Hi everyone! This month we will have a blue moon on Halloween. A blue moon is named as such for it means the second occurrence of a full moon within any given month. Blue moons are relatively rare. The first moon following the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest moon. This year’s blue moon is referred to as the Hunter’s moon.
As well, this month we will be able to enjoy several meteor showers which are always a treat for our star gazers.
Now let’s delve into the details of astronomical events during October of this very strange and stressful year of 2020!
October 1. Mercury will orbit far away from the sun. Today, we will have a Full Moon known as the Harvest Moon for it is the first Full Moon to rise since the beginning of autumn.
October 2. The Moon and Mars will rise close to each other with the Moon passing just below Mars.
October 3. The Moon and Mars will make a close approach.
October 5. The October Cameloparalid meteor shower from the Constellation Draco will peak. (See 209P/LINEAR below).
October 6. Half of Mercury can be seen.
October 8. The Draconid meteor shower from the Constellation Draco will be at peak.
October 9. Today will bring the last quarter of the Harvest Moon.
October 10. The Southern Taurid meteor shower will peak today from the Constellation Cetus.
October 11. The Aurigid meteor shower from the Constellation Auriga will peak today.
October 13. Mars can be viewed from the Constellation Pisces. The Moon and Venus will rise and travel close to each other.
October 18. The Geminid meteor shower from the Constellation Gemini will peak today.
October 21. The Orionid meteor shower from the Constellation Orion will peak today.
October 22. The Moon and Jupiter will rise close to each other. The Moon and Saturn will rise.
October 23. The Moon and Saturn will rise in conjunction. The first quarter of the Blue Hunter’s Moon will be visible.
October 24. The Leonis Minorid meteor shower from the Constellation Leo Minor will peak today.
October 29. The Moon and Mars will rise and travel close to each other.
October 31 (Halloween). The Blue Hunter’s Moon will be full today. Splendid for Trick-or-Treat outings.
References:
In-the-Sky.org. (2020, September 27). Guides to the Night Sky. Retrieved from in-the-sky.org/
By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 27, 2020
The Milton business entries gathered from the Brookfield, Milton, Sanbornville, Wakefield, N.H., and Lebanon, Me., Directory, 1927. (The category headings are not original).
MILTON. Population, 1600. On Northern Division, B.&M. Railroad. Milton Mills is reached from Union, 4 miles. A live manufacturing and agricultural town. Twelve miles from Rochester and 20 Miles from Dover.
Automobile Garages
BANFILL, A.L. & SON (A.L. & W.N. Banfill), garage, filling station, Main, Milton.
KNIGHT, WILBUR C. (Sarah B.), garage, Main, M.
STEVENS, FRANK D. (Marguerite), garage, M.M.
TANNER BROS. (Charles E., George L., and S.C.), garage, Main, Milton.
Barbers
Burke, Charles L., garage, hairdresser, M.
Blacksmith
Clark, George A. (Jennie E.), blacksmith, Milton.
Candy
Brooks, John (Milton Candy Kitchen), Main, Milton.
Bryant, Harlan M., civil engineer, h. Milton. JONES, I.W. & CO., consulting engineers, Main, M.
SPENCER, FRANK F. (Ramona W.), undertaker, civil engineer, Milton Mills.
BANFILL, A.L. & SON (A.L. & W.N. Banfill), garage, filling station, Main, Milton.
CHASE, ADDIE H., store, filling station, Main, Milton.
Jordan, George E. (Sarah E.), filling sta., Milton.
Morrill, George W., filling station, Union R.D.
RINES, LAFAYETTE A., filling sta., Main, Milton.
General Stores
CHASE, ADDIE H., store, filling station, Main, Milton.
HORNE, JOHN E. (Gertrude C.), general store, M.M.
HUNT, JAMES G. (Emma F.), store, Union R.D.
Langley, Charles A. (Fannie A.), general store, M.M. WILLEY, JOSEPH D. (Annie O.), general store, M.
Government Officials
BLAISDELL, SAMUEL G. (Flora R.), postmaster, Charles, Milton.
Chamberlain, Fred M., selectman, Milton.
Looney, Walter E., U.S. collector, Main, Milton.
PAGE, ROBERT (Ida S.), tax collector, Milton Mills.
Reynolds, Willis L. (Almira M.), sheriff, M. Mills.
Grocers
DOWNS, ANNETTE F., grocer, Main, Milton.
LORD, FRANK H., CO., Harriet A. Lord, Prop., grocer, variety, Main, Milton.
MILTON FRUIT CO., James Mitchell, Main, Milton.
PIKE, PHILLIP G. (Rosamond P.), market, M. Mills.
Hardware
BRAGG, P.W., hardware, Main, Milton.
Hotels
Bliss, Minnie L., boarding house, Main, Milton.
DOWNS, FRED (Ina), Traveller’s Rest, Main, Milton.
Ford, Abbie J., boarding house, Milton.
HODGDON, ELLSWORTH A. (Cora), hotel, Milton.
Lawton, Marie D., prop. Lawton Inn, Milton Mills.
MAPLE COTTAGE, A.L. Percy, Prop., Main, Milton.
PERCY, ARTHUR L. (Marion F.), prop, Maple Cottage, Main, Milton.
Hotels (Summer)
DORR, HERVEY W. (Catherine M.), Lake View Farm, summer boarders, Union R.D.
AVERY & ROBERTS, dry goods, wood and lumber, Main, Milton.
Chamberlain, Moses G., lumber, Milton Mills.
PLUMMER, Joseph L., lumber, Union R.D. ROBERTS, FRED B. (Mary J.), lumber, Main, M.
Dickson, Marion I., teacher, Milton. Glover, Charles, prin. grammar school, Milton.
Hayes, Helen F., teacher, Main, Milton.
Horne, Lorita A., teacher, Milton Mills. McGregor, Ferne C., teacher, Farmington R.D.
Nutter, Evelyn R., teacher, h. Frank J. do. [Main, Milton]. Page, Norma M., teacher, h. Robert do., Milton Mills. Reed, Ralph G. (Blanche), headmaster, Milton.
Snow, Helen G., teacher, Milton Mills.
Southwick, Ruth A., teacher, Church, Milton. Williams, Laura H., teacher, Main, Milton.
Telephone and Telegraph
Jones, Edith E., agt. N.E.T.&T. Co., Main, Milton
Jones, Levi D. (Edith E.), telephone exchange, Main [Milton].
Textile Manufacturers
TOWNSEND, HENRY A., blanket mfg., Milton Mills.
Undertakers
Haines, Calvin S. (Cora H.), undertaker, Milton Mills.
SPENCER, FRANK F. (Ramona W.), undertaker, civil engineer, Milton Mills.
Variety Stores
LORD, FRANK H., CO., Harriet A. Lord, Prop., grocer, variety, Main, Milton.
Is this what we have to look forward to in the “New Normal” world – turning our neighbors in to the government so they can be properly “educated”?
Did you see the recent article in The Laconia Daily Sun entitled “Mask compliance varies by business”? It got my blood to boiling to read the reporter listing six different businesses by name where people serving the public were not wearing masks in violation of the governor’s latest edict. He showed enough concern about civil penalties and fines not being levied that he put in a call to the governor’s office to find out about enforcement. At the end of the article, he listed the state’s phone number and email address to report guideline violations.
The article noted that Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards has received 175 complaints about violations of state COVID-19 requirements since the governor started issuing the emergency orders, but none has progressed to the point of civil penalties because business owners tend to comply once they are “educated.” As always with bureaucrats, it starts with friendly reminders, but quickly turns to fines and penalties and eventually threats of violence and property confiscation if subjects don’t comply. Clearly the reporter felt the Attorney General’s office has been lax with “education.”
The article also mentioned that some store owners had specific reasons for not wearing masks. One shopkeeper said it didn’t make sense for him to wear a mask for hours at a time when customers were infrequent. He said that he always keeps a mask handy in case a customer wants him to put one on. Another business owner said he tries to be amenable to his customers. That seems reasonable enough.
But that’s not good enough for the mask police. Never mind that most people have been wearing masks inside stores for months now. And never mind that beginning around July 20, virtually all of the corporate chain stores required all of their employees and customers to wear masks inside their stores, so that pushed the mask-wearing percentage up to, in my estimation, 95% or more.
Earlier in the pandemic, it was all about flattening the curve, the daily death count, and hospital capacity. But as the number of daily deaths declined as the virus ran its course, suddenly it became all about “cases.” If you’ve looked at “the curve” lately, you will see the northeastern portion of the US is almost completely flat when it comes to daily deaths. So are virtually all the countries in Europe and also Canada. The southern portions of the US aren’t quite there yet, but they are all trending downward. Not to mention the fact that bureaucratic health departments are notorious for their delays in reporting, so often the death statistics are reported weeks after they actually occurred.
Since when did it become an acceptable social norm to turn in your neighbors who are providing goods and services to the public? It should be obvious that no one is forced to patronize a business where they feel their health is being compromised. Not one single shred of evidence is provided in the article that anyone’s safety was threatened at any time in the shops the reporter visited – or that any of the customers were upset or even concerned by the non-mask wearers.
Claiming that it was all about “public safety” a few months ago might have made sense, but it strikes a disingenuous note today. It’s all about compliance and control now. Never mind that grown adults can – and should – choose the risk factor that they’re comfortable with. Government bureaucrats – and busybody reporters – know better.
It’s a sad day in the “Live Free or Die” state where liberty and personal responsibility used to be celebrated that now corona hysteria has turned people into snitches.
Robert Edmond “Bobby” Jones was born in Milton, December 12, 1887, son of Fred P. and Emma J. (Cowell) Jones.
MILTON. Mrs. Fred P. Jones was in Durham last Thursday, to attend the meeting of the Eastern New Hampshire Pomona grange. Her son, Robert E. Jones, played a violin solo and she accompanied him on the piano (Farmington News, April 8, 1904).
MILTON. Principal and Mrs. Clarence E. Kelley gave a reception to the graduating class and alumni of the Nute High School last Thursday evening at their home on Farmington road. … Graduating exercises at the Nute High school occurred Wednesday evening. The graduates are Robert E. Jones, Karl E. Pinkham, Carl B. Tarbell, Stanley P. Nute, Annie B. Meikle, Ruth Fall, Addie C. Pike, Florence G. Runnels and Bessie Mayo (Farmington News, [Friday,] June 17, 1904).
POMONA GRANGE. Eastern New Hampshire Pomona Grange, No. 2, P. of H., has met this Thursday in Rochester. The exercises were: Song of Welcome; invocation by Rev. John Manter; address of welcome, F.F. Seavey, master of Rochester grange; response, G.R. Drake, State Secretary; violin solo, Robert E. Jones, Milton; address, Lecturer Richard Pattee of the state grange; music; essay, subject from Shakespeare, Katherine M. Jones; address on the Brown tail Moth, Professor E.D. Sanborn of the state college; violin solo, R.E. Jones; essay, Mrs. Anna G. Weeks; Cornucopia, Vol. 20 No. 20, Mrs. A. Scott Waldron; remarks, closing song; all these in the afternoon, and the closed session taking place in the evening, Mrs. Lizzie Lyman Fall of Milton, lecturer, in charge of the order of exercises (Farmington News, March 17, 1905).
Robert E. Jones entered Harvard College (now Harvard University) in September 1906.
MILTON. Robert Jones has been home on a vacation from Harvard college the past week (Farmington News, April 30, 1909).
MILTON. Robert Jones, who came from Harvard college to play first violin at the grammar school exercises Friday evening, the 19, returned Saturday morning (Farmington News, June 25, 1909).
Fred P. Jones, a general farm farmer, aged fifty years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Emma C. Jones, aged fifty years (b. ME), his children, Robert E. Jones, aged twenty-two years (b. NH), Philip C. Jones, aged eighteen years (b. NH), Elisabeth J. Jones, aged fifteen years (b. NH), and Allice V. Jones, aged thirteen years (b. NH), and his servant, Henry M. Bowens, a farm laborer, aged fifty-five years (b. CT).
Harvard College conferred an A.B. degree cum laude upon Robert E. Jones in Cambridge, MA, on an “uncommonly warm day,” June 29, 1910. Among the dignitaries present were ex-President Theodore Roosevelt and John Pierpont Morgan (Boston Globe, June 29, 1910).
