1. "lone man?"
Posted by diana on Aug-1st-02 at 5:33 PM

E-bay today offers a parcel of newspaper articles relating to the case and referred to as "scrapbook stuff".

One of the articles, dated Fall River June 23, talks about the mail Lizzie is receiving since the trial ended -- and says "at least 200 letters were taken to her home this morning by the LONE MAN who lives in the house ..."  Who have I forgotten here?  Did John stay around?  Did another relative come to live with "the girls" for the short time before they moved to Maplecroft?  Was there a handyman in residence?  Or did this newspaper just have a non-issue literary license?

Well, according to ANOTHER newspaper story, from the Boston Post of June 21, 1893, Lizzie went to the home of Charles J. Holmes at 381 Pine Street following the acquittal, then "the next morning Emma and Lizzie went to Second Street. They were greeted by Harriet, the new housekeeper." (p, 255 Rebello).

Lone Man? Maybe Harriet looked mannish?

Rebello. pg. 71:
After trial Morse returned to Hastings.

pg. 262, July 5, 1893:
Lizzie spent 2 weeks in Newport.

pg. 264, June 27, 1893:
Emma & Lizzie went to Taunton to visit Sheriff Wright's Wife.

--I think I read recently that Emma AND Lizzie went to Newport.

So for two weeks maybe there was a caretaker and a housekeeper staying at Second Street?

Rebello doesn't give a date when Morse left. I would doubt he would leave so soon after the decision. Granted, he traveled light (REAL light) but it would take a bit of time to make arrangements and settle his affairs before his trip back.

The paper is dated the 23rd. The trial ended on the 20th. That's only 3 days after the trial ended. If the paper was a day behind then its only two days after the trial ended that the "lone man" was picking up the mail. It could very well have been Morse.

Morse seemed to have a thing for Post Offices.

(Message last edited Aug-2nd-02  12:33 AM.)

Well, he didn't have a day job, right? Besides helping out old man Davis and learning a butcher's trade. He was probably waiting for his rent money to come in so he could rush out and buy some snuff. Or chaw. Just speculatin'.

Diana, that item in the paper you referred to is in Rebello, page 261. He excerpts a good deal of it.

Do we know anything about Harriet the new housekeeper? I don't remember ever hearing of her.

Whattayabet they called her "maggie"!

(Message last edited Aug-2nd-02  12:48 AM.)

I thought it could be Morse, too...at first.
Especially if Lizzie And Emma were out of town.
But then I remembered the sensation he caused the previous year walking to the Post Office, and figured he would be too *well known* to be deemed "lone man" in the papers.

Morse sure left town quick enough after he got his bond, after the indictment.  I think within 2 weeks of THAT he was 1600 miles away in Hastings in the WINTER. 1892.

Proof that Morse was in town as least as late as the 23rd is in Rebello, page 272.

Uncle John (jokingly?) tried to con additional travel mileage for witness fees from the county treasurer. He wanted them from Iowa instead of South Dartmouth.  Iowa being some 1600 miles, So. Dartmouth 3 miles.  He was paid for 3 miles.

This was in the Fall River Daily Herald, June 23, 1893.

It's interesting that the article on e-bay is dated June 23 (as Harry pointed out) -- but when I went to Rebello (p.261--thanks, Stefani) to check it out -- the date given there is June 21. I live for discrepancies!

The reason I didn't think it was Morse was because I thought the papers wouldn't have missed the opportunity to identify him.  I tend to think it's a reporter's ramblings, partially because the lone man (I love that phrase in this context) is not identified -- and also because I wonder how they came up with the number 200?  That is a lot of paper. You wouldn't carry that many letters in your hand.  It would be in a sack or something.  (But I guess they could quiz the postmaster/mistress as to the number....)

Now I'm rambling. 

Well, we've sometimes wondered if the reportage we read is info from The Day Before.
To *nit-pick*, something written on the 23rd doesn't mean it happened on the 23rd...
Though I doubt, as you do, that Morse left town immediately, for the west.  But, he could have gone back to staying in South Dartmouth, visiting in Fall River as needed.

You would think, though, that he'd be interested in the mail...
"Lone man" just doesn't fit Morse, to me.
Maybe the girls were sick of having him around all that time, and maybe he was sick of them...so went off.

Maybe "Harriet"'s name was "Harry".

Hey, Harry, what were you doing on June 23, 1893? 

I agree with Diana.  I think the reporter would have identified Morse.  It was like the OJ trial back then - they were all celebrities. 

(Message last edited Oct-6th-02  11:35 PM.)

I can only think of Charles Cook as administering to the property of Second Street after the girls moved, and maybe checked on the house during the trial?  He was their "man of business:, after all.  Just speculation.

Rebello, pg. 35 lists the Owners of #92:

1845 to 1872  Charles C. Trafton
1872 to 1918 Borden's owned house until sold to John W. Dunn
1918 to 1920 John W. Dunn sold to Mandel Mark, 1920
1920 to 1940 Mandel Mark sold to the Fall River Trust Co., 1940
1940 to 1943 Fall River Trust Co. sold to Wilfred J. and Alice A. Gingras, 1943
1943 to 1948 Gingras sold to Smart Advertising, Inc., 1948
1948 to Present Smart Advertising, Inc.  ??[1999]

(Message last edited Oct-6th-02  11:36 PM.)

I really have never seen a reference to a man living on the third floor.
Charles Cook was the financial guy who advised Andrew and the girls inherited him & his real estate acumen.  He ultimately benefited from Lizzie's will.

There was a man living in the third floor of the Ferry Street house that died of starvation & exposure.  Rebello, pg. 30, has a couple named Mr. & Mrs. Hurd living in the "attic apartment.'  This Mr. Hurd died and it made the newspapers:  Fall River Daily Globe, Dec. 28, 1893:7.
The neighbor downstairs was called Mrs. Lacombe who had tried to help the couple that winter.
That Lacombe name is the closest I can get to "Livingston."

Anybody else know anything about this "lone man, Livingston"?

(Message last edited Sep-7th-02  2:42 AM.)

(Message last edited Oct-6th-02  11:38 PM.)

Do you have Rebello?
Pg. 34 gives a partial list of Residents at Second Street, but admits there were many tenants not listed.  (So I don't know where they would be named or found...)

Trafton, Borden, Gifford, Townsend, Mark, McGinn.