Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
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One of Sophie's Hartford Public High School teachers Harriet Barstow interested Sophie in attending Mount Holyoke College.In Pearsons Hall freshman year particular friends included Eleanor Hall, Clara Michal(-opoulos, born in Smyrna) and Becky Smaltz. Sophie scored a 98 in Economics sophomore year, and Professor Alzada Comstock said Sophie wrote the best exam paper she had ever received from a student.Sophie waited on tables and worked on the switchboard - the last job arranged for her by Cora Hughes'22 so Sophie could afford a junior prom date.Sophie's sister Bertha had a friend Sadie Slonaim of Hartford who eventually married U. Mass journalism student Bert Quint,and they introduced Sophie and Nandor Porges, who played football and dated Sophie 1922-l923 - expect to study soil schemisty - used to commute by trolley from the amherst campus to Mount Holyoke. Sophie studied statistics under labor economist Amy Hewes who invited her to work in statistics laboratory while doing master's degree (Young Offender and the Law in Massachusetts MA 1925.Sophie minored in German with Grace Bacon, who went to France l9l9 with Army nurses.Sophie enjoyed hearing Mary Woolley in chapel mornings and class singing. Her father and mother attneded the 1923 graduation when Amerst's president Alexander Meiklejohn was featured speaker. Sophie attende a gfootball game 1922 with Nandor against Mass. Aggie's traditional rival - he gave her his fraternity pin the Saturday night before graduation - then raced to catch last trolley to Amherst 9:50 pm, but she never heard from him again.MOUNT HOLYOKE memoir text: ."..My home room & English teacher was Miss Harriet Barstow, a young (l9l5) graduate of Mount Holyoke College,interested in missionary work. Her sister was also a teacher. Miss Barstow encouraged me to apply for Mount Holyoke College. Many of the girls had given up the idea of college because the best girls' colleges just that year had decided to require college entrance examinations for the first time in the year we were scheduled to enter. [p.15] But Miss Barstow was persistent with me and helped me to make out an application to Mount Holyoke College.She had sent for the form. So I took the College board exams in English, Latin, and mathematics as required at that time. Mount Holyoke agreed to accept me on condition that I take trigonometry my freshman year, as my grade in geometry in high school was unsatisfactory. So I reluctantly agreed to take mathematics my freshman year at Mount Holyoke. My high school subjects senior year were English, German, Latin, and Chemistry. I do not recall my grades and have no record of them. As soon as I was sixteen years old, I started to work Saturdays and summers at G. Fox and company.'s department store on Main Street, where my brother Ben worked in the shipping department. I sold notions. When I left at the end of the summer 1919 to enter college, the department gave me a sewing basket filled with all the pins, needles, darners,cotton,scissors,tape measure that a college girl away from home really needs. When I wrote to the college accepting admission, I asked for work to do to help pay expenses, and the college gave me a job waiting on table for lunch and dinner seven days a week, except no Sunday supper. Since none of my older brothers or sisters had attended college, we were all enthusiastic, even though none of us knew how we could finance the venture beyond my freshman year. My savings from working at Grant's and at Fox's would cover freshman year but allow nothing for clothes or recreation., To a seventeen year old girl who had never been farther from home than high school, a trip to South Hadley, Massachusetts seemed too much. So my beloved brother "Al" (Abe) volunteered to accompany me on the train to college the Saturday before classes were to begin.My oldest sister Esther, a bookkeeper for Swift & Company loaned me her suitcase,which was more than ample because about the only clothes I had were those I was wearing.She also gave me her fur lined leather winter coat which I used all four years at school Since it was really only a jacket I really needed the woolen skirt I wore with it. It was an uneventful trip - we took a train to Springfield, changed there to a Boston and Maine train for Holyoke, then had a long trolley ride to South Hadley. I was to live on the fourth floor of Pearsons Hall [on the west side of the main road near the President's home] , and as it was geting dark that September afternoon, the small room with its bare furnishings did not look inviting, and I think my brother would have taken me home if I had asked him to. At this point my "big sister" appeared. She was a member of the class of 1921, who had written to me during the summer. She was pretty and cordial, and her greeting to me and to my brother helped, but she left almost immediately saying she would get in touch with me again. Al had to leave for the trip home- so he was off, and I was alone- left to a lonesomeness which I survived but which led many of my classmates to leave. Fortunately I was scheduled to have dinner at 5:30 so that I would be free to wait on table at six,& after the wholesome generous warm food I felt a little better & managed to wait on my table without seasoning the food with tears. But that Saturday evening was an eternity. Freshman week was not observed at Mount Holyoke. I stood by the window in that small room on the fourth floor looking out at the awful darkness and struggled against my loneliness with nothing to do, as I had so few possessions to unpack and so few stamps to waste on letter writing. Eleanor Hall had the cubby hole next to mine, and Olivia Sherrod had the one across the hall from me, and Clara Michal was next to Olivia. I didn't meet Eleanor or Olivia for some time, but I met Clara on Sunday because she too waited on table. Soon I knew all the girls who waited on table. and when I heard Olivia sobbing in her room I went in to comfort her - but before the first week was over,she had left Two freshmen Becky Smaltz and Frances David from Germantown Friends School had a double room on that fourth floor -but the rest of us had single rooms- there were Kay Trufant, whose family grew cranberries on Cape Cod, Mildred Janney, Ruth Connally,, Anne Bell, and Agnes Cormack.18- Soon after Olivia went, Anne Bell and Agnes Cormack gave up too and went home. I was crazy about the cook,Elizabeth & she liked me, gave me extra steak & vegetables & always offered me extra dessert. Her warmth kept me there when others gave up & went home,& her food added seventeen pounds to my weight so that the only way I could use my one woollen skirt was to keep it together by a horse-blanket-sized safety pin supplied by the cook,who could even make hash taste good.Since I always wore a white middy blouse,the safety pin did not show.At most I had three middy blouses but kept them clean in a well supplied laundry in the basement of the dormitory. After I left Pearson's I went back every year to see Elizabeth even after I became a member of the faculty. Those of us who waited on table fared better at dinner than the other girls because we ate first just as soon as the food was cooked & of course before there was a shortage of any item. We had our lunch after the others ate. My subjects freshman year were Chemistry, Trigonometry, German, and English. Except for the "Trig", which gave me some trouble, I had no academic difficulty. I concentrated on making friends with Clara Michal, Mildred Janney, Ruth Connally, Becky Smaltz, and a few seniors. The greatest thrill of my life up to that time came the Wednesday before Thanksgiving- because I was going home after I served brunch. I could hardly breathe for excitement, as my sister Esther had sent me the price of the round trip. I rarely wrote home as I had used the few stamps I had and had no cash to buy one-cent or two-cent stamps. I remember my joy when Julius Aronson, my brother Al's best friend,wrote