Robert Edmond Jones… One ought to tell something about “the man by the name of Jones.” He was born on a New Hampshire farm. He did the chores, played the violin (Hiram Kelly Moderwell, who has written an excellent biographical sketch of him, tells this) and went through the local school. And then by the usual sacrifices on the part of a none too prosperous American family, he was enabled to go to college. He did not distinguish himself especially there. He showed some taste for drawing, and when he was graduated he was given an instructorship in the art department. He was vaguely unhappy there. The academic art curriculum of the college took no grip on his imagination. Some modernistic posters stimulated him as nothing else had. A bit of rich material or a bizarre figure thrilled him. An occasional thing at the music halls released his creative faculties, and the first things he ever did were some costume designs for Valeska Suratt. All this could not help his work at college, and failure to make up his required work gave the faculty sufficient excuse to drop him. Then he went through the usual period of poverty and depression and aimlessness, somehow continually feeling the way toward his appointed goal. For a time this young Harvard ex-art teacher dressed windows at a Boston department store, and in the meantime made some bizarre costume sketches for Gertrude Hoffman’s revue. They fell into Morris Gest’s hands, who sent for Jones. The things he did at the time were wild and exotic, the untrained outpourings of his rich imagination, but Gest used a few of them with modification. Then his work came to the notice of one who saw in the revolutionary, exotic, posteresque things that Jones was doing something of the artistic fecundity that lay behind it, and he advised him to go to Europe and study with the best men there. So he went abroad, and the work he showed was an open sesame that admitted him as pupil to the Moscow Art Theatre and Reinhardt’s Theatre. At the Art Theatre in Moscow he learned the spirit of the modern theatre and with Reinhardt he learned craftsmanship. And long before the war drove him back to America we begin to hear of the quality of his work (New York Tribune, October 13, 1918).
Robert Edmond Jones registered with the American consulate in Berlin, Germany, February 18, 1914. He was born in Milton, N.H. December 12, 1887, and had left the United States, June 25, 1913, arriving in Berlin, Germany, September 15, 1913, where he was engaged in “studying paintings.” His local address was Goethestr 69, i.e., 69 Goethe Strasse [Street], and the person to be informed in case of death or accident was F.P. Jones of Milton, N.H.
Robert E. Jones of Milton, NH, aged twenty-six years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), sailed from Liverpool, England, on the S.S. St. Louis, September 26, 1914, arriving in New York, NY, October 3, 1914.
Diagheleff Ballet Russe. … In the repertory of twelve dances there will be four numbers which have never before been presented in this city. Foremost of these is “Mephisto Valse,” a ballet conceived by Nijinsky during his internment in Austria the summer before last. It is a mimodrama of the familiar scene of Faust and Mephisto in the inn, and will be danced to the well-known composition of Franz Liszt. The costumes and decors for this ballet were designed by Robert Edmond Jones, a young American artist. He is the first American ever invited to contribute to the output of the Diaghileff organization. “Mephisto Valse” will have its world premier in New York next week (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 15, 1916).
Robert Edmond Jones registered for the WW I military draft in New York, NY, June 5, 1917. He was a self-employed theatrical decorator & designer of community [theatre], aged twenty-nine years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), resident at 51 W. 10th Street. He was of tall height, with a slender build, brown eyes, and brown hair.
SEARCH FOR STAGE SETTINGS FOR TOLSTOI. Russian Atmosphere Lacking in New York, Says Manager. When Robert Edmond Jones was informed last spring that John Barrymore would act Feyda in Tolstoi’s “Redemption” at the Plymouth theatre some time in the autumn and that Mr. Barrymore and company would expect to find a production in which to act, at the appointed hour Mr. Jones set off to the four quarters of the city to see where best he could pick up the trail of Russia in the new world and how distinctive a Russian background he could assemble 4,000 miles from home. He went down on the East Side to the Russian quarter, where he spent weeks walking the streets and peering into windows. He found that here was Russia enough in New York to put on a hundred plays, but that most of the material immediately to hand was either too shoddy for his aristocratic drawing rooms or too new and too conventional for his gypsy haunts. Mr. Jones’ eleven scenes for “Redemption” went from wealthy homes in Moscow to wretched dives under the old city bridges. There was no faltering in the hero’s descent to Avernus and no place for a half way house. Found a Bench. Mr. Jones says that in these first days of trudging he used to thank his stars he had plenty of time. His first find was at the low end of his scale. It was an old bench dumped on the sidewalk before a shop in whose windows burnished new samovars asked for his attention. He went to the door of the shop and asked for the proprietor. An elderly Russian came out and Mr. Jones asked if he would exchange his old bench for a new one, made by a fine carpenter, and painted. The Russian’s smile faded and was replaced by a vacant stare. This in turn became distrust. “What you want bench about?” Mr. Jones explained that he was putting on a play in a theatre and that his scene needed just that bench for gypsies to sit on. The Russian shook his head and scowled. Mr. Jones explained all over again. After a moment the Russian beamed. “For pictures?” he demanded, and when the somewhat nonplussed Mr. Jones said yes he got the bench. In still later quests Mr. Jones had another piece of fortune. He found in a shop below Washington Square embroideries and extraordinarily old brasses in the window, but the door was locked and the shop was keeperless. He went back on four or five days until finally he found some one there. He rushed in impetuously and said: “I want the contents of your shop.” The startled little lady asked him where were his senses. He explained who he was and for what he wanted Russian treasures, and then and there made an ally. Miss Fania Mindell, whose trove he had invaded, had seen “Redemption” in Moscow, and knew the Russian Tolstoi had written there. She hauled out rare old shawls, bedspreads, all manners of brasses and pewter pieces, mirrors and such. Then she produced costumes. Now Mr. Jones hadn’t begun to worry about costumes yet, but he seized his moment. Miss Mindell knew how to design what had to be made, but better still she knew how to find what had to be found (Calgary Herald, November 16, 1918).
Robert Jones of the Plymouth Theatre, W. 45th Street, New York, NY, aged thirty-one years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), sailed from Le Havre, France, on the S.S. La Savoie, August 30, 1919, arriving in New York, NY, September 8, 1919.
Theater Gossip. George Washington will appear for the first time as the central figure of a drama, on his own birthday, at the capital city which bears his name, in the three-act prize play, “George Washington,” by Percy McKaye, with Walter Hampden in the title-role and with scenic productions by Robert Edmond Jones. Contracts have just been signed with the Shuberts for its opening at the Belasco Theater, Washington, to be followed by a New York run (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 25, 1920).
Fred P. Jones, a lumberman, aged sixty years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Emma C. [(Cowell)] Jones, aged sixty years (b. ME), and his children, Charles Jones, YMCA Physical Education work, aged thirty-four years (b. NH), Robert E. Jones, a theatrical costume designer, aged thirty-two years (b. NH), Elizabeth Jones (b. NH), aged twenty-five years (b. NH), and Alice V. Jones, aged twenty-three years (b. NH). Fred P. Jones owned their farm on the Plummer’s Ridge Road. The census enumerator recorded their household between those of Charles E. Perkins, a lumberman teamster, aged fifty-three years (b. NH), and Bard B. Plummer, a farmer, aged forty years (b. NH).
Robert Edmond Jones, whose stage-sets have made him the most talked-of scenic artist in the country, is of a decidedly Messianic cast of countenance. He is, we should say, in his middle thirties. Artist and dreamer – these two terms are expressed everywhere in him. The Barrymore Macbeth, O’Neill’s “Anna Christie,” “Steamship Tenacity,” “Swords” and the Ben Ami flop, “The Idle Inn,” are among his recent settings. With him, as Kenneth MacGowan points out in his [article] lie what seem to be the higher possibilities for beautiful staging in this country. J.V.A.W. [John V.A. Weaver] (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 14, 1922).
Robert Edmond Jones of the Plymouth Theatre, an artist, applied for a replacement passport in New York, NY, March 14, 1922. He was born in Milton, NH, December 12, 1887, son of Fred P. Jones, and had resided previously in Italy and Germany, between July 1913 and November 1914; in England, between May 1919 and August 1919. His previous passport had been destroyed by him. He intended to sail on the S.S. Mauretania, on April 4, 1922, to do artistic work in France & Italy; Germany & Austria; and Sweden; and to travel in the British Isles, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and Gibraltar. He was thirty-four years of age, 6′ in height, had an oblong face, with a medium nose, grey-green eyes, a high forehead, reddish brown hair, and a fair complexion. He had a mustache and a bearded chin, with an indelible mark on his left mandible. Kenneth Macgowan, a journalist [for Vogue magazine], of Pelham Manor, NY, swore to having known him for fourteen years.
The invasion of Germany by American theatrical people continues. Close upon the heels of Brock Pemberton and Al Woods, New York producers, Kenneth MacGowan, critic, and Robert Edmond Jones, one of the best of America’s scenic decorators, have arrived in Berlin. William A. Brady, accompanied by Grace George, will be here within a month. According to indications, however, few results from these visits will be apparent on the American stage next season, save, perhaps, in the matter of scenic lighting equipment, for managers report there are few plays here that could be considered safe ventures for America. Among the outstanding transactions has been the purchase by the Selwyns of “Die Wunderlichen Geschichten des Kappellmeister Kreisler,” which embodies a unique two-level stage with six or seven separate rooms in view of the audience, and the purchase of “Die Ballerina des Koenigs,” by Simeon Gest. This play, which deals with the love affairs of Frederick the Great and Barberina, his Italian premier danseuse and mistress, is scheduled to be the vehicle in which Geraldine Farrar will appear under Belasco management in New York in the fall (Chicago Tribune, May 14, 1922).
Robert Jones of the Harvard Club, 27 W. 44th Street, New York, NY, aged thirty-four years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), sailed from Cherbourg, France, on the S.S. Majestic, June 28, 1922, arriving in New York, NY, July 4, 1922.
Robert Edmond Jones of Milton, NH, applied for a replacement passport in New York, NY, March 14, 1923. He was born in Milton, NH, December 12, 1887, son of Fred P. Jones, and had resided previously in Italy and Germany, between June 1912 and August 1914, i.e., until the start of WW I; in England, between May 1919 and August 1919; and in Germany, France, and Austria, in 1922. His previous passport, which had been issued by the Secretary of State, March 15, 1922, had been destroyed by fire.
Secretary of State, Washington, D.C. Sir: I hereby state that I obtained a passport from Washington about March 15, 1922, and used it in the countries mentioned in my application. On my return to the United States I destroyed this passport by fire, having no further use for it. Robert Edmond Jones, March 14, 1923.
Jones intended now to go to England, France, and Germany, for artistic work, and planned to depart on the Carmania, March 24, 1923. He was described as being thirty-five years of age, 5′ 11″ tall, with a high forehead, grey eyes, a square face, with a medium nose, brown hair, and a fair complexion. He had a moustache and goatee and wore glasses. Raymond Sovey, an artist, of 142 W 39th Street, confirmed his identity. He had known Jones for five years.
HOPKINS SAILING FOR ‘ANNA CHRISTIE’ LONDON OPENING. Arthur Hopkins will sail today on the Majestic to supervise the presentation of Pauline Lord in Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” at the Strand Theatre. The production will be made in association with Charles B. Cochran on Tuesday evening, April 10. Miss Lord, Robert Edmond Jones and members of the company sailed previously. The London production will be identical with the one offered by Mr. Hopkins at the Vanderbilt Theatre when “Anna Christie” won the Pulitzer prize (March 31, 1923).
Robert Edmond Jones was characterized in a review by St. John Ervine of the London Observer as a principal American proponent of Expressionist theatrical staging.
At the Play. THE MACHINE-WRECKERS. (By St. John Ervlne.) Last, Sunday I reviewed “Continental Stagecraft,” by Mr. Kenneth MacGowan and Mr. Robert Edmond Jones, the principal exponents in America of the theatrical theory known as Expressionism. In the same issue of The Observer, criticising “Angelo,” at Drury Lane, I asked whether this piece would satisfy the desires of the Expressionists. Since then I have received a copy of Mr. Ashney Dukes’s translation of Ernst Toller’s “Die Machinensturmer,” and the latest issue of the “Theatre Arts Magazine,” of New York. This magazine is edited by, amongst others, Mr. Kenneth MacGowan. My question about “Angelo” is answered in Mr. MacGowan’s article, in which he surveys recent productions in New York. “Angelo,” which ought to be named “Johannes Kreisler” – I suppose some Ruhrotic had barked at Mr. Arthur Collins and frightened him into changing the German name for an Italian one – does not satisfy Mr. McGowan. He says:- It is a feat in pure mechanics, and it wrecked whatever of play there was in “Johannes Kreisler,” … The American actors … were most effectively lost in the scurry of dodging about from one little stage to another, as they rolled out on the big stage and were illuminated. The forty-two episodes in the life of the composer Kreisler became merely a movie awkwardly mounted in a place where it should never have been seen. Machinery instead of dramatic art; tricks with lights instead of acting. I could not have expressed my contempt for some of the Expressionist theory more thoroughly than Mr. McGowan has here expressed it (London Observer, April 23, 1923).
