Oak Leaves and Chrysanthemums
Barbara Woodruff Gould
Early photographs of the Gould family show Barbara Woodruff Gould’s blond curls and vivacious personality. Born on 27 Aug. 1919 in Bayonne, NJ, she was the second child of Mabel Black and J. Howard Gould. She carried Grandma Black‘s maiden name Woodruff.
Many photos of Barbara include her sister Janet, who was older by a year. In fact it’s hard to tell the two apart at their young ages, so I hope I didn’t mix them up.
At school age, Barbara attended Horace Mann School, a local elementary school in Bayonne, and Sunday school at the First M.E. Church across the street from their house.
But sudden illness struck, and the Gould family was never the same again. Barbara fell ill, and died soon after on 18 Feb. 1928. She was eight-years-old.
I heard from my mother Doris Gould Malaspina, born the following year in 1929, that Barbara most likely had meningitis, which strikes suddenly and can be deadly in 24 hours. It is an infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Without the availability of antibiotics (penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 but took years to become widely used), doctors had few tools to treat serious infections.
Doris, who never knew Barbara, sometimes spoke wistfully of her older sister, but said her family never mentioned her name. I’m sure it wasn’t because they didn’t think of her. Rather it probably hurt too much. In letters written during summer vacations in Watertown CT, Mabel had fondly recounted Barbara’s activities to J. Howard who stayed in Bayonne. Barbara was clearly much loved.
Note from Doris
Aaron Louis Treadwell (update)
I discovered a short biography of Aaron Treadwell, the brother of my great-grandmother Lina Treadwell Gould. A scientist and long-time college professor, he is credited with helping to bring electricity to New England and the teaching of evolution to students at Vassar College, among many other accomplishments!
Tornado!
The historic disaster was called the Great Wallingford Tornado because of the grave damage it inflicted on Wallingford, Connecticut. Striking in the late afternoon of August 9, 1878, the winds flattened the river town, with 34 people left dead and thousands more injured in its swift path of destruction. The tornado also touched down on the town of Washington, CT, and the barn of my great great uncle, John M. Black, as well as the property of his brother Robert Black who lived across the street.
The black clouds of the tornado that rode over Mount Tom and then roared through western Connecticut contained winds that reached 260 miles per hour, according to news reports of the day.
The tornado lifted John Black up off his feet, to the astonishment of his wife who was standing nearby, and then dropped him again. It tore off house shingles and ripped out his hardwood and fruit trees by their roots. Robert Black’s property was also damaged, as recounted in the Hartford Daily Courant on August 16, 1878:
From the news reports, the tornado came the day after a severe thunder storm, on Thursday, when two of John Black’s steers were killed by lightning and his step son Myron Kinney narrowly escaped serious injury.
The repair of the two properties began right away, with no time to waste.
Book Club
The love of books and reading has been passed down through many generations of the Gould and Black families. So I was not surprised to discover this slide of Mabel Black Gould (third from the left in a black dress) and her mother Grandma Black (far right in a chair) with the women of the book club. The slide was simply labeled Book Club. The time is probably the late 1940s or early 1950s. The location can only be guessed.
“One of our highly esteemed farmers”
James A. Black (1823-1901) was the first in the Black family to emigrate from Ireland. He was the eldest son of John and Mary Black. He arrived in Montreal, Canada in the early 1840s during the Potato Famine, before moving to Washington CT, where the rest of his family later joined him. (The mystery remains why he chose to move to Washington). When James died in Watertown CT on January 31, 1901, at age 77, local papers took note of his service in the Civil War and his severe wounding in a bloody battle, as well as his occupation as a farmer and membership in the Methodist Church. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Watertown.
Red Woodshed
At the side of the backyard of 92 Monte Vista Avenue was the red woodshed, where Mabel and J. Howard Gould kept rakes, shoves, hoes and other yard tools. It was tucked among brush and trees, and seemed mysterious. My brothers and I liked to sneak in there and play sometimes.
When you stepped inside the shed, the air smelled of wood and earth. J. Howard had a huge garden in the yard beneath the stone wall. Later the garden was gone and the croquet set was laid out on the grass, kept trimmed by their trusty yardman Bonasee (sp?), who drove an ancient Army green pick-up truck.
I remember corn and raspberries, which we collected in straw baskets, but I’m sure there were other vegetables in the garden. At least one apple tree, a pear tree, and many flowers and flowering trees also grew in the yard. So there was a definitely a need for the shed and tools.
The extended family loved to visit and enjoy the backyard in all seasons. In the photo below, Janet Gould DeFelice holds her eldest daughter Tisha in the yard outside the kitchen and breakfast room. If you look to the right, you’ll see wintering yellow rose bushes.
Return to Ireland
Her grandfather James Black emigrated from Ireland in the 1840s, and over 100 years later, in 1956, Mabel Gould Black and her husband J. Howard Gould drove through Ireland as part of a European tour. I recently found some slides of her trip.
This last photograph is labeled Dorothy and John Black, and I can only assume they are family members descended from John Black, the father of James Black. A few years after James arrived in Montreal , John emigrated with the rest of his large family from Ballisodare in County Sligo to Washington, Connecticut.
92 MONTE VISTA AVENUE
Ridgewood-Herald News, March 3, 1938
Mabel and Dr. J. Howard Gould moved into their house at 92 Monte Vista Avenue in 1938. The property on the corner of Monte Vista and Heights Road had recently been put up for sale. A house and barn had been located there. The Gould’s actually purchased two lots.
Ridgewood-Herald News, Feb. 11, 1937
Howard helped design the house, with a doctor’s office on the first floor accessible by a back door. (I am looking for the name of the architect.) He personally traveled to Pennsylvania to buy stone for the house and planted pine trees by the back porch, which grew into a forest by the time I was a child. The backyard had plenty of space for a large vegetable garden and, later, an impeccably green lawn for croquet. His sons Robert and John built a stone wall to separate the lower garden from the upper garden. I believe they also built a red-painted wooden tool shed.
About 10 years ago, the late Virginia Dietz forwarded me an envelope with photographs and negatives taken when the house was being built.
92MonteVista 