers of South Boston, and a new heater and shower and cellar bathroom were installed by Rull Company. Jack's second cousins, Gertrude and Mary Hartigan were still at 80 Brown Avenue, Roslindale, near Cummins Highway and Sacred Heart Church,where their mother moved from South Boston in l9l7.May gave Jack a cordial greeting on his return and frequently brought us poinsettias, azaleas and other plants as presents. Her brother, Father Edward Hartigan, was in North Braintree as pastor until l953- then he became pastor of Immaculate Conception parish, Everett, retiring in l970.For a while May Hartigan kept her car in our two-car garage, as she lived only two miles away and parking was scarce.Until her retirement in l956 at age seventy, she taught mathematics at the Washington Irving intermediate school in Roslindale. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Buckley dropped in soon after we moved in.Subsequently Jack would see Joe around City Hall where he worked in the Sewer Department- and also in Joe's private law office.Joe wrote a recommendation when Jack applied for the Graduate Law Course at Northeastern University in l95l.While we were still living at 640 East Seventh Street, we went with Mollie to 168 I Street to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of Mrs. Fortunato Pistorino, the mother of a family of nine, among whom several sisters were very good friends of Mollie Barrett.Mr. and Mrs. Pistorino observed their fiftieth wedding anniversary about the end of the war, and now they were having quite a birthday celebration. Josephine Pistorino worked for Bell Telephone Company.Her sister Frances was a legal secretary, and their brother John was a barber. Their paternal grandfather came from a distinguished family of Messina, and the Pistorino family operated a business in Boston. One of the nephews was with United Fruit company.Mrs. Pistorino's family, long in South Boston, traced back to Skibbereen, Cork, Ireland. Their name was Daly, and they may be related to Jack Barrett's father's mother.Mollie would often have Wednesday and Sunday meals at the Pistorino home, while Josephine and Frances would come to Mollie's for fish dinner on Friday. Jack's second cousins Gertrude and Mary Hartigan lived at 80 Brown Avenue, near Cummins highway and Sacred Heart Church in nearby Roslindale, and their brother Father Hartigan was in Braintree but in l953 became pastor at Immaculate Conception church in Everett.May gave Jack a very cordial welcome home and gave us several azalea plants.For a while she kept her car in our two-car garage.Until her retirement in l956 at age seventy, she taught mathematics at the Washington Irving intermediate school in Roslindale. Mr, and Mrs. Joseph Buckley of South Boston - with whom Jack had been friendly since young boyhood, came to call.Jack saw him frequently at City Hall, where Joe worked for the Sewer Department.After dropping John at Roxbury Latin in time for the start of school at 8:42 every morning, Jack would drive to our new home at 52 Emmonsdale road, where the Meissner workers were painting and papering, and Rull, the plumber was putting a new bathroom in the cellar.Jack unpacked furniture, put the Chinese rugs on the floor, washed dishes, pots and pans, and when the telephone was installed, he called me to say that he had just unpacked the piano, so I listened while he played one of his favorite piano pieces.The piano was in perfect condition although many other items of furniture had been damaged in the round trip to and from Pearl Harbor in 1941 to storage in Boston.By the time the painters,plumbers,and electricians had finished their work, Jack had the place ready for occupancy by John and me.The floors were scraped. Jack bought an electric wax polisher, and on the Sunday before Thanksgiving Jack and John missed their Sunday dinner at 640 because they were determined to finishing waxing the floors and polishing them so we could move in. -and we did move in on Thanksgiving Day l947, when Mollie came out with us and was most helpful in getting us settled. Our next door neighbors at 21 Rustic Road, Tony and Mabel Bernazzani and their two daughters were flower lovers. He was a professional gardener with an unusually green thumb.He had planted the peonies, day lilies, and hydrangeas on the Van Steenbergen property we bought. His own property had a wide variety of rambler roses, yuccas, hollyhocks, violets, Spanish iris,tomatoes, strawberries, bulbs, and ususual trees.The Bernazzanis enjoyed the outdoors and had a large fireplace, where they invited us and other neighbors for spaghetti and steak dinner, which we enjoyed at long outdoor tables. One Sunday noon Mollie called up to invite us to dinner at six o'clock..Since it was a very cold day, I at first refused, but Jack and John, who loved 640 East Seventh Street accepted gladly, as it was a very dull cold day here.I simply suffered in that cold weather- couldn't get warm despite the adequate oil heat.After they left, the house was so quiet, I decided to go to South Boston by subway, even though I wasn't sure how to get there. But our Emmonsdale neighbors, Joe and Grace Collins,picked me up in their carand took me to the Jamaica Plain Civil War Monument, where they put me on a trolley car to Park Street under Boston Common, where I changed for a subway train to South Boston.Jack was glad to see me.it was a lovely party, with the smell of ham pleasant after the long cold trip. Everybody was there - Mollie's cousins, Tom and Bessie Palmer of North Cambridge, her old neighbor Katherine Kinnaly, her cousin Bill Lane of Melrose and his wife Jean,Josephine Pistorino of 168 I Street, and Mollie's second cousins Mary Elizabeth and Helen Lynch of Hyde Park. There was a lot of good talk, the food was excellent, and it was far better for me than sitting at home.Our next door neighbor at 44 Emmonsdale Road was Mrs. Allen, a widow with two grown sons. She was enthusiastic when John made the honor roll for the first marking period at Roxbury Latin. Two neighbors on Rustic Road, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Ethel Maier came to call one day while John was studying for mid-year examinations.We told them about our trip across the country. Mrs. Maier's father retired police Captain Anderson, lived with her and her husband Otto.Our first winter in Boston was an unusually snowy one. Usually when the Boston public school closed because of snow, Roxbury Latin remained in session, but one morning at 8:30 when the snow was very deep, and it was still snowing, we heard via radio that there would be no school at Roxbury Latin. Against my advice, John went off to school, two and a half blocks away.About noon, when it was still snowing, with the snow two feet deep, I began to be concerned.About two o'clock Mrs. Heffler, wife of the school custodian, telephoned and told me she was surprised when her husband found john reading in the School Library- and when she learned John had been there since 8:30 AM, she gave him a bowl of soup and some crackers.He finally returned late in the afternoon, and when I asked him how he got into the school, he said that the head master had been there and said to him, "Don't you know there is no school?" John admitted he knew it but asked permission to use the library that snowy day. He was eleven and a half years old. Mr. Richard Whitney was the Sixth Class home room master and taught English and geography.When John told the class about some of his experiences in the western national Parks, en route from Hawaii to Boston, Mr. Whitney suggested he use the subject for the annual Fowler Prize history essay competition, offered for the best paper in each class on a subject related to United States History.John used his spring vacation to write the paper and won the five dollar prize. The winner was ineligible the next year, but in l950 John again won with an essay on "Life on Oahu from July l941 to June, l947."John got his best grade in Latin, with Mr. Earl Taylor, who ran the bookstore before school in the mornings - John would often go in early and discuss difficult points in the assignments. Mr. Taylor led singing of hymns in Hall four mornings a week. On Tuesdays and Fridays Giuseppe deLellis came to the school to teach music, and played the piano accompaniment.John soon continued the piano lessons he had begun with Laura Canafax at Punahou in l946.They worked in the Schirmer collection "59 piano solos you like to play" -the Schubert Moment Musical in f op. 94 #3, and Military March, the Beethoven Minuet in G, the Strauss Blue Danube Waltz, Verdi's Grand March from "Aida", the Brahms Waltz in A Flat, the Mozart Turkish Rondo, and the Tannhauser Act 3 March of Wagner, Handel's "Largo" from "Xerxes".and Bach Prelude in c from Well Tempered Clavier #1. Mr. DeLellis and his wife Connie became family friends,and we visited back and forth from their home in West Newton.I met many of the mothers of the sixth class students at a tea party given by the Parents Auxiliary in October l947 At a second tea party given by Mrs. Clifford Ronan and Mrs. Huston Banton I saw the mothers again., and I met many other parents of the Auxiliary at meetings in Rousmaniere Hall.After the meeting we went to the school dining room, where