Lillian Maher's Story

Lillian was born the second child to John Joseph and Lillian Charlotte Ehlers Maher in December 1889 Brooklyn. Lillian’s mother stayed home with the children and her father John worked as a letter carrier for the Post Office. Lillian’s brother was four years older, and though she probably knew him the best of his sisters, Lillian seems to have grown up focusing more on the females in her life. Lillian probably spent most of her time helping her mother take care of the younger daughters, Florence, born in 1897 and Roberta, 1901. There was a stillborn child when Lillian was about eight years old, an age when little girls are particularly interested in babies. One can assume this had an impact on Lillian’s world view.

Lillian, mother Lillian, Florence and Roberta in the front, circa 1918

Though both of her parents were born in New York, Lillian must have grown up with both rich German and Irish influences in her life, as both parents were first generation Americans. As a little girl in 1900, Lillian was living with her older brother and younger sister and both parents in an apartment on 7th Avenue. Lillian certainly played with the Irish and German children on the block, but she may also have played with kids who spoke Swedish and Finnish at home. Lillian’s neighbors at this time were dressmakers, carpenters, painters, bartenders and tradespeople.

At some point between 1906 and 1909 Lillian’s grandmother, Charlotte Matilda Andrews Ehlers, comes to live with the young family . The family is still growing, and Grandmother became a widow in 1896, so this arrangement probably was very helpful for both parties. Grandmother dies of valvular heart disease at Lillian’s parents’ home on 7th Avenue in July 1909 when Lillian is roughly 19. One might assume that Lillian helped her mother take care of both her grandmother and her younger siblings. By the April census in 1910, Edwin has moved out of the family home and is married to an English girl, Mary, and Lillian’s first nephew is born.

Lillian’s mother dies some time before January 1920 ; Lillian has taken over the role of mother, and certainly proclaims to be ‘keeping house’, as her father is still working with the post office and Roberta has been finishing up school. They have never moved from their apartment on 7th Avenue. Florence has found work outside of the home and is putting her education to work as a secretary in a publishing house. Lillian may have been envious of Florence, working outside the home, or perhaps she preferred to stay home and care for family members, as she became her father’s companion after the passing of her mother, Lillian, Sr.

Lillian’s brother, Edwin, dies as a very young man in 1922, leaving his young wife with 6 children.

By 1925, John, Lillian and Roberta have vacated the apartment on 7th Avenue and moved to the other side of Prospect Park to an apartment at 35 Clarkson Avenue in Brooklyn. Florence has married, had a daughter and moved to New Jersey and Roberta is out in the world meeting new people while Lillian stays home keeping her father’s house. Perhaps they made this move to be closer to Edwin’s widow and children, as they are now within a 20 minute walk to their home.

By 1929, Roberta marries and leaves home . She moves in with her husband around the corner from her sister-in-law Mary and nieces and nephews. Now that John and daughter Lillian live closer by, presumably the family sees one another on a regular basis and Lillian helps with her nieces and nephews during the day.

Everything changes by 1930; John has retired and bought a house on Franklin Avenue in Newfield, New Jersey . There is no evidence to lead to any conclusion as to why Newfield, NJ was chosen for a retirement town. Lillian’s sister lives in Madison which is closer to the City so her husband Herb can commute to work. But, Lillian continues to live with her father there, keeping his house. John maintains a large vegetable garden and is neighbored by chicken farmers.

In 1932, Lillian’s father dies. John owned his house, but we do not find Lillian living there in 1940.

We find a Lillian Maher living with the Killduff family at 3555 Netherlands Avenue in the Bronx. This Lillian is listed as a servant, with the occupation of housekeeping for a private family. The young couple has a new baby and they both work as morticians. This Lillian had lived in Madison, New Jersey in 1935. A scenario can be imagined that Lillian lived with her sister Florence in 1935 after their father passed, but either by the children being older and at school most of the day, she sought work outside her sister’s home, and found a position with this family of working parents.

We lose Lillian’s story until 1953 when she returns from a trip to the Caribbean over New Year’s with her younger, divorced sister Roberta. At this point the two sisters are living together at 207 West 11th Street. Roberta dies first, in October 1969. We have lost Lillian at this point and have no idea of her last years and when she died.

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I have since learned that Lillian died in 1974 and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. with her mother, sister Roberta and brother Edwin. I still don't know much about her, though.

Put in his application

It looks like perhaps Herb waited a day or two to get down to the recruiting office - he was examined on May 2nd.