Stage Designs by Robert Edmond Jones At Bourgeois Galleries. The Bourgeois Gallerles have opened their exhibition season with a collection of stage designs bv Robert Edmond Jones, comprising 38 drawings and water colors and one miniature model. The collection adequately outlines the achievements of our foremost stage designer, including the early designs made in 1915 for “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife” down to his most recent stage designs for “Desire Under the Elms” and “A Love for a Love.” While many of us have followed Mr. Jones’ career as it appears in its final version on the stage, few of us have had the opportunity of seeing the designs as they are first conceived and worked out by the artist. It will, therefore, come as a surprise to many that a stage design can exist for itself as a work of art. Irrespective of whether or not that design will ever be developed in three dimensions. Stage designs such as those by Robert Edmond Jones are a crystallizing, a setting down in graphic calligraphy, of another artist’s idea. Later on stage technicalities must be considered, but in their initial state they are emotional, often mystical, statements in graphic form. Stark Young acutely synthesizes the stage designer’s function in the prologue which he has written for the catalogue; “Each of these drawings furthers and reveals the meaning and the characters and the events and conveys the shock of their vitality [as] they sing the dramatist’s song. But they sing the singer, too. He himself creates within the part assigned him” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 25, 1925).
Howland Memorial Prize. Announcement was made of the award of the Howland Memorial prize to Robert Edmond Jones, BA, Harvard ’10, designer for “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife,” “The Jest,” “Richard III,” “The Birthday of the Infanta,” “Macbeth,” “Redemption,” etc. The Howland Memorial prize is awarded in recognition of some achievement of marked distinction in the field of literature or fine arts or the science of government (Boston Globe, June 23, 1926).
Director of Plays To Give Lecture. BERKELEY, July 5. Robert Edmond Jones, director of Eugene O’Neill’s plays, will give the first of a series of lectures on the modern play at 8 o’clock tomorrow night in room 11, Wheeler hall, under the auspices of the University of California summer session. The dates of his other lectures are July 8, 13, 15, 20 and 22, every alternative lecture, beginning Friday, to be given at 4 o’clock in the afternoon (Oakland Tribune, July 5, 1927).
Plymouth to Open. Arthur Hopkins will open his season at the Plymouth Theater on Wednesday evening, Sept. 4, when he will present “Blow the Man Down,” a comedy drama by Kate Parsons, with Walter Huston in the leading role. The settings and costumes have been designed by Robert Edmond Jones, and the play is being staged by Mr. Hopkins (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 15, 1929).
BOOKS for XMAS. THE GREEN PASTURES BY MARC CONNELLY. The Pulitzer Prize Play is now available in three editions: a limited signed edition, illustrated by Robert Edmond Jones, $25.00; regular illustrated edition, $5.00; unillustrated, $2.00 (Chicago Tribune, December 6, 1930).
Art. New Shows. The Bourgeois Galleries are now having something unusual in the way of exhibitions. This novelty consists of a display of the work of Robert Edmond Jones, a distinguished designer of stage scenery and costumes. Jones is an enormously prolific artist, having done the designing for forty-two plays, seven operas and five masques. In such a volume of work, one would expect to find at least here and there the stigmata of mere craftsmanship and mass production, but this artist has always maintained a high standard of individuality and sincerity. This record he has achieved through careful selection of the productions with which he has been allied; he has realized his responsibility as a pioneer in this new and potentially important field for art. The examples of his work shown in the present exhibit have a strange and haunting appeal. M.N. (Brainard Bulletin, April 1, 1932).
Robert E. Jones received a five-year contract to stage annual play festivals at the newly refurbished opera house in Central City, CO, in 1932.
Robert E. Jones married in Greenwich, CT, June 21, 1933, Margaret (Huston) Carrington. (She was the widow of millionaire financier William T. Carrington of Greenwich, CT, who died May 4, 1931). She was born in Toronto, Canada, August 29, 1879, daughter of Robert M. and Elizabeth (McGibbon) Huston.
MRS. W.T. CARRINGTON IS WED TO R.E. JONES. Widow of Financier and Sister of Walter Huston Is Bride of Noted State Designer. Special to the New York Times. GREENWICH, Conn., June 21 – Mrs. Margaret Huston Carrington, widow of W.T. Carrington of New York, formerly of North Greenwich, was married to Robert Edmund Jones of New York today. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Dr. Oliver Huckel, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, at the home of the bride’s sister, Miss Ann Huston, in North Greenwich. A small reception followed the ceremony. The couple will spend the Summer in Colorado and will make their future home in New York. Mr. Jones is one of the leading theatrical designers in this country. He first gained prominence in that field with his settings for “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife,” produced in Wallack’s Theatre in 1915 by Harvey Granville-Barker, and has since added to his reputation with productions for Arthur Hopkins and the Theatre Guild. During the past season he did the settings and costumes for Katherine Cornell’s production of “Lucrece” and also for “Nine Pine Street.” He was also engaged until January as art director for the RKO theatres in Radio City. He has been actively interested in the productions of the Dramatic Festival at Central City, Col., where he will direct this season a revival of “The Merry Widow.” He is 45 years old, and is a member of the Harvard Club and The Players. Mrs. Carrington is the widow of William Theodore Carrington, financier. She is the sister of Walter Huston, the actor. Her home is 720 Park Avenue (New York Times, June 21, 1933).
Jones Arrives with Bride. Denver, July 3. – Robert Edmond Jones of New York, who will direct the production of “The Merry Widow” during the play festival at Central City opera house this summer, arrived here today with his bride, the former Margaret Huston Carrington. They were married last month in the east. Jones said he would remain here several days before proceeding to Central City (Greeley Daily Tribune (Greeley, CO), July 5, 1933).
“Of medium height, solidly built, with red-gold hair and compelling blue eyes, she [Margaret Huston] projected physical vitality, psychic intensity and an imperturbable air of authority” (Morrison, 1999).
Designer Will Return for “Becky Sharp.” Robert Edmond Jones, genius of the theater who conceived the color schemes for Radio’s outstanding short subject, “La Cucaracha,” soon to be distributed, will act in the same capacity on “Becky Sharp,” when the Thackeray novel (otherwise “Vanity Fair”) gets started. Jones recently staged his annual drama festival in Central City, the Colorado ghost town, doing “Othello” with Walter Huston. John Hay Whitney is producing the new picture, which will go before the cameras in October (Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1934).
Max Reinhardt May Be Signed By RKO To Direct Production. By LOUELLA O. PARSONS (Motion Picture Editor Universal Service.) (Copyright by Universal Service Inc.) LOS ANGELES Sept 27 – Well, it seems to be fairly certain one of the studios will corral Max Reinhardt before he leaves California what with all the publicity given Midsummer Night’s Dream and his interest in the movies. Just at the moment it looks as if RKO might be that studio. Robert Edmond Jones, well known scenic artist, who is now in Italy cabled his former teacher and asked him to take a look at La Cucaracha, the film made with the technicolor Invention. If Reinhardt likes the picture he will make arrangements with Kenneth MacGowan, associate producer, to direct an entire color production for Pioneer Pictures. Of course that means Jack Whitney’s money will be backing it (Sacramento Bee, September 27, 1934).
Robert Jones of 760 Park Avenue, New York, NY, aged forty-six years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), sailed from Genoa, Italy, on the S.S. Conte di Savoia, September 20, 1934, arriving in New York, NY, September 27, 1934. He was accompanied by his wife, Margaret Jones of the same address, aged fifty years, a citizen by marriage.
Today’s Birthdays. Robert E. Jones, New York theatrical designer, born at Milton, N.H., 47 years ago (Kokomo Tribune (Kokomo, IN), December 12, 1934).
“BECKY SHARP,” IN COLORS, SCENIC THEATRE, ROCHESTER. With the coming of color in motion pictures, the limited impressionism of the black and white screen become outmoded. No longer will it be possible by clever shifts to create a sense of the genuine. The technicolor camera photographs objects as they are. A fake of any kind is quickly recognized for what it is. On the black and white screen, line and cut of clothes determine their style. Today the coutourier of the films has to meet the demands of color and fabric. Robert Edmond Jones, designer for “Becky Sharp,” a full color feature, shows damask that is damask, and Miriam Hopkins and Frances Dee exactly, as they would look at an evening dansant. See “Becky Sharp” at the Scenic Theatre, Rochester, next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (Farmington News, July 19. 1935).
Robert Jones of 760 Park Avenue, New York, NY, aged forty-nine years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), sailed from Liverpool, England, on the S.S. Franconia, August 7, 1937, arriving in New York, NY, August 17, 1937. He was accompanied by his wife, Margaret H. Jones of the same address, aged fifty years, a citizen by marriage.
Robert C. Jones, a stage design artist, aged fifty-one years (b. NH), headed a Greenwich, CT, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Margaret H. Jones, aged fifty-four years (b. Canada (Fr.)), his personal servant, Mae L. Anderson, a personal maid, aged fifty-five years (b. Sweden), and his housekeeper, Hilda Gullstrand, a housekeeper, aged forty-one years (b. Sweden). Robert E. Jones owned their house on Quebec Ridge Road, which was valued at $75,000.
THE BOOKSHELF. THE DRAMATIC IMAGINATION. by Robert Edmond Jones (Duell, Sloan & Pearce): Robert Edmond Jones probably knows as much about the American theater as any other living man. In this present volume he discusses costume, lighting, theater history, modem drama, acting and many other essentials of the theater. He goes beyond the present and describes the theater of the future. His historical account is most informative, and his forecast is provocative. An essential volume for anyone interested in the American theater (Birmingham News, March 29, 1941).
Robert Edmond Jones registered for the WW II military draft in New York, NY, April 27, 1942. He was a stage designer, aged fifty-four years (b. Milton, NH, December 12, 1887), resident at 760 Park Avenue. He was 6′ tall, weighing 165 pounds, with hazel eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. His telephone number was BU 8-5958, His personal contact was [his brother,] Charles Jones, 48 Caryl Avenue, Yonkers, NY.
Margaret (Huston) Jones died at her Summer home in Greenwich, CT, August 1, 1942, aged sixty-two years.
MRS. R.E. JONES, WIFE OF SCENIC ARTIST, DIES. Former London Concert Singer Was Sister of Walter Huston. SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES. GREENWICH, Conn., Aug. 1 – Mrs. Margaret Huston Jones of 760 Park Avenue, New York, wife of Robert Edmond Jones, the scenic designer, and sister of Walter Huston, the actor, died here this morning at her Summer home on Quaker Ridge, after a long illness. As a young woman Mrs. Jones studied singing abroad and frequently appeared on the London concert stage in the years just before the first World War, receiving especial praise for her interpretations of Debussy and Hugo Wolff. Later she made herself an expert on the speaking voice, and was consulted by many experienced actors and actresses. In 1915 she was married to William T. Carrington, prominent grain broker and music patron, who was president and chief financial backer of the American Opera Company. He died in 1931 at the age of 76, leaving to his widow most of his estate of $1,639,731. Two years later the former Margaret Y. Huston was married to Robert Edmond Jones. She was a member of the Colony Club of New York. She was born in Toronto, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Robert Moore Huston of that city. Besides her husband and her brother, Walter, she leaves another brother, Alexander Huston, and a sister, Miss Nan Huston, both of Toronto (New York Times, August 1, 1942).
Obituary. MRS. MARGARET H. JONES. Sister of Walter Huston, Actor. Mrs. Margaret Huston Jones, wife of Robert Edmond Jones, the scenic designer, and sister of Walter Huston, actor, died yesterday at her Summer home in Greenwich, Conn. A native of Toronto, Mrs. Jones was a singer in her youth, and later, as an expert in diction, coached John Barrymore and other stars. Her home in New York was at 760 Park Ave. (Daily News (New York, NY), August 2, 1942).
Robert E. Jones collaborated in a charity performance of the Crucifixion of Christ to benefit starving children. Conductor Leopold Stokowski conducted the accompanying Bach’s St. Matthew Passion music at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, NY, April 9, 1943.
Will Be Conducted By Stokowski. Leopold Stokowski is conducting the performance, with George Balanchine and Robert Edmond Jones as his collaborators. Soloists will be Eleanor Steber, soprano; Lucius Metz, tenor; Jennie Tourel, mezzo soprano, and Gerhard Pechner, basso. Glen Darwin, baritone, will represent the voice of Christ. The figure of Christ will not appear on the stage, but will be represented instead by a column of golden light. The Collegiate Chorale, an orchestra of 80, and a cast of mimes, all from the American Ballet School, will participate. Lillian Gish will portray Mary Magdalen (Daily News (New York, NY), April 4. 1943).