a letter to me enclosing one dollar early in my freshman year. I used it at the college bookstore for theme paper. As I left the building where my last Wednesday class let out at noon, I was overjoyed to be going home. I greeted my father first downstairs in the grocery and general store heowned - then my mother up in the kitchen - then my sisters and brothers as they came home from work and school.I walked home from the railroad station with my suitcase, and then walked back to the station Sunday afternoon with Esther and my younger brother Pete. The next summer 1920 I went back to Fox's notion counter and spent my sophomore year residing at South Cottage and again waited on table to help meet expenses.My courses were German, Physiology Economics, and Sociology.. Sophomore year I roomed with Eleanor Hall who had lived next door to me in Pearson's,who drew a lucky number enabling her to choose a room very early on the list,& she invited me to join her in spacious quarters for two. {Eleanor later studied library science at Simmons College. I saw her at reunions in 1978 and 1983]. There in South Cottage there was quiet for study & soon after the mid year examinations I received a note from Professor Alzada Comstock saying that she had given me a grade of 98 on the Economics exam and considered my paper the best she had ever read by a student. We used Taussig's text and recited from David Ricardo: "Corn is not high because rent is dear. Rent is dear because corn is high." Chapter One Sophie Family History p 75 #1254 second part after Alzada Comstock, Taussig sophomore year Mt. Holyoke Edit Taussig's text and recited from David Ricardo: "Corn is not high because rent is dear. Rent is dear because corn is high." During the years after World War I there was a period of great enthusiasm for singing at the college. Our l923 class song "The SPHINX" was written (lyrics) by archaeologist Marion Nosser with music by classmate Ruth King Dunne freshman year,"Wind hushed, the desert lies dreaming Under the far eastern sky Only the Sphinx keeps its secret, Waiting for daylight to die.Now 'neath the warm blue of heaven,Rousing itself with a sigh,Softly it speaks & its whisper Floats to the dome of the sky.Hark don't you hear the far echo? Borne on the night wind to us? Now has the Sphinx told its secret "NON SIBI SED OMNIBUS" (for all, not self).Faithful,we'll guard it forever, Marching Beneath it unfurled Until the age-long secret lies in the heart of the world." . After a fire destroyed Rockefeller Hall one November, forcing residents to live in the gymnasium, several girls of our class wrote a "Fund=Raiser" song for alumnae & friends, " Holyoke's RAISING College-BRED (BREAD) From the Flower (FLOUR) of the land. From YEAST (y'east) & West with plenty of SPICE She makes a superior brand.We KNEAD (need) a lot of DOUGH To RAISE the Fund 'tis SAID. But WE are NEEDED (KNEADED) too,you see, For WE are COLLEGE=BRED (BREAD)." Mildred Holt participated in that and led us in"Competitive Class Sing" which we frequently won. One song used the melody of Triumphal Chorus of Verdi's AIDA to the words "Where Peace & Freedom Reign, the Happy Songs of Children Rise. The desolate of all the earth find here their sorrow dies."That sophomore year I made the acquaintance of a Massachusetts Agricultural College senior who occasionally came over to see me.His name was George Quint,a journalism major whose fiancee Sade Slonim of Hartford was my sister Bee's girl friend. (Their son Bert Quint was CBS-tv foreign correspondent East Europe-Near East l970's.That summer between my sophomore & junior years I worked with my sister Esther at H.L. Handy company near the railroad tracks.Across from the company where I did filing that summer was the Cohen Coal company, where a young man worked & smiled at us when we were going to or coming from work. He was often outside directing his coal truck drivers. When I returned to college for my junior year,my finances were precarious but Mount Holyoke had initiated a new system of reduced rates for some rooms,so I took a fourth floor room where I waited on the table of Miss Amy Hewes, who was at the head of the Department of Economics & Sociology.She told Miss Wheeler the house mother that my waiting on her table was a complete joy to her. Consequently in my senior year I waited on Miss Wheeler's table, where all her VIP guests ate.My courses junior year were German, (with Grace Bacon, who had been in France with Red Cross in l9l9 & sang songs like "Joan of Arc"), Economics (Money & Banking), Bible,Ballads & Psychology.There were several Freshmen on Brigham Fourth Floor & a senior named Cora Hughes, who were fond of me & pleaded with me to attend Junior Prom. I explained that I had no partner, no evening dress,& no money to pay for the ticket & to pay for a man's room.So one freshman named Gray offered me a blue velvet evening gown(which I tried on).Cora Hughes (l922) offered to teach me to run the Mount Holyoke College switchboard saying I could make thirty=five cents a hour , & she would let me take her hours until I had earned enough to meet the Prom expenses,which we small (& I continued Senior year after she graduated.) Now the problem was the man.(George Quint was graduated,about to be married).I wrote to my sister Esther,asking her to find out the name of the boy who worked at the Coal company across from Handy's. I was pleased to learn that he was the son of the owner-&probably would have the use of a car. So I wrote him inviting him to Junior Prom,and when he accepted,all of Brigham's Fourth Floor rejoiced.It was all a pure joy from the time he arrived,until I received his box of candy & thank you note . That summer again I worked at G. Fox & Co.but now at the stationery counter which was short-handed.Also that summer I wrote to the Dean of Mount Holyoke College (Purrington) reluctantly telling her that I couldn't meet the costs of the Senior year. because my younger brother had entered Trinity college & that my brother Al (Abe) was married & that my sister Bea was not working because of illness. Whereupon the dean offered to lend me without interest any amount that I might need to return to college. So I borrowed several hundred dollars,which I returned to the college before the end of the next year (l924). Again .senior year I lived in the cheaper room Brigham's fourth floor,waited on table but had a little more spending money because I worked a few evenings a week & Sunday mornings operating the telephone switchboard,which I enjoyed..My courses were French, Social Work, Statistics, Philosophy,& Art. "Lights Out" was at ten o'clock. All girls in the college were supposed to be ready for bed at this time. Occasionally a girl could keep her lights on later to study,but even then she had to be safely in her room by ten o'clock. Toward the end of the junior year I received a note from a Junior at Massachusetts Agricultural College,who said his fraternity brother George Quint of New York suggested we get acquainted.After that we dated Saturday evenings during the remainder of junior & senior year. His name was Nandor (Ferdinand) Porges (of Hyde Park, Massachusetts). Early in the senior year my friend Nandor Porges told me that he had made the Massachusetts "Aggie" football team.He invited me to the last game of the season against a traditional rival.So I sat alone & saw him on the Aggie bench sucking lemons & wrapped in a blanket.The game went badly for Mass Aggie & as time went on I watched him impatiently sucking lemons,but the game ended without his taking part.He planned to go on to Rutgers to study soil chemistry.On the last Saturday evening of our senior year, he & I were sitting on a bench under a tree near my dormitory.It was after nine thirty by the Mary Lyon clock, which was illuminated & which we could see from where we were sitting. He had to take a ten o'clock (9:50 pm) trolley for Amherst, & I had to be in my room with lights out by ten o'clock.As we were both about to take final exams & to leave right after graduation, we knew that this was our last