That Fred Judson is pretty brave given that the Mosquito fleet was also - perhaps only after the war - the Suicide Fleet. According to Wikipedia, the Mosquito fleet was:

A fleet of converted yachts used by the US Navy during World War I off the Atlantic Coast of France to patrol for U-boats and provide support for convoys into Brest, France.

Friday Noon (May 4, 1917)

Dear Mother,

I have put in my application, been examined and have sworn to serve the government when needed, to report at Plattsburgh when and if ordered, and to accept whatever commission may be offered me. On or before next Tuesday I will receive word whether or not I am to report at Plattsburgh. Camp is expected to be opened May 14. I got by the physical very nicely. I am just the minimum weight (135 pounds for five feet 10 inches) but the doctor said that was all right because I am well built. When he examined my teeth he called in three other doctors to admire the work the dentist did. He said he had never seen better. The dentist told me that that swelling wasn’t due to my tooth. It’s all disappeared now and that tooth which I thought might have caused it is filled now anyway.

Don’t worry Mother. I couldn’t do anything else, you know. A year from now you’ll be glad to think I did volunteer rather than wait to be drafted.

Fred Judson is accepted for the mosquito fleet and expects to be called in two or three weeks for service.
Love to all,
Herbert

Rush to Join Officers' Corp Sets a Record

I am guessing this letter is from April because a) May 8th is in the future and b) I found this wonderful article in the New York Time about the Officer's Corps. I can just imagine my grandfather milling about, waiting anxiously to be called in for a physical examination, with the other roughly 1,299 man doing the same.

All records for recruiting for the Officer's Reserve Corps in this country since Congress declared war on Germany, were broken in New York City yesterday when more than 1,300 men made applications to attend the training camp at Plattsburgh. The camp will be officially organized on May 8. So great was the rush that the offices of the Military Training Camps Associations of the United States on the eleventh floor of 19 West Forty-four Street, were kept open until 11 o'clock last night to clear up the opening days rush.

I am now guessing that Fred Judson is a former classmate at Syracuse who perhaps helped Herb get the job with Case, Pomeroy & Company; this is still just a guess.


Tuesday – date unknown, perhaps April 1917
Dear Family,

I arrived here all right as per schedule.

I know I promised not to do anything rash, Mother, but I have done something. To-morrow I am going to apply in the Officer’s Reserve Corps to go up to Plattsburgh and go in training for several months to be able to train the men who are to be drafted. I may not be accepted of course and won’t know until May 8th. I talked it over with Fred Judson very thoroughly this morning and while he didn’t urge me at all he said that he thought that I’d be doing the right thing. He himself is trying to go as a seaman on a submarine chaser. We figured it out this way. I’ve got brains, some education + good health and as a private I’d be an awful waste of good raw material. As an Officer I can be of a lot more service. So I had him call up his dentist and make an appointment for me and I spent two hours in the chair this afternoon until my teeth were put in good shape. There were four holes, one a rather bad one. He is also making me a plate, the one I have is loose and he said a plate would be better than a bridge and would get by the physical examination all right. He refused to tell me what the bill would be and told me not to worry about it anyway because he admired me for doing what I’m doing. Don’t worry more than you can help. If I’m accepted (and it’s not at all sure that I will be) I’ll be just as safe as I would be if I waited to be drafted and I’ll be a lot better off other ways. The point is this – in a time of peace our business is legitimate, even necessary, but just now when all industries are running full blast speculation doesn’t serve any purpose at all. About an hour after I talked with Fred he came in to tell me that the firm would be very glad to make up the difference between whatever pay I may get in Plattsburgh and what I’m getting right now. I thought that was pretty nice.

I was in to see Charlie yesterday. I told him I was thinking of making application for some branch of the service.

This is not permanent you know. It’s only for the duration of the war, and if the firm of Case, Pomeroy is still in existence, I’ll get my job back all O.K. I don’t know what Friedman thinks. He didn’t say. But if the firm approves I guess I don’t need worry about what he thinks any way.

Don’t please think that I’ve done anything horribly rash. I haven’t. I’ve merely anticipated what was sure to come, anyway. And I feel a lot happier because I know that I’m doing all I can. If I’m rejected I shan’t feel disgraced because I know I’ve done my best. The job end of it will be all right anyway. I’m positive of that. I’ll write again along the last of the week and of course I’ll let you know at once if I’m called. And please don’t worry. I’ll be all right. And I’ll be a sure enough statistician yet.