the hospitality committee served coffee,sandwiches, and small cupcakes. We enjoyed talks by Mr. Weed and other invited speakers., and at the Spring meeting we heard the Roxbury Latin Debating Team. We also met parents at school football and baseball games, after which we gathered in the dining room. Since John was interested in debating, we attended many debates at the school and even drove to Groton the fifth class year, where John was a speaker in a junior debate. Roxbury Latin won taking the affirmative on the topic, "Should Athletic Scholarships be Granted by colleges? Mr. J. Clifford Ronan, father of John's classmate Cliff and two younger children, Frank and Dorothy, was a track coach at Boston English High School, and he cited the case of Center College in Kentucky, which was little known until highly successful sports teams brought publicity - then the school was able to raise money and develop a strong academic program. Mr.Ronan's material worked out well in the debate, and when John had finished speaking, Headmaster Peabody of Groton remarked to me, "That boy has a head" In the spring of l948 our former Waikiki neighbors Mimi and Harry Bronson came to visit us. Harry was working as an entomologist for the state of California,and they had bought a home in Santa Paula but were visiting Mimi's parents and sister Frances Gage in Marlboro. Since they had movies and slides of the Hawaiian Islands to show us that Sunday afternoon, we telephoned Aunt Mollie and invited her to come and see them and bring home John, who was visiting in South Boston that day.They also showed views of brightly colored spring flowers from their hikes high in the Sierra Nevada. We bought only two tickets for Roxbury Latin Night at the Boston Pops in May, l948, because it was the last Friday in May, the night I was scheduled to attend my twenty-fifth reunion at Mount Holyoke college.I went to Pops the next year when John was in the fifth class. We sat next to Randy Hare and his mother,- had a pleasant evening. MR. DELELLIS WAS THE PIANO SOLOIST WITH ARTHUR FIEDLER IN A BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE of RACHMANINOFF'S SECOND PIANO CONCERTO. On that last Friday in May l948, Jack drove me to Brookline to the home of my classmate Carol Fisher Mallory.Clara Michael, Ruth Phinney and I rode with Carol to a Howard Johnson's for dinner and then on to Mount Holyoke. where we registered for reunion at Student Alumni Hall. I spent the early part of that evening rehearsing for my part in the play written by my classmate and friend Rebecca Glover Smaltz.The play was to be presented Saturday afternoon. We then went to Pearsons Hall, where I lived freshman year.and where we had Reunion rooms and breakfast Saturday and Sunday.We had a class meeting at which our president Marion Lewis Smart read letters from classmates not in attendance at reunion.When we awoke Saturday morning, it was raining so we could not have the Alumnae parade.So we gathered in student Alumnae Hall, where I sat next to my friend Betty Gilman Roberts, and we had box lunches. In the afternoon l923 presented a good skit by Becky Smaltz, and the Alumnae President announced gifts to the college by various classes. Late in the afternoon we went to Pearsons Hall to dress for dinner- a banquet at a hotel in Holyoke.Ruth Peck Doyle drove Betty Giles Howard, Betty Gilman Roberts and me to the hotel. The drive was one of the highlights of the Reunion for me, because I had lived with them in Brigham Hall junior and senior years, and Betty Gilman and I had taken Master's degrees together in l925 -the only two candidates for the degree that year. at the dinner we were seated alphabetically just as we had been for chapel for four years so I was surrounded by people I knew well. Marion Lewis Smart, our class president asked me as Sergeant-at-Arms of the class to pour the champagne, which I did after saying that this was a strange state of affairs after I had spent so many years in the Navy advising against the use of liquor.The classmates applauded and laughed. As Carol Fisher had two young children left in her husband Dr. Mallory's care, we left South Hadley right after breakfast Sunday morning. Carol came to my house to meet Jack and John.She had met her husband Kenneth Mallory in Vienna when they were doing graduate study in biology and medicine.Dr. Mallory was a pathologist at Boston City Hospital where the Mallory building was named for his relative. we were invited to the Mallorys for Sunday dinner later in June BEFORE CAROL LEFT FOR MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MAINE with the children. Carol was an active member of the League of Women Voters. That summer Jack and I had considerable contact with Roxbury Latin parents. Mrs. Martin of Dedham, mother of Fred Martin came to visit one morning in June before Fred left for summer camp Kabeyun. Mrs. Stikeleather, mother of Robert Stikeleather wanted John to spend a week at their summer home in Stow to help Robert learn some French, before the boys officially started the new language with Joseph Sasserno that fall in the fifth Class. We saw her when we drove John to Stow, and Mr. Stikeleather had come from their East Dedham home to West Roxbury to give us a local map showing their place by the lake.When we went to get John the next week our neighbors Mr.and Mrs.Sweeney of 229 Wren Street rode with us, so we got well acquainted with them too. Mr. Sweeney taught shop in Boston Public Schools,and their son John was class president for three years, until he lost a year with bone tuberculosis, for which he was successfully treated at Lakeville Sanitarium. We also had an invitation for lunch and a swim with Mrs. and Mrs. J. Clifford Ronan at their summer home "Silver Hills" West Newburyport, in the area where Mr. Ronan had grown up.He taught mechanical drawing and was the track coach at Boston English High School. John Sweeney was with us, and Mrs. Ronan urged us to stay for supper. - we had cream of tomato soup- most welcome after a cool swim.Mr. Ronan in later years became a landscape painter. His home on Tennyson Street West Roxbury, and the summer place at West Newbury, which became their home after his retirement, became filled with paintings, and they gave us one - a lovely snow scene which hung many years in our dining room.Mr. Ronan wrote a newspaper sports column "Ronan's Reckonings"- a forecast or "educated guess" on the standings of high school in the track competitions. Mrs. Ronan's father and mother Mrs. Goodwin and her sister Grace Antell lived near us on Howitt Street. Cliff went to Amherst, and his brother Frank did track at Bowdoin. In l948 Jack finally had a chance to grow some good sized tomatoes after fighting insects and mildew in Hawaii. His favorite was the Winsall tomato. We had many three-pound fruits, and once he had a five pound tomato. They were delicious but too fragile for commercial use. He supplied many friends and neighbors with tomatoes and plants and seed to start new ones in February. indoors. He also grew"Crystal White" tomatoes, a variety l45 developed from the yellow tomato. We grew some for many years. Originally we obtained the seed from Peter Henderson Company later from Breck's of Boston. Since l965 we have had to use seed from our own crystal white plants as they now seem to be unavailable commercially.Jack grew tomatoes every year until l965.-#55- p.148 (#55)With my encouragement Jack entered the accelerated two-and-a half year daytime course at Boston College Law School in January, l949 financed as a War Veteran under the G.I. Bill.He made inquiry at Harvard, where Dean Erwin Griswold was courteous, but explained he was crowded with returning veterans. Griswold encouraged Jack to talk to Father Kenealy of Boston College, who strongly encouraged his effort, even though Fordham Law School had not been nationally accredited, and Jack did not get credit for his two years' hard work there 1927-9.One of the professors told the entering law students,"Look at the man on your right and the man on your left, as one of the three of you won't be here when you graduate." There were fewer women in those days, but Jack was friendly with Phyllis Levine, who was on the committee for the excellent Yearbook "Sui Juris". Louise Day Hicks of South Boston was at the Law School one year and was always friendly with Jack in later years when they both spent much time at the Registries of Deeds and Probate. The teachers included Father Kenealy in Jurisprudence, Wendell Grimes, John D. O'Reilly, Emil Slizewski, Cornelius Moynihan, and Law Librarian Steven Morrison. Under the case method students were expected to read and abstract cases carefully in preparation for class discussion. Some professors occasionally threatened to cancel classes when not enough students did these assignments, but Jack and the more serious students usually talked them out of such extreme action. One of the faculty may have been the source of a student joke, "It is sufficient to say 'NOT PREPARED.' It is uncessary to demonstrate." The property professor taught them about the disadvantages of joint interests in real property and joint bank accounts, especially under modern tax laws, "Stay out of expensive joints". All his new