Robert Edmond Jones’ last production effort was preparing the sets and costumes for a second revival of Marc Connolly’s Green Pastures.
‘Green Pastures’ Returns Tonight. New York’s third production of Marc Connelly’s “The Green Pastures” opens tonight at 8 at the Broadway. Done first in 1930, the play was revived in 1935. Connelly has directed the Negro cast, Robert Edmond Jones has designed the sets and costumes and Hall Johnson will conduct the choir. The production is being offered by the Dwight Deere Wiman estate in association with Harry Fromkes (Daily News (New York, NY), March 15, 1951).
He cancelled a planned speaking tour in February 1951 “due to illness” (Journal and Courier, (Lafayette, IN), February 13, 1951).
Robert E. Jones died in the family home on Plummer’s Ridge in Milton, November 26, 1954, aged sixty-six years.
R.E. JONES IS DEAD; STAGE DESIGNER, 67. Leader in Development of the Modern Theatre Did Sets for Many O’Neill Dramas. Robert Edmond Jones, considered one of the most influential forces in the development of the modern American theatre, died yesterday morning in Milton, N.H., at the home of his sisters, the Misses Elizabeth and Alice Varney Jones. His age was 67. He had been in failing health after undergoing an operation a year ago, but apparently had improved sufficiently to plan to return next week to New York, where, for nearly thirty years, he had been one of the theatre’s foremost stage designers. Mr. Jones was born at Milton, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Fred P. Jones, and lived in that village until 1906 when he left to attend Harvard. His artistic talent was expressed early, first in drawing, which attracted attention when he was 10 years old. His mother, a concert pianist before her marriage, taught him to play violin, and at Harvard he played in the college orchestra. After graduating from Harvard in 1910, Mr. Jones stayed on for two years as an instructor in the Fines Arts Department, and began to be interested in theatre. He worked for a time as a costume designer for Comstock and Gest in New York. Early in 1913, Mr. Jones went to Europe. He visited Italy, hoping to study theatrical art at Gordon Craig’s school in Florence, but was rebuffed. He went instead to Germany where he had the run of Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theatre for a year. Scored on Return. Back in New York, Mr. Jones designed the settings for Anatole France’s “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife.” When the curtain rose on Jan. 27, 1915, at Wallack’s Theatre, audience and critics gasped with admiration. Thereafter Mr. Jones’ reputation as an artist-designer was secure and inspiring. Influenced by him, stage designing developed to the point where designers achieved equal importance with directors. Mr. Jones’ settings were designed to project more fully the playwright’s thought. Departing from the old realism epitomized by David Belasco, he drew on imagination, color and lighting to enhance the play visually, and he designed the costumes as well. Of his designs for “The Lute Song,” Lewis Nichols wrote, in The New York Times in 1946: “What has come from the easel and the soaring imagination of an artist is easily the most beautiful background given to any play in recent years.” “His colors flow across the stage in an ever-flowing pageant which seems to stretch out beyond the confines of the theatre. They swirl with the dancers and add majesty and dignity to the lives they touch.” Arthur Hopkins saw “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife,” in 1915, and immediately engaged Mr. Jones, whose first production for him, “The Devil’s Garden,” in December of the same year, is still praised by theatrical historians. Worked for Arthur Hopkins. Successive designs for Mr. Hopkins’ productions were equally noteworthy and equally revolutionary. During the next five years, Mr. Jones designed the scenes for seventeen plays, two ballets and five masques, mostly for Mr. Hopkins. In 1921, Mr. Jones began working with Eugene O’Neill when Mr. Hopkins produced the latter’s “The Hairy Ape.” Subsequently Mr. Jones was the designer for O’Neill’s “Anna Christie,” “Desire Under the Elms,” “Morning Becomes Electra,” “Ah, Wilderness,” “The Ice Man Cometh,” and others. Mr. Jones also designed for many other plays, and for ballet and opera, including productions of the Metropolitan. His most recent production was a revival, in 1951, of Marc Connolly’s “Green Pastures,” whose original success was in part attributed to Mr. Jones’ designs. Yale University presented the Howland Memorial Prize to Mr. Jones, and in 1933 he received the Fine Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects for conspicuous attainment as a designer for the theatre. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts. Mr. Jones’ writing included “The Dramatic Imagination,” a book published in 1941. In 1933, Mr. Jones married Margaret Huston Carrington, who dies in August, 1942. A singer, she had been the voice coach to John Barrymore and Lillian Gish. She was the sister of the late Walter Huston, the actor. Surviving, in addition to his two sisters, are two brothers, the Rev. Dr. Philip C. Jones of New York and Charles Jones of Yonkers (New York Times, November 27, 1954).
Obituary. Robert Edmund Jones. MILTON, N.H., Nov. 26. (AP) – Robert Edmund Jones, 66, a pioneer in modern stage design, died today after a long illness. Jones, born here, was associated early in his career with Eugene O’Neill in many productions of the Provincetown Playhouse. Jones designed sets for John Barrymore’s “Richard III” and “Hamlet.” He also designed sets for the productions of O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms” and “The Iceman Cometh.” His most recent production was a revival in 1951 of Marc Connelly’s “Green Pastures.” He also had designed the sets for the original production. Jones wrote several books on stagecraft and theater design, and had a hand in one of the earliest color motion pictures, a 1935 short called “La Cucaracha.” In 1933 he married Margaret Huston, a well known theatrical coach and a sister of Actor Walter Huston. She died in 1942. Jones is survived by two brothers, the Rev. Dr. Philip C. Jones of New York and Charles Jones of Yonkers, and two sisters, Miss Elizabeth Jones and Miss Alice Varney Jones, of Milton, at whose home he died (Hartford Courant, November 27, 1954).
References:
Morrison, Michael A. (1999). John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Liberty Chapel (formerly Milton Mills Methodist Church)
According to Scale’s History of Strafford County, the Methodist Church of Milton Mills organized itself in June 1869 and erected its “neat and tasty” meeting-house in 1871.
Liberty Chapel, the small Congregational Church on Highland Avenue in Milton Mills, also dates to the 1800s, and claims an unusual distinction: At the top of its spire is [was] a hand pointing a finger toward the sky. The building was originally the Milton Mills Methodist Church, and the original hand atop the steeple was carved from a single block of wood by Erastus Shaw. That hand is now in the collection of the Milton Historical Society (NH Magazine, July 2019).
The Milton Mills Methodist ministers of this period were Willis Holmes, William A. Hudson, Frederick H. Sleep, John H. Vincent, Lester E. Alexander, John E. Taylor, and Edwin B. Young.
Rev. Willis Holmes – 1904-07
Willis Holmes was born in Carroll, NH, September 5, 1855, son of Robert R. and Letitia J. (Phillips) Holmes.
He married, circa 1875, Ella Esmerelda Kimball. She was born in Hollis, ME, circa 1855, daughter of Edward and Joanna (Phillips) Kimball.
Willis Holmes, an engineer, aged twenty-four years (b. NH), headed a Whitefield, NH, household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Ella Holmes, keeping house, aged twenty-three years (b. NH), and his children, William H. Holmes, at school, aged four years (b. NH), Clarence Holmes, aged two years (b. NH), and Laurence Holmes, aged nine months (b. NH).
The NH Methodist Conference appointed Willis Holmes as “supply” pastor for South Columbia, NH, in April 1890 (Boston Globe, April 29, 1890).
COLEBROOK, N.H. October 31. We are sorry, but not surprised, to learn that Rev. Willis Holmes is suffering from his too arduous labors in East Colebrook and Columbia, and is obliged to discontinue some of his services (Essex County Herald (Island Pond, VT), November 3, 1893).
AMONG OUR NEIGHBORS. BLOOMFIELD. January 2. Rev. J.H. Winslow was in town Saturday on his way to East Columbia to preach for Rev. Willis Holmes and assist him in holding a watch meeting (Essex County Herald (Island Pond, VT), January 5, 1894).
The NH Methodist Conference appointed Willis Holmes as pastor for Milan and West Milan, NH, in April 1897 (Boston Globe, April 12, 1897).
NORTH MONROE. The Concord District Preachers’ meeting and Epworth League convention will be held at the church next week commencing Monday evening, June 13, with a sermon by Rev. Willis Holmes. Papers on interesting subjects will be read throughout the day Tuesday; sermon in the evening by Rev. R.E. Thompson. Wednesday will be given to the interests of the Epworth League. In the evening there will be an address by Rev. E.N. Jarrett. Dinner and supper will be served at the chapel Tuesday and Wednesday. The meetings are open to all. Every Epworthian is especially urged to be present Wednesday (St. Johnsbury Republican (St. Johnsbury, VT), June 8, 1898).
MONROE, N.H. Revival services are to be held at the M.E. church here evenings this week and next. Rev. Willis Holmes of Landaff, N.H., will speak Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings of this week (St. Johnsbury Republican (St. Johnsbury, VT), June 7, 1899).
Willis Holmes, a clergyman, aged forty-four years (b. NH), headed a Landaff, NH, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included Ella E. Holmes, aged forty-three years (b. ME), Agnes A. Holmes, a schoolteacher, aged eighteen years (b. NH), Nella E. Holmes, attends school, aged thirteen years (b. NH), Norris D. Holmes, aged nine years (b. NH), and Evelin Holman, aged three years (b. NH).
W. Holmes appeared in the Milton [Milton Mills] business directory of 1904 and 1905-06, as pastor of the Milton Mills Methodist church.
LUBEC. Rev. Willis Holmes, pastor of the M.E. church will accept a call in the New Hampshire conference and will take up his work in that section at the end of the conference year here. Mr. Holmes is a Christian man through and through and thoroughly alive to do any good work in or out of the church. He has made many friends during his stay here and many will regret to see him go (Bangor Daily News, March 4, 1909).
HAVERHILL. The baccalaureate sermon was preached to the graduating class on Sunday evening by Rev. John Irons assisted by Rev. Willis Holmes, pastor of the Methodist church. The words were clear cut and full of good, sound advice. The church was prettily decorated with white, green, red and gold. The graduating exercises will be held in Pierson’s hall Friday evening, June 18 (United Opinion (Bradford, VT), June 18, 1909).
Willis Holmes, a minister, aged fifty-four years (b. NH), headed a Haverhill, NH, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Ella B. Holmes, aged fifty-three years (b. ME), and his daughter, Nellie E. Holmes, aged thirteen years (b. NH). They resided in a rented house on Main Street.
Ella (Kimball) Holmes died in Landaff, NH, November 19, 1918, aged sixty-two years.
ELLA E. HOLMES. Mrs. Ella E. Kimball Holmes was born in Hollis, Me., July 11, 1856. Her parents were Edmund and Joanna Phillips Kimball. When about sixteen years of age she moved with her parents to Madison, N.H., where she resided for several years. She was married to Rev. Willis Holmes of the New Hampshire Conference April 11, 1875, at Carroll, N.H. They took up their residence in Whitefield, N.H., where they remained until Mr. Holmes entered the ministry and was appointed to South Columbia, N.H. Mrs. Holmes dearly loved the work of the pastorate and devoted both time and talents to the extension of the Kingdom. During her residence in Whitefield she united with the Methodist Episcopal Church and always maintained her membership in the Whitefield church. Early in October, 1918, she came with her husband to Landaff, N.H., to spend the winter with their daughter, Mrs. Harry Poore, and on November 19 she passed to her heavenly home. Mrs. Holmes is survived by her husband, three sons, William H., of Lincoln, N.H., Clarence W., of East Douglas, Mass., and Norris D., of Hoosac Tunnel, Mass.; three daughters, Mrs. Agnes Poore of Landaff, Mrs. Nettie Poore of Lincoln, and Mrs. Evelyn Downing of West Thornton, N.H.; and two sisters, Mrs. Etta Gillett of Wichita, Kan., and Mrs. Abbie Wallace of Whitefield, N.H. The funeral was held Nov. 21, and burial was in the Landaff cemetery (ME Church, 1916).
Harry E. Poor, farming, aged forty-four years (b. NH), headed a Landaff, NH, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Agnes A. Poor, aged thirty-eight years (b. NH), his children, Dorothy E. Poor, aged fourteen years (b. NH), Winfield W. Poor, aged twelve years (b. NH), Robert W. Poor, aged eleven years (b. NH), Clifton H. Poor, aged eight years (b. NH), Everett H. Poor, aged four years (b. NH), and his father-in-law, Willis Holmes, retired, aged sixty-four years (b. NH). Harry E. Poor owned their farm on Kid Avenue, with a mortgage.