Love,
Herb

Newcomb-Starr & Dommerich Genealogy

I have just begun reading a new book I bought - in a disappointing digital version - of Our Colonial and Continental Ancestors; the Ancestry of Mr. and Mrs. Louis William Dommerich originally published in 1930. In it, an small section is dedicated to Andrew Newcomb, my good friend's ancestor.... where might the Dommerichs fit in that tree, and where might my great, great grandfather Louis Ferdinand be?

The Big Day has come

No date has been provided on the letter. The referenced wedding, as my third cousin has pointed out, isn't until late June. As I write this, though, we might be in April - as perhaps he is planning his May trip home with the train schedule to Albany and the lilacs are just budding.

I had assumed that Herb was living with his cousin Charles, but that may not be the case, as he doesn't know where Charles' new apartment is. I guess I made the assumption about the living arrangements because it seemed that Charles' move precipitated Herb's move to the rooming house in Brooklyn.

No mention of Karolyn; on the 1923 marriage certificate with Florence, Herb is living at Sterling Place, so he must return there after the war. Hmmmm, now I wonder if one of his fraternity brothers introduced my grandparents. But, then again, why would I assume that those four, Phike Morris, Kimber and Zilleson would be living together again after the war. We don't know what happens to them, do we? Joining the aviation corp may have more dangerous than the Ambulance Corps. It does beg the question, though, doesn't it, who Herb might have been rooming with after the war - and for such a long time, as we know he was discharged in May 1919. I don't suppose I shall ever know how Florence and Herb meet.

From this document we see that Herb, presumably, distinguished himself in some way because he gets a promotion to Corporal in December 1918. We see that that distinction was not for anything involving wounds suffered.... Oh, cat's out of the bag as to when he goes over seas.... not until January 1918. I suggest you pretend to forget that as you read the letters, though....


Sunday

Dear Mother,

Well, the big day has come. Charlie has taken a room down somewhere on 139th Street, near Grace. He bought a new trunk so as to have it to go away with and yesterday he packed it up and sent it down. Yesterday afternoon I went over to Brooklyn and made arrangements to go over and stay with the boys so my address after Tuesday will be 193 Sterling Place, Brooklyn. It’s really going to be fine over there, I think. There will be four of us. Phike Morris and Kimber, of course, are Phi Delts so I know them well and the fourth chap (counting myself) is a chap about twenty three by the name of Zilleson, a very nice boy. I’ve met him several times when I’ve been over there and I like him very much. There are two great big rooms, one of them bigger than our parlor home and the other as big as the parlor and back parlor put together. In between is a little passage like with the two washbowls with running water. There is also a big bathroom on the floor. The family has all its rooms down stairs so that the whole floor belongs to us boys. I’m sure I’ll like it because I’ve sampled the meals and they’re fine. And it’s $8.00 a week. I haven’t moved yet but I’m getting my things together today and I hope to be all transferred by Tuesday.

The only thing I’ll miss is Charley. He certainly has been wonderfully good to me. We’ll manage though to be together at lunch a couple of times a week and an occasional evening, and then again with the girls once in a while at either Jane’s or Grace’s for a game of cards or a trip to the movies or something.

The weather today really looks encouraging. I hope Spring has really arrived and I guess it has because the lilac bushes have their leaves pretty nearly unfolded. I’m throwing away my blue overcoat. It’s absolutely shot. The edges are all worn off down the front so the canvas shows through. I can wear the old gray one for the few times I’ll need it now.

Unless something goes wrong I’ll probably be up home Friday night. I think I’ll take the six o’clock arriving in Albany at 9:39.

I forgot to say that my new boarding house is less than twenty five minutes from the office. It’s really the most convenient place to Wall Street in all New York.

Love to all,
Herb

Breaking it to Mom

I have found several letters in an envelope with the post mark May 21, 1917, from Brooklyn. In my quick inspection I grabbed this one because it looked different - it was addressed to Dad, not Mother, as all the others have been up to this point in the transcription process. This letter was addressed to Dad, Oliver Lee, for a very good reason....

I wish I had more letters between Easter and this letter; I want to see the thought process - the hashing out. And he has the truth of it, about America turning the tide.

I am also interested in the way he ends the letter - differently than when he concludes his letters to his mother. Though my own father had difficulty expressing love and affection, it does not appear that Herb did. Perhaps families had an easier time of it when letter-writing was such a part of life.