classmates were much younger-serious men with a living to make in the law but a number of them told me at various times that Jack had a wonderful mind & that the professors liked to draw him out in class.We went together to the Red Mass an annual event sponsored by the Boston College Law School every fall to mark the opening of the legal season.Father Kenealy conducted the Mass, where we enjoyed a most learned speaker from the legal profession.During the second year his class sponsored a dance at the Recreation Hall of Boston College in Chestnut Hill to raise money to defray some of the expense of the class yearbook. We sat with some of his young friends including Larry Burkart,Frank Amsler,Gene Lyne & his wife Ruth- Gene's Jack's law school classmate was the son of Jack's l906 Boston Latin classmate Dan Lyne, who lived nearby on Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill. John and I attended one of the moot court sessions in which Larry Burkart of Newton andJoe Neylon of Somerville participated - they were members of the very successful moot court team named in honor of 1840s Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, father-in-law of Herman Melville and author of a leading opinion on circumstantial evidence, Commonwealth v. Webster.At the end of two and a half years of hard work, he received the LL.B degree in June,l95l twenty-four years after starting his law studies.When he passed the Massachusetts Bar exam in October 1951 and was admitted to law practice,he Boston Globe gave him first page headlines in big print-wrote a long first page account of his accomplishment at 63 years of age & published a picture of him with his Navy hat & law books in our West Roxbury dining room with John & me.Father Kenealy had asked the Boston Globe to feature Jack. Jack passed the Massachusetts Bar examination on the first try, even though a majority failed to pass,& "there was weeping at the Bar".He then applied for Northeastern University's night classes at the law school to earn a l953 Master's degree, writing a tax thesis he typed himself & taking course in Taxation, Admiralty, Massachusetts Practice, International Law (using the Louis Sohn "World Law" textbook). He took a tax course with Massachusetts Tax Commissioner Henry Long, a colorful & outspoken thirty-year veteran originally appointed by governor Calvin Coolidge around l9l9- & arranged for John to interview the Commissioner in l952 for Albert Kelsey's English course,which required students to record conversations in the style of James Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" (l788). Professor Gardner gave the Admiralty course. In l948 Jack,John & I were crossing Linnet Street on Bellevue Street in West Roxbury,when an elderly lady emerged from a house at l65 Bellevue Stree.Struck by the color of her Alice-blue big felt hat, I smiled at her as we approached -I remarked "Your blue hat brightens up this dark afternoon."She was carrying a cane, & when I noticed that she had letters to mail,I offered to mail them for her to save her from crossing Linnet Street.She accepted, & as John went to the mailbox, she Jack & I chatted as we waited for him.We told Mrs. Getrude Cutter that we were comparatively new in the neighborhood & that the Reverend Harold Arnold lived right across the street from us on Emmonsdale Road.She told us that he was the retired minister of her Unitarian Church at the corner of Corey & Centre Streets l50 & a distant cousin of James Arnold for whom the Arnold Arboretum was named. When we were out walking Christmas afternoon,we impulsively rang Mrs. Cutter's bell, as John wanted to talk with her,& it was calling-hour.She greeted us graciously,& for the next half-hour we were treated to an account of the very old houses on Centre Street between Richwood & Corey.A few of them were being demolished to make room for a supermarket-to Mrs. Cutter's regret.She invited us to call on her very often.She told us that Mr. Cary Potter of Roxbury Latin was the grandson of Bishop Potter. She & John enjoyed many games of backgammon through the years . Often after playing with her he came home with a can of peanuts.Each Christmas she sent John a calendar from the Museum of Fine Arts.Often about noon she would telephone me to call on her about three in the afternoon.She was hard of hearing but amazingly adept at lip reading if you looked right at her as you talked.She liked to tell about her mother-in-law "Madam Cutter" whom she considered an outstanding woman.One afternoon she told me about her father-in-law's experience in job hunting: one day - as he was on his way from Winchester where he lived to Harvard college to see President Charles Eliot to inquire whether he was to be appointed Librarian of Harvard College, President Eliot was on his way to the Cutter home in Winchester to offer him the job.When Mr.Cutter learned that President Eliot was not in his office, he went to the Boston Athenaeum & accepted the job as librarian there & developed that famous library for many years 151 His Cutter library classification was the forerunner of the Library of Congress system.As a young woman Miss Gertrude Cross took a job as an art teacher in the Winchester school and declared,"l'll never marry a man from Winchester", but she married Madam Cutter's second son Roland, an MIT graduate & an engineer for the city of Boston.Madame Cutter's first son was named Ammi, as the first son in every Cutter family for some generations is named.Mrs. Cutter's nephew Ammi is a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (l97l).One of their family friends was founder of the Windsor school for girls.When the author of a widely used book on geometry was revising his work,he showed the new illustrations to Gertrude,the young art teacher.She examined the drawings & said,"I could do better myself." She was stunned when the author said,"All right. You are hired.You make the illustrations for the book.I'll pay you anything you ask & give you an unlimited expense account." He told her to take all the time she needed to make the illustrations, so important in math work.She regretted her rash statement but took on the job.He accepted all of her illustrations & acknowledged her work in the introduction to the new edition. Jack had the book- a well-worn copy `-& that acknowedgement appeared in the mathematics text he had used at Revenue Cutter School in l909.He immediately telephoned Mrs Cutter, who was pleased the future Coast Guard officers had benefited from her work.Mrs.Cutter had an arthritic back for which she had a brace called "Gracey Bracey"She was rationed as to daily trips up & down stairs. A friend designed an ingenious thirty-inch long wooded scissors that she used to pick up papers or small books from the floor.In l955 Mrs. Cutter moved to a nursing home on Alfreton Road,Needham and gave us a large collection of books Jack picked out -a complete set of Charles Dickens, several Trollope novels -"Barchester Towers" and "The Warden," - and Pagan & Christian Rome.There is even a history of the Cutter family.When she had back troubles, her motto was "Cooperate with calamity." She lived to age 83 - l874 to March l958. She knew the Codman family,who were Brook Farmers 1843 & preserved an l846 engraving of the Brook Farm site, which was given to West roxbury historical Society & has proved useful to archaeologists interested in tracing positions of the buildings - some of which have been moved from their foundations & later destroyed by fire.There are very few extant pictures of Brook Farm from l84l-46, the era of the social experiment. The engraving also clarifies what areas have been flooded or filled. |
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Clarence Boyd was a young Naval Academy graduate serving on survey ship HANNIBAL l933-l934 when Jack Barrett was Executive officer.The ship spent the late winter, spring, and summer in survey areas on west coast of Panama and Costa Rica, in areas unsurveyed since Spanish government ended more than a hundred years earlier.In the autumn and winter the HANNIBAL returned to Norfolk,Virginia, primarily to permit hydrogrphic engineers to complete smoothdrafts of survey results, and alos for ship overhaul and crew rest and recreation.In l935 they surveyed Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica, to find location for a new banana export port.Lieutenant Mervin Halstead was the son of the U.S. Army Governor of Canal Zone l935. Sophie sublet from the Boyds for a time in Balboa, Pacific coast of Canal Zone.The Boyds were natives of Charleston, South Carolina, and very helpfil; when Sophie and John had to re-locate September l938 from Bala Cynwyd, Philadelphia to Coronado, near San diego, California. The Boyds visited the Barretts in Boston about l948. Clarence's wife Maruy Boyd was interested in John's Irish research as she had county Kildare ancestors. Mary sent Naval Academy Alumni magazines that were very helpful in memoir research.Mary's daughter Peggy married Stafford Green, and she and her daughter corresponded with Sophie up to the l980's.HANNIBAL officers went on to distinguished careers in World War II, including Richard G. Visser, who avoided casualties comming destroyer DALY in combat in Aleutians, New Guinea Halmahera regions.He later was on staff of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner planning Iwo Jima and Okinawa amphibious invasions and preparing for invasion of Japanese home islands, which became uncessary when war ended mid-August l945. |
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Anita Douredoure, native of Philadelphia contributed remarkable reminiscences after dating Jack's widower brother Bill Barrett l933-l937. A fortune teller told her Bill would be married three times. It proved to be true. Anita corresponded with Sophie and John until l988 with many amusing stories.She was a Philadelphia native - attended Army-Navy game l937 with Bill. see Douredoure letter in memoirs. Chapter W-I-L-L-I-A-M J-O-S-E-P-H B-A-R-R-E-T-T, M-O-L-L-I-E, and their LANE Relatives Sequence- Anita Douredoure letter, Sophie Barrett text, Mary Lynch genealogy letter,possible future additions of Mollie Barrett, William Joel Barrett and family, and the younger Lanes Many photos on website ANITA D-O-U-R-E-D-O-U-R-E letter I wrote to her for her recollections of Bill.On the eighteenth of March l970 she wrote "Dear Sophie,I will try to give you my memories of Bill from around l932 to l938. Around Easter I was with some friends, & a Mrs. Pfeffer a friend of one of my friends remembered that she was in somewhat of a quandry.She had just returned from a cruise with her husband.On the cruise he had met an attractive widower named Bill Barrett. He was coming to visit them at their home in Penn Valley for the weekend. They had invited a girl named Frances Diamond,but she couldn't keep the engagement. Bill had said he would like someone not too young & a Catholic- two specifications. Frances Diamond fitted,& since she wasn't available what was she - Bobbie Pfeffer- going to do to amuse Bill over the weekend? I said, 'What about me? I fit the bill.' To my surprise she accepted with alacrity.Perhaps you remember Penn Valley- it is a very beautiful suburb, & the Pfeffers' house was in a wooded spot on Moreno Road. It was a lovely house with an outside swimming pool -p.419-Mr. Pfeffer was connected with the American Standard Sanitation Company or some such corporation. They had one son & were a very pleasant couple.I arranged to stay with one of my friends who lived near them.They invited me to dinner & to spend the evening.There were either four or six of us, & we had a very good time.When it came time to leave, Bill took my arm & said, 'Here we go on our honeymoon.' He came to my friends' the next morning to take me to church. That started our romance that lasted until l937 or l938.It was strange that things happened exactly as a fortune teller told me they would. My aunt & I had lunch at the Warwick, where the hand reader entertained.She told me that around Easter she saw me in evening dress at a small party where I would meet a man who would show plainly that he was very much attracted to me. She said that we would never marry each other but that we would go many places together.It was a real blueprint of what actually happened.Later on at a private party she read Bill's hand & told him he would marry three times.I think I told him I would catch him on the third round.From Easter on I saw Bill about every weekend.He would stay in Germantown at my aunt's or at my brother's home in Cynwyd near where you used to live.Shortly after I met Bill, my brother took me on a 'trip to nowhere' -one of those short cruises during Prohibition.It was on the old MAJESTIC, & the destination was Bermuda, which we never reached because the ship couldn't land because of rough seas.I met two other widowers on the boat & had a grand time.Bill sent me a huge basket of flowers or fruit- & I had to put it on the sink in my cabin.Then Bill invited me to New York & got me a room in the Pan Hellenic Women's Hotel next to his apartment at 10 Mitchell Place.His program of entertainment nearly exhausted me.He bought theater tickets for matinees on Wednesday & Thursday & took me to another show at night.I remember we had box seats, & I dozed & nearly fell out of the box. I loved New York, & we always got along better there than in Philadelphia.. I spent a lot of long weekends in New York.Bill took me to a lot of places. I remember the Rainbow Room very well.His cousin Myles Lane had a girlfriend- one time Bill gave a party for them. Bill & I & my brother Bernard & his wife Edna went on several cruises at Christmas & Easter. One was to Cuba & Jamaica on the EMPRESS OF BRITAIN, another to Nassau on the EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA & another to Bermuda. We had a congenial foursome & lots of good times.Now to answer your questions: I met Fred Erb of Detroit. Bill & I saw him off on a trip of eighteen days. He seemed to be not well, & I saw him only for a few minutes. When Bill & I arrived back at 10 Mitchell Place, the phone rang, & Bill was informed that Erb had died a couple of hours after sailing.His poor wife had to continue the trip with his body until they reached the first port of call. I do remember the (EAGLE l9) boat ride with you in Boston- don't recall fishing or catching anything.But I love the water & enjoyed the boating..I remember visiting the Barrett home in South Boston- then their wire haired terrier, who scared me.I stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston. I think it was at Christmas time.Bill took me to Longwood Gardens in Delaware- my brother lent us his car & we met Pierre Dupont, a very shy man who showed us through the greenhouse.In a train we met Lamont (Lamotte?) Dupont. I believe Bill used to ghostwrite some of his speeches.Also I went with Bill to a cocktail party, a kind of business party -where I met Juan Trippe, Pan American airlines founder & president.Also at that party I met Alfred Sloane (General Motors) & Igor Sikorsky (helicopter pioneer). I heard Bill talk about working on the National Recovery Administration (NRA) with General Drum, & his meetings with Edward Stettinius afterward Secretary of State.The only thing I remember about Jack was Bill's saying his mother was thrilled when Jack gave her fifty dollars for Christmas.I remember I thought Bill resembled his mother (he did- Sophie M. Barrett note). Bill, Mr. Barrett senior & I took a trip to Cape Cod. We stayed at an old hotel iin Osterville- & Bill & I played not even facsimile golf.The caddy laughed, & Bill was furious & sent him back to the caddy house.I liked Bill's father - he looked like a very nice clean baby- his bald head shone, & he kept his derby hat on most of the time so that the flies wouldn't worry him.One time the three of us went to the Brass Rail in New York City when Pa Barrett was visiting 10 Mitchell Place- & they had some music records- the Brass Rail is a delicatessen type restaurant. Mr. Barrett & I danced- did an old-fashioned hop dance which almost floored me. He was very agile- really remarkable for his age. Another time we went to Atlantic City & we all had Brighton punches - a really potent brew.Mr. Barrett was in better shape than either Bill or I. I remember the political talks Bill had with my brother about Roosevelt.We were charmed by Roosevelt,& Bill told us New York state was glad to set rid of him when he ran for President.I was in the Metropolitan Life Building only once to see where Bill worked.He was a very hard worker & deserved to be successful.When I met him he was head of the Policy Holders Service Bureau & his big complaint was that he was not allowed to eat in the officers' dining room.The only friends of Bill's I remember well were Lloyd & Charlotte Miller, who lived in Old Greenwich.We spent New Year's Eve at their house one time & saw them at other times.Bill had another friend named Benziger who married an airline stewardess named Signe- she was Swedish.We went on a trip to some quaint old inn.Both Bill & I had colds. He worried more about his 99 degree fever than my hundred-degree fever, & that cooled the romance somewhat.Bill & I used to borrow my brother's car & play golf at Valley Forge or go to Ocean City.He told me his father would pay for his education only if he didn't waste his time at athletics.He was a bright man, & I enjoyed listening to his opinions.Just before the (l933) bank holiday he told me & my aunt to draw out any money we had in the bank as the banks were going to close.He advised me how to invest the little money I had, & over the years I have rejoiced because his advice was profitable,& I have been able to live comfortably without having to work.We fell out of love about l937- he came over (to Philadelphia), but the spell was broken.When his mother died (January l938) I sent a check & a sympathy letter. Your husband called me to ask where Bill was to tell him of his mother's death.I didn't know where he was,as by then I wasn't seeing him.He called me to thank me for my sympathy, but we did not renew our romance.In l936 we talked of getting married, but he went on a trip with some men from General Motors, I was piqued & took off for Mexico without telling him.When he called my apartment, he talked to a friend who borrowed the apartment, & she told him where I was.That must have been when he took the trip to Norfolk to see you when your son was four months old.I burned all letters & keepsakes when we no longer saw each other.Poor Bill was unfortunate too lose two wives by death.I'm glad he had a son- he must have been very happy when he was born. He was a fine man & deserved to be happy- Anita Douredoure" SOPHIE BARRETT text W-I-L-L-I-A-M J-O-S-E-P-H B-A-R-R-E-T-T Red Headed Stepchild - The Memoir of the century" William Joseph.Barrett, Jack's brother: Jack's half brother William Joseph Barrett was born at 634 East Seventh Street on October 24, l895, the oldest child of Mary Lane, second wife of John Robert Barrett. He attended the Frederick Lincoln School on Broadway between I and K Streets, the future site of the South Boston branch public llibrary.When he was about nine years old, Jack tells the story that when some older boys started to pick on Bill, his younger sister Mollie went to the fight and beat them up. She was seven years old. Both Mollie and Bill attained good height as adults, a characteristic apparently inherited from their Lane relatives. The Lane family originated in Kenmare and Glengariff in the south part of county Kerry Ireland. Mollie's second cousin Dr. Mary Elizabeth Lynch, many years in Hyde Park, Massachusetts furnished the information that going back in the maternal ancestors, Bill-and-Mollie's mother's mother was named Lynch - one of a family of eleven, and her mother was named Palmer, and her grandmother's name was Sullivan-Christian.Bill-and-Mollie's uncle Tate was supposedly very large and strong, and many other members of the family were tall. John Robert Barrett was comparatively short though healthy and long-lived.Bill Barrett was a member of the Boston Latin class of l9l2.Of his many good friends in that class, John Vaccaro of Third Street, South Boston was particularly close in later years, and we think he was best man at Bill's first wedding in l923. John Vaccaro attended Harvard College l9l6 and was a classmate of poet Archibald MacLeish at Harvard Law School in l9l9.After law school, John Vaccaro had to earn money as a barber before going into law practice. He was with the firm of Lyne, Woodward, and Evarts for some years before opening his own law office at 11 Beacon Street with Anthony Iovino, Boston Latin School l922. Land conveyancing was a specialty of his.His wife came from Dorchester, and they lived in the Waban section of Newton in later years.Other classmates of Bills at Boston Latin School included Archibald Dresser- later an appraiser and bank official and William L. Langer, modern history professor at Harvard.Langer was widely known at the editor of the fifteen=volume Langer series of splendidly illustrated texts on modern history.Myron Gilmore on the sixteenth century and Crane Brinton on the eighteenth were among the contributors.In the l980's we got to know another of Bill's classmates, Walter Gillis, who lived at 324 Bellevue Street, West Roxbury near the top of Bellevue Hill, with one of his sons next door. He had been Superintendant of Boston Public Schools and taught business administration at Boston College. He wrote storybooks for one of his granddaughters to keep in touch with her when he father was in military service during the Vietnam war. In l985 we had extensive conversations with Mr. Gillis when preparing a program for the West Roxbury Historical Society in observance of the 350th anniversary of Boston Latin School. Bill Barrett was only sixteen years old when he was graduated from Boston Latin School, and he had to receive special permission from the governor of Massachusetts to enter Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September l9l2.A large number of Bill's notes from Boston Latin and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have survived in the attic at 640 East Seventh Street.He took the mechanical engineering course at MIT.Left-handedness was sometimes a handicap in the mechanical drawing, but he was a good student, and he had many warm friends among the faculty and students. At one period of his freshman year apparently he was angry about the management of the MIT coop bookstore, and he wrote Jack a letter to the effect that he was arranging a boycott.The letter also mentions that Jack had investigated employment with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, although he stayed at the Naval Hydrographic Office.Bill spent the summers of l9l3, l9l4 and l9l5 at an MIT summer camp in New Brunswick, Canada, near Campobello just over the line from Eastport, Maine, near the St. Croix River.Bill obtained an Army commission in artillery during World War I though he was barely twenty-one years old, and again special permission was needed to waive age requirements.He apparently was in the Reserves after the war in l9l9 and l920 and saw Jack at Norfolk, Virginia February 23, l9l9 - a photo was taken in front of Jack's cottage.Jack was then nearly at the end of his duty as senior instructor in seamanship and regulations at the Officer Material School.Bill took pictures during l919 at serveral Victory parades in Washington.During the summer of l9l9 and l920 he apparently had artillery duty at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and in August l920 Bill and Jack and their sister Mollie got together for some time on vacation around Sandy Hook at the north end of New Jersey coast overlooking New York Harbor.Captain and Mrs. Marvin S. Richardson, Jack's Norfolk friends from the ships MONTGOMERY and WESTERNER were along in the party.In the early l920's Bill learned a lot about the steel industry, taking part in the negotiations on the sale of several plants.He was well acquainted for many years with the future Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, junior,- of US Steel- and other prominent steel executives.Bill became an expert on safety and accident prevention and toured extensively in the midwest and south in l920 on business, sending home cards from Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Eastport, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey.About l922 Bill attended the Wharton School of Finance in Philadelphia. In l922 when merchant marine opportunities were scarce, Bill devoted considerable effort to finding Jack desirable civilian employment. Correspondence indicates Jack was interested in a position as editor of an engineering journal in Philadelphia in l922. Bill made some inquiries, but nothing came of it. Bill saved Jack twelve hundred dollars in June, l922 by going around to collect that amount of money owed to Jack by Fuller brokerage house of New York.That company had sold some stocks for Jack and was slow in handing over the money to him.Jack was at sea on the WYOMING and had written to request prompt payment,but the company delayed.Finally Bill had to go and collect the money personally about June 14, l922. The involuntary bankruptcy of the brokerage house appeared in the newspapers about June 28.Around 1923 Bill was engaged to marry Catherine Miley of Dorchester, Massachusetts and felt that he might improve his earning capacity by attending business school.In the l950's he lectured at the Wharton School of Business Administration as a faculty member.In 1923 Bill went to work for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and stayed with them for thirty-nine years, retiring at the beginning of l963.He made a very favorable impression in his work in the Policy Holders Service Bureau advising business companies how to improve employees' health and reduce accidents and insurance claims and employee turnover.During most of Bill's career the Met was the world's largest insurance company and the world's largest financial corporation.It financed considerable publicity and research in prevention of tuberculosis, detection of cancer and the like, and it pioneered the development of private group health insurance plans for employees. The Ecker family and Leroy Lincoln were the top executives. Bill was acquainted through his work with a great number of prominent executives, including former associates in the steel industry and top executives of many companies that used the Metropolitan employees' group plans. Bill was a friend of Walter Teagle of Standard Oil. I was interested in the work of Met actuary and public health statistician Dr. Louis Dublin, one of the first American investigators of statistical approaches to tuberculosis, venereal disease and other widespread illnesses.Dr. Dublin had much professional contact with Amy Hewes and other Mount Holyoke faculty, and he advised the Commonwealth Fund and initiated their effort -on which I worked l926-l929- to develop statistical reporting techniques for child guidance clinics. Bill married Catherine Miley of Dorchester in l923. They lived in an apartment in Bronxville, New York,and Catherine taught kindergarten for a few years.She and her sisters Fanny and Mary Miley were interested in the New England Wild Flower Preservation Society. Catherine and Bill honeymooned in the Bahama Islands, where some good photographs were taken. After a few years of marriage, it was learned that Catherine had some type of abdominal cancer.A year and a half of intensive treatment in Boston prolonged her life until February l93l during which time Bill spent thousands of dollars trying the latest methods of treatment. He