meeting.When he asked me to marry him,I agreed to..He pinned his fraternity pin on me,gave me verbally his parents' address in Hyde Park, told me again that he expected to go to Rutgers the next year to study soil chemistry. As his trolley left at ten minutes before ten, he left me at Brigham Hall at 9;45 & rushed off without even a handshake. Exams came & went.I heard nothing from him. Commencement came & went.Still I heard nothing from him.When I had been home (Hartford) a week & was about to leave for New York City (social work) I decided to free myself of a promise made hurriedly to a boy who didn't telephone or write,,so I wrote to him carefully, putting my return address on the envelope, in case I had remembered his address incorrectly & told him I had changed my mind about marrying him & would return his fraternity pin shortly.But I waited to hear from him before returning the pin,thinking that he would surely answer the letter & make some explanation as the marriage proposal came from him although I had never encouraged him to believe that I was interested in him except as a pleasant social contact. I put the fraternity pin in a bureau drawer & forgot to take it with me when I left for New York City very soon after the letter & my father promised to forward any mail that might come from him. I naver heard from him & I never returned his fraternity pin,thinking if he wanted it he would have to write for it. But he never did.At the first class meeting senior year there was a hearsay report that all the previous year's officers should be re-elected unanimously. Some members of the class were indignant that a handful of girls should run the class all the time, so they insisted upon individuals nominations for class officers. I was elected Sargeant at Arms, a post that gave me pleasant duties that year & at reunions.(Class won silver cup for high attendance at 25th Reunion l948 -stolen photo showed Sophie holding the cup with class officers) Before I was graduated,I knew every member of my class.Attendance at morning chapel & at Church Sunday was required. In the Senior year each girl wore cap & gown every morning to chapel.& when the service was over, the Seniors marched out in twos,singing a hymn to the accompaniment of the organ.Every Sunday a well known minister would visit the college to conduct church services.. [near bottom page 23 - John Barrett note{Sophie's father & mother and sisters Esther & Babe Rebekah rented a car to attend the l923 graduation at which Sophie received her A.B. degree. They were guests at the luncheon table of Sophie's advisor & future boss, Amy Hewes, head of Economics & Sociology Department,which was organized l907..The morning speaker had been Alexander Meiklejohn, president of Amherst College,who had strong views on excellence in education and was considered radical..Someone asked "Pa" Meranski what he thought of the speaker,and he replied in his usual loud voice,so that everyone at the table could not miss hearing him,"They'll fire him."(Miss Hewes remained polite & unpeturbed). "Pa" Meranski's prediction proved correct.He was active in teaching English to immigrants through the Moses Montefiore society in Hartford and in helping families make funeral arrangements through Capitol city Lodge..His daughter Babe recollects that around l9l2-l9l4 Boris Thomaschevsky of Yiddish theatre, Second Avenue, New York & members of his family when on tour would sing at the Meranski restaurant on Morgan Street, & Thomaschevsky invited Bertha Meranski to travel as a singer with his company,but her parents considered it inadvisable. She was active in the glee club and girls Business Club in class of l9l7 at Hartford High along with her friends Eva Levin &..Silverberg. Their photos appeared in l9l7 yearbook, but in l9l9 there was no yearbook because of paper shortage after World War I.The three older Meranski brothers,Harry Ben & Abe were drafted late summer l9l8.It made their mother so nervous that she put salt instead of sugar she was making.Two went to Fort Devens, Massachusetts & one to Fort Dix New Jersey. Two had influenza, probably Harry & Ben.Several of the family took middle names or nicknames -Benjamin Franklin Meranski, Sophie Ruth Meranski = she loved the Book of Ruth in the Bible-Israel Peter Meranski & Rebekah "Babe" Meranski Geetter.Sophie sang many World War I songs: "Alsace is sighing, Lorraine is crying Your mother France looks to you.Our hearts are bleeding Are you unheeding Come with that flame in your glance. Through the gates of Heaven Do they bar your way? Souls who passed through Yesterday (chorus:) "Joan of Arc,Joan of Arc Do your eyes from the skies see the foe? Don't you see the drooping fleurs-de-lis? Can't you hear the cries of Normandy?Joan of arc may your spirit guide us through! Come lead your France to Victory!Joan of Arc they are calling you." She sang the Plattsburg March:"Oh it's not the pack that you carry on your back,Nor the Springfield (rifle) on your shoulder Nor the Four Inch crust of khaki-colored dust that makes you feel you're surely getting older,And it's not the hike on the old turnpike That drives away your smiles nor the socks of sister's That raise the blooming blisters-It's the last long mile." (Breitel). She effectivly rendered Irving Berlin's "Oh,how I hate to get up in the morning! Oh,how I like to spend my time in bed! But the hardest thing of all is to hear the bugler call,":You gotta get up,you gotta get up,you gotta get up this morning!Someday I'm going to murder the bugler. Someday they're going to find him dead.I'll put my uniform away,I'll move to Philadelphi-ay & spend the rest of my time in bed."She also liked(with slight variations)to sing his:"I give the moon above To those in love when I leave the world behind,I'll leave the song birds to the blind.."and "Cohen owes me ninety-seven dollars. It's up to you to see that Cohen pays.I have a bill of goods from Rosenstein & sons On an I-O-you-ou-ou for ninety days.If you'll promise me my son, you'll collect from everyone, I'll die with a smile upon my face."From l9l7 also were comic songs music by Bert Grant & lyrics by Sam Lewis & Joe Young"Pat McCarthy hale &hearty Living in Oregon-He heard a lot of talk about the great New York-So he left the farm where all was calm,And he landed on old Broadway- He took the little Mary Ann into a swell cafe: 'Arrah go wan I want to go back to Oregon.I want to go back to stay.I could feed the horses many a bale of hay for all that it costs to feed one chick on old Broadway.Arrah go wan gowichagowaygowan arrah go wan I want to go back to Oregon!'" and "Timothy Kelly who owned a big store Wanted the name painted over the door.One day Pat Clancy the painterman came Tried to be fancy & misspelled the name. Instead of a Kelly with a double L, Y, he painted "Kely" but one L was shy.Pat says 'it looks right,but I want no pay -I figured it out in my own little way.If I knock the "L" out of Kelly. It would still be Kelly to me.Sure a single L, Y or a double L, Y, Should look the same to any Irishmans eye--Knock out the L from Killarney, Sure Killarney it always would be,But if I knock the L out of Kelly,He'll knock the "l" out of me."From early Hartford days Sophie sang "Moving day, moving day. Take you oil stove from the floor.Take your stove,and There's the door." "Oil,oil,kerosene oil- My oil is better than Finnegan's oil. Finnegan's oil is water. Mine's kerosene oil." To the tune "Love me & the World is mine" l907 hit she sang_"I care not for the Hartford Times I dare not read the Evening Post-I do not want the Journal-One cent & the WORLD (newspaper) is mine." She liked Alfred Gumble's l9l3 " When the honeysuckle vine Comes a-creeping round the door A sweetheart mine Is waiting patiently for me-You can hear the Whipporwill Sounding softly from the hill Her memory haunts you Rebecca wants you Come on back to Sunnybrook Farm." A minor key phrase in this song also appears in l9l5 "Are you from Dixie? Are you from Dixie? Where the fields of cotton beckon to me. I'm glad to see you Tell me how be you And the friends I'm longing to see? Are you from Alabama, Tennessee or Caroline? Anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line?Then you"re from Dixie! Hurrah for Dixie! 