Mrs. Churchill's son

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Angel
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Mrs. Churchill's son

Post by Angel »

Does anyone know how old Mr. Churchill's son was at the time of the crime? Did anyone ever talk with him to see where he was that morning?
lisbeth1927
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Post by lisbeth1927 »

If his name was Charles H. Churchill then he lived at 216 Second (the Churchill house) at the time of his death which was February 26, 1926 as is stated in the 1926 Fall River Directory book. I have several of these and they are absolutely wonderful for research. Chock full of information, not only about the residents but the businesses as well, often times the volume of their sales, or if mills, the number of spindles, or if banks, the volume of deposits and so on.

At 230 was Mendel and Abbott Mark running the Mendel Mark Stationery business (later Leary Press).
At 219 (the Miller/Bowen double house) was Charles S. Miller, son of Southard and noted artist

French Street:

In the 1926 Directory, directly across the street from Lizzie at 309 was Mrs. Emma Lake - her son Arthur Lake praised Lizzie in Williams Casebook but there had been a property dispute between Lizzie and Mrs. Lake after Lizzie acquired half a lot adjacent and wanting it for an open park. They ended their friendship on ugly terms it would seem. This must have bothered Emma. Another fracas causing her to shrink even more into her shell.

At 243 French was Elizabeth McWhirr who may have been related to the great McWhirr department store.

Other Notables:

421 Jones was Marion Jennings – the Andrew Jennings estate at the southeast corner of French & June.

Carrie L. Borden lived at 492 Rock - This may be the Carrie “Lindley” Borden who went on the Grand Tour with Lizzie in 1890).

Later travels Lizzie took were with a Caroline Borden and the 1926 Directory has:
Caroline Borden, widow of Eric W. 739 Rock
Caroline F. Borden 495 So. Beach
Caroline L. Borden Clerk in City Hall

By 1926, Jerome Cook Borden, son of Cook Borden (Abraham’s brother) and cousin to Lizzie who was one of her strong and vocal supporters shows in a big ad as President of Cook Borden Lumber at 650 Davol. In the same ad Edward M. Hartley is shown as Vice President and GM. Lizzie’s cousin and a major legatee was Grace Hartley who married Louis McHenry Howe. Grace’s father was Dr. James Hartley, who may have been related to Edward M. Hartley. Grace’s mother was Jerome’s sister. Grace’s father left her his entire fortune with the stipulation “she was not to marry a Borden or furnish them with any money or property and was to never live with a Borden, except for her mother”. (Fall River Herald News, 3/21/2004). Anyway, the fact that a Hartley was so prominent in the Cook Borden Lumber business with Jerome Borden makes me wonder if something occurred with that business relationship that embittered Grace’s father, James Hartley. Wonder if Grace ever knew what it was that made her father have that stipulation in his Will and I wonder further if Grace ever discussed it with Lizzie at Maplecroft?

Anyway, moving on to the 1927 Directory, Charles Churchill is shown as deceased but listed with Adelaide
At 216 Second.

Then there’s Mendel Mark and Neff Miles at 230, so maybe he had a falling out with Abbott, who is not listed.

Arthur S. Phillips (you all know him) had his law office at 10 Purchase Street, but resided in Portsmouth, RI. He took out a big ad every year for years in those Directories.

The interesting thing about French Street is that at #96 French Street we find Getrude M. Baker. She was also a legatee in Lizzie’s Will and one of her few close companions in her last years. There was sort of a holy triumvirate: Lizzie, Helen Leighton and Gertrude Baker. Gertrude was on the Board of the FR Animal Rescue League. It’s anyone’s guess as to who introduced who to whom in this 3-some. The 1927 Fall River High School Yearbook is dedicated to Gertrude Baker. She was also a nurse and when she died she left her money to Helen Leighton. Lucky Helen. She certainly knew how to ingratiate herself, didn't she? Anyway, Baker was only a few houses down from Lizzie, on the same side of the street. She must have been a frequent visitor to Lizzie’s last weeks, knowing she was so ill. Perhaps Gertrude was even there when Lizzie died or at the service, such as it was. (Maybe it was Gertrude who got care of Lizzie's dogs). Grace was inside Maplecroft the day after Lizzie died because I came across that as an almost throwaway line in one of the more obscure articles about Lizzie’s death in my newspaper collection. So there was Grace, Lizzie and Helen – all from the same gene pool if we judge just by looks and how they looked at the time. You take the photo of Helen Leighton that Leonard Rebello uncovered and published in the Lizzie Borden Quarterly, and the picture of Gertrude Baker on the dedication and that picture of Lizzie with the pinch nez glasses and these dames were really out of the same mold. Same hair styles, same glasses, same kind of dresses. I can almost visualize them at the Animal Rescue League Board of Directors meeting or even taking their time walking through some museum in Boston or New York. Not exactly your party-hardy type broads. Uh uh. But oh so very proper, yes indeed. Decorum, decorum, decorum. Of course this would be in Lizzie’s later years, post Nance O’Neil and “theatre people”. I think Lizzie was probably always ladylike and refined and masked her inner angst and depression when in public. The Roaring Twenties, shorter skirts, bobbed hair, Lindberg racing across the Atlantic through the skies while she, Lizzie never did anything in a hurry – the age must have come on like gangbusters and not suited her at all. Much like the sexual liberation of the 1970’s to the Born Again Christians. No, I don’t think Lizzie liked the changing times. She was sad and depressed enough and now all this fast living. (Mammy to Scarlett: “It ain’t fittin’, it just ain’t fittin’). No wonder Lizbeth of Maplecroft preferred Dickens and Trollup over F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Wow. I really didn’t mean to post so much, just kept going and now suddenly realize how long this got. I apologize if this is fragmented and rambling but I seldom spend much time organizing postings for forums – mostly free flow, stream of consciousness writing. I’m more disciplined in other writings, just not on the internet. Again, I apologize.

