Sculpted by Arthur B. Hewett, the figure of Simon E. Coombs, a member of the Worcester Fire Department, stands atop this monument. Coombs was a member of the Department for forty-three years and its chief from 1872 to 1891. [ Friends of Hope Cemetery ]
Inscription: ERECTED BY THE WORCESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT IN MEMORY OF THEIR DEPARTED COMRADES. | DEDICATED SEP. 15, 1896
Fireman’s Monument: March 20, 2021
Today, there are five headstones on this plot.
> George W. Blake | 1837 – 1860 [ Typhoid Fever ]
> Ira B. Hastings | 1840 – 1864 [ Consumption ]
> John Stockley | 1831 – 1865 [ Typhoid Fever ]
> Frank. B. Jones | 1853 – 1895 [ Multiple Injuries ]
> William Flynn | 1837 – 1900 [ Chronic Heart Disease ]
Postmark: 01/26/19?? 11:30AM - Spencer, Mass.
Sent to: Mrs V. Wesley Green
Address: 35 Lincoln St, Spencer Mass
As you will be out late tonight needent hurry down to morrow A
THE MYSTERY
This card was sent in the late morning with an expectation that it would arrive before the recipient left home that same evening, which speaks to an abiding faith in the punctuality of the post office in those days. (Also interesting because the parties could have walked between their two houses in about 15 minutes.) In any case, one has to wonder what would keep a young, albeit married, woman out late (how late?) in the depths of a New England winter. [ Note: The postmark does not include a year, but it would have been sent between 1904 and 1908. ]
THE SENDER
The only personal identifier in this case is one lone letter, an “A” at the end of the message. However, given that the recipient’s mother’s given name was Addie, it seems almost certain the she was the sender.
THE RECIPIENT
Lella May Ashman, born in Spencer on September 26, 1883, married Van Wesley Green, a plumber, on June 13, 1904 and they were living together at the address on this card when the 1910 Federal Census was taken in January of that year. By 1920 Lella, now identified in the census records as Stella, had one child, Ruth M. Green, who was born in 1918. By 1930 she had another child, Gertrude B. Green, age 8 at the time, and the family had moved to Pleasant Street in Spencer. Efforts to locate further information about Stella after 1940 have so far proved fruitless.
REFERENCES
(1) Firemen’s Monument - Friends of Hope Cemetery
(2) Family Histories - Ancestry.com
(3) Spencer, Massachusetts - Wikipedia
THE CARD
Made in Germany for A.P. Lundborg
Worcester, Mass.
[ Front: A21994 ]