'Cause I'm from Dix-ie too."(George Cobb-Harry Yellen) Also "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia In the Trail of the Lonesome Pine. In the pale moon shine our hearts entwine Where You carved your name & I carved mine-O June in the mountains of blue Like the pine I am pining for you.In the Blue .Ridge Mountains of Virginia, in the trail of the lonesome pine." Particularly when her younger brother Pete courted and married a Baltimore belle Jeanette Goldberg, she was fond of the chorus "There's a girl in the heart of Maryland With a heart that belongs to ME When I told her of my love the ORIOLE above Sang from the old apple tree And Maryland was fairyland when she prmised my bride she"d be There's a girl in the heart of Maryland With a heart that belongs to me." To the same melody & rhyme pattern she sang a curious parody:"'There's a man in my room',cried Mary Ann -'Put him out,put him out' cried Sue."I'm afraid,I'm afraid',cried another little maid,'What shall we all ever do? '....'who do you suppose that he may be?' 'No you DON'T put him out', cried Mary Ann-'What's in my ro-oom belongs to ME.'"' end of NOTE} Sophie narrative:-_ ' _ Commencement day my father and mother -24-came to the graduation exercises where President Meiklejohn of Amherst was the main speaker. After his talk at Miss Hewes's luncheon, my father said,"They'll throw him out." Sure enough a year later President Meiklejohn was forced to resign from Amherst because of his controversial views, My father and mother were invited by Miss Hewes to have lunch with her at her table in Brigham Hall. Then we drove home. I have some good snapshots [[stolen 1993]] of me and some classmates taken Commencement Day.Miss Hewes in 1970 when this was written was ninety-two years old and was living in OssiningNew York with Madeleine Grant, another Mount Holyoke professsor. [Every four years Mount Holyoke put on a Faculty play, which usually related to college history. Alzada Comstock of the Economics and Sociology Department had a major role in the 1924 play while Sophie was junior faculty. That play dealt with a Mount Holyoke faculty in episodes twenty-five years apart, - 1874-1899-1924. President Mary Woolley was a highly successful fund-raiser up until the 1930s Great Depression, and she articulated the need for career opportunities for women in Education, business, and government. She had a very active public speaking schedule and spent much of 1922 in China touring on missionary-related activities. She made a point of knowing every student and faculty member, though Sophie's personal contacts with her were not numerous outside of the Sunday chapel, in which Miss Woolley usually spoke and introduced speakers.Miss Woollley was a strong opponent of smoking "a dirty habit." The college was founded as a seminary by Mary Lyon in 1837. Miss Lyon had a major interest in botany as well as religion. Although the seminary was very small, until developed into a women's college in 1889, there was a strong tradition of scholarship, including science. One faculty member found a fossil dinosaur skeleton in the Mesozoic rocks of the Connecticut Valley, but it was destroyed in a 1917 fire. Many of the best-known faculty such as organist -choir director Professor Hammond dated from the 1890s, as did biologist Cornelia Clapp, who had affiliations at Woods Hole marine biology, so Miss Woolley was not entirely responsible for the development of a strong faculty. English was the largest field of study, but there were many concentrators in Economics and Sociology, a combined department organized around the time Ames Hewes came to the faculty in1907 and reflecting her interests as a labor economist and statistician. She was friendly with Dr. Louis Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company an actuary and pioneer of statistical research in public health and accident prevention - he made studies of tuberculosis and venereal disease. Others in the Department included Alzada Comstock and Ethel Dietrich, who tended to be on the Economic side- and Aryness Joy, who went to the Children's Bureau, United States Department of Labor, where Sophie Meranski worked summer 1924 in Detroit and June-November 1935, with extensive travel. Of Sophie's friends from freshman year in Pearsons Hall, Clara Michalopoulos born Symrna Asia Minor home in Springfield Massachusetts became a social worker in Detroit, Boston, and New Haven - and Rebecca Glover Smaltz was in State Labor Department of Pennsylvania and active in Young Womens Christian Association in Philadelphia. These two remained among Sophie's clostest friends more than sixty-seven years 1919-1987 and saw her at 1933,1948, 1978, 1983 reunions. Becky's friend and roommate Frances David was also in social work and statistics. She compiled an amusing colllection of comic songs "College Crackers 1923" and as an unpaid voluneer she continued the Statistical Reporting Sophie began at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.Sophie was junior faculty in 1924 in the Statstics Lab under May Hewes. In1988 College History librarian gave John Barrett junior a very interesting photo of Sophie standing in the lab with five students of the class of 1925 seating at typewriters and accounting machines. Unfortunately it disappeared in 1993 thefts. Students included Frances Manning, Emily Miller Noss, Emily Barrows. A member of the 1925 class Ruth Muskrat was a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma who became for many years an official of the Indian Affairs Bureau of the U.S. government. In Detroit summer 1924 Sophie lived with the Patterson family while doing statistical research on adults who had graduated from schools for the Retarded -they generally were self-supporting and had good family life. Mary and Ruth Patterson were in the classes of 1923 and 1925. Ruth was in the statistics course and invited Sophie's younger brother Pete to the 1925 Senior Prom as her own fiance was far away to attend. It was an opportunity for Pete to see his sister's college, and in 1926 he returned the courtesy by inviting Sophie to a dance at his fraternity at University of Maryland Medical School, and she stayed with the family of his future wife, Jeannette Goldberg and got to know the Goldbergs.] Notebook One page 30- In September 1923 when I returned to Mount Holyoke College to assist in the Department of Economics and Sociology I had a lovely big room on the first floor of Hitchcock Cottage, occupied by sophomores only.They were pleasant girls who gave me no trouble. We had our meals in the large cottage next door where I headed a table and was served by a waitress for the first time as I had waited on table all four of my undergraduate years. I tried to lead the conversation and make sure the girls got enough to eat. One of the girls at my table was Anna Mary Wells, who had just entered the class of 1926 with sophomore standing. She became of professor of English at Rutgers and writer of many New Yorker articles and the 1963 "Dear Preceptor," a life of Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1822-1911 that emphasizes his interest in women's education and careers and his editing and preservation of the poetry of Emily Dickinson, the innovative woman poet who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts and spent a year at Mount Holyoke. Dickinson and Higginson corresponded many years on literature, with the older well-known clergymen in role of tutor and mentor, though they met only twice briefly. Then in the 1970s I friendly correspondence with Anna Mary after I learned from Elaine Trehub that she was researching a second book on Miss Woolley. The second year 1924-5 I lived at Cowles Lodge.,also occupied by sophomores. My classmate Betty Gilman, an assistant in chemistry, lived there too. There was a kindly, elderly house mother. Betty made a pretty red dress for me, with white collars and cuffs, and she even did a good job cutting my long hair into a stylish bob. I still have a fine picture of the two of us taken in academic cap and gown on Commencement Day 1925 when both of us received Master's Degrees. Betty went to Yale in New Haven on a fellowship and received a Ph.D in Chemistry. She married Elliott Roberts Ph.D Yale soon after, - raised two girls and a boy and has lived many years in Westport, Connecticut. When a senior at Mount Holyoke College she was president of the Student Government and has taken as an alumna a vital interest in the development of the college. One of her daughters attended Cornell, another Tufts, and her son completed a five year course for a master's degree at MIT. I sat next to her at Alumnae meeting at our twenty-fifth reunion, and we had a good chance to talk while we ate our lunch there - the box lunch. We also rode together in Ruth Peck's car to our banquet at a Holyoke hotel. I have a real note fron her every year at Christmas time. Soon (1973) we will have our fifty year reunion. |