even flew to the West Coast to inquire aboutr a new method of treatment.The Miley family remained very close to Bill after her death and always spoke very kindly of Bill's efforts during the ordeal.Catherine's mother also died of cancer in August, l930.Mollie Barrett and her sister Katie often made beef broth to take to the hospital for Bill's wife.Dr. William Manary, who later became superintendant of Boston City Hospital, was Bill's personal friend and did what he could for Catherine.Bill's sister Katie was also sick at this time, having entered a convent in l928 and having left in poor health with influenza and exhaustion. She died in January l93l, one month before Bill's first wife.When Catherine Miley died, Bill, exhausted, as he had commuted to Boston every weekend, was also badly upset by his sister Kate's death. and his financial assets were reduced, and he was concerned about his mother's poor health with diabetes and a nervous condition since l925.The news of the two deaths of Jack's sister Kate and his siter-in-law were was broken to Jack and me in Tientsin at Bill's request by John Herlihy, an East Seventh Street South Boston neighbor who was a Naval Officer and Annapolis graduate class of l923. (John Herlihy died in the Philippines in l935.)Some months later in l93l Mollie wrote to Jack details about Kate's death.Bill broke up his Bronxville home, giving most of the furniture to Pa, Ma and Mollie at the family home at 640 East Seventh Street.He moved to an apartment at 10 Mitchell Place on the East Side of New York. In November l93l he had a private twenty minute interview with President Hoover,who was trying very hard to improve the unemployment situation.About the time Jack and I returned from Europe in March l932 he was dating Miss Anita Douredoure of Philadelphia. He gave us the l926 Buick which he and Catherine had used.In l933 Bill was an adviser to President Roosevelt in the National Recovery Administration. (415-l6) On Jahn Vaccaro, Catherine Casey and the Miley sisters: One of John Vaccaro's friends was Catherine Casey of K Street, South Boston. They had studied together in school days. John had one brother "Rutzie" (Orazio) and two sisters, one of whom- Rose-married Hugo Trio and came to call on us in Panama when Jack had duty there on the HANNIBAL in l935. Once when John Vaccaro was taking Catherine Casey to an dance (either at Harvard or at an Itlaian club) Her mother Mrs. Casey got a partner for Bill Barrett, who was at MIT and going to the dance.She got Catherine Casey's cousin Fanny Miley of Dorchester to go to the dance with Bill. Eventually Bill Barrett met and married Manny Miley's sister Catherine, who was a kindergarten teacher in Boston.Shortly after Jack and I moved to 422 Columbia Road, Dorchester in April, l932,we invited John Vaccaro and his fiancee Mary Burke of Dorchester for dinner. I did not see him again until we came to West Roxbury in l947, although Jack and John had dinner with him in downtown Boston soon after our return from Hawaii. He showed John the memorials Benjamin Franklin put up for his father and mother in an old graveyard near 73 Tremont Street.He recommended Jack talked to Father Kenealy, the dean of Boston College Law School about study under the GI Bill, which Jack successfully completed in l95l. In autumn 1947 John Vaccaro searched the title of our new Emmonsdale Road home in West Roxbury, and classmate Archie Dresser made the appraisal - $11,500. John Vaccaro had three daughters, Rose, Mary, and Claire. Claire married John Leitao of Lisbon Portugal and had one child.Catherine Casey eventually entered the teaching order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.In July l970 we learned by telephone from Fanny Miley in Milton that her cousin Catherine Casey was now Mother Catalina at Mount Saint Joseph Academy on 615 Cambridge Street, Brighton in charge of many teaching nuns, about to retire. Claire Vaccaro was a nurse.John Vaccaro attended Bill Barrett's funeral in January l967 in Darien and Mollie's in South Boston,October l967 after she died of colon cancer.John Vaccaro survived prostate removal but passed away February l969..-NOTEBOOK IV-[p91] August 23, 1922 Hotel William-Wallion? Philadelphia [to] Miss Catherine Miley, Dorchester Dearest Catherine, My address will be 508 S. 44th Street instead of Ardmore. I liked Ardmore very much indeed, but it has now served its purpose, and I am moving back where things are more convenient. As for business matters, I have decided not to enter the brass foundry business. First, because to operate as we could, there wouldn't be enough money in it for the effort expended. Second, To secure equipment to operate in production - production machines would require thre times as much capital as we have. Third A study of the costs at the foundry I was to take over, and talks with people intimately associated with the business convinced me that to enter the business would give one the privilege of working for oneself as a moulder and earning a moulder's pay only. I talked with the President of the Ajax Smelting Company, the President of the Metal Manufacturers Association, and the head of a moulding machine manufacturing company, and they showed me by logical argument that under the conditions of competition found in Philadelphia - cutthroat in the brass game- I would save time, money, and worry by staying away. I could go on and show cost data to demonstrate the inadequacy of the charges possible with the competition,but the above is sufficient. But why did it look so favorable and everyone seem so enthusiastic- even people who were in a position to know - until these three men I struck at about the same time and who knew the game from A to Z? Evidently they [the others]did not know that due to the relatively small amount of capital required to enter the business, there are a large number of small shops, -seldom heard of- throughout the city and they are all out for business and will take it at almost any price. The head of Ajax said he did not know of any brass founder who had become rich from the business.While I was willing to dig in, I could not see moulding for the rest of my days. Everything considered, I concluded that it was best to stay out, even at the expense of ridicule, slams, and the like. But it hurt me and still does, for your sake, to give it up. However, I know now that it's the best thing. Now, as to the future. I shall occupy my time with Crane Packing, who have been good enough to say, 'Come on'. But I have put out lines in other directions and shall hold out until they materialize. Under the circumstances you may do as you think best in this matter of the future. I had hoped this would settle me on my way and expected it would work out so we could be on our way together. I know now that it would not. While this was indeed discouraging,I'm not down yet and don't intend to be.As soon as this disturbance is over with and I get settled, I'll let you know how things stand for the future if you care still.- Most affectionately yours, Bill." {Not long before this Bill had helped Jack withdraw stock proceeds from Fuller stock investment company in May or June 1922. Jack was at sea on the MARBLEHEAD, and the brokerage was slow in paying out for a stock he sold. Bill went around and collected the check, so Jack avoided losing his money in the bankruptcy.] 1922 Business Card of William J. barrett Sales Engineer 15 Park Row New York City. Crane Packing Company 1800 Cuyler Avenue Chiacgo. Foundries at Chicago, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Manufacturers of John Crane Metallic Packings.[p72] "Washington, November 11, 1931 [from] William J. Barrett The President's Commission on Unemployment Relief 1734 New York Avenue, Washington D.C. [to] Lieutenant John B. Barrett c/o Postmaster Seattle, Washington USS TULSA Asiatic Station Dear Jack,- I'm anxious to do anything possible to assure your making the grade on your promotion. I know that under ordinary circumstances there would be no difficulty, but this economy move struck me as a possible interference. I'm here in Washington for reasons I'll soon tell you, and I think I'm in a position to get things done. Senator Walsh of Massachusetts is on the Naval committee of the Senate. Tell me immediately when the time is right, and I'll see that there is everything done possible. Since the first of March I've been loaned by the Metropolitan to President Hoover's committee on unemployment. At first I was working under Colonel Woods, -now under Mr. Gifford, President of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. My job is to bring out any ideas which will make for greater stability of employment and for better future planning against such depressions as the present. I've had interviews with everybody worthwhile so it seems in the country - I had a fine talk with President Hoover - about twenty minutes in his office - then referred to his confidential advisor for a further thirty minute talk. I appeared before the LaFollette Committee of the Senate as representative of the president's committee. It's been lots of fun, and I've enjoyed every minute, although there's plenty of work trying to hold down two jobs. From the foregoing I'd like to see what we