Monday – perhaps May 1917
Dear Dad,

I’m sending this to you because I want you to read it first and break it to Mother.

I’m going to enlist if they’ll have me. I’ve hashed it all over with myself and with everybody else who would talk about it with me, and I’m satisfied that it’s my bounden duty to offer my services. I’m convinced that there is going to be a long period of war yet and the longer action is delayed the longer the day of peace will be delayed. It will be America who ultimately turns the tide – and as an American, I want to do what I can.

I talked with a Sergeant in the Marine Corps today and he told me – and he said it straight-forward enough – that a man with my education would in all likelihood be able to obtain a commission more probably even than by going to Plattsburgh. Not that I care much whether I get a commission or not so long as I’m serving. So I think I’ll go to the recruiting station the latter part of this week. If I’m accepted I’ll have a week’s leave before reporting for duty and shall come home at once, of course.

I know it’s going to be hard on you and Mother, Dad, but this is the time when we who claim to be good Americans have got to show it. I’ve never been a flag-waver, but I’m not going to be a slacker.

I know how you’ll feel but I also know that it had to come, so I wish you’d write and tell me to go ahead. I’ll look forward to hear from you in two or three days.

Your affectionate son,
Herb

Easter 1917 and Billy Sunday

America joined the war on April 6, 1917 - just two days before this letter was written home.

I mentioned cousin Edith's husband Russell was listed as a stage manager in the 1915 NY State Census - perhaps he is travelling with a show. Her apartment as of today on Zillow.com is listed as being in auction. Oops.

I didn't know about Katherine, Russell's younger sister; I will have to do a little sleuthing about their family.

I couldn't decipher where Aunt Ada and Helen were going. I don't recognize it.

I had to look up Billy Sunday. He seems to be an evangelist. According to Wikipedia:

William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American athlete who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.

Here is Billy Sunday at the White House in 1922



(No date given, though Easter fell on April 8th, 1917)
Dear Folks,

Easter – but you wouldn’t know it. Last Sunday was very warm but today is pretty cold. The little basket came yesterday and Charlie took it down to Grace last night. She was quite delighted with it.

Good Friday the Exchange was closed so I had a holiday. Charlie had to work, however, it not being a legal holiday. In the morning I went over and called on Edith. Her address by the way is 1209 Beach Ave. Her flat is awfully nice since she has gotten settled. Russell’s younger sister, Katherine, was staying with her for a few days. This morning (Sunday) Charlie and I went over again because Charlie hadn’t been over this week. Russell won’t be home until sometime in June.

I got my new suit yesterday + was quite pleased with it. I tried to find about Harry’s coat but didn’t have any success, because this Brodie to whom I gave it wasn’t there. Tell Harry to write them (if he hasn’t yet) addressing it to Mr. Brodie + I think he’ll get some action that way.

I had a card from Aunt Ada yesterday saying that she + Helen were going to Ilson (?).

It rather begins to look as if I might go to war whether or no, doesn’t it. Well I’m not worrying. I’m quite sure that my job will be waiting for me when I get back. At any rate, Charles' Department is to be made over in to a great big affair with bond salesmen on the road just like the National City Bank’s bond department and he can get me a job very easily. I shan’t enlist until I think I am needed but when the time comes, if I am needed I shan’t be a quitter, if I can get by the physical examination. There’ll be lots of time to worry about that later.

Billy Sunday opens up here today. I’m afraid that with the war + all he won’t get as much publicity as he likes. It’ll be a good thing if he doesn’t.

I’m thinking of running up home around the first of May. Still that’s several weeks ahead yet.

Love to all,
Herb

Suits and Hats in March 1917

Again I had to guess at the date, but the Sunday before March 31st is March 25th, so I assumed that date. I seem to be missing a letter home on the 18th; that might be in another stack of letters somewhere.

I don't know who Steve Brodie is.... a tailor, obviously, but known to Oliver Lee or his family? Recommended by Herb's parents?

I looked up the Knox Hat Company and had the good fortune to come across a woman who has just this month begun her adventure as a milliner in Brooklyn. Here is her story with Herb's letter home following:

Newly arrived from London, I came across a dusty black box in a Brooklyn thrift store emblazoned with a gold Knox New York logo. I rushed home with my purchase to find out about this hatter who shared my new married name.

