Luther’s Four Corners and Lizzie’s Chairs

by Kat Koorey

First published in August/September, 2007, Volume 4, Issue 3, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

For our recent trip to Fall River, Massachusetts, Harry Widdows and I had made arrangements in advance to finally visit the Luther’s Four Corners Museum in Swansea, maintained by the Swansea Historical Society. A while ago, I had read in the Fall River Herald News of 1982 that the museum had shown a “special exhibit” of Lizzie Borden’s chairs that had come from the Borden’s Swansea farmhouse.

We wondered what kind of place it was and so contacted Carl Becker, the local historian, who immediately consented to show us the museum on our first day in town. Within an hour of deplaning, we were hurtling backwards in time to a bygone era of the 18th century. As we stood on the threshold of the museum, we breathed a sigh of contentment when the door was opened and we got just a glimpse of the interior.  It was soothing to us, after all the hassle of modern contraptions that had delivered us there.

Our guide, the museum curator Mr. Becker, was knowledgeable, interested and very flexible, allowing us to bombard him with questions, which he genially answered. He first stood at the open front door and we turned to face the street, as Carl explained the Four Corners:

Across the street, to the northeast, is the Luther’s Tavern- we have most of its sign in the museum. By the 18th and early 19th century, drovers of livestock and other travelers could share a bed and get a meal there.

The Luther homestead, the oldest building on the “Corners,” documented to 1740, is across the intersection, to the northwest. However, its wide-set rafters and roof purlins may indicate and even earlier date.

As the Luther family farmhouse, it stood alone, except for a barn or shed. Two or three generations passed before the tavern and the store were built on two of the other corners.

A Luther also occupied the fourth corner, to the west. We know the shoemaker lived there. A later 19th century building, which became “Eddy’s Store,” and was also a post office for a time, has now become a private home.

In the 19th century, this area was the “center” of Swansea. There was a cooper’s shop and a blacksmith shop, and other stores located there until the middle of the 20th century.

Captain John Luther was the progenitor of the family who finally settled Swansea in the 1660s. He was first situated at Taunton on 90 acres, but within a decade, the sea called. He made an unfortunate choice, for he lost his life to Indians who boarded his ship, supposedly to trade, in the first foray he made into Delaware Bay. His young son survived by escaping the ship, arriving safely in Boston in early 1646.

Captain John’s two sons, Samuel and Hezekiah, are credited with being the forefathers of all the Luthers in the area. Samuel tried settling in Rehoboth, and later in Attleboro, but decided to make Swansea his home. Even with little formal education – a common situation in those early days – Samuel made a large impact within the burgeoning community. Ultimately he was ordained as Elder of the Swansea Baptist Church, an expression of the village’s confidence in his leadership abilities.

Samuel’s brother, Hezekiah Luther, also established his home there, and his carpenter’s expertise was much in demand to a community trying to establish itself out of wilderness.

The Luther Store owners are descended from this brother: specifically Hezekiah’s grandson, John Brown Luther, who commissioned his own young cousin, Mace Luther, to build the store in 1815. John married another cousin, Lydia Luther, who was the daughter of the tavern keeper. At the age of 29, his promising career as a successful merchant tragically ended with his premature death.

John’s older brother, Joseph Gardner Luther, took over ownership and that is why there are two different signs adorning the exterior above each door: on the west face of the building the sign reads “J. B. Luther & Co.” On the northern front, above the door, is the sign of the succeeding proprietor, “J. G. Luther.”

J. G. had also married a cousin, Tamer Luther. He had served as a Captain in the Massachusetts Militia. Nineteen other brave Luthers also served their country. During the Revolutionary War, Theophilus Luther had been imprisoned on the ship Jersey where he suffered many hardships, before dying as a patriot.

John Gardner Luther’s business thrived on the “Luther Corner.” His other occupations were as town clerk and treasurer and collector of the taxes. He eventually had four children. His youngest, Joseph Gardner Luther, Jr. was the last proprietor of the store until it closed in 1903. During his tenure, he also was town clerk, as his father had been before him, and served the community as Justice of the Peace for over 50 years. He chose not to marry, and so, upon his death, that Luther line ended.

As Carl filled our imaginations with anecdotes about the treasures contained within the store, it was as if time stood still. It was almost impossible to tell that outside these ancient thick walls it was full spring, 2007, with new mown grass and bright, gentle sunshine. The interior was exactly as it was over one hundred years ago. The only missing element was the sense of hustle and bustle of busy traders and customers popping in for the latest news and gossip.

One can imagine John Vinnicum Morse coming over in his rented team on Wednesday August 3rd, 1892, the day before the murders, stopping in to get the news and then later visiting Andrew’s farm, where he traded pears for eggs with Mr. Eddy. On August 11, 1892, in the Witness Statements, State Police officer Seaver “went to Luther’s Corners, Swansea, with Marshal Hilliard to the farm owned by the late Andrew J. Borden and had an interview with Frederick Eddy and Alfred E. Johnson, who had been employed on that place.” They were probably also following the lead from the Fall River News of August 6, which claimed Morses’s story was that he “hired a carriage at Kirby’s stable and drove to Luther’s Corner on business.”

According to a list of Borden land transactions in Lizzie Borden Past and Present, on November 22, 1890, “Andrew J. Borden sold to Frederick Eddy of Swansea, Massachusetts…approximately one acre of land at Luther’s corner.” Andrew had two farms, one of which was in the area of Luther’s Four Corners by Pearse Road. John V. Morse had Vinnicum kin in the Swansea area that he also visited that Wednesday. Luther’s Corner was the place to go to buy or trade goods and meet up with neighbors and have a good jaw. Morse would have fit right in.

When we entered, before us was a 19th century general store, with original counters, bins, drawers, shelves, scales and Mr. Luther’s desk where he kept his accounts. There are still intact original items sold at the store, and also a fine collection of period pieces that have been donated to the society. There are posters, handbills, advertisements, signage, photographs and pictures on the walls, and in one area where the scales had been popular, customers have written their names and weight on the walls in faded lettering.

On the second floor are displayed tools of the old trades of cobbler and hat maker, and an array of coffins of several sizes that had been offered for sale. One unusual coffin had a storage area built in for ice to keep the body cool longer in warm weather. It has a viewing window with a cover one can open or close. There is a long, large cradle displayed in the museum, which was designed to rock the elderly infirm adults, and is similar to one at General Artemus Ward’s place in Shrewsbury, and one other in the infirmary of the Hancock Shaker village, according to our guide, Carl. There were so many miscellaneous items of furniture, pictures, accounts and artifacts that we could not take it all in and cannot wait to return for another visit.

I had stepped outside to retrieve a file from the car while Harry and Carl stayed upstairs in the 19th century. As I was locking the door I heard Harry calling to me: “The chairs! The chairs!” I had forgotten about the chairs! I did not know all 5 of them had become part of the permanent collection. Rachel Gardner, who was related to the family who bought back the farmhouse from the Bordens, donated the chairs to the society. It is said they were porch furniture, which would explain their rundown condition. Their legs are thin and petite however, which makes one wonder if they had once been fine furniture, relegated to the porch after much use inside. There is a funny little table there too, which society legend says came with the chairs. Lizzie Borden’s chairs! Harry and Carl seemed so pleased to introduce them to me: A part of Lizzie, a part of the old farmhouse, and a part of lovely Swansea. Thank you Carl.

The businesses that sprang up at this popular intersection of the Old Warren and Pearse Roads, and Maple Avenue are gone now. The school and other stores were turned into private homes. The Luther Store was picked up and moved back thirty feet on the property in 1937 to make it safer for those “new” cars coming around the corner- but the stability of good foundations and pleasant New England architecture from three hundred years ago still remains.

Works Cited:

Becker, Carl, Swansea historian, correspondence and brochure.

Cool, Robert N. ed. The Swansea Stage Coach: A Local History. Swansea Historical Society, 1976.

“Fall River’s Tragedy.” New Bedford Evening Standard, 6 August 1892, p. 2. Sub item: “The Fall River News says.”

Judge, Jean. “Did Lizzie Sit Here?” Fall River Herald News, 1982. 

Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden Past & Present. Al-Zach Press, 1999, 555.

The Witness Statements For the Lizzie Borden Murder Case, August 4 – October 6, 1892. PearTree Press, 2004, p. 36.