could do down here to be sure you get that half-stripe. I'll do anything you suggest. I'll go to Senator Walsh right away after hearing from you and tell him what we'd like done, and I'm pretty sure we can get it. If necessary, cable me the time when - at my New York office. Everything at home has been fine. They enjoy, as I do, hearing from you, and I know it would add ten years to Pa's life if we could tell him that you had made the promotion - besides everybody else is expecting you to make it. I'm back in New York for this week, and I'll close now and expect to hear from you soon. Regards, Bill" [John Barrett note: Jack consistently told Bill that the Navy resented any political efforts at influence on promotions or assignments, and that they usually backfired. Nonetheless, he appreciated Bill's sincere friendly intentions, especially as regards the possible effect on their elderly father. The issue came up again in 1938,when Jack was ordered to serve as Executive Officer on the tanker TRINITY, traveling to PHilippines and East Indies. Bill argued that it would be traumatic for their then eighty-three year old recently widowed father to be separated from Jack, Sophie, and his two-year-old grandson. Nonetheless Jack wanted sea duty and urged Bill not to interfere.] [p 66]postmark November 23, 1933 The Shoreham, Washington, D.C. [to] Lieutenant Commander John B. Barrett USS HANNIBAL Navy Yard Norfolk, Virginia Dear Jack, I received the Army-Navy tickets, and they are very good. I got tickets for the Princeton game and went last Saturday. They were also excellent. Had a nice interlude after the game as Doug Brown a Princeton professor asked us to come to tea after the game at his home- just what you need after sitting out in the cold. Also, the nice box of candy arrived, for which I thank Sophie and you - here again I have no manners for not telling you long ago. I had planned to go to Boston after the Princeton game, but certain changes down here made it necessary to come back right away. I think I'll go up there this weekend after Thanksgiving. This work down here will probably end as far as I'm concerned about December 15. It's sure a merry whirl now, with lots and lots of activity. I want to get down to Norfolk soon and had hoped to before this. Last Saturday was the first I've had off for ages. Some Navy Lieutenant from your ship called me last night. I tried to take him to lunch, but he was apparently too pre-occupied. It's time to go to work. Regards to Sophie. Bill" [SOPHIE note: This letter seems to prove that Jack and Sophie went to Norfolk in the fall of 1933. We stayed at the Heart of Ghent Hotel in Norfolk- then lived in an apartment in Portsmouth, where Pa Barrett visited, also Mollie Barrett and Eileen Lane. At the Heart of Ghent we saw Bill Keester and Mrs. Keester of the Coast Guard, and visited them at their home in Norfolk soon after - then we moved to Portsmouth. On Christmas Day 1933 we were at 640 East Seventh Street, South Boston - stayed four days- and then were at Geetters' in New Britain New Years Eve 1933 and New Years Day 1934. We returned to Portsmouth the day after New Years Day. I remember stopping at the Shoreham in Washington to see Bill for lunch on our way down to Norfolk in the Buick in the fall. He had been loaned to the National Recovery Administration NRA by the Met and was offered a full time job in the Roosevelt administration but preferred to return to the Met.There was also a letter from Captain John Nelson at Boston Navy Yard to Jack on the HANNIBAL in Norfolk in the fall of 1933 and he sent regards to me. Captain Nelson was Jack's immediate superior at Boston Naval Shipyard 1932-1933.] [p34] New York City January 22, 1935 Dear Jack and Sophie, Sophie, if you'll let me know the exact silver you want, I'll get you quotations. My friend says that he can get the real inside at Gorham's, so all I'll have to supply is the patterns and quantities. I see by the papers that you all have arrived at your stations. I was home over the weekend, and the Times of Saturday announced the arrival of the HANNIBAL at Balboa. Everyone is fine at home. They are still talking of how much they enjoyed your visit- Pa is talking so much of Sophie that I think we have just cause to be jealous. Skippy was asking for you and semed to wonder why she didn't get more food from the seat against the wall at the kitchen table. I am enclosing [William] Perry's address [master of Lincoln school] but I know it's too late as Jack always rushes off and writes immediately about state troopers who rescue him in the rain - and why --- Perry's address is 49 Addington Avenue Brookline, Massachusetts, and he always was so fond of "Reddy". Shall I tell him to expect the letter? How is the Canal looking this year? Let's hear, but mostly, let's know how's everything. -Bill" [p53] to Lieutenant Commander J.B. Barrett USS CLAXTON c/o postmaster New York [from] Milwaukee August 11, 1936 Dear Jack, I've wired you from here today but wasn't quite sure where you'd be, so this letter. I'm on one of the U.S. Steel lake cargo boats - five hundred foot, carrying coal Detroit to Milwaukee this trip. I'm guest of Fred Erb of Detroit. It's been a beautiful trip and a wonderful vacation. Now - to get to the point. It is most important, if you can arrange it, in any way that Mr. Fred Erb get aboard the boat for the trip you are fixing for me. I'd like to have him along, and I know he'd love to go. He is the President of Eaton Erb Company of Detroit, an important subsidiary of the Eaton Manufacturing Company of Cleveland. He is a prominent citizen of Detroit and a great friend of mine.In fact, he is largely responsible for the success of the foundry survey - my first job with the Met, which I think had a lot to do with my getting known in the company. What I'd like to have is that he and I board the CLAXTON at New York Monday August 24, 1936 and go back to Norfolk and Annapolis with you. If at all possible, do this favor for me. If you get an answer before Friday, wire me c/o Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Group Division, General Motors Building, Detroit. I expect to be back there Thursday. I'm returning to New York Monday August 17. See you next week. Regards, Bill" [p 51]"July 1, 1942 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company William J. Barrett, manager Policy Service Bureau [to] Fourteenth Naval District Honolulu Hawaii, Dear Jack, I have been planning for so long to write you a letter that I am going to have to dictate it if I expect to get it to you soon. You will please excuse this. Today Mr. Frank Midkiff came in to see me at your suggestion, and I very much enjoyed my visit with him. He is an extremely well informed individual, and in fact he is well acquainted with a lot of my personal friends. We had all too short a visit. I had hoped that he could stay a little longer, but apparently having such a brief time in this country, he has practically every minute taken. It was interesting to hear that you have been asigned with Admiral Bagley. This must make it very pleasant for you. I was up home recently and found everything in good shape. Pa is holding up very well. In fact, I found him much better than I thought he would be in view of the apparent shocks which he suffered last year. He is naturally weak now and is very restive at the fact that he cannot do what he used to do, but under the circumstances I think he is in pretty good shape. We bought a house in Darien as I felt it was most advisable to hedge against what is to come and to know exactly where I was as far as the rental factor was concerned. This is not as large a piece of land as the other house, but has about an acre. It is a more practical house in many respects. I received your photographs and was very happy to see everyone looking so well. I learned tht your furniture is in Boston, and I understand that it is still on the pier, apparently there being no instructions as to what storage place to put it in. If there is anything I can do, let me know. Best regards to Sophie and John. As ever, Bill." [p.138] 1951 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company newspaper heading: William J. Barrett named Secretary picture of Bill in write-up.William J. Barrett, formerly Third Vice President was appointed Secretary of the Company on August 25th to fill the vacancy which occurred when James R. Herman passed away on July ninth. In announcing the appointment, the President said that Mr. Barrett will continue to head the Publications Division in his new capacity. He will also have responsibility for the operation and management of the Investigation Division, Filing and Tracing Division, Inquiry and Information Bureau, Mail Division, Supply Division, Transcription Division, Bronxville Hall of Records, and Kingston Hall of Records and will have Assistant Secretary Broadbent associated with him in the management of these units. In addition the Library, formerly under the supervision of the Health and Welfare Division will be transferred to the Secretary's office. Mr. Barrett joined the Company in 1923 as a member of the Policy Holders Service Bureau staff and rose to become Manager ten years later. In 1942 he was appointed an Officer of the