Oh, one other thought before I forget. Nance O’Neil had a younger sister named “Lizzie”. I think I read that a few months ago in a biography on McKee Rankin that had quite a bit on Nance and Lizzie. I had never known of that before.
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Post by Allen »

Wow, that is quite a bit of information! Thanks! It was very helpful. :smile:
I've seen a few Fall River City Directories up for sale on ebay, but always passed over them for some reason. I'll have to give them a closer look from now on.
lisbeth1927 @ Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:52 pm wrote:
Grace’s mother was Jerome’s sister. Grace’s father left her his entire fortune with the stipulation “she was not to marry a Borden or furnish them with any money or property and was to never live with a Borden, except for her mother”. (Fall River Herald News, 3/21/2004). Anyway, the fact that a Hartley was so prominent in the Cook Borden Lumber business with Jerome Borden makes me wonder if something occurred with that business relationship that embittered Grace’s father, James Hartley. Wonder if Grace ever knew what it was that made her father have that stipulation in his Will and I wonder further if Grace ever discussed it with Lizzie at Maplecroft?

I think this is very interesting. I placed it on my ever growing list of things to investigate a little further. What could have caused the rift between her father and the Bordens? Does anyone know?

I think Lizzie was probably always ladylike and refined and masked her inner angst and depression when in public. The Roaring Twenties, shorter skirts, bobbed hair, Lindberg racing across the Atlantic through the skies while she, Lizzie never did anything in a hurry – the age must have come on like gangbusters and not suited her at all. Much like the sexual liberation of the 1970’s to the Born Again Christians. No, I don’t think Lizzie liked the changing times. She was sad and depressed enough and now all this fast living. (Mammy to Scarlett: “It ain’t fittin’, it just ain’t fittin’). No wonder Lizbeth of Maplecroft preferred Dickens and Trollup over F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I agree with you, I don't think Lizzie liked the changing times. Your free flow writing is very good, and very informative thanks. :smile:
"He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the head of dispute." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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Post by Kat »

I must say I have not finished reading your very interesting post- I look forward to the remainder.
Thanks for all the info!
However, I think the famous painter with the Miller last name was Franklin.
Also, It was Russell Lake across from Lizbeth at French Street, as written about in Williams' Casebook. (264).

If your directory states that Charles Miller lived at the Bowen/Miller house, who would he be?
Also, the same question goes for Arthur Lake.
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Post by diana »

What a fascinating post!

The Federal Census lists Adelaide Churchill's son, Charles, as being 2 years of age in 1880 -- making him 14 at the time of the murders.

I don't remember anything being said regarding his whereabouts that morning. Does anyone else?
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Post by lisbeth1927 »

I meant Russell Lake, not "Arthur" (thinking of Phillips).

And yes, it was "Franklin" who was the artist. Thanks for the correction. Maybe Charles Miller was another son? Did Southard have two sons? But Charles Miller is the name shown as living there.

Thanks for correcting me, Kat. Sometimes that stream of consciousness flows sideways instead of in a straight line. :)
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Post by theebmonique »

I too will ge through your informative post lisbeth1927. You are so well-versed on this subject ! You should write a book...or one of those things that comes before a movie...a screenplay ? I am learning so much !


Tracy...
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Post by Susan »

Thanks, Lisbeth1927, great informative post. Interesting reading how Lizzie touched certain people's lives and vice versa, for better or worse.
“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever.”-Margaret Cho comedienne
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Post by Kat »

And yes, it was "Franklin" who was the artist. Thanks for the correction. Maybe Charles Miller was another son? Did Southard have two sons? But Charles Miller is the name shown as living there.
--Lisbeth1927

Actually, after looking at some genealogy which memory was pricking the back of my mind, I find:

"In 1836 Mr.[Southard] Miller married Esther G. Peckham, a native of Newport, daughter of Henry Peckham, and she survived him, dying in 1903, at the age of seventy-nine years. Three children were born to them:
(1) Reuben Morton was engaged in the lumber business in Fall River, where he died Jan. 11, 1884. He was twice married, first to Sarah J. Gifford, and subsequently to Jamesetta Carson, who survives him and resides in Fall River. His only surviving child, Charles S. Miller, was born to the first marriage.
(2) Franklin Harrison pursued his art studies in Boston and Paris and was located at Fall River, following the profession of artist. He died March 18, 1911.
(3) Phebe Vincent married Dr. Seabury Bowen, and died in Fall River Sept. 13, 1907, leaving one daughter, Florence G., wife of Horace M. Hathaway."

--From Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts, Vol. I, J.H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1912, pg. 1172

That Charles S. Miller was Southard's grandson.
Interesting that Southard did have another son, Reuben.
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Post by mbhenty »

Yes, very interesting Lisbeth1927: When I was a little boy, I remember the Cook Borden lumber yard on Doval Street. Not sure if it was still part of the same family, or had the same name at that time. We use to ride our bikes thru the lumber yard and go fishing in the river behind the yard. Of course we were always chased away by the employees.... :smile:

And the property that Lizzie purchase next door to the Lake's was recently sold to the optician on the corner of Highland and French. The house has new siding, and just earlier this week a ton of sheetrock went in one of the windows. They are totaly renovating the building which has been empty for a couple of years. Not sure if it is going to be a private residence or an office for the optician. :smile:

And 309 is a Deaconess home for young girls. An ugly extension was attached to the building a couple of years ago, doubling it in size, along with vinyl siding. It was once a majestic building but all the trim and such has long been torn off. typical of many others just like it all over Fall River. :smile:

Very interesting info Lisbeth1927, thanks.
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Post by Kat »

What is the building across French Street which has the massive wheelchair access ramp?
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Post by mbhenty »

Yes KAT: The house with the wheelchair ramp is the old Lake property that Lisbeth1927 spoke of, above.

In Lizzie's time there were two house lots, one on each side of the Lake property which lizzie purchased.

The lot on the west side of the Lake property, (where the ramp is.) was one of the lots Lizzie owned. Eventually, (some time after Lizzie died) this house lot ended up being part of 309 French. This is where the extension was added several years ago to 309 French Street.

The house with the wheelchair ramp (309) is now, and has been for many years, the Deaconess (School) home for young troubled teenage girls.

I have not done my homework, so I can not comment on the dispute between Lizzie and the Lakes, or anything about a park, but they were both very tiny properties, each about 5000 sq. feet. (as compared to an acre which is over 43,000 feet.) Maplecroft itself is probably less than 12,000 square feet, or around quater acre.

I never really considered Maplecroft a mansion, but just a big house. Many people who are not fimiliar with Maplecroft, will drive by looking for it, and miss it, thinking that it must be a huge property, which it is not.

There are many more majestic and larger houses in the Highland area of Fall River. But, alas, they are not our dear Maplecroft.
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Post by Kat »

Thanks!
I wrote about the disputes in the neighborhood during Lizbeth's tenure there which originated in the Gertrude Stevenson's news article in 1913. My article was published in The Hatchet, Vol. 2, Issue 4, Aug/Sept 2005, "Actions Speak Louder Than Words: The Borden Sisters, 1913."
Therein I also transcribed the whole news item.

There is an excerpt available of the Stevenson's treatment
(from the Boston Sunday Herald, 6 April 1913) at the website, in Terence Duniho's article "All Things Swift."
(It's attributed to the wrong paper there tho).

http://lizzieandrewborden.com/NewResearch/Swift.htm
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Post by Kat »

From Terence's article, "All Things Swift" based on the Stevenson item:

"Gertrude Stevenson, in an article she wrote for the Boston Post[sic-KK] in 1913, had this to say:
'A few years ago she [Lizbeth-KK] discarded her carriage and handsome pair [of horses-TD] for the finest limousine that money could buy.'

Thus it was perhaps about 1910 that she decided to build a driveway and/or garage on the lot behind the Swift property. Ms. Stevenson provides us with details about this matter not found elsewhere:
 
'It was a strange circumstance that led this woman to choose a home adjoining that of the man who later became the chief prosecuting officer for the commonwealth, Atty James M. Swift. [He was attorney general of Massachusetts from 1902 until 1914-TD.] The Swifts owned a lot of land at the rear of their own residence [meaning a normal size lot behind their house, not a whole bunch of land-TD], joining the Borden property at right angles and facing Belmont street, which Miss Borden bought some years later.
 