Once a corporate giant established in 1838 - making thousands of hats a day at its peak, Knox New York hats were everywhere, worn by every American President until JFK. Like so many hatters and milliners the company went under in the sixties when the demand for hats drastically fell, as they went from being considered everyday necessities to optional luxuries.

So more than fifty years on I decided to start my own Knox hat company, inspired by vintage styles, creating high quality hats like those Knox New York were known for. The new Knox Hats is just a tiny acorn. Just me, Julia Emily Knox, fairly new to both being a Knox and to New York, working with traditional hand methods in my tiny studio in Bushwick.

You'll find a selection of ready made hats through the retailers listed on the locations page, but my real love is the custom hat, no head is too big, no head is too small, no color, style or era is out of range, talk to me and let's create your dream hat together.

Sunday (March 25), 1917

Dear Family,

Sunday again and a perfectly glorious day.

I took Harry’s coat to the tailor’s and was welcomed by Steve Brodie himself. He saw at once what was the trouble so he marked the places where it was to be taken in and said he’d have it fixed and send it up in a few days. I had him measure me and ordered a suit made from that cloth no 6344, a gray worsted for 19.50. I had counted on paying only about 16.50 but the only decent things at that price were blue and I’m a bit tired of blue. So I wish Harry would send me that twenty he offered to loan me sometime within the next week. I also invested in a new brown soft felt hat for 2.50. It’s really a very good hat – second of a Knox hat which sells for five dollars. A haberdasher on Tremont Ave gets all the seconds from the Knox factory.

Edith has taken a little flat up Westchester way. It’s really a very nice little place on a very quiet respectable street and the rent is only seventeen dollars so it was quite a find. Charlie and I went over Friday night to help her out a bit with the furniture which came that afternoon.

Next Saturday is the Phi Delt banquet in Syracuse. Perhaps I told you. The other boys are going and of course they urge me to join them. I should like to go, too, but it’s out of the question of course. I can think of a good many better ways to spend that money. Besides I’d much rather wait and come up home along in May, when I’ll perhaps be feeling the need of a little change.

As I told you, Charlie + Grace went down to Long Island last week. They found Aunt Ida looking and feeling very well indeed.

There’s lots doing down town these days what with all the excitement on the other side.

Thank Olive for her letter. It was very nice. The writing on the envelope quite fooled me at first. I couldn’t think whom I knew in Troy that wrote like that.

I hope Harry will find his coat all right when it reaches him.

With love,
Herb




And on a personal note, Happy birthday, Mom.

Newcomb - Starr Genealogy

I had to share - I am just returning from dinner at my aunt's summer house and she has several books collected by my grandmother when my grandmother set about compiling the family history. One of the books is a fat tome - not as thick as the Newcomb Genealogy - about the Starrs. Having concluded that I have no connection with the Starrs mentioned in the Newcomb Genealogy what should be the first thing that happens as I reverently open the book? I open to the page which mentions Molly Gore who I had just entered on Wikitree this afternoon and her husband Joseph Starr. These are the Starrs who settled in Nova Scotia and I had been ignoring them. Shame, shame on me.

I owe my friend a telephone call.

I haven't yet tied us together, but the connection exists.

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Newcomb Genealogy

My good friend has a very large tome entitled Newcomb Genealogy: Descendants of Andrew Newcomb published in 1923. The compilation has a nice index in the back of all the surnames of the families who have married in to the very large Newcomb tribe. There are 8 people associated with the Newcomb family with the last name Starr. I have just done my best to add them all (the Starrs only) to Wikitree. In the process, however, I found no link to my own line of Starrs. The group found here are all from Nova Scotia.

I have just looked to the index again to see if there are any Lees associated with the Newcomb tree, and I see that there are about 24. I will enter their information, too, to see if there is any connection, however I find that none of the names seem at all familiar. But, perhaps, one never knows what one might find.

There is one marriage between a Maher - no relation Leo W. Maher - and a Newcomb, but this relationship between Leo Maher and Jennie Newcomb had no issue/children.

I did, however, find the Worths marrying with the Newcombs in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. That is a name which I find far back in the Danforth line, and I see that 12 Danforths are associated with the Newcombs.

I guess I have my work cut out for me. I am eager to find someone who is a good friend who is also a 'cousin'. A compilation this size seems like an excellent place to begin; I am sure I can find a circuitous route to that family relationship.

In any event, as I learn and play with the blogging process, I attach a bit of the work I accomplished this afternoon.

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree