Michael Jackson and Nance O’Neil – 25 Feet of Separation

With all the coverage of Michael Jackson’s burial at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California, I was reminded of my trek exactly 3 years ago (September 2, 2006) in search of Nance O’Neil’s final resting place.

Born Gertrude Lamson  on Oct. 8, 1874 in Oakland, California, Nance lived a full and accomplished life in theatre and film and died on February 7, 1965  at the USA Actors  Home in Englewood, New Jersey.  She was 91 years old.

Nance O’Neil was cremated at Fern Cliff Mortuary/Crematory, Hartsdale, New York.  A little over a month later her  ashes were shipped to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif. and placed in Niche #10022 of the “Columbarium of the Sanctuaries” in The Great Mausoleum on March 10, 1965.  This is the same Niche where her husband’s ashes (Alfred Scott Devereux Hickman) had been placed 34 years previous.  After my visit I added images and remarks at her Find A Grave site.

The Great Mausoleum is absolutely stunning in its beauty.   While inside  I looked with awe at the incredible stain glass depiction of The Last Supper, below which Michael Jackson will lay for all eternity.  It is  not more than 25 feet away from the wall of cremations which contains Nance’s ashes.

Sadly, Nance O’Neil’s name does not appear and there is nothing to indicate that this is her final resting place other than an old 3×5 lined card documenting the arrival of her ashes from Fern Cliff Mortuary with instructions to place them in Niche #10022.   I had to seek this information from the Records Office.

The Records Clerk, once getting the card from the archivist, had never heard of Nance O’Neil, which didn’t surprise me.  (I decided not to tell her the connection with Lizzie Borden and only said my “great aunt” had been a famous stage actress).  They were able to tell me nothing further as the only information they had was on the card.  Being Nance’s “great niece”, I was told her location within the vast cemetery and given a pass to present to the guard at the Great Mausoleum.  He actually left his post to help me and my son find our way to the “Columbine of the Sanctuaries” within the building.   (I have to wonder what enhanced security may be in place now that the King of Pop joins all the other notables in that exquisite structure).

The fact Nance’s name does not appear on the bronze plating might possibly have been Nance’s  own wish. I have never searched for nor seen a copy of Nance’s Will or if, like her once-upon-a-time friend, Lizzie Borden, she left instructions for the disposition of her remains.  But someone (perhaps her younger sister?) saw to it that Nance would rest into eternity with her husband – someone with whom she surely must have had great affection.  I believe both Nance and Alfred were bi-sexual and a marriage of convenience turned into one of mutual respect and caring and even love.

Book Review: “Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It?” by David Rehak

(Recycled post)

The third and revised printing of David Rehak’s 270 page softcover book, Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It?, contains a never before seen note written in Lizzie’s hand shortly after the sinking of the Titanic. This book is now available (along with Mr. Rehak’s other books) thru Lulu Press as seen by clicking HERE.

This is a different kind of Lizzie book. Traditionally, the Lizzie books have a sequential, narrative progression, spilling forth the saga of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden against the backdrop of Fall River, Massachusetts and peppered with some new (and often outrageous) theory of who dunnit. Not this book. No long, flowing narratives here. No in-depth research filling chapter after chapter. Instead Dave takes us on a thoroughly enjoyable Mr. Toad’s wild ride weaving in and out, up and down, over and around and back again, giving us punches of “in your face” data to quickly absorb, question, and quickly move on.

In the Introduction he says he deals with the facts “as we know them”. Well, not entirely. For example, an early error is in the constricted Timeline that has John Morse visiting his niece and nephew, “the Emerys” on Weybosset street. Nonetheless, with almost bullet-point speed he whisks us through “Lizzie didn’t do it”, then rebounds with “Lizzie did it” having laid out the basics and offers conclusions – not opinionated but taken from reportings of the day.

Then we are off and flying again into the skies of “whys”. Why was Lizzie thought to be a lesbian – featuring Nance O’Neil; why does Lizzie linger; why was Lizzie a romantic being, and so on. Along the read-ride we bump into Lizzie’s alledged boyfriend (David Anthony), the alleged illegitimate son of Andrew (William S. Borden), her disloyal friend (Alice Russell), her loyal supporter (Mary Livermore). If television’s TMZ and “Access Hollywood” were turned into a book on Lizzie, this would be it. Fast flashes that move from one salacious tidbit to another, the reader learns something new, re-processes something already known, and finds points to question and challenge – depending upon the level of expertise of the reader.

While Mr. Rehak asserts he makes no claim as to her guilt or innocence, it is clear he has a real affection for the inscrutable Miss Borden and sways from an unbiased hand more than once. For this we can forgive him. Most authors attempting to maintain neutrality often write with a slight transparency allowing the reader to draw the correct conclusion.

There are two things that have never been published in any book on the Borden case before and they appear in this book only. One is revealed to the public in printed form for the first time.

First, this portrait of Andrew J. Borden as a young man – perhaps taken at the time he married Sarah Morse Borden. Neither this image or similar image has appeared in a book up to this time. Second, and more importantly, something “new” in Lizzie’s own hand: a note she wrote not long after the sinking of the Titantic wanting the initial “B” placed on toiletry items for her matching case. It gives us insight into Lizzie’s own vanity, her keen eye for quality, and maybe even tells us how much that “B” as in B O R D E N meant to her.

I have permission from author Dave Rehak to include that note in this blog so here it is as introduced in his book.

Below are images from my own digital copy of the original note.

I would recommend to any Bordenia collector to purchase Dave’s book for these images alone. However, as the reader traverses through the uneven flow of these pages, he/she will come upon many new images not published previously except in his own editions. In addition, one can’t help but chuckle at some of the fantasy in the form of poems, psychic contacts with meeting Lizzie, and particularly “Lizzie’s New Hat”, all the more solidifying the fact this is like no other Lizzie book and stands as an “Anomaly of Audacity” to put a twisted contemporary pun on it.

David Rehak has done us all a favor, regardless of the factual accuracy and lack of scholarly research and citations. He has given us a marvelous compendium representative of the orbit that spins around our Miss Lizzie, and he’s done it with originality, good humor, and a fast track ride wholly entertaining and worthy of our attention.

I wrote about this new edition coming out in a previous blog entry where I explained the facts of why a second edition was “rushed to print.” This third edition has corrected the abysmal editing errors that were an unfortunate result. You can read why this happened HERE. If you have the first edition – hold on to that baby – it’s value just soared! And having a collection of all 3 is what the true Borden collector aspires.

It was my pleasure to provide Dave with several of the images in the book, some not published before. In the 7 years I have known him, I’ve found him to be a kind man – a sensitive man, and one I’m proud to call a friend. I recommend you purchase this unique collectible and treat yourself to that wild ride!

The Month of February

Fall River looking down North Main – late 1880’s.

Lobby poster for Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, 1927 -the year of Lizzie’s death.

A sampling of what happened back in Lizzie Borden’s day during the month of February.

Date	Event
February 1, 1894	Spinners line street between Spring & Columbia on both sides of Main St., declaring strike.
February 1, 1893	Robinson joins Lizzie’s defense team.
February 2, 1920	#230 (formerly #92) Second Street house purchased by Mark Mandel from John W. Dunn.
February 2, 1928	Pocassett Mill fire – City Hall, Union Bank bldg, etc. destroyed – over $35 million in property loss.
February 2,1894	Emma signs discharge of Executor duties of AJB estate, witnessed by Henrietta & Elizabeth Morse.
February 2-4, 1926	Lizzie enters Truesdale Hospital for gall bladder operation.  Registers as “Mary Smith”.
February 2, 1902	Philip H. Borden dies in Fall River.
February 3, 1854	Abraham Borden deeds house on Ferry Street to Andrew.
February 4, 1927	The film “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson premieres as the first “talkie”.
February 6, 1940	Weetamoe Mill fire, loss of $450,000.  This mill was owned by the City of Fall River.
February 6, 1844	McKee Rankin (Nance O’Neil theatrical agent) is born in Canada.
February 6, 1879	Charles Churchill, husband of Adelaide, dies at age 35.
February 7, 1965	Nance O’Neil, 90, dies in the Actors Fund Home, Englewood, New Jersey (nursing home).
February 7, 1910	Emma & Lizzie deed 9 acres land e/side Gardner’s Neck Rd, Swansea to Preserved Gardner.
February 10, 1905	John Morse leaves Iowa for Boston.
February 10, 1893	Officer Phillip Harrington,  FRPD, promoted to Captain.
February 11, 1888	Women’s Board of Fall River Hospital is formed.  Miss Anna H. Borden, Treasurer.  (She went on 1890 Grand Tour with Lizzie).
February 11, 1880	Edmund Lester Pearson born in Newburyport, Mass.
February 11, 1889	Service at Central Congregational Church calls for pledges of $82,000 to clear debt.  (Did Andrew contribute?)
February 12, 1892	Former President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is declared a national holiday in the United States.
February 12, 1834	Mass. General Court Assembly changes name from “Troy” to “Fall River”
February 14, 1890	Chicago learns it will be the site for the next World’s Fair.
February 15-16, 1916	Major fire in downtown Fall River – 30 businesses destroyed, over $1.5 million in property loss.
February 16,1897	Providence Daily Journal prints story of Lizzie’s shoplifting at Tilden Thurber.
February 16, 1898	USS Battleship Maine blows up in Havana harbor, 266 killed.
February 17, 1933	2nd Probate Court accounting filed by Charles Cook on Lizzie’s Will for period May 2, 1929 thru Jan.1, 1932.
February 17, 1933	3rd Probate Court accounting filed by Charles Cook on Lizzie’s Will: period May 2, 1929 thru Nov. 28, 1932.
February 18, 1904	Edwin H. Porter, dies in FR at age 39
February 14, 1910	Lizzie sells 18 acres in Swansea (Gardner’s Neck Road)
February 19, 1829	Phebe Ann Borden, Andrew’s sister, born in Fall River.
February 20, 1912	John Vinnicum Morse signs his Last Will & Testament in Hastings, Iowa.
February 22, 1896	Governor Robinson dies at the age of 62 in Chicopee, Mass.
February 24, 1924	1924 Woodrow Wilson dies.
February 25, 1968	Gertrude M. (Russell) Callow, Lizzie’s maid (1912-1913) dies at the age of 79 in Fall River.
February 26, 1829	Hiram Harrington born (marries Lurana Borden, Andrew’s sister).
February 26, 1883	Mary B. Young addresses Fall River City Council proposing her gift of $400,000 for new High School- becomes B.M.C. Durfee High School).

Jill Dalton and Lizzie Borden Live

LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE plays only two days at the Columbus Theatre this weekend, November 14th and 15th. It will be shown on the smaller Cinematheque theater stage, much smaller than the stage when I saw this performance twice in Sedona. As there are only 200 seats for this brief 2-day run, only 400 people in the New England area will get the opportunity to see this wonderful one-woman play. If you live in the area, be one of the 400!

Below is my original review of Jill Dalton’s outstanding performance:

Spent a long weekend in Sedona, AZ with three of my geocaching, quad-riding friends for the purpose of seeing Jill Dalton’s original one-woman play, LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE at the Canyon Moon Theater.

The theater is nestled in the back of a gallery store-front in an outlet stores shopping mall in the Village of Oak Creek, just on the outskirts of Sedona.

Right click for bigger image

It is a considerably long run as can be seen by this schedule.

Click HERE for a history of its runs and info on other’s responsible for this wonderful production.

Jill Dalton has done a few t.v. stints per her IMBd profile but one would not know from that what an incredible actress she is nor of this brilliant script which she herself wrote.  Jill is distinguished by having won the 2007 Jacoby Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress for her portrayal of Lizzie Borden in this play.

The lovely Jill Dalton

Lizzie Borden Live is a one-woman play in one act-one scene set in Fall River in 1905 at Lizzie’s home “Maplecroft”, and runs approximately 90 minutes.  There are no other actors and no musical interludes.  Dalton is on the stage the entire time.  Though looking nothing like Lizzie Borden in 1905, Jill Dalton quickly has you in suspended belief that she is Lizzie.

From the Cape May (NJ) County Herald

The more familiar one is with the principals and nuances of the Borden murder case, the more appreciative one is of Dalton’s research and the brilliance of her script.  The dialog she has written when speaking in the “voice” of others is taken from the legal proceedings or newspapers of the time.  She exposes those principals as Lizzie views them in her mind, be they friend or foe, and gracefully sways in and out of moods using her hands and arms and general movement and expressions on stage to accentuate her shifting emotions.  She has us mesmerized.

From Lizzie Borden Live website

Jill gives us a performance that compels us to see this woman as a 3-dimensional human being beyond the one dimensional persona from that inaccurate quatrain so repeatedly quoted and serving to cement the caricature of this enigmatic woman.  She puts us inside Lizzie’s head and Lizzie’s heart, but more than that there is a multi-layered texture to the portrayal she maintains and upon which she builds  when transitioning to the child Lizzie, to the young Lizzie, to the Lizzie accused, and to Lizzie alone.  And while we feel for this woman we can fear her as well, for Dalton’s acting talent portrays a Lizzie that is raging within herself but asks us to question our own selves about that same rage.  It is frightening and forceful.

East Lynn Theatre Company

There is also much light-heartedness to this Lizzie within the play, and at times we chuckle and laugh out loud at her words (again the cleverness of the script).  But nothing impressed me more than when Lizzie tells us of her Grand Tour to England, Italy and France in 1890.   With a sudden switch in stage lighting we are transported to Paris and we are in an almost dreamlike state as Dalton depicts Lizzie’s passionate emotions at the height of her life’s happiness in enchanting Paris.  She twirls and spins and laughs as a young girl and tells of her travels and we are so happy for her – for these 19  weeks of blissful joy before suddenly being back in Fall River.  This was one of my favorite parts of the entire play and Dalton’s acting was absolutely incredible in pulling off this transition and heightening our suspended belief.

From the Canyon Moon theater website.

When Dalton interjects Nance O’Neil into the play those who are familiar with the facts will get more out of the dialogue than those who have little to no knowledge of this component to the Borden saga.  But here again the script does not lead us to a definitive conclusion as to whether they were lovers or just friends.  And her one-way dialogue with Nance on the phone is spot on to those familiar about Lizzie Borden’s history with the manipulative Nance O’Neil.

What is extraordinarily powerful, however, is Dalton’s performance by word, tone, and expression regarding the abandonment of her life-long surrogate mother and confidant – her sister Emma.  And just on the heels of that – the abandonment of her friend, Nance.  Dalton’s performance at this point in the play stirred my heart, put an absolute hush in the audience and kept the entire audience riveted to every single word and movement.  It was an acting tour de force the likes of which we seldom see on stage.

From the East Lynn Theater Company

I can’t say enough about the brilliance of this script and how Jill Dalton gives us many Lizzies throughout the play and yet ultimately only one emerges:  A multi-faceted woman of real flesh and blood with all the same feelings and foibles we all have.  What Dalton has accomplished is given us a Lizzie we can hold on to.  She’s made her less allusive by allowing us to see through Lizzie’s eyes, laugh with Lizzie’s own spirited humor, and feel sorrow at Lizzie’s torment and depression.  But Dalton goes to just the edge and no further – sculpting a Lizzie so finely that her portrayal neither erodes the mystery of the woman herself nor diminishes the variables and allure within this most facinating case.   Indeed, Jill Dalton’s absolutely stunning performance in this play – so aptly titled – truly gives us: Lzzie Borden Live.

I so loved the experience because of Jill’s performance I’m going back before it closes.  If this play comes to your area, do not miss it!!

Some Glimpses of Lizzie’s View of The 1900’s

Here’s the painting “The Village Elms” which I believe is hanging over the sofa in the picture postcard below of “Mrs. Borden’s” home in the Highlands.

In the famous crime scene photo of the deceased Andrew on the sofa, note the painting above.  It was the due diligence of Leonard Rebello and Bill Pavao that identified the photo and had the print made that now all visitors to 92 Second Street can see.  Here it is below.

Lizzie Borden was fond of shopping and the theater in New York City. If she was on Twenty-Third Street in August of 1901, the video below is typical of what she would have seen. With the advent of Edison’s “moving pictures” films such as these were taken at many thoroughfares in popular cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. Queen Victoria had died in January of 1901 and only two weeks after this film, President William McKinley would be shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

Marc Dimon of the Fall River Herald News wrote a cute piece today regarding downtown Fall River. I liked his idea of “preserving” it as it is now. LOL! But it did bring me to mind of what Fall River was like “in Lizzie’s day” as illustrated by these postcards.

Working girls in the mill.

A family takes time out for some fun in their store.

A fancy hearse.

1918 Mary Whittum, 106 Hunter St. Fall River, Mass.” Shelves at left are cans of corn, salmon, Van Camps Evaporated Milk, boxes of Ideal Not-A-Seed Raisins, Zinc covered jars of Heideman Pickles and containers of Euclid Brand Sardines. Signs in the upper right are hanging boxes labeled ‘Ice Cream’ and ‘Nabisco Crackers’ with another sign saying in part- ‘Serve with ice cream.’

1914 Burritt & Chamberlin Drugs Store- 623 Locust St.

1914 – Peckham Dairy 104 Barrett Street at the corner of Peckham Street. Milk bottles can be seen in numbered compartments on the left. There appears to be metal pans, pails and dippers on the right. On the middle shelf is a framed certificate with the heading ‘Dairy & Food Department’ which was likely issued either by the City of Fall River or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The circular symbol on the certificate may well be the city’s motto- ‘We’ll Try.’

Gifford’s Jewelry Store – note clerk at left eyeballing shopper.

Rioux Tailors, 85 Purchase St. Fall River, Mass. 1912.

Popular custom of the times was to have a postcard made of your home. This one on Rock Street shows the Central Congregational Church in the background.

1906 “Mrs. “Borden’s home Highland Ave. F.R.,” it shows, we sitting on her sofa in the parlor of her home. There were quite a few Borden families residing in the Highlands. This is definitely not Lizzie. But take note of the painting over the sofa. Another popular print of “The Village Elms” which is the picture above the sofa at 92 Second Street in the crime scene photos.

4th of July Parade – 1918

4t

1913 – Mr. Hawkins Grocery Store on South Main

And of course the alluring Nance O’Neil

Lysistrata – “Lizzie” to You

Lizzie Borden, five years deceased, would have been appalled by the 1932 Carthay Circle Theater advertisement below.

Aristophane’s comedy Lysistrata (written in 411 BC) was performed at the Carthay Circle Theater in New York with Nance O’Neil in the lead role. The program ad below has “LIZZIE TO YOU” written below the title. One would think that a diminutive or nickname of Lysistrata was “Lizzie”, but Lysistrata really means “releaser of war” or “she who disbands armies”.

Lizzie might have even have found the play itself distasteful, classical Greek literature notwithstanding.

Anyway, 75+ years later, perhaps only those of us absorbed in all things Lizzie find the double entendre humor in this reference.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the play – hardly our “Lizzie” at all. Then again, in another life – she could have been. I can see that. Can you?

“The women of Athens, led by Lysistrata and supported by female delegates from the other states of Hellas, determine to take matters into their own hands and force the men to stop the War. They meet in solemn conclave, and Lysistrata expounds her scheme, the rigorous application to husbands and lovers of a self-denying ordinance–”we must refrain from the male altogether.” Every wife and mistress is to refuse all sexual favours whatsoever, till the men have come to terms of peace. In cases where the women must yield ‘par force majeure,’ then it is to be with an ill grace and in such a way as to afford the minimum of gratification to their partner; they are to be passive and take no more part in the amorous game than they are absolutely obliged to. By these means Lysistrata assures them they will very soon gain their end. “If we sit indoors prettily dressed out in our best transparent silks and prettiest gewgaws, and all nicely depilated, they will be able to deny us nothing.” Such is the burden of her advice.

After no little demure, this plan of campaign is adopted, and the assembled women take a solemn oath to observe the compact faithfully. Meantime as a precautionary measure they seize the Acropolis, where the State treasure is kept; the old men of the city assault the doors, but are repulsed by “the terrible regiment” of women. Before long the device of the bold Lysistrata proves entirely effective, Peace is concluded, and the play ends with the hilarious festivities of the Athenian and Spartan plenipotentiaries in celebration of the event.” -Theater Database

Little Known Tidbit: Nance O’Neil and John Gilbert

Nance O’Neil, the “ships in the night” friend of Lizzie Borden, had a starring role in the film that destroyed the career of silent screen idol John Gilbert.

Here’s the background on the film:

“His Glorious Night, also known as Breath of Scandal has gone down in history as having more or less single-handedly caused the downfall of silent-screen matinee idol John Gilbert, whose ardent declarations of “I love you, I love you” to an overly inert Catherine Dale Owen were parodied twenty-odd years later in MGM’s otherwise highly apocryphal Singing in the Rain (1952). Owen, from the Broadway stage, plays Princess Orsolini, who refuses an arranged marriage in favor of dallying with Kovacs (Gilbert), a dashing cavalry officer. But on the advice of her mother (stage luminary Nance O’Neil), the princess reluctantly informs Kovacs that she cannot love the offspring of a peasant. In revenge, the latter indulges in a bit of blackmail, but true love wins out in the end. Rumors to the contrary, the problem was not with Gilbert’s voice but with screenwriter Willard Mack’s overly florid dialogue, which might have been fine as subtitles but sounded downright embarrassing to audiences when spoken by a cast suffering from the stilted direction of a microphone-conscious Lionel Barrymore.” -Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Gilbert’s voice sounded high-pitched and effeminate in a film where he was supposed to be a romantic swashbuckler. Audiences laughed at him upon hearing his voice at different places in the film and his career as a romantic leading man ended forever. Although Gilbert continued to make several more films over the next 5 years, he never again was the box office star he had once been. Click here for more.

Nance O’Neil was a formidable presence on stage and in films. She had transitioned from the stage to the silent film era and on to the “talkies” with her powerful voice, making over two dozen more films in her career after 1929. Only a handful of her contemporary stage actresses would transition from stage to silents to talkies as she did.

Nance, who died in 1965, would have lived long enough to have seen three foreign film remakes of “His Glorious Night” as well as the 1960 American re-make by Michael Curtiz.

During the Depression years, while many actors had no work, Nance earned her living with these films playing with all the greats – as well as many of the future greats – like Barbara Stanwyck, Lawrence Olivier, Bonita Granville, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, to name a few. Career longetivity in an industry that sees so many “stars” flicker bright but burn out quickly, surely must have earned her respect among her peers.

But back in 1929, it was our dear old Nance who, literally, had a role in that little piece of theatrical history when John Gilbert met his cinematic demise.

And that, my friends, is a Little Known Tidbit about Nance O’Neil.

Maplecroft Neighbors: Lizzie on French Street

(Recycled post)

Here’s a question I’ve pondered from time to time: Of those French Street and nearby neighbors, who might have visited Lizzie Borden that last year of her life? Weak and not recovered from her gall bladder operation, who went a-calling? No mystery in finding out who lived nearby; more difficult is assessing which neighbors would have visited her. One can only speculate. Here’s a scan from my 1926 and 1927 Fall River City Directories. Let’s take a peek at a sampling of those neighbors

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Directly across the street from Lizzie at 309 French was Mrs. Emma Lake. Her son, Arthur Lake praised Lizzie in Joyce 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. It would seem Lizzie and Mrs. Lake ended their friendship on ugly terms. Perhaps Arthur was never made aware of that dispute.

Lizzie’s nearest neighbor to the east would be at 328 French Street, shown above. The 1926 Directory shows this house as apartments with Edwin Belcher a tenant and school teacher Harriet E. Henry (listed in the Directory as “Hervey”). By the time of printing of the 1927 Directory, Edwin Belcher is no longer a tenant. This property was purchased in 1925 by Harriet and then sold to Charles C. Cook, Lizzie’s business manager, in trust for Lizzie about 7 months before Lizzie’s death. That particular transaction would end up being reviewed by the State Supreme Court, but we’ll skip the details for now. This property is alternately referred to as the Henry House or the Davenport House (a previous owner and relation to Harriet). Note: The rod iron spiked fencing separating the properties was installed by Lizzie.

Lizzie’s nearest neighbor to the west, 324 French, would be John T. Swift. Swift was the lawyer Alice Russell, her conscious weighing heavily, first told of the dress burning incident. Had Swift not advised Alice to tell it to District Attorney Hosea Knowlton, we would not even know who Lizzie Borden was 115 years later. Shown here left to right is the Swift house, Maplecroft, and the Henry/Davenport house. Photo taken in 1998.

The next house east is 344 French where the widow Mrs. Isabella Hooper lived. Perhaps she and Lizzie visited? Exterior re-hab has been going on for years with this house and it looks much better in 2007. This photo was taken in 2005.

Across the street and slightly east from Maplecroft, this structure existed in 1926 but I’m unable to locate the number from the 1926 or 1927 Directory. It is now a commercial property and often referred to as the “Baker” lot. Lizzie bequeathed to Charles Cook “my so-called Baker lot on French Street across from where I live.” I took this photo in 1999.

At the southeast corner of French and Belmont was John Summerfield Brayton, Jr., a BC&C (Big Cheese & Connected) whose crowing bird annoyed Lizzie and made her nervous over a quarter century before she died. Did John and Mary Brayton visit Lizzie? I don’t think so.

At 257 French was Everett M. Cook, Vice President of BMC Durfee Trust Company. Another BC&C, like so many on French Street.

At 243 French was Elizabeth J. McWhirr, widow of Robert A. McWhirr, who may have been related to the great McWhirr department store. Did she go a-calling on Lizzie? I don’t think so.

At the southeast corner of French & June at 421 June was Marion Jennings – the daughter of attorney Andrew Jennings. It’s safe to say she did not call upon Lizzie. It’s further safe to say Marion had no knowledge of what lay inside an old hip bath covered with a tarp up in the attic of this house. Most likely, neither did Lizzie.

ON ROCK STREET:

Carrie L. Borden is listed in 1926 at 492 Rock Street, but in 1927, only her sister Anna H. Borden. These ladies went on the Grand Tour with Lizzie in 1890. It is my educated guess that they were the two sisters that spoke in confidence to author Edmund Pearson when he was writing his long, first essay on the Borden case in Studies in Murder. It’s highly doubtful these ladies went a-calling to Miss Lizbeth of Maplecroft.

At 618 Rock was Jerome C. Borden, son of Cook Borden and Grace Hartley Howe’s uncle, and strong supporter of Lizzie in 1892-93. Jerome succeeded Andrew as President of Union Bank, but it’s doubtful Jerome ever presented his calling card at Maplecroft during Lizzie’s last year. While most genetic threads were woven tightly, some weaves became irreparably tattered.

At 451 Rock Street was the formidable Elizabeth Hitchcock Brayton, whose nephew, having inherited this stately granite beauty, donated it to the Fall River Historical Society in 1935.

Actually, the 400 thru 700 blocks of Rock Street in 1927 reads like a Who’s Who of Fall River. However, after Lizzie died, Fall River had about one good year remaining before its economy and stratified society would fade and dissolve like so much smoke drift from the iconic mill chimineys that marked its once great prominence and vitality.

BACK TO FRENCH STREET

The interesting thing about French Street is that at #96 French Street, just west of Rock Street, we find Gertrude M. Baker, long time English teacher at BMC Durfee High School. ( The 1927 Fall River High School Yearbook, “The Durfee Record”, is dedicated to Gertrude Baker). Gertrude owned a summer house on the beach in Linekin, East Boothbay, Maine. She was a friend of a later friend of Lizzie’s, Miss Helen Leighton (we’ll get to her in a moment) but the important thing is through this thread that bound, Miss Baker was a founder and Treasurer of the Fall River Animal Rescue League from 1914-1930. It seems more a gratuitous gesture for service rendered than one steeped in a personal friendship that Lizzie left Gertrude $1,000 in her Will. Miss Baker never married and when she died she left her money to her close friend, Helen Leighton, along with her beach house in Linekin. Lucky Helen.

Helen Leighton struck half of the mother lode upon Lizzie’s death being one of two primary legatees. Seven years younger than Lizzie, Miss Leighton graduated from nursing school in Fall River a month before Lizzie went to Trial for the double hatchet homicide. Helen had been nurse and companion to Eudora Borden Dean, daughter of that very wealthy Captain of Fall River Industry, Jefferson Borden. Smart Helen. In 1913, she had successfully solicited money from Lizzie to start the Fall River Animal Rescue League of which she became its President. Clever Helen. She moved to Boston in 1919 and Lizzie visited her there, taking in galleries and the theatre. She moved to Brookline, MA. in 1924, and when she died in 1947, newspapers reporting on the Borden case were found stuffed inside the walls of the Linekin beach house.

So there they are: Gertrude, Helen, and Lizzie – they could have all three been sisters judging by how they looked in these photographs. It’s anyone’s guess as to who introduced who to whom in this three-some, a constellation in orbit around Lizzie’s moon. 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. All were proper spinsters who loved animals. None ever married or had children of their own to enrich their lives, to nurture, to enjoy, to love, and who would return that love.

Grace Hartley Howe hit the other half of the mother lode, inheriting half of Lizzie’s half of Maplecroft, furniture, jewelry, books, carpets, personal effects, etc. Grace’s grandfather was Cook Borden, a brother of Abraham, Andrew’s father. In 1926, Grace and her husband Louis are in the 1926 Directory as having a residence at 636 Rock Street, but in 1927 Grace is living at 464 Locust. Louis McHenry Howe was chief advisor and political strategist to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt but lived in the White House, visiting his family at their Westport residence in Horseneck Beach. (Louis would die in 10 years and be buried at Oak Grove with FDR attending his funeral.) But here we see Grace was literally in walking distance to Lizzie in 1926 and 1927, and surely she must have visited her. I have long believed Grace was called by the Reverend Cleveland of the Church of Ascension and was at Maplecroft when Lizzie died. She would have been, after Emma, the next and, literally, nearest of kin. Ten years after Lizzie’s death, two years after the final probate of Lizzie’s Will, and one year after her husband died, Grace was appointed Postmistress of Fall River by President Roosevelt.

Of these three women, Gertrude, Helen and Grace, two (Helen and Grace) gave newspaper interviews in the week after Lizzie died. One other woman, definitely not neighbor nor friend of Lizzie’s when she died, also gave an interview – Nance O’Neil. Nance met Lizzie in 1904. By 1927, Nance had successfully transitioned from the stage to motion pictures. In the newspaper interview she remarked on Lizzie’s kindness, refinement, and intelligence, downplaying their relationship and characterizing it as “ships passing in the night.” She was not named in Lizzie’s Will. Nance lived long enough to have read several books on Lizzie published prior to 1965. Her ashes are entombed with her husband, Alfred Hickman at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.

I think Lizzie was probably always ladylike and refined and masked her inner angst and depression when in public. We know she let that mask down with Miss Leighton, who, after Lizzie’s death, commented so definitively on Lizzie’s loneliness and depression in her later years. 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 “Flapper 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 nervous and depressed enough and now all this fast living. (Mammy to Scarlett: “It ain’t fittin’, it just ain’t fittin’).

I can envision her, in her last year of life, sitting on her window box seat in her summer bedroom in Maplecroft. More alone and isolated than ever with only a tiny few who ever came a-calling. Dressed in a stylish lounging gown, too weak to go up and down the stairs every day, she would have spent much time wistfully looking at the houses below and at the young people coming and going. Perhaps a young man honking the horn of his tricked out Model T Ford for his girlfriend to come out. Twenty Three Skid-doo. I envision one of Lizzie’s dogs in her lap feeling the gentle strokes of her hand as she remembers a quieter time of proper deportment. The era of when ladies were ladies and conducted themselves accordingly was gone forever. Stroke…….Sigh……Stroke.

No wonder our “Lizbeth of Maplecroft” preferred Dickens and Trollup over F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Sources:

1926 & 1927 Fall River City Directory

Unveiled: Miss Helen Leighton by Leonard Rebello, Lizzie Borden Quarterly, October 2000, Vol VII, #4.

1927 BMC Durfee H.S. Yearbook.

Last Will and Testament of Lizzie Andrew Borden.

Knowlton-Pearson Correspondence, Fall River Historical Society.

Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage, vol. 2, by William C. Young, 1975.

Lizzie Borden- Past and Present, Leonard Rebello, Alzack Press, 1999.

Conversations with Robert Dube, owner, at 306 French Street, August 3 & 5, 2007.

SECRETS WITHHELD – SECRETS EXPOSED

I’ve been in a quandry as to which of the topics listed below I should address for my next journal entry.

Helpful suggestions gladly accepted.

 

1. Transcript of AJB and JVM’s conversation that Wednesday afternoon.
2. Where the hatchet was hid the first hour.
3. Where the hatchet was hid the second hour.
4. Who abscounded with the hatchet in the third hour.
5. Why Emma partied hardy at Wheaton Female Seminary.
6. Sneak Preview of Harry Potter and the Harrowing Hatchet Deaths.
7. The real reason Andrew wore a truss.
8. Publication of the play Lizzie wrote for Nance O’Neil.
9. Cabinet photo of Lizzie at Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy 1890.
10. Cabinet photo of Lizzie and Anna Borden kissing the Rosetta Stone 1890.
11. “Driven to Madness” a spec script by Ernest Terry.
12. Personal journal of Augusta Tripp breaks the mystery why the Bordens were considered “ugly”.
13. Barnyard animals and what they really meant to John Morse.
14. The secret tryst between John Coughlin and Rufus Hilliard.
15. Victoria Lincoln’s first, and loveless, marriage.
16. Preston Gardiner and the return of “Love’s Awakening”.
17. Letter from Helen Leighton imploring Lizzie to fork over additonal funds for Animal Rescue League start-up costs.
18. Hetty Green’s letter advising Andrew not to sell certain real estate.
19. Andrew Borden’s letter to Hetty Green reminding her of .82 cents still due on his farm eggs.
20. Eleven reasons why 92 Second Street was not conducive to high teas and parlor games.
21. “My Life at Maplecroft During the Wilson and Harding Years” as penned by Miss Lizbeth.
22. “Squirrels, Shoulders & Sunshine”, chapter from A Balanced Life, memoir of Lizbeth Borden.
23. “I’m Going to Disneyland!” – Newly discovered NY Times Interview upon Lizzie’s acquittal.
24. “Lizzie Borden -Table for One” – a play in two acts by Chef George, Abbey Grille.
25. “I Blog. Therefore, I Am”. Synergistic psycho-babblings and why we do it.
26. “I-Phone. YouTube. Me inanimate long time.” – A SNL skit yet to be aired.
27 . My Travels Down Under by Nance O’Neil – (An Australian travel-log not stocked by the Fall River Historical Society for obvious reasons of decorum.)
28.. Knock, Knock Jokes for those buried at Oak Grove Cemetery.
29. “Ladowick, Schladowick – She Wasn’t Even Blood” – short essay by unknown paranormal investigator.

Tags: ernest terry, fall river historical society, faye musselman, lizzie borden, michael martins, nance o’neill