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p 28-842 Becky was one of Sophie's closest friends, beginning 1919 freshman year on fourth b floor of Pearsons Hall.Both majored in Economics and sociology and became social workers. Becky grew up in Mount Airy,. and Sophielived with the Samltz family l926 while developing Statistical Reporting Techniques for Child guidance clinics at a Commonwealth Fund Demonstration clinic in Sluth Philadelphia.Bedcky visited Russia about l930 and was a guest of Eleanor roosevelt inWashington D.C. early in World War IUI. Sopohie saw Becky at reunions in l933, l948, l978 and l9083, and John junior met Becky at reunions in l978, l983, and l988 and had very extensive telephone conversations about college life and music. Becky often spent summers with her brother's family in Sister Bay,. Wisconsin and in later years visited her niece Marion Delanbey in Lewiston, Idado. She lived until l992. |
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Sophie's youngest sister Babe (Rebekah) got to know her future husband Dr. Isadore Geetter in 1922, before her sixteenth birthday.They were sweethearts while he was at Trinity College Hartford and Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia, and were married June 16, l929 at a wedding attended by Jack Barrett and Sophie Barrett and the large Meranski family and friends.Babe took a business course at Hartford Public High School and lived in New Britain Connecticut, where Dr. Geetter trained as an anesthesioligist, became administrator of the General Hospital until drafted into Naval Reserve desite five young children, David l933 Albert 1935, Thalia l938, Harold l940, Suznne l942.After the war the Geetter family bought their own hom at 92 Fern St. near the West Hartfod boundary at Bradley Rose Garden, and Babe's sister Esther Meranski came to live with them and thier five children, where the Barretts viosited many Thanksgivings and informal visits and Albert's bar mitvah spring l948, Daivd's graduation from Trinity College l955 and Thalia wedding to Michael P:rice June 10, l961.Babe was extremely devoted to her eleven grandchildren and wrote her sister Sophie long letters with family news.She and Dr. Geetter attended the fiftieth wedding anniersary of her sister Bertha and Sam Pollack in Hallandale, Florida June 1974, spent many summers at Belgrade Lakes, Maine, and visited West Indies, Japan, and Europe. |
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Born in Turkey Marion Nosser became an archaeologist. She wrote the l923 Mount Holyoke Class song "the Sphinx" "Wind hushed, the desert lies dreaming Under the far eastern sky Only the SPHINX keeps its Secret Waiting for daylight to die Now 'neath the warm blue of Heaven rousing itself with a sigh Softly it speaks, and its WHISPER Floats to the dome of the sky ---Hark don't you hear the far ECHO Borne on the night wind to us Now has the Sphinx told its SECRET --NON SIBI SED OMNIBUS. Faithful we 'll guard it forever Marching beneath it unflurled Untril the agelong secret Lies in the Heart of the Wrorld." Marion resided in Brooklyn. Ruth King Dunne composed the tune---. May 1, 2000 - today have solved a mystery about a song my mother sang to the melody of "Wein, Weis, und Gesang" of Johnan Strauss the younger - but her version is adapted for womens' chorus and temperance-Prohibition-supporting group, and praises only SONG - ommitting the"wine" and "women" of the original text. I suspected that the melody she sang on notes in whole steps - F-G-A-B came from Johann Strauss's Waltz of the late 1860s. Howeven, her Mount Holyoke friends did not recognize it. In a short biography of Frant Schubert, I read that in 1825 he scribbled on a napkin German words translated "Who Loves Not Wine, Women, and Song, -Remains a Fool his whole life long." Today on the Internet using search engine Google I found that Johann strauss's Waltz "Wein, Weis, und Gesang was indeed originally for Male chorus, and the words came from Martin Luther, as explained below. The words my mother sang were "Who loves not song, music- song Will live U-un-blessed his whole life long. O come O come and let us sing With hearts so bright a song of spring O Raise you voices high O raise your voices high. The birds that flit from tree to tree Are not so full of joy as we - Though we alone know why Thou we alone know why. E'en though a storm cloud may lower E'en though it follow a shower Sunshine belongs to the day. -Smiles we remember for aye. What a pity it is for a man who is born with a soul that is Deaf Who holds MUSIC in scorn - So unblessed by the Best What a life he must lead-Without song, life is long Is long Indeed! Let us sing Praise of spring Caloring with music blessed - Spring is here all the year if we sing O HAIL TO SPRING!! [following words may be connected, or parts of another song or medley perhaps second staanza:] 'Sang at their toil Songs of the soil - Singing they gathered so,- Singing in pain {paean?] A gentle refrain lullaby soft and low. O from their paradise echoes the loving song Taught in the time of their peace Singing that never shall cease Till there is CHAOS again. After Strauss's death in 1899 new German lyrics were written for an arrangement "Wiener Blut" [Vienna Blood]. some English words may date from Johann Strauss's visit to Boston, where he was enthusiastically received around 1870. I suspect a women's chorus or temperance-minded college glee club adapted the words for their own use. My mother sang it very nicely, but we never discussed its history. Mount Holyoke classes used to put together medleys for"Competitive Sing" in which classmates Mildred Holt, Ruth King Dunne, Ruth Douglass, Marion Nosser, and others were active. a mystery is SOLVED, though further details will be welcome. John Barrett 113 W. Third St. Port Angeles WA98362-2824 Wein, Weis und Gesang op 333 "Who loves not wine, woman and song Remains a fool his whole life long" These lines, written in the mediavel castle of Wartburg in Germany, and attributed to Martin Luther (1483-1546) during his residence there when he began his German translation of the New Testament, provided the title and part of the text for the truly magnificent choral waltz Johan Strauss wrote in 1869 for the Wiener Mannergesang Verein- Wein Weib und Gesang ! But whereas his first choral waltz, An der schonen Balue Donau of 1867 had been more or less constructed from previously existing sketches, the new work was conceived in its entirety for male chorus and orchestra and, as was noted by Strauss authority Professor Dr. Fritz Racek, the work "makes up for the absence of a recapitulating Coda by means of impressive (137 bars) introduction of almost symphonic proportions" As with the An der schonen Blaue Donau, the text for the waltx came from the pen of the Associations house poet, Joseph Weyl. The sung introduction includes the words " three heavenly gifts remained as comfort to us poor men " , and appropiately each of these "gifts" - wine, woman and song - in turn