Company with the title of Assistant Secretary. He became Assistant Vice President in 1944 and a Third Vice President in 1947." SOPHIE TEXT: Going back to January l938 Jack and Bill were both in Boston for the funeral of Bill's mother (Jack's stepmother, Mary Lane Barrett). In September l938 Bill flew on business to the West coast, and narrowly escaped injury in an airplane accident. He visited the Presentation Convent at San Francsico where some of the nuns had known his father's sister, Sister Mary Joseph and unsuccessfully made inquiry for Robert Fahrbach in San Francisco. Then he visited us in Coronado, swam, and told us he would soon marry Virginia Brady. The wedding took place at St. Patrick's cathedral in New York city, and Grandpa, Mollie, Katherine Kinnaly and John and Anna Lambert were there. Bill and Virginia honeymooned in France and sent us the Becassine children's books and several toys for Christmas.That year Bil and Virginia had Thanksgiving dinner at 640 East Seventh Street.They rented a lovely home in Darien Connecticut.Virginia had grown up in the Bronx and was about twenty-two years old.Billy Barrett (William Joel) was born August 26, l939. We saw him a few months later while Miss Blanche Caffey, John's former practical nurse, was working at Darien.Bill visited us once in Brooklyn, bringing John a toy steam shovel from Macy's.Billl also called us up in Brooklyn to give us the first news of Jack's promotion from Lieutenant Commander to Commander, as Bill had read about it in the New York Times.The promotion occurred in the spring of l940 retroactive to the summer of l939.We visited Darien after receiving orders to Hawaii in l94l. Bill and Virginia invited us to the Darien Country Club, where Jack took pictures of John and Billy.Bill wrote to us frequently during the war.He regretted Jack's absence because of his father's age and had attempted through a Congressman in l938 to prevent Jack's assignment to the TRINITY in the Pacific. He thought Jack's presence near Boston would be beneficial for his father.Mrs. Paul Rice met Bill for lunch at the Metropolitan Life offices in New York City after she left Hawaii in February l942. Frank Midkiff, a Hawaiian businessman who worked with Jack on evacuation matters l941-42, also visited Bill in New York.Billy had come to Boston to see his father the weekend of August 2l, l942, but found his father had suddenly died aged eighty=seven years, eight months.Virginia wrote immediately, as she went back to Darien with Billy while Bill made the funeral arrangements.Bill and Mollie wrote a couple of weeks later.Bill had been going forward steadily in the company and soon made Vice President.His work in the Policy Holders Service bureau and in liaison with large industrial customers warrented mention in a book about the Metropolitan sponsored by the Company, "HEALTH AND WEALTH."Bill eventually became Secretary of the Company, and his name appeared on policies from 1951 until he retired at end of 1962. During World War II he was loaned to the War Production Board headed by Donald Nelson. In the l950's he taught at the Wharton Business School in Philadelphia.He was a trustee of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, and of American Heritage Foundation. A neighbor in Darien was the writer Louise Hall Tharp, whose husband worked at the Metropolitan.Bill gave John a copy of her book "Company of Adventurers" about the Hudson Bay Company of Canada and the northwest. She wrote "The Peabody Sisters of Salem", an account of Nathaniel Bowditch and many other historical books.Virginia died of cancer in May, l945 while we were still in Hawaii. Her mother went to live in Darien, and "Gram" became very close to Billy Our first reunion with Bill and Billy was at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire in l947..John visited at Darien for several days around l952 and had a chance to get acquainted with Bill, Billy and "Gram". His aunt Mollie was there also, and she frequently spent weekends at Darien. After "Gram's" death in l953 Mollie went to0 Darien nearly every weekend, as Billy had long trips commuting to work.In l951 Billy attended summer Camp Idlewild on an island on Lake Winnipesaukee New Hampshire. He devoted time to sailing and collected stamps, attended Darien High School and in summers Culver Military camp in Indiana- then tried freshman year at his father's alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.One time on a visit he introduced us to cranberry juice, which was starting to become popular. Later his uncle Jack drank a lot of cranberry juice when his doctors discouraged the use of orange and lemon juice because of his prostate condition. Billy transferred to Depauw Universitry in Indiana, where he was graduated in l963. His wife Sara is an Indiana native, and her sister and brother-in-law lived at 640 East Seventh Street for a time after Mollie died.Billy worked in the Investment section of the Metropolitan Life Company until 1966 and settled in Rumson, New Jersey on the coast near Sandy Hook.He joined Gregory and then Saxton Company as a securities underwriter. Bill senior remarried in l958. His third wife was Mrs. Margaret Floyd, a widow with four children ranging in age from nineteen to age four. After a honeymoon in Spain, Bill and Margaret sold Bill's home at Wakeman Place to buy a larger house on Oxridge Lane, Darien.Bill Floyd the eldest was Billy's age. He attended the Portsmouth Priory, Rhode Island and Brown University, studied in England and later returned to be a teaching brother at the Priory.Mollie in l960 spent a week in Bay Saint Louis Mississippi on the Gulf coast visiting Mrs. DeSta, the mother of the Floyd children's father, who had been killed in an auto accident.Bill had a heart attack in l962 but was sufficiently recovered by September, l963 to accept the presidency of an arts and crafts marketing company on Forty-Second Street, New York, with a staff of forty-five or fifty.He was taken ill at work on January 20, l967 and died at at a Stamford, Connecticut, hospital the next day of an aneurysm. Mollie had fortunately had a particualarly fine extended Christmas visit with him a month earlier. Despite cold snow eather Jack drove to the funeral, attndd by Bill's classmate and close friend, Boston lawyer John Vaccaro, and the sisters of Bill's first wife - Fanny and Mary Miley of Milton.Margaret gave a luncheon, where Jack saw Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe, Bill's cousin Myles Lane,then a judge in New York, and H. Kennedy McCook, who had traveled with Jack and Bill on the EAGLE l9 to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor in l932. In their later years both Mollie and Bill traveled to Europe. There are photos of Mollie in Rome in 1963 with her neighbors the Pistorino sisters, and Bill visited Ireland in 1966, including a stop at Kenmare, where the Lane family once lived. From the Boston Latin School Register: William Joseph Barrett entered Out-of-Course Fourth Class in l908 from the Frederick Lincoln Grammar School. He won a classical prize in l908, a Fidelity Ring (for perfect attendance) in l909 and a prize for 'conduct above criticism' - l9l2. = Tharp letter: Louise Hall Tharp Box 28 Darien Conn 06820 Feb l8,l974 My dear Mr. Barrett: Your letter of February 11 is most interesting. I saw little of Mr. William J. Barrett in Darien, but during the life of his second wife, VIRGINIIA, she and I were good friends. Their son "Billy" used to go to the beach with us, and my two boys regarded Billy as a sort of younger brother.I am happy to hear that he has sons of his own. I once met Virginia's father-in-law at her first home in Darien, which was near us. My husband suggested that you get in touch with Mrs. Grace Pugh 56 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10015, who used to work with him and knew him very well.Ask her for the address of Mrs. Spain, who was his secretary for many years. Good luck on your project. Sincerely your, Louise Hall Tharp. (Auhor of "Company of Adventurers" "Down to the Sea" (Nathaniel Bowditch) and "The Peabody Sisters of Salem." [attach Lane-Lynch genealogy?] |
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Austrian military or naval personnel lent old-fashioned swim suits for cadets at Trieste according to class of l911 cadet Wilfred N. Derby later Vice Admiral United States Coast Guard and l947-l950 Superintendant of Coast Guard Academy at New London. The Revenue Cutter School was renamed the CoastGiuard Academy after merger with Life Saving Service l9l5, and most Coast Guard alumni got in habit of speaking of the prior Revenue Cutter School as "the ACADEMY" FOR SIMPLICITY. A November 30, 1921 family letter mentions that a "silly. boyish prank" led to Jack Barrett being required to resign from the Revenue Cutter School in November 1911 six months before his scheduled graduation. He had scored third in the United States on the 1909 Entrance examination.He remained on close terms of personal friendship with a subtantial number of his fellow cadets, - many of whom had high Coast Guard rank in the World War II period and contributed to communications, education and safety at sea and in the Arctic. |
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