The deed of this purchase discloses a clause restricting Miss Borden from ever erecting a structure of any description upon it. With the acquisition of a new automobile, however, Miss Borden made preparations to build a garage on the land she had purchased from the family of the attorney-general in spite of the clause forbidding any such construction. Much to her annoyance the Swifts held her to the letter of her deed; at least, that is the inference generally drawn, as she finally built her garage on the other side of her house on a lot which she had purchased some time before. Originally there was a house on this lot, but Miss Borden had had it removed and the land converted into very attractive grounds.
 
The original plan for the garage called for an entrance facing Belmont street and a driveway across the land which the Swifts had formerly owned. The restriction in the deed, however, prevented the construction of even as much as a concrete path. Therefore, Miss Borden was obliged to keep that portion of her property devoted to grass lot and have the entrance to her garage from French street and across the lot which she preferred to keep as a smooth lawn.
 
Her vexation at being held to the conditions of the deed was immediately expressed in a 10-foot lattice fence separating her house from the Swift home. She also had built a low iron fence separating the two lawns and defining her property line. She declared that the high fence had been built between the houses to save herself from the annoyance of the curious scrutiny of tradespeople delivering goods at the adjoining houses.'

 
When she died, the lot was sold by her long-term business agent, Charles C. Cook, to James' younger brother, John T. Swift, at that time treasurer of the Citizens Savings Bank and president of the Swansea Dye Works."

--The Stevenson article describes also the splitting of the Lake lot and the fall-out from that.
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Post by Kat »

I have Russell Lake at French Street in the 1910 census, under his father:
1910
LAKE, EDWARD B   (1910 U.S. Census)
MASSACHUSETTS , BRISTOL, 8-WD FALL RVR
Age: 75, Male, Race: WHITE, Born: MA
Series: T624 Roll: 577 Page: 68

Edward B. Lake
His Occupation was listed as:Wholesale Merchant Groceries
The 2 servants are the Cook and Chauffeur, in that order
~~~~~~
Charles A. Baker, who you will see listed next, is on Highland.
~~~~~~

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Kat
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Post by Kat »

In 1920 we have only:

LAKE EMMA L 65 F Widow ME MA BRISTOL 2-WD FALL RIVER 1920
At 309 French Street
Russell'd be 24 by now. He's not listed.

I started looking at census, I admit, because the name "Arthur Lake" sounded familiar. But it was a wild goose chase. Did not find such a person.
Oh well.
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Post by Harry »

The actor, Arthur Lake, played Dagwood in the movies. It was a popular movie series in the 40's. :smile:
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Post by mbhenty »

Thanks for all that info KAT: great stuff:

I am relatively new to this forum, and am always taken back by how knowlegdeable you and some others are on the Borden Case. GOOD POST, required reading. Not important to the case itself, sort of gossip, but a "fun" read, and always of interest. Being from Fall River I'm ashamed to proclaim that I know very little when compared to this great group of people.

I have the copy of the "Hatchet" you speak of, I will take it with me today and read the article "Actions speak louder than Words." while at the coffee shop.

Lizzie's actions while at Maplecroft displayed a BOLD lady who demanded her place in society. She was living where she always was meant to live, it was her place, and she tried her best to mold it into where ever her desires led her, at times to the distaste of her neighbors.

I think that perhaps Lizbeth rushed into buying Maplecroft, since there were many other properties in Fall River at the time, with much more space around it.

When she purchased it, the land Maplecroft sat on was not much larger than the two small house lots she owned across the street. The Swift house was not much more than 20 to 35 feet away. (the same also on the other east side of the houses.) That's not much space; the lenght of some of today's livingrooms.

By today's standards it is a tiny piece of land on which to build such a large house. But in the Fall River, especially back in the 1800's it was common place. Most shop owners and mill proprietors needed to live close to their business, and any prominent wealthy person would have choosen the "Hill," above and away from the hustle of the mills, and away from common folk.

THanks KAT, great stuff. :grin: :grin:
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Post by Kat »

Thanks Michael.
Have you been inside Maplecroft?
It's good to have someone from Fall River as a constant presence on the Forum.
We had Mike Dube as a member- I believe he still is- but we don't hear from him anymore- so he may have retired from the Forum.

My article was focused on proving whether Emma made that interview with the Post in 1913. It relies on Stevenson's article (of *gossip*) to show that Emma had a reason after all that time, to speak out in favor of her sister, and also found that Emma was probably living with the Buck sisters at 114 Prospect Street, in Fall River, just about that time as well. She had been moving back from Providence.

The Stevenson article is amazing at showing a Lizbeth who was queen of French Street. :smile:
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