provides the subject matter for one of the verses (corresponding with each waltz section) which follow, the fourth and final verse referring to Luther and quoting his famous aphorism. Wein, Weis und Gesang! - a particular favourite with Richard Wagner - was given its first performance by the Wiener Mannergesang Verein at their carnival-time 'Narrabend' (fools evening) held in Dianabad-Saal, Vienna on 2 february 1869. The Strauss Orchestra provided the accompaniment, and while the composer did not conduct the premiere of his new waltz, he was present among the audience. Although dedicated "in friendship to Johan Ritter von Herbeck(1831-77) Imperial Royal Court Conductor", who had served the Assocoation as chorus-master from 1856 to 1866 and who had recently been decorated with the 'Knights Cross of the order of Emperor Franz Josef' , the waltz was conducted at its premiere by Herbecks successor as chorus-master, Rudolf Weinwurm. The composition featured as the third number in the programme, and we can still enjoy something of the atmpsphere of uninhibited carival gaiety wich abounded from the word-picture painted for us by the critic of the Fremdenblatt newspaper (4.02.1869): "The members of the Mannergesang Verein were dressed as negroes and termed themselves Club Slaves, President Dumba was dressed up as a plantation- and a slave-owner. The Strauss Orchestra was likewise attired in extremely silly caps, and in such a way it (the evening) could begin. Kapellmeister Weinwurm, like a negro from head to toe , instead of his baton a fool's sceptre in his hand, gave the signal and Konradin's 'Narren-Multiplikationsmarsch' blared through the hall. The pearl of the evening was, however, the new waltz by Johan Strauss: Wein Weib und Gesang'. The outstanding composition is an equal counterpart to the same composers famous waltz 'An der schonen blaue Donau' , indeed some parts of the new waltz are composed even more finely and with more dash. At once the artistically constructed introduction evoke a storm of applause. After the first waltz section, Strauss was called for with rejoicing. Dressed as a pilgrim, he mounted the rostrum and blessed the audience. The cheering grew even greater with the second waltz-section,after which the composer was called for again, a deserved honour, which was repeated by the two waltzes that followed.The excellent composition had to be repeated by popular demand. The fools were sufficiently sensible that they could not hear enough of the piquant melodies of the waltz -king. Also Weyl, the author of the humores text was called for several times ". Thirty years later, much of the melodic material in the Waltz Wein Weib und Gesang ! Was given fresh vocal treatment for the posthumous Johan Strauss operetta Wiener Blut( Vienna Blood, 1899) as may be heard in the Act 2 Finale (themes 2a, 2b, 3b, 3a and 4b). later in act 3 themes 1 a and 1 b appear in the sextet "Stoss' an! Stoss an! Du liebchen mein", and themes 4 a is sung in polka time to the words " Schlauu und fein! Schlau und fein!" by the Countess and Franzi in their Act 3 duet. © 1991 Peter Kemp. The Johan Strauss Society of Great Britain The Honorary Secretary The Johan Strauss Society of Great Britain Flat 12 Bishams Court, Church Hill, Caterham Surrey CR3 6SE ENGLAND --- DIANA B. STEIN WHEREAS June 30, 2000, will mark the retirement of Diana B. Stein as professor of biological sciences; AND WHEREAS over her twenty years at Mount Holyoke, she has taught biology at all levels, and infused her teaching with a love of key experiments and a sense of wonder for the world of plants, enabling thousands of Mount Holyoke students to appreciate the grace with which fern sperms swim, and the determination with which pollen tubes grow; and inspired and instructed many students including twenty-nine undergraduate honors students (so far) in the art and craft of research; and authored or co-authored thirty-six papers, many with undergraduates, graduate students, post docs, or colleagues who came to her laboratory; AND WHEREAS she is an acknowledged authority of international standing on the molecular evolution of ferns and other plants, who has been invited to present her work at International Congresses on three continents; AND WHEREAS she has served on key college committees, most recently the Advisory Committee, and chaired the biology department; AND WHEREAS she received six major grants to fund her research from the National Science Foundation and served on many panels at the NSF that decided on grants for others; AND WHEREAS she applied her expertise in biology for the public good, ranging from service on the Amherst Board of Health, to checking the accuracy and appropriateness of the Educational Testing Services Graduate Record Examination in Biology, to the design of scientific education for Saudi Arabian women; AND WHEREAS she has lived as a paradigm for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty who might otherwise wonder if it is possible to be an accomplished scientist while simultaneously being a devoted materfamilias for an extraordinary family; AND WHEREAS the force that through the green fuse drives the flower, also drives Diana, who greens all our souls; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that this board of trustees of Mount Holyoke College does hereby acknowledge its profound gratitude to Diana Stein for her many contributions to the College and conveys to her warm and cordial wishes for a happy and rewarding retirement. Photographs: Ellis, and Gass by Paul Schnaittacher, Stein by Nancy Palmieri |
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View from near Barrett home mailed to Boton l948 by dear friend Edythe Needles after Barretts returned to Massachusettts "Home is the Sailor" in retirement.Born in Wales, Mrs. Needles was the Barretts' next door neighbor and dear friend for six years. Her husband James G. Needles knocked on our window on the morning of December 7, l941 toi teell Jack Barrett to report to his Pearl Harbor duty station because of the Pearl Harbor attack.Mrs. Needles was a Christian Scientist and Jim was a Latter Day Saint -Mormon.They invited us to luaus in their big yard next door after the war l945-l947, and early in the war we used their bomb shelter. Jim was in civilian defense, and they grew carrots in a Victory garden on top of the bomb shelter. |
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Jack liked the indirect lighting effect in this picture in living room at 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard Waikiki about l944 |
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Ninth grade l902 photo of Jack Barrett right and Edward Prescott Illingworth at far left- detail from l902 Frederick T. Lincoln School class photo -now earliest surviving photo of Jack barrett the "red'headed stepchild" after extensive l993 thefts including baby photos - group with aunts Minnie and Maggie Buckley ourside melrose home l892 and first and third grade shool groups and tintype with father and younger half-brother and half-sisters back yard 634 E. Seventh St. South Boston l900 or l90l.Ed Illingworth was l9l0 Harvard college grad - m studied piano and organ with Ferrucio Busoni, married l St. nerighbor named York - moved to West Roxbury about l9l7 - had doctor son - two daughters - Geraldine was a pianist - 64 Hastings St. West Roxbury. Jack said AT BOSTON LATIN ILLINGWORTH WAS NICKNAMED "THE Human QUESTION MARK." Notebook Four p 137 Jack's friend Dr. James B. Moloney was graduated from Lincoln School 1905 or 1906 and Jack's brother Bill Barrett and Bill's friend John Vaccaro of Second st. in 1908. In 1908 William E. Perry was principal, Jonathan Bruce and Carles S. Davis submasters, and Martha Wright, Master's Assistant. Assistants were Gertrude P. Cole, Vodisa J. Comey, Francis W. Dalrymple, M. Jeannette Grady, Edna F. Henderson, Lillian K. Lewis, Alice F. Moore, Agnes e. Nash, Harriet E. Sargent, Anna S. Stre?ffert, Mildred H. Tavender, Gertrude L. Wright. - apparently also Choate Burnham, Laura Newhall,First Asistant in charge, Kate A. Coolidge, Helen M. Canning, Helen A. Emery, Cecile E. Mackin, Mary E. McCarthy, Annie E. Pausland, Rachel W. Washburn, Daisy E. Welch. |
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p 28-859 Sophie Barrett text +Elvira + Edmund Mehegan + Jessie Fahrbach letters, Hoarde #95 typed 18 May 1998 18:39:54 -0700 (PDT) #95 In l96l we had fish dinner several times with Mollie at 640 East Seventh Street. A plumber named Charles Mehegan was working at the house, and Jack recollected that in l9l2 he had some contacts with Mehegan cousins - and also their aunt Kate Craig who lived on Blossom Street in downtown Boston near Massachusetts General Hospital. After l9l2 Jack did not live in Boston again until l932, and he wondered what had become of these relations.After Mollie died of bowel cancer October ll, l967, Jack and John made an extensive study of materials in the old house and attic, and among these items were three typed pages of family history, unsigned. After considerable detective work we found that the author was writing a letter to his son, who was visiting relatives in San Francisco, and it refers to the young man's grandmother, Ellen Barrett, an immigrant from Ireland to Boston. The date was typed l842, and a handwritten correction changed it to l84l. The date of the letter appeared to be l9l0, or l9ll - sixty-nine years after - evidently calculated from l842 to l9ll. We learned the author was Robert J. Mehegan, a printer at the Boston Herald, whose parents were John Mehegan and Ellen Barrett. His aunt Kate Barrett married his father's brother Charles Mehegan, who worked constructing railroads, including one from Boston to Concord, New Hampshire. We later learned that the Mehegans came from Ballyheedy,Ballinhassig county Cork. Catherine Barrett died of lung disease 1863, and her husband Charles Mehegan died in a railroad accident 1868, leaving Robert 1848, Mary 1852, and Charles W. born 1857. His brother John died 1873 and is buried in Old Calvary Cemetery Mattapan-Dorchester, while his wife Ellen Barrett survived to January 1, 1895. The plumber Charles Mehegan came from neighboring Inishannon about four miles west of Ballinhassig - probably a relative but not close.In the l970's we talked with his wife, his sister, and grandson, Peter Mehegan of Quincy, who became a Boston television newscaster, commentator and personality. ---#95 Elvira Mehegan (p305) From records in Suffolk county probate court Boston Jack learned that Robert Mehegan junior had died in the early l930's and had left a widow Elvira Mehegan and four children; EILEEN JOHN, Edmund, and Paul. He believed Elvira had returned to Evanston Wyoming.I sent a letter to the Catholic church in Evanston to inquire about Mrs. Mehegan,and the priest there forwarded my letter to Elvira in Denver,Colorado.She wrote to me promptly just before her birthday August 26, 1970, explaining that she had settled in Denver after retiring from teaching school in Evanston.Her daughter Eileen Hanson and son John Mehegan were living in Denver, so she decided to take a house in Denver to be near them. LETTER: 3870 E. Wesley Ave, Denver Colorado 80210 Oc 10, l970 Dear Sophie and John, I want to thank you for all the information you have sent me concerning the Mehegan-Barrett family and also apologize for being so slow in replying. I have not been well due to a "flu" session and eye trouble.I expect a call the first of next week from the eye specialist telling me if I am to have a cataract operation. Due to other trouble in the retina there is a question if the operation will solve the problem. You will understand it is not possible for me to answer all your letters in detail..Since I sent you the post card dated l9l5 I found information in an old suitcase of my Bob's. It is an account of his trip to California. It is dated Oct ll, l9ll to Oct. 22. He mentions a Public Lands Convention held in Denver which he attended. He reported for work in the Land Office September 27, l911. He mentioned receiving a letter from Sister Mary Joseph Barrett 2043 Polk Street San Francisco also Miss Kate Barrett was writing to her nephew, who was in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service . Oct. 12 Bob heard from him from New London. I assume that was your husband and father. One thing mentioned that does not apply to the family but was of interest to to me In Evanston Bob paid a dollar a day for room and board in a private family.Bob's trip to San Francisco He left Evanston Sept 5, l911 on the OVERLAND Limited, a coal-burning engine that gave off cinders at Ogden Utah an oil burning engine was substituted.Great Salt Lake was crosssed over a man-made cutoff a big project of fill-in rock. When the train reached Oakland,all had to transfer to ferry to cross the Bay to San Francisco. He visited many places in San Francisco, then on September ninth he went to visit relatives at 2043 Polk St. There he met the Hessions, Barretts and other relatives. Mrs. Hession's home was near Market street. Miss"Auntie" Barrett and Kate Barrett lived with her. The big l906 fire destroyed her property,which had to be rebuilt. Auntie Kate was Robert Senior's first cousin. Besides the three women, he learned about Sister Mary Joseph, the Kerrigans, Colemans, Murphys, Fahrbachs and Rings. Miss Kate Kerrigan was the only one he met.(Sophie Barrett note'-We have since learned that Kate Kerrigan was the daughter of Mary Barrett, a fifth sister who did not leave Ireland with her brother robert and four sisters, Kate, Ellen, Johanna, and Margaret.She married a Mr. Kerrigan of Ballymartle near Kinsale, county Cork, and her daughters Kate Kerrigan and Mrs. John Ring went to San Francisco in l897. Ella Collins of Moskeigh managed to trace these relations as her mother's niece Mrs. Joan Ring Finn of Scart Ballinhassig was a niece of John Ring and remembered corresponding with his wife, a Barrett descendant. There were a number of Ring relations in the Bay area, but of these only Mary Mathews of San Bruno was a surviving Barrett descenant in the l970's. Mrs. Eva Kimbrough of Berkeley was a member of the Ring line and knew much family history. Her daughters attended the Presentation School in Berkeley where Sister Mary Joseph Barrett was mother Superior in l9ll.- end Sophie Barrett note) continuing Elvira Mehegan letter-He had eight meetings with these people. They told him of the western relatives, and he told them of those in ther East. They treated him very well. While Mrs. Hession was elderly and wrinkled, she was very active physically and mentally. She helped her relations and started Mr. Fahrbach in business. Mr. Hession was a highly educated man a civil engineer and surveyor. The Hessions had three children Robert,John and Mrs. Fahrbach. Robert Married but John did not. Both died within six nmonths of each other. John was a letter carrier.Mrs. Fahrbach died about l907. The next person mentioned is Kate Barrett-Robert Mehegan senior's first cousin. She spent her time helping her older relatives. These ladies and Bob went to Berkeley to visit Sister Mary Joseph on September 18. They discussed the eastern relatives.She was very active.There was a discussion of the Kerrigans, Colemans,and Murphys.Bob's last visit at 2043 Polk Street was September tenth.Kate Kerrigan unmarried was the daughter of Bob's grandmother's oldest sister. Kate's sister Johanna had married a Ring. Both Mr. and Mrs. Murphy were dead at the time. Two grown sons survived.They had not kept close to Mrs. Hession.On September 20th Bob took a steamer for Los Angeles.At that time Mrs. Johanna Hession, Kate Kerrigan, the two Murphy boys, and Miss Coleman were the only remaining relatives. On September 25th he left for the return trip to Evanston, Wyoming. Bob wanted to attend college in l9l0 but due to his father's accident when his hand was caught in a press he had to take a business course by correspondence.After passing the Civil Service test he was assigned to the Land ofice in Evanston, Wyoming September 27, l9ll-Elvira Mehegan." On October 16, l970 Mrs. Jessie Fahrbach