Rev. Willis Holmes died in Landaff, NH (three months residence, previous residence, Lincoln, NH), January 6, 1921, aged sixty-five years.
REV. WILLIS HOLMES. Rev. Willis Holmes was born in Carroll, N.H., Sept. 5, 1855, and passed from this life at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Harry E. Poor, in Landaff, N.H., Jan. 6, 1921. His parents were Robert R. and Letitia Baker Holmes. His father gave his life for his country in the Civil War. Mr. Holmes was united in marriage with Ella E. Kimball, April 11, 1875, in Carroll, N.H. They resided in Whitefield, N.H., for a number of years, where Mr. Holmes united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in July, 1885. On March 6, 1886, he was granted an exhorter’s license by the Whitefield Quarterly Conference, and in December, 1887, he was licensed a local preacher. At Newport, N.H., in April, 1891, he was received on trial in the New Hampshire Conference and ordained a local deacon by Bishop Foster. He was admitted to full membership in the Conference at Rochester in 1893. In April, 1895, he completed the conference course of study and was ordained elder by Bishop Merrill in Concord. His appointments were all in the New Hampshire Conference, and were as follows: East Columbia and East Colebrook, 1891-95; Milan and West Milan, 1896-97; Milan, West Milan and Dummer, 1898; Landaff and Lyman, 1898-1903; Milton Mills, 1904-07; Conference Evangelist, 1908; Haverhill, 1908-10; Supernumerary, 1911-12; Moultonville and Ossipee Mountain, 1913; Retired 1914-20 (ME Church, 1916).
Rev. William A. Hudson – 1908-09
William Arthur Hudson was born in Chestertown, MD, circa 1871, son of George and Margaret E. (Phoebus) Hudson.
William Arthur Hudson married (1st) in Southwick, MA, December 29, 1894, Emma Martin Hudson, both of Southwick. He was a student, aged 22 years (b. Chestertown, MD); she was a student, aged 20 years (b. Seaford, DE). She was born in Seaford, DE, circa 1874, daughter of Edgar and Emma (Haggard) Hudson).
Emma M. (Hudson) Hudson died of consumption in Lempster, NH, November 19, 1898, aged twenty-three years.
William A. Hudson married (2nd) in Lempster, NH, June 14, 1899, Ella M. Evans, he of Wakefield and she of Lempster. He was a widowed clergyman, aged 26 years (b. Chestertown, MD); she was a housekeeper, aged 29 years (b. Lempster, NH). She was born in Lempster, NH, daughter of James A. and Electa (Fay) Evans).
William A. Hudson, a preacher, aged twenty-seven years (b. MD), headed a Brookfield, NH, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of one year), Ella M. Hudson, aged thirty years (b. NH), and his children, Olivia E.S. Hudson, aged five years (b. MA), Grace E.P. Hudson, aged three years (b. NH), and James G. Hudson, aged nine months (b. NH). William A. Hudson rented their house. Ella M. Hudson was the mother of one child, of whom one was still living.
William A. Hudson, a city missionary clergyman, aged thirty-seven years (b. MD), was one of seventeen lodgers in the Boston, MA, household of Fred M. Woodworth, at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. Woodworth was an express teamster, aged forty-eight years (b. Canada (Eng.)). (His wife and children were either omitted or domiciled elsewhere for a time, perhaps in Laconia, NH).
Rev. William A. Hudson traveled to Laconia, NH, in late August 1913, seeking his teenage daughter, Grace E.P. Hudson, who had eloped with her boyfriend, Leon Deming of Tilton.
FAILS TO FIND DAUGHTER. Rev. William A. Hudson Runs Down a Clew From Laconia, N.H. LACONIA, N.H., Aug. 31 – Rev. William A. Hudson of Morgan Memorial Chapel, Boston, was here this afternoon, investigating a story that his eloping daughter, Grace Hudson was here with Deming. Mr. Hudson was accompanied by City Marshal Charles H. Harvell in his search. He found that apparently the only basis for the report that his daughter was working in a restaurant here was that a new waitress appeared at a local restaurant yesterday. Mr. Hudson has been staying at the home of Rev. A.M. Shattuck, pastor of the Methodist Church (Boston Globe, September 1, 1913).
GRACE HUDSON TWICE LOCATED. In Manchester and Lancaster, N.H. Missing Boston Girl Received Telegram Signed “Leon.” Left Lancaster Monday, Fearing Pursuit. MANCHESTER, N.H., Sept. 2 – Disclosures were made today that Miss Grace Hudson, the missing daughter of Rev. William A. Hudson, head of the Morgan Memorial in Boston and a member of the New Hampshire Conference, was in Manchester for four days last week, registering under her own name at 452 Pine st. It is alleged Leon Deming of Tilton was in this city at the same time and that he disappeared when Miss Hudson left Manchester. The girl, who apparently came to Manchester from her home at 85 Shawmut av., Boston, on Monday, made no effort to conceal her identity. She said, it is claimed, she had left her home because of trouble with her stepmother and was in search of work as a waitress. She was directed to a number of places and, failing to secure employment, finally went to work in the Breen Brothers’ store in Elm st., staying there for one day. Then she left town, after receiving a telegram and numerous telephone calls. The telegram was signed “Leon” and sent from Lancaster Wednesday. It read as follows “Grace, will be there tomorrow. Send answer if this is OK.” It has been learned the girl was seen on Saturday in Lakeport.
SEEN IN LANCASTER. Miss Hudson Engaged Room, Making No Attempt to Hide Identity Disappeared Suddenly. LANCASTER, N.H., Sept. 2 – Miss Grace Hudson, the Boston girl who disappeared from her home last week Monday, was undoubtedly in Lancaster from last Friday until Monday of this week. She engaged a room with Mrs. T.S. Ellis, paying a week’s rent in advance, and remained there quietly until Sunday, when her picture appeared in the Sunday papers. Apparently fearing identification, she left her lodgings and has not been seen since. She gave her name here hesitatingly as Grace Hudson and was without baggage. Miss Hudson left Mrs. Ellis’ home about 7:30 Monday night.
HER FATHER BAFFLED. Rev W.A. Hudson Covered 500 Miles in Search for Daughter in New Hampshire. After learning yesterday that his daughter, Grace, who disappeared a week ago, had been located in Lancaster, N.H., as late as 7:30 o’clock Labor Day night. Rev W.A. Hudson, pastor of the Morgan Memorial, is again completely in the dark as to her whereabouts and does not know what will be his next step in his search for her. Rev. Mr. Hudson covered a 500-mile journey through the country about Tilton, Sunapee, Lakeport, Laconia, The Weirs, Plymouth, Woodsville and other New Hampshire points over Sunday and Monday. “With police officials and lawyers I questioned everyone who claimed to have seen my daughter,” he said, “but in practically every instance they had mistaken someone else for her. I am completely baffled” (Boston Globe, September 3, 1913).
ATTEMPTS AT MARRIAGE FAILS. Couple Turned Down by Two Clergymen. Deming and Grace Hudson May Try Again Today. License Not Returned at Lancaster, N.H. LANCASTER, N.H., Sept. 5 – Several unsuccessful attempts to get married here were made today by Miss Grace Hudson, the 16-year-old Boston girl who disappeared from her home 10 days ago, and Leon Deming, her former employer in a restaurant at Tilton, N.H. Early this morning the couple called on Rev. Mr. Dorr, the local Methodist minister, and asked him to marry them, but he refused. They then visited the Congregationalist clergyman and he likewise refused to perform the ceremony for them. Disappointed, but not disheartened, the couple then called at the rectory of the local Episcopal Church, but the rector was not at home and they did not await his return. As far as could be learned tonight, the young people did not call on any of the local justices of the peace during the day or evening and those who have been following the activities of the couple here believe the marriage has been postponed until tomorrow or some later date until they can get a minister or a Justice of the peace to tie the knot. This belief was strengthened by the fact that the return of the license had not been made to Town Clerk Brown up to a late hour tonight. The license was issued Thursday night. Just before the expiration of the time limit which the couple had for getting it since filing their marriage Intentions. When last seen, which was at noon today, the couple were at the Boston & Maine Railroad Station, but it is not known that they have left town.
Grace Hudson married in Northumberland, NH, September 5, 1913, Leon Deming, she of Boston, MA, and he of Lancaster, NH. He was a laborer, aged twenty-six years, and she was aged nineteen years. (She reported a false age). Justice of the Peace William W. Pike of Northumberland, NH, performed the ceremony, Deming was born in Landaff, NH, son of Ira and Nellie (Brooks) Deming.
REV. MR. HUDSON TOLD. Declares He Does Not Expect to Hear From His Daughter Until After Her Marriage. The news that his daughter Grace and her sweetheart. Leon Deming. had made several vain attempts to get married at Lancaster, N.H. yesterday, was given Rev. William A. Hudson, pastor of Morgan Memorial, last night by the Globe. He refused to express any opinion about their unsuccessful efforts to become man and wife. He stated that the news from Lancaster was the first definite information he had had of his daughter’s actions since last Monday night when he learned she had been seen in Lancaster as late as 7:30 o’clock. He had since heard that the couple had filed intentions of getting married and that later he had been told another story to the effect that his daughter was not present when the Intentions were filed. He preferred to credit the latter story. Pastor Hudson also added that he did not expect to hear from his daughter until after her marriage, saving, how-ever, that this was only his belief (Boston Globe, September 6, 1913).
GRACE HUDSON WEDDED SEPT 5. By Civil Ceremony at Lancaster, N.H. Name of the Person Officiating Is Being Withheld. Her Father Was Sent Copy of the Certificate. TILTON, N.H., Sept. 11 – Word has been received here that Miss Grace Hudson, 16-year-old daughter of Rev. William A. Hudson of the Morgan Memorial Chapel, Boston, and Leon Deming of Tilton have been married at Groveton, the name of the person officiating being withheld. They are boarding at Burt Smith’s in Lancaster, having given ample evidence that they are married. Deming, who was formerly proprietor of a restaurant in Tilton, is now employed on highway work in Lancaster. Two Lancaster clergymen refused to marry them. The license was issued by Town Clerk Rollin J. Brown of Lancaster, who had previously received a message from the girl’s father asking when the marriage intentions had been filed. Mr. Brown replied at once, telling Mr. Hudson to notify him if he had any objections to the issuance of the license. Not receiving any reply the clerk felt obliged to issue the license. The girl gave her age as 19. She was formerly a Tilton Seminal student and left school to work as a waitress in Deming’s restaurant in this town.
FATHER GOT WORD. Rev. Mr. Hudson Refuses to Comment on Marriage Ceremony. Always Welcome Home, He Says. Rev. William A. Hudson, when asked last night if he had heard of the marriage of his daughter Grace to Leon Deming in Groveton, N.H., answered that he had. Deming and Miss Hudson, according to the girl’s father, were married in Groveton, Sept 5, the ceremony being a civil one. “I received a copy of the marriage certificate from the person who performed the ceremony,” said Rev. Mr. Hudson, “and I also received a letter from my daughter stating that she had been married.” Other than saying that the person who married the couple was not a minister, however, Mr. Hudson refused to comment upon the ceremony. When asked if he purposed taking any steps to annul the marriage he said that he understood that under the laws of New Hampshire there was nothing he could do now. “While the relations between my daughter and myself are our own private affair,” continued Rev. Mr. Hudson, “I will state that she will always find a welcome at my home. As regards her husband, I can only say that I do not know anything about him and have never seen him.” Since the marriage the girl and her father have exchanged correspondence frequently (Boston Globe, September 12, 1913).
William Hudson, a church clergyman, aged forty-seven years (b. MD), headed a Wawarsing, NY, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Ella M. Hudson, aged forty-nine years (b. NH), and his child, Margaret A.J. Hudson, aged seventeen years (b. NH). William Hudson rented their house on Church Street.
William A. Hudson, an M.E. Church clergyman, aged fifty-seven years (b. MD), headed a North Canaan, CT, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirty-one years), Ella M. Hudson, aged fifty-nine years (b. NH). William A. Hudson owned, i.e., rented, their house, for $30 per month. They had a radio set.
Daughter Grace E.P. (Hudson) Deming divorced her husband, Leon Deming, in or around 1934.
William A. Hudson, a Methodist minister, aged sixty-seven years (b. MD), headed a Woodstock, NY, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Ella M. Hudson, aged seventy years (b. NH). William A. Hudson rented their house on Route 212, for $0 per month. They had resided in Wapinger’s Falls, NY, in 1935.
Daughter Grace Hudson Deming married (2nd) in Randolph, VT, May 31, 1941, William G. Martin. He was a widowed farmer, aged forty-five years, and she was a divorced housekeeper, aged forty-four years. Rev. F. Wilson Day performed the ceremony. William G. Martin was born in Marshfield, VT, in 1896, son of Harry H. and Ellen (Cate) Martin.
Ella M. (Evans) Hudson died in Kingston, NY, October 12, 1952, aged eighty-two years,
DIED. HUDSON – In this city, Sunday, October 12, 1952, Ella M. Evans in her 83rd year, wife of Rev. William A. Hudson. Funeral service will be held at Perrott’s Funeral Home, Number One Grand Ave., Newburgh, N.Y., on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Interment in Woodlawn Cemetery, Newburgh. Friends are invited to call Monday evening from 7 to 9 o clock at Perrott’s Funeral Home, Newburgh (Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY), October 13, 1952).
William A. Hudson died in Akron, OH, September 1959, aged eighty-six years.
Rev. William A. Hudson. The Rev. William A. Hudson, 86, a former pastor of the Woodstock Methodist Church, died Monday in Akron, Ohio. The Rev. Mr. Hudson was pastor of the Woodstock church for four years. He retired from active ministry 16 years ago. Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. George Miller of Akron, Mrs. Grace Martin of Randolph, Vt., and Miss Jeanne Bollin of Kerhonkson; a son James Hudson of Geneva; 14 grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren. His wife, Ella, died six years ago in Kingston. Funeral services will be held at the Pcrrott Funeral Homo, Newburgh, Friday at 2 p.m. (Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY), [Tuesday,] September 15, 1959).
Rev. Frederick H. Sleep – 1911-12
Frederick Herbert Sleep was born in Buckfastleigh, Devonshire, England, March 22, 1887, son of Simon and Charlotte (Fogwell) Sleep.
Marshall C. Bowles, a laborer, aged seventy-three years (b. NH), headed a Thornton, NH, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his (second) wife (of eighteen years), Lula E Bowles, aged forty-three years (b. NH), his son, Carl M. Bowles, aged fourteen years (b. NH), and his boarder, Frederick H. Sleep, a clergyman, aged twenty-three years (b. England). Marshall C. Bowles rented their house. Lula E. Bowles was the mother of one child, of whom one was still living. Frederick H. Sleep had immigrated in 1906.
Frederick Herbert Sleep married in Pepperell, MA, August 30, 1911, Louise Whittemore, he of Milton Mills, NH, and she of Framingham, MA. He was a clergyman, aged twenty-four years, and she was a teacher, aged twenty-two years. She was born in Framingham, MA, circa 1889, daughter of Henry S. and Mary (Norton) Whittemore.
F.H. Sleep appeared in the Milton business directory of 1912, as pastor of the Methodist church at Milton Mills, resident at 8 Highland street.
Rev. Fredrick H. Sleep appeared in the Laconia, NH, directory of 1913, as minister of St. James Episcopal church, with his house at 68 Fair street.
At the Churches. Christ Church. Lenten service, Monday, 7.30 p.m. Sermon by Rev. Frederick H. Sleep, St. .lames’ Church, Laconia, N.H. (Portsmouth Herald, March 21, 1914).
Business Notices. Rev. Frederick H. Sleep preached a splendid sermon on ‘The power of the cross,’ at Christ church last evening, his text being ‘For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God’ (Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, MA), April 7, 1917).
Rev. F.H. Sleep Takes Mission Work. SPRINGFIELD, March 30. Rev. Frederick H. Sleep of Christ Church, Fitchburg. notified Bishop Thomas F. Davies today that he had decided to accept the position of diocesan missionary with headquarters in Lanesboro. The other diocesan missionary is Rev. Archibald S. Winslow of Bayonne, N.J., who is to be rector of St. Andrews Church, Ludlow. These missionaries will have charge of 20 missions in the two districts (Boston Globe, March 31, 1918).
Frederick H. Sleep, a church clergyman, aged thirty-two years (b. England), headed a Fitchburg, MA, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Louise W, Sleep, aged thirty years (b. MA), his children, Mary L. Sleep, aged seven years (b. NH), Charlotte Sleep, aged five years (b. NH), and Dorothia Sleep, aged two years (b. MA), and his boarder, Annie S. Carter, a hospital nurse, aged twenty-two years (b. NH). Frederick H. Sleep rented their house “off” Westminster Street. He immigrated in 1907, and became a naturalized citizen in 1912.
Frederick H. Sleep, an Episcopal church clergyman, aged forty-three years (b. England), headed a Fitchburg, MA, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of eighteen years), Louise W. Sleep, aged forty-one years (b. MA), his children, Mary L. Sleep, aged seventeen years (b. NH), Charlotte F. Sleep, aged fifteen years (b. NH), Dorothy G. Sleep, aged twelve years (b. MA), and Frederick H. Sleep, aged eight years (b. MA). Frederick H. Sleep rented their house on Hill Street, for $15 per month. They had a radio set. He immigrated in 1906, and became a naturalized citizen.
Frederick H. Sleep, a clergyman, aged fifty-three years (b. England), headed a Fitchburg, MA, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of eighteen years), Louise W. Sleep, aged fifty-one years (b. MA), his children, Charlotte F. Sleep, a hospital lab technician, aged twenty-five years (b. NH), Dorothy G. Sleep, a school teacher, aged twenty-two years (b. MA), and Frederick H. Sleep, a paper manufacturing company beater man, aged eighteen years (b. MA). Frederick H. Sleep rented their house at 30 Hill Street, for $18 per month. He was a naturalized citizen. They had all lived in the same house in 1935.
Frederick H. Sleep died in Burbank hospital, in Fitchburg, MA, June 20, 1949, aged sixty-three years.
Rev. Fred. H. Sleep, Beloved Clergyman, Here 34 Yrs., Dies. Fitchburg lost one of its most beloved and respected clergymen when Rev. Frederick H. Sleep, 63, of 36 Parsons street, former rector of Church of the Good Shepherd, died of coronary thrombosis at Burbank hospital last night. During 34 years of residence in this city, and 29 years of service to the West Fitchburg church, the warm-hearted humanity and tolerance of Rev. Mr. Sleep had won him city-wide recognition. Esteemed by all faiths, he held record of having spoken in churches of nearly all denominations. For the past several years he had suffered heart ailments which had occasioned his retirement from active duty in 1945. On the advice his physician, he relinquished his responsibilities as rector. He suffered a heart attack in 1936 and a recurrence of the ailment in November 1945. Rev. Mr. Sleep untiringly devoted himself to the service of his parish members and community. During WW II when a First Aid class was held in the parish house of the Church of the Good Shepherd, he was a regular attendant and participant in all the activities of this group. Reluctantly accepting the doctor’s ultimatum, Rev. Mr. Sleep submitted his resignation to a parish he had seen triple in size under his conscientious guidance. It has ben said “Every institution is the lengthened shadow of a man.” The Church of the Good ia the lengthened shadow of Rev, Mr. Sleep, who first came to the West Fitchburg church July 1, 1915, when it was a parochial mission of Christ Episcopal church. He served for three years in charge of the of Church of the Good Shepherd and as assistant at Christ church. Bishop Thomas F. Dayies appointed him diocesan missionary, but he was recalled to the little parish in 1918, by Rev. Arthur J. Gammack, rector of Christ church. When Rev. Mr. Gammack died in 1928 the mission was set apart from Christ church and Rev. Mr. Sleep became its first pastor. When Mr. Sleep took charge of the church it had 40 communicants. It now has about 200. Born in Buckfastleigh, Devonshire, England, Mr. Sleep came to this country at the age of 18. As soon as the law allowed, he became an American citizen. One of his fondest recollections was a 28-mile trip he made to Concord, N.H., from Laconia, N.H., to cast his first vote, Graduated from Tilton seminary, N.H., in 1911, he studied under the late Rt. Rev. Melville Parker, Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, and Rev. Howard F. Hill, D.D. He was ordained deacon in 1914 in St. James’ church, in Laconia, of which he was in charge. Ordained to the priesthood at St. Paul’s church in Concord, in 1915, he came to the Fitchburg church in the same year. Because of Rev. Mr, Sleep’s belief in denominational tolerance, representatives of other faiths frequently spoke at the Church of Good Shepherd during his years of leadership. Interest in the welfare of labor prompted him to inaugurate a Labor-Management Forum about decade ago. He likewise served as president of the Fitchburg Ministerial Assn., and was one of the first to join with the Fitchburg Council of church in which he took an active part. On the occasion of a joint celebration of the 25th anniversary of the pastorate of Rev. Sleep and the 40th anniversary of the dedication of the church building, in 1941. Charles Hosea Temple, of Edgewood, R.I., said of him: “During these 25 years his thoughts have not been so much fixed on the eternal things that he has overlooked the present. ”He has taken his place as an outstanding citizen. He has been the friend of labor, not afraid to champion it when it has been right, equally unafraid to reprove it it has been wrong. ” Rev. Mr. Sleep untiringly devoted himself to the service of his parish members and community. Roland group. Reluctantly accepting the cessation of his religious duties, because of poor health, Rev. Mr. Sleep, in his letter of resignation in 1945 said with characteristic unselfishness: “First I ask for my successor the same degree of loyalty and cooperation you have given to me. . . . Surely it will be no kindness to me to insist that the worship and work of this parish be carried on according to present plans solely because I initiated them. “With the acceptance of my resignation I become one of the communicants of this parish and as such I hope to continue to worship and work, as far as I am able, in this church where so much of my happiness has come to me.” Rev. Mr. Sleep was a member of Loyal Progressive lodge of Manchester Unity Odd Fellows and Shakespeare lodge, Sons of St. George. Besides his wife, Mrs. Louise (Whittemore) Sleep, he is survived by four daughters, Mrs. Edgar Bugbee of Stamford, Conn, Mrs. Bradford S. Hubbard of Keene, N.H., Miss Charlotte F. Sleep of this city and Miss Dorothy G. Sleep of Westford, Conn.; a son, Frederick Sleep, Jr., of this city; three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The funeral will be from the Sawyer funeral home tomorrow morning with a service at 11 o’clock in the Church of the Good Shepherd. The body will be taken to Rural cemetery in Worcester for cremation and burial will be in Forest Hill cemetery (Fitchburg Sentinel, June 21, 1949).
Rev. John H. Vincent – 1913-14
John Henry Vincent was born in Trevarth, Cornwall, England, March 28, 1848. He was baptized in Gwennap, Cornwall, England, March 11, 1849, son of Nicholas and Jane (Trelaggen) Vincent.
Methodism had many adherents in Cornwall. Rev. John Wesley preached eighteen times (between 1762-69) at Gwennap Pit, an earthen amphitheater caused by a subterranean subsidence.
John H. Vincent married in Walpole, MA, May 20, 1879, Annie Gilmore Hutchinson, he of Harwich, MA, and she of Walpole. He was a clergyman, aged thirty years, and she was aged twenty-four years. She was born in Walpole, MA, May 15, 1854, daughter of Aaron and Mary Hutchinson.
John H. Vincent, a minister, aged thirty-two years (b. England), headed a Harwich, MA, household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Anna G. Vincent, keeping house, aged twenty-six years (b. MA).
John Henry Vincent of North Chelmsford, MA, clergyman, aged thirty-four years, petitioned for U.S. citizenship in Boston, MA, March 13, 1882. He had arrived in the U.S. at Castle Garden, NY, September 22, 1867, and submitted his initial intention on Santa Clara County, CA, July 28, 1871. Orien S. Currier of Boston, MA, and Daniel O. Clark of Stoughton, MA, deposed that they had known him for five years past, during which time he had lived in Boston, Duxbury, Falmouth, Harwich, and Chelmsford, all in Massachusetts. Rev. Vincent swore an oath and was admitted as a citizen.
John H. Vincent, a clergyman, aged fifty-two years (b. England), headed a Stratford, NH, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of twenty-one years), Annie G. Vincent, aged forty-six years (b. MA). John H. Vincent rented their house. He had immigrated into the U.S. in 1869.
John H. Vincent, a Methodist clergyman, aged sixty-two years (b. England), headed a Nelson, NH, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirty-one years), Annie G. Vincent, aged fifty-five years (b. MA). John H. Vincent rented their house.
George [John] H. Vincent, a Methodist minister, aged seventy-one years (b. England), headed a Salem, NH, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Annie G. Vincent, aged sixty-five years (b. MA). They resided on the No. Salem Road. John H. Vincent had immigrated into the U.S. in 1867, and become a naturalized citizen in 1875.
Anne G. (Hutchinson) Vincent died in Chichester, NH, November 20, 1924.
Eva Davis, a general farm farmer, aged sixty years (b. NH), headed a Chichester, NH, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. Her household included her hired man, George Sanborn, a general farm laborer, aged sixty-nine years (b. NH), and her boarder, John H. Vincent, a widower, aged eighty-two years (b. England). Eva Davis owned their farm on the Canterbury Road, which was valued at $2,500. They had a radio set. John H. Vincent had immigrated into the U.S. in 1867, and become a naturalized citizen.
John H. Vincent died in Chichester, NH, April 12, 1932, aged eighty-four years, and fourteen days. He had resided in Chichester for twelve years, coming there from Salem, NH.
REV. VINCENT DIED AT 84. Concord, N.H., April 12 (AP) – Rev. John Henry Vincent, 84, died today at Chichester, where he had been pastor of the Methodist church from 1920 to 1927. He joined the New England Methodist conference in 1878 and the New Hampshire conference in 1889 and had held several pastorates in the southern areas (Montpelier Evening Argus, (Montpelier, VT),, April 12, 1932).
Rev. Lester E. Alexander – 1917-21
Lester Ellsworth Alexander was born in Fitzwilliam, NH, August 25, 1862, son of Warren F. and Mary F. (Perham) Alexander.
Lester E. Alexander married (1st) in Walpole, NH, June 5, 1884, Carrie Estella Webster. She was born in Walpole, NH, November 1, 1862, daughter of Edwin E. and Emily E. (Upham) Webster.
Lester Alexander, a can finisher, aged thirty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Keene, NH, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of fifteen years), Carrie E. Alexander, aged thirty-seven years (b. NH), and his children, Lillian W. Alexander, at school, aged eight years (b. NH), Edwin L. Alexander, at school, aged six years (b. NH), and Mary E. Alexander, aged four years (b. NH). Lester Alexander rented their house on Beaver Street. Carrie E. Alexander was the mother of three children, of whom three were still living.
Lester E. Alexander, an M.E. Church clergyman, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Henniker, NH, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of twenty-five years), Carrie E. Alexander, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), his children, Lillian W. Alexander, aged eighteen years (b. NH), Edwin L. Alexander, aged sixteen years (b. NH), Mary E. Alexander, aged fourteen years (b. NH), and his mother-in-law, Emily E. Webster, aged sixty-nine years (b. VT). Lester E. Alexander rented their house on Crescent Street. Carrie E. Alexander was the mother of three children, of whom three were still living.
L.E. Alexander appeared in the Milton business directory of 1917, as pastor of the Milton Mills Methodist church, at Highland street.
UNION. Walter Chesborough of North Rochester and Miss Gladys Wentworth of this village were married in Milton Mills by Rev. Alexander on Saturday evening, June 16 They will reside here (Farmington News, June 29, 1917).
Lester E. Alexander, a N.H. Conference clergyman, aged fifty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Carrie E. Alexander, aged fifty-seven years (b. NH), and his mother-in-law, Emily E. Webster, aged seventy-eight years (b. VT). Lester E. Alexander rented their house.
Lester Alexander, a Methodist clergyman, aged sixty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Hillsborough, NH, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of forty-five years), Carrie Alexander, aged sixty-seven years (b. NH), and his mother-in-law, Emily Webster, aged eighty-eight years (b. VT). Lester E. Alexander rented their house on Church Street, for $20.
Carrie E. (Webster) Alexander died in Franklin, NH, February 13, 1932, aged sixty-nine years.
Lester E. Alexander married (2nd) in Bethlehem, NH, March 23, 1933, Jennie W. (Withrow) Fox, he of Franklin, NH, and she of Boston, MA. He was a clergyman, aged seventy years, and she was at home, aged sixty-eight years. Rev. Charles W. Frye performed the ceremony. Jennie W. (Withrow) Fox was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, circa 1864, daughter of David and Sarah (Ellis) Withrow.
ALEXANDER-FOX. FRANKLIN, N.H., March 23 – Rev. Lester E. Alexander, pastor of the Methodist Church here, and Mrs. Jennie W. Fox of Boston, were married this noon at Bethlehem by the bridegroom’s son-in-law, Rev. C.W. Frye, pastor of the Durrell Memorial Church, Bethlehem. The bridegroom’s grandson attended them. Following a wedding lunch they motored to Franklin. Rev. Mr. Alexander announced recently that he was to retire from active preaching. He and his bride will reside in Franklin (Boston Globe, Match 24, 1933).
Lester E. Alexander died in Laconia, NH, May 22, 1950, aged eighty-seven years.
Rev. John E. Taylor – 1921-22
John Edwin Taylor was born in Carbonear, Newfoundland, Canada, February 9, 1866, son of Richard and Harriet (Waterman) Taylor.
John E. Taylor married in Saugus, MA, August 21, 1901, Hannah E. Terry, he of Somerville, MA, and she of Everett, MA. He was a marketman, aged thirty-five years, and she was a clerk, aged thirty-two years. She was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, circa 1869, daughter of William and Hannah (Garhard) Terry.
J.E. Taylor, an evangelical preacher, aged forty-three years (b. Newfoundland), headed a Kingfield, ME, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of nine years), Hannah E. Taylor, aged forty-one years (b. Nova Scotia), and his child, Richard E. Taylor, aged seven years (b. MA). J.E. Taylor rented their house on Church Street. Hannah E. Taylor was the mother of one child, of whom one was still living. J.E. Taylor had immigrated into the U.S. in 1888; Harriet E. Taylor had immigrated into the U.S. in 1886.
John E Taylor, a shipyard rigger, aged fifty-one years (b. Newfoundland), headed a Hampton, NH, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Hannah E. Taylor, aged fifty years (b. Nova Scotia), and his child, Richard E. Taylor, aged seventeen years (b. MA). John E. Taylor rented their house on Mill Road. He had become naturalized in 1890; Harriet E. Taylor had immigrated into the U.S. in 1886 and had become naturalized in 1901, i.e., by virtue of her marriage.
RETAINS THREE DISTRICTS. New Hampshire Methodist Conference Decided. Nashua, N.H., April 11. The New Hampshire Methodist Episcopal conference will continue under a three district division, Bishop Ernest W. Richardson decided today. The laymen had voted in favor of two districts while the clergy favored retention of the present arrangement and the presiding bishop was called on to decide. The conference closed with the announcement of the appointments to pastorates which showed the following changes: Concord district E.S. Lasker, superintendent; Laconia, Trinity church, supplied by O.P. Wright; Littleton, C.M. Tibbetts; Milan and Dummer, H.R. Goodwin; Pittsburgh, supplied by A.J. Pierce; Warren, I. Mellor; Weirs and Ashland, E.J. Canfield; West Milan and Stark, supplied by F.J. Griffin; West Thornton, supplied by Lincoln Frye. Dover district Amesbury, M,L. Simpson; Epping, supplied by J.W. McMorris; Exeter, supplied by C.D. Maurier; Greenland, S.B. Enman; Merrimacport, Mass., Paul J. Tilton; Methuen, Mass., Oaklands church, supplied by E.T. Cooke: Milton Mills, supplied by J.E. Taylor; Salisbury. E.F. Newell. Manchester district Brookline, R.V. Ebbett; Hillsboro and Hillsboro Center, supplied by J.G. Joyce; Londonderry, supplied by George Thomas; Milford. O.J. Beardsley; Newport, C.F. Libby (Barre Daily Times (Barre, VT), April 11, 1921).
J.E. Taylor appeared in the New England business directory of 1922, as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Milton Mills.
John E. Taylor returned to Hampton, NH, which seems to have been his home base, circa 1922-23.
EPISCOPAL ORDINATION. Trinity Church Scene of Solemn Ceremonies As Candidates Are Raised. George W. Ferguson of Lenox, a Fellow of the General Theological seminary in New York, and Arthur Rogers of Wilkinsville were ordained to, the deaconate and Rev. J.E. Taylor of Longmeadow and Rev. Hiram Rogers of Wilkinsville were ordained to the priesthood at Trinity church yesterday morning by the Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Davies, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of western Massachusetts (Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, MA), June 11, 1924).
EAST BETHEL. Rev. J.E. Taylor will be at East Bethel Baptist church with Rev. Frank Place Sunday, Feb. 22 (Barre Daily Times (Barre, VT), February 18, 1925).
John E Taylor, a poultry raiser, aged sixty-three years (b. Newfoundland), headed a Hampton, NH, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirty years), Hannah E. Taylor, aged sixty years (b. Nova Scotia). John E. Taylor owned their house on Mill Road, which was valued at $4,000. They had a radio set. He had immigrated into the U.S. in 1889; Harriet E. Taylor had immigrated into the U.S. in 1887.
Rev. John E. Taylor last worked in his accustomed occupation (minister) in 1935.
John Edwin Taylor died on Mill Road in Hampton, NH, April 18, 1938, aged seventy-two years, two months, and seven days.
Deaths and Funerals. Rev. John Edwin Taylor. Funeral services for Rev. John Taylor, who passed away at his home on Mill road at the age of 72 years, were held at the Methodist Church at 2 o’clock, with the minister, Rev. W. Raymond Pierce, officiating, assisted by Rev. Woodcock of Kingsville, Me., a former parishioner of the deceased. Interment was made in the High Street cemetery, with the committal service at the grave in charge of Rev. Woodcock. The bearers were Myron Blake, Robert Brown, Hartley Kierstead and Herbert Beede. Rev. Taylor, who had been a resident of Hampton for the last 16 years, was a native of Newfoundland and since his retirement from the ministry has been engaged in farming. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Hannah Taylor, and one son, Richard, of Hampton. William Brown was the undertaker in charge (Portsmouth Herald, April 19, 1938).
Hannah E. Taylor, a widow, aged seventy-two years (b. Canada), headed a Hampton, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Hannah E. Taylor owned her house on Mill Road, which was valued at $1,500. She had resided in the same place in 1935.
Hannah E. (Terry) Taylor of Hampton, NH, died in the Mitchell Memorial Hospital in Brentwood, NH, March 14, 1959, aged ninety years.
Deaths and Funerals. Mrs. Hannah E. Taylor. HAMPTON — Mrs. Hannah E. Taylor, 90, of 204 Mill Rd., widow of the Rev. John E. Taylor, died Saturday at the Mitchell Memorial Hospital in Brentwood after a long illness. Born in Halifax, N.S., March 23, 1869, she was the daughter William Terry. Mrs. Taylor was a member of the Hampton Methodist Church. Survivors include a son, Robert E. Taylor of Manchester; sisters. Mrs. Herbert Hill of Dudley, Mass., and Mrs. William Girard, Barnstable, Mass.; two brothers. James Terry of Tewksbury, Mass., and Barry Terry of Saugus, Mass.; two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren (Portsmouth Herald, [Monday,] March 16, 1959).
Rev. Edwin B. Young – 1923-24
Edwin Brackett Young was born in Rochester, NH, August 10, 1883, son of John and Emma L. (Lord) Young. (His father was a Scottish immigrant).
Edwin B. Young, a North Wakefield clergyman, aged twenty-six years (b. NH), headed a Wakefield, NH, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. He rented his house.
Rev. Edwin B. Young married in Derry, NH, June 15, 1910, Florence E. [Ethel] Richardson, he of North Wakefield, NH, and she of Derry. He was a clergyman, aged twenty-seven years, and she was at home, aged twenty-seven years. She was born in Hampstead, NH, January 22, 1883, daughter of Naaman W. and Ella M. (Pavere) Richardson.
Edwin B. Young, a laborer, aged thirty-six years (b. NH), headed a Goffstown, NH, household at the time of the Fourteenth (1920) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Ethel Young, aged thirty-six years (b. NH). Edwin B. Young rented their house.
YOUNG, EDWIN BRACKETT. Merrimacport, Mass., 1908; North Wakefield and East Wolfeboro, 1909-10; Laconia Trinity, 1911-12; Henniker and East Deering, 1913-15; Goffstown and Grasmere, 1916-17; Grasmere, 1918-19; Raymond and East Candia, 1920-22; Milton Mills, 1923-24
Edwin B. Young, a Methodist Church clergyman, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Rochester, NH, household at the time of the Fifteenth (1930) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of twenty-seven years), Florence E. Young, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), his son, Edwin B. Young, Jr., aged ten years (b. NH), and his father-in-law, Nasman W. Richardson, retired, aged seventy-nine years (b. MA). Edwin B. Young owned their house at 152 North Main Street, which was valued at $10,000. They had a radio set.
Rev. Edwin B. Young, a Methodist Church clergyman, aged fifty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Hillsborough, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of twenty-seven years), Florence E. Young, aged fifty-seven years (b. NH), and his son, Edwin B. Young, Jr., aged twenty years (b. NH). Edwin B. Young rented their house on Church Street, for $16 per month. They had resided in Strafford County, NH, in 1935.
Edwin B. Young died in Rochester, NH, December 2, 1949, aged sixty-six years.
Rev. Edwin B. Young Ex-Chaplain, Member of N.H. Legislature. ROCHESTER, N.H., Dec. 3. Rev. Edwin Brackett Young, 66, retired Methodist minister, former chaplain of the Legislature and past grand chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows in New Hampshire, died today at his home, 152 North Main st. Born in Rochester, he was graduated from Rochester High School, studied at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in 1904-05, and was graduated from the Boston University School of Theology in 1909. He was married June 15, 1910, to Miss Florence E. Richardson of Derry. He served in the House of Representatives as a member from Henniker in 1915 and from Goffstown in 1919. He was chaplain of the House in 1931 and again in 1941. Rev. Mr. Young was a member of Humane Lodge of Masons, and Custos Morum Lodge of Odd Fellows in Milford. He leaves a wife; a brother. Stanley L. Young of Whittier; a son, Edwin B. Young Jr., of Nashua and two grandchildren. Masonic services will be held Monday at 1:30 p. m. at the First Methodist Church. Rev. Ray H. Cowen of Haverhill, Mass., superintendent for the Southern District of the New Hampshire Methodist Conference, will officiate, assisted by other pastors. Burial will be in Rochester Cemetery (Boston Globe, December 4, 1949).
Florence E. (Richardson) Young died in NH, October 25, 1973.
Methodist Church (US). (1880). General Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church in the United States, Territories, and Cuba. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=yr5JAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA75
M.E. Conference. (1894). Official Journal of the Sixty-Fifth Session of the New Hampshire Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Claremont, N.H., April 11-16, 1894. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=zOIpAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PA549
The Milton Board of Selectmen (BOS) have posted their agenda for a BOS meeting to be held Monday, September 14.
The BOS meeting is scheduled to begin with a Non-Public session beginning at 6:00 PM. That session’s agenda has one item classed as 91-A3 II (c).
(c) Matters which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely the reputation of any person, other than a member of the public body itself, unless such person requests an open meeting. This exemption shall extend to any application for assistance or tax abatement or waiver of a fee, fine, or other levy, if based on inability to pay or poverty of the applicant.
The Public portion of the agenda has Old Business, New Business, Other Business, and some housekeeping items.
Under New Business are scheduled two items: 1) Presentation by Conservation Commission – Teneriffe Mountain Project and Casey Road Project, and 2) Possible Interest in Purchase of Town-owned, Tax Deeded Property.
Presentation by Conservation Commission – Teneriffe Mountain Project and Casey Road Project.
Possible Interest in Purchase of Town-owned, Tax Deeded Property. One imagines that there is an inverse relationship between possible interest and pre-conditions imposed by the BOS.
Under Old Business is scheduled one item: 1) Employee Wage Plan.
Employee Wage Plan. Some departments at least are paid already far in excess of the wages of the average taxpayer that pays them. It might be that the “plan” will be a moratorium that allows that gap to close a bit. (Warning: it could be dangerous to hold one’s breath while waiting for this eventuality).
Under Other Business there are no scheduled agenda items.
There will be the approval of prior minutes (from the quasi-Public session of September 2, 2020); Public Comments; an expenditure report; administrator comments, and BOS comments.
In 1845 Sir John Franklin, with two ships and 129 men, went in search of the fabled “Northwest Passage” between Baffin Bay and the Pacific Ocean. He and his men disappeared into the Canadian Arctic and were never seen again.
We know now that their ships became entrapped in the ice of the Canadian Arctic over a series of unusually cold winters. Researchers theorize that, apart from the appalling and deadly Arctic conditions, the expedition’s food and water supplies were contaminated with poisonous lead solder. That would have both sickened them and impaired their cognitive function. Lord Franklin died. Part of the crew descended into cannibalism.
Survivors tried to escape overland. They loaded a heavy ship’s boat with a lot of useless paraphernalia, including a writing desk, silk handkerchiefs, scented soap, sponges, slippers, hair combs, and many books. That seemed to them to be a good idea. It can only be supposed that these unfortunates were half-crazed due to lead poisoning. One by one they died while trying to drag this useless burden across the Canadian tundra towards settlements lying hundreds of frozen miles to their south.
The Milton Board of Selectmen (BOS) is seeking a budgetary passage through the economic recession triggered by the Covid-19 shutdown. What do they propose that we drag across this hostile environment to a sustainable place?
Most of the departmental presentations so far have led off with pay raises. Yes, we’ll need them, make sure that pay raises get stowed in the boat. That would be only prudential management. They are essential.
Put them under the writing desk, between the silk handkerchiefs, slippers, scented soap, and books.
Robert Edmond Jones … One ought to tell something about “the man by the name of Jones.” He was born on a New Hampshire farm. He did the chores, played the violin (Hiram Kelly Moderwell, who has written an excellent biographical sketch of him, tells this) and went through the local school. And then by the usual sacrifices on the part of a none too prosperous American family, he was enabled to go to college. He did not distinguish himself especially there. He showed some taste for drawing, and when he was graduated he was given an instructorship in the art department. He was vaguely unhappy there. The academic art curriculum of the college took no grip on his imagination. Some modernistic posters stimulated him as nothing else had. A bit of rich material or a bizarre figure thrilled him. An occasional thing at the music halls released his creative faculties, and the first things he ever did were some costume designs for Valeska Suratt. All this could not help his work at college, and failure to make up his required work gave the faculty sufficient excuse to drop him. Then he went through the usual period of poverty and depression and aimlessness, somehow continually feeling the way toward his appointed goal. For a time this young Harvard ex-art teacher dressed windows at a Boston department store, and in the meantime made some bizarre costume sketches for Gertrude Hoffman’s revue. They fell into Morris Gest’s hands, who sent for Jones. The things he did at the time were wild and exotic, the untrained outpourings of his rich imagination, but Gest used a few of them with modification. Then his work came to the notice of one who saw in the revolutionary, exotic, posteresque things that Jones was doing something of the artistic fecundity that lay behind it, and he advised him to go to Europe and study with the best men there. So he went abroad, and the work he showed was an open sesame that admitted him as pupil to the Moscow Art Theatre and Reinhardt’s Theatre. At the Art Theatre in Moscow he learned the spirit of the modern theatre and with Reinhardt he learned craftsmanship. And long before the war drove him back to America we begin to hear of the quality of his work (New York Tribune, October 13, 1918).
ecretary of State, Washington, D.C. Sir: I hereby state that I obtained a passport from Washington about March 15, 1922, and used it in the countries mentioned in my application. On my return to the United States I destroyed this passport by fire, having no further use for it. Robert Edmond Jones, March 14, 1923.
MRS. W.T. CARRINGTON IS WED TO R.E. JONES. Widow of Financier and Sister of Walter Huston Is Bride of Noted State Designer. Special to the New York Times. GREENWICH, Conn., June 21 – Mrs. Margaret Huston Carrington, widow of W.T. Carrington of New York, formerly of North Greenwich, was married to Robert Edmund Jones of New York today. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Dr. Oliver Huckel, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Greenwich, at the home of the bride’s sister, Miss Ann Huston, in North Greenwich. A small reception followed the ceremony. The couple will spend the Summer in Colorado and will make their future home in New York. Mr. Jones is one of the leading theatrical designers in this country. He first gained prominence in that field with his settings for “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife,” produced in Wallack’s Theatre in 1915 by Harvey Granville-Barker, and has since added to his reputation with productions for Arthur Hopkins and the Theatre Guild. During the past season he did the settings and costumes for Katherine Cornell’s production of “Lucrece” and also for “Nine Pine Street.” He was also engaged until January as art director for the RKO theatres in Radio City. He has been actively interested in the productions of the Dramatic Festival at Central City, Col., where he will direct this season a revival of “The Merry Widow.” He is 45 years old, and is a member of the Harvard Club and The Players. Mrs. Carrington is the widow of William Theodore Carrington, financier. She is the sister of Walter Huston, the actor. Her home is 720 Park Avenue (New York Times, June 21, 1933).
THE BOOKSHELF. THE DRAMATIC IMAGINATION. by Robert Edmond Jones (Duell, Sloan & Pearce): Robert Edmond Jones probably knows as much about the American theater as any other living man. In this present volume he discusses costume, lighting, theater history, modem drama, acting and many other essentials of the theater. He goes beyond the present and describes the theater of the future. His historical account is most informative, and his forecast is provocative. An essential volume for anyone interested in the American theater (Birmingham News, March 29, 1941).
R.E. JONES IS DEAD; STAGE DESIGNER, 67. Leader in Development of the Modern Theatre Did Sets for Many O’Neill Dramas. Robert Edmond Jones, considered one of the most influential forces in the development of the modern American theatre, died yesterday morning in Milton, N.H., at the home of his sisters, the Misses Elizabeth and Alice Varney Jones. His age was 67. He had been in failing health after undergoing an operation a year ago, but apparently had improved sufficiently to plan to return next week to New York, where, for nearly thirty years, he had been one of the theatre’s foremost stage designers. Mr. Jones was born at Milton, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Fred P. Jones, and lived in that village until 1906 when he left to attend Harvard. His artistic talent was expressed early, first in drawing, which attracted attention when he was 10 years old. His mother, a concert pianist before her marriage, taught him to play violin, and at Harvard he played in the college orchestra. After graduating from Harvard in 1910, Mr. Jones stayed on for two years as an instructor in the Fines Arts Department, and began to be interested in theatre. He worked for a time as a costume designer for Comstock and Gest in New York. Early in 1913, Mr. Jones went to Europe. He visited Italy, hoping to study theatrical art at Gordon Craig’s school in Florence, but was rebuffed. He went instead to Germany where he had the run of Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theatre for a year. Scored on Return. Back in New York, Mr. Jones designed the settings for Anatole France’s “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife.” When the curtain rose on Jan. 27, 1915, at Wallack’s Theatre, audience and critics gasped with admiration. Thereafter Mr. Jones’ reputation as an artist-designer was secure and inspiring. Influenced by him, stage designing developed to the point where designers achieved equal importance with directors. Mr. Jones’ settings were designed to project more fully the playwright’s thought. Departing from the old realism epitomized by David Belasco, he drew on imagination, color and lighting to enhance the play visually, and he designed the costumes as well. Of his designs for “The Lute Song,” Lewis Nichols wrote, in The New York Times in 1946: “What has come from the easel and the soaring imagination of an artist is easily the most beautiful background given to any play in recent years.” “His colors flow across the stage in an ever-flowing pageant which seems to stretch out beyond the confines of the theatre. They swirl with the dancers and add majesty and dignity to the lives they touch.” Arthur Hopkins saw “The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife,” in 1915, and immediately engaged Mr. Jones, whose first production for him, “The Devil’s Garden,” in December of the same year, is still praised by theatrical historians. Worked for Arthur Hopkins. Successive designs for Mr. Hopkins’ productions were equally noteworthy and equally revolutionary. During the next five years, Mr. Jones designed the scenes for seventeen plays, two ballets and five masques, mostly for Mr. Hopkins. In 1921, Mr. Jones began working with Eugene O’Neill when Mr. Hopkins produced the latter’s “The Hairy Ape.” Subsequently Mr. Jones was the designer for O’Neill’s “Anna Christie,” “Desire Under the Elms,” “Morning Becomes Electra,” “Ah, Wilderness,” “The Ice Man Cometh,” and others. Mr. Jones also designed for many other plays, and for ballet and opera, including productions of the Metropolitan. His most recent production was a revival, in 1951, of Marc Connolly’s “Green Pastures,” whose original success was in part attributed to Mr. Jones’ designs. Yale University presented the Howland Memorial Prize to Mr. Jones, and in 1933 he received the Fine Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects for conspicuous attainment as a designer for the theatre. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts. Mr. Jones’ writing included “The Dramatic Imagination,” a book published in 1941. In 1933, Mr. Jones married Margaret Huston Carrington, who dies in August, 1942. A singer, she had been the voice coach to John Barrymore and Lillian Gish. She was the sister of the late Walter Huston, the actor. Surviving, in addition to his two sisters, are two brothers, the Rev. Dr. Philip C. Jones of New York and Charles Jones of Yonkers (New York Times, November 27, 1954).
Milton Observer 