from from Oakland California" Your letter of October 11, l970 was received and its contents noted with great interest.Strangely enough I know very little about the Fahrbach family, as I shall explain. I was married to Robert Fahrbach senior in l934 having met him in l932.Consequently I know very little about his family previous to that time. Robert and I had a son in l936, who is Robert, junior.I do know that my Robert's father, Emil Fahrbach,married Elizabeth Hession, the daughter of Johanna Barrett Hession.Elizabeth died in l907 when Robert was thirteen years of age.Robert's father remarried after Elizabeth's death.They were deceased when I met Robert.Your mention of Robert Fahrbach having married in l923 is no doubt true.I was not Robert's first wife.Their marriage ended in divorce.Robert's and my marriage also ended in divorce.However, there was no ill feeling, and we kept in touch until he died in l967.Robert's father was hgihly respected in business circles in San Francisco.Robert senior also thought a great deal of his mother.In fact I have a picture of her which was among Robert's personal belongings which I received after his death.She was a very beautiful woman- Jessie Fahrbach" On October 9, l970 Edmund Mehegan of DesPlaines Illinois, son of Robert Mehegan junior, wrote: "My grandfather Robert Mehegan senior and Johanna (Alberts) Mehegan had nine children but only two lived to adulthood.Robert Mehegan junior (my father and his sister Annie, my aunt.I understand that my father's health was somewhat delicate and for that reason he was advised by his doctor to try a Western climate.I think he must also have had some wanderlust judging by therecords you have sent- he came by honestly. At any rate he went to Evanston Wyoming about 1909 or l9l0 where he worked for the Post Office Department. To my knowledge there was no particular reason for choosing Evanston as opposed to any other Western town.He had no friends or relatives there that I ever heard of.He lived in Evanston in l9l0 and l9ll and met my mother at that time. But he returned to Boston until l9l9 or l920(worked at Boston Army Base-note) when he again went to Evanston long enough to be married.They return to Boston, where thirteen years and four children later he died l933. Through the efforts of her sister my mother was able to get a teaching job in Evanston Wyoming and so again a trip was made west. My mother moved to Denver after she reitred about l964. Eileen my sister returned to Boston about l938-l939 to study nursing.As to the famous document written by my grandfather, i find it fascinating not only as a family record but as a historical account of the lives and times of nineteenth century America..After seeing the copy of the typewritten original which you sent, may I venture that A. You do have the original- and other pages with the salutation and signature were removed because they pertained to matters other than family history. B. the second and more logical conclusion is that when my father returned to Boston he made typewriter copies of the original to preserve the information and pass it on to other relatives. He would have no need to add a salutation or a signature since he was copying (his father's) own letter.I am quite sure he knew how to type.Were the handwritten corections on the original when you found it (typed date l842 is changed in pen to l841) I have tried to compare them with my father's handwriting on the post cards,but I cannot tell - the "M" in Margaret seems similar but there are differences.I want to thank both of you for your letters.Aunt Annie had some chairs of my grandmother's that I told her I wanted her to will to me. My sister was in Boston with her when she was dying and telephoned me about the chairs.Annie passed on a few days later.Eileen called but in her opinion the chairs dated only from the late l890's and the cost would have been prohibitive to have them crated and shipped. Eileen salvaged a few old vases and pictures and divided them between us, but the letters are gone forever.My mother has very few relics from Boston as it was not practical in the depression to ship them- Edmund Mehegan. " In his research on the Barrett family John learned that the girl referred to in the 19ll document as the daughter of Robert Mehegan who had lost her husband and her child had been named Elizabeth Peiper. He found that she had remarried in l9l2 to Joseph hoarde, and that a family of Joseph Hoarde had lived in Waltham, Massachusetts.He wrote to the son, -also Joseph Hoarde, who telehponed to John early in October l970 saying his mother was to celebrate her ninetieth birthday the next day October 8. She had three living children - his sister Mrs. Julia Maloney of Brighton, his sister Mary Brooks of Burlington, and himself, the baby of the family, born in l920.He mother was living with Julia Maloney and her husband :"Chick" (Charles) at 9 Bostonia Avenue in brighton.That evening John had a three hour telephone conversation with Mrs. Hoarde and her daughter Julia.Mrs. Hoarde was keen and gave him a lot of family historya nd information about South Boston.Subsequently john called on his third cousins and stayed for dinner and a hockey evening.On Easter Sunday l971 he wenbt to visit Julia's daughter Janice's family the Bagnalls where they had a reunion of about twenty-five members of the family.John gave Mrs. Hoarde an Irish shamrock whch he had raised from seed.She enjoyed the plant very much, as it bloomed for her last summer. She recently celebrated her ninety-first birthday.John also located three of the children of the "Charlie" Mehegan referred to in the document.Charlie became a Boston letter carrier and had five children.,of whom three still survive l97l Dorothy Brooks in Washington D.C. , Leonora Carty in Milton, and Eileen Brennan in west Quincy. John also located ninety year old Richard Barry Sullivan the son of Mary Mehegan l852-l884 who married Barry Sullivan and had three surviving children by him. Richard Barry Sullivan lives in Reseda, California where he has been active in real estate for years. John had a letter from his son Roger a lawyer for one of the railroads (later for Los Angeles Catholic diocese). John also talked with Richard Barry Sullivan and his wife. Richard lost his parents in l884 and l892 played baseball for a time in Philadelphia and spent some years in Laramie, Wyoming.His two unmarried sisters lived in Jamaica Plain. Mrs. Hoarde had a vivid memory that her aunt Mary Theresa Mehegan Sullivan died in childbirth when she herself was three years old l884. Mrs. Hoarde's mother was a member of the large Freeman family of West Bolton Street South Boston. Several of the Freemans were glassblowers. One group of her Freeman cousins lived near Mattapan.Her father had an accident involving a coal chute in South Boston but lived until l9l6.His skull was damaged, and his brain sensitive to possible injury. Her mother lost several babies, buther twin sisters born in l889 lived into their eighties, though separated by adoption after their mother's death of tuberculosis in l894. After visiting her uncle Charlie in South boston and Coughlin relations in Maynard, -where she was corrected for picking an apple blossom in the family's productive orchard -Elizabeth, the eldest child, born October 8, l880, worked as a housekeeper and cook in Waltham, where she met her second husband Joseph Hoarde a butcher in l9l2. They were married fifty-seven years until he passed away inl969 at age ninety-two. Around l911 Boston Mayor Fitzgerald helped Elizabeth find her sister who had been adopted by a family in Salem. Elizabeth was often called "Lil." In her later years, she punned on James Fenimore Cooper's novel and referred to herself as "the last of the Mehegans." She was proficient at crocheting and an enthusiastic baseball fan, though her great-grandchildren played hockey. One of her sisters Mrs. Bussiere had a son and two daughter and lived near Manchester New Hampshire until she passed away January 5, l97l. |
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