In the News...

Today we get our news from our smartphones, social media and 24 hour news outlets. Newspapers still exist but it is obvious that they are struggling to stay relevant. Gone is the day when the newspaper boy rode his bicycle to deliver the newspaper to your doorstep. Growing up I can remember my parents each with a section of newspaper lingering over breakfast. Now my mom reads the morning Providence Journal on her tablet.

A hundred years ago news was local. It took time for what was happening in the world to reach our doorstep and by then it was old news. We found news of our neighbors highly entertaining. Everything was of interest; marriages, births, deaths, travel and just like today our ancestors loved a good scandal!

For me as a genealogist these old newspapers are a gold mine. I get a rare glimpse into peoples lives that flesh out who they were besides just the facts of birth, marriage and death.

My great grandfather and his family made the newspapers quite a bit from 1899-1951.

Joseph Walker, Sarah Ellen Shaw Walker, Mary E. Walker Whittaker (Daughter of Joseph and Sarah Walker), William Whittaker (aka Buster and son of Mary E. Whittaker) and Rachel Walker Shaw (sister of Joseph Walker). Photo is c. 1916 (Buster was born 1913 and looks to be about 3 years old).

I know that both Joseph and Sarah Walker were born in England in the early 1870's. They immigrated separately when they were in their early 20's and married on November 29th 1893 in Pawtucket, RI. Joseph's occupation was listed as a machinist on his marriage certificate.

As a machinist I am sure Joseph's skills were in demand to keep the looms running in the many textile mills here in Rhode Island. Through census records, city directories and their children's birth records I was able to follow the family as they moved around the state. Joseph and Sarah moved from Pawtucket, RI to Westerly and then to Woonsocket then back to Pawtucket and finally after living in three homes in Cumberland settled in the Cumberland Hill area. I do not know why they moved so much. Were they seeking better opportunities or was Joseph just restless?

The first newspaper article I found about Joseph and Sarah Walker was in the Pawtucket Times dated Friday September 8, 1899 on page 5. Under the heading for Lincoln:

"Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Walker of Woonsocket are spending a few days at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Stott"

William Stott was Sarah's cousin from England. The distance from Woonsocket to Lincoln, RI is under 8 miles. It is possible that they travelled some of those 8 miles by train but more likely that they went by horse and buggy. So this was an event to be noted.

By 1902 the family was in the news again. They were living at 142 Dexter Street in Pawtucket, RI. They had two children; eight year old Mary and three year old Joseph Jr.. That previous summer the Walker's had lost their one year daughter Sarah A. from a seizure. At the time of Sarah's birth her father's occupation was listed as a bartender. Why did he change his occupation? Was being a bartender more lucrative?

On December 8, 1902 Sarah Walker was nine months pregnant with her fourth child when her three year old son Joseph Jr was scalded by a kettle of boiling water.

Baby Scalded (Genealogy Bank: Pawtucket times, Monday December 8,1902, Pawtucket, RI Page 8)

I do have a picture of Joseph Walker Jr and his wife Nora Whitehead when Joseph was in his late 50's and he does not appear to have any scars from the accident.

Joseph Walker, Jr and wife Nora Whitehead Walker

c.1950 in Willimantic, Connecticut.

It may be that Joseph Walker Sr.'s change of career from Machinist to Bartender led to the next newspaper article on November 28, 1904.

Police Raid Joseph Walker's House- 1904

Eleven men were found guilty of playing cards on a Sunday and charged $5.00 each by the judge. The card players were found on the second floor of a tenement at 142 Dexter Street rented by Joseph Walker. Mr. Walker told police he had no idea that card playing was going on in the place in violation of the law. He sublet two of the rooms to one of the men arrested. Police seized five boxes of poker chips, 60 packs of cards, two bottles of whiskey, 27 bottles of larger beer, several empty glasses, cigars and a cribbage board.

The next fifteen years Joseph and Sarah move three more times within Cumberland, RI until 1919 when I found the family at 236 Pleasant View Ave in Cumberland. In those fifteen years Joseph returned to his occupation of Machinist and the family had three more children: William born in 1906, Alice born in 1909 and Saville Stott born in 1914. Alice died of the measles when she was one and little Saville Stott only lived 17 days.

In 1920 Joseph was 49 years old and working as a machinist in the Manville Jenkes mill located on the Cumberland Lincoln line along the Blackstone River. Joseph and his family lived in a duplex on the Cumberland side half way up Manville Hill Rd. On Sunday February 15, 1920 there was a heavy down pour of rain with rising temperatures. On Monday after working on a repair job at the plant Joseph was heading home and stepped on what appeared to be a solid crust of snow and broke his leg. He was placed on a sleigh and brought to his home where the doctor was called.

"Broken Leg" Pawtucket Times, Monday February 16, 1920

Site of Manville Jenkes Mill

Site of Manville Jenkes Mill on Lincoln/ Cumberland line along the Blackstone River. A park stands where the mill burnt down in 1955.

284 Mount Pleasant View Ave Cumberland, RI

This is the duplex where the family lived when Joseph broke his leg in 1920 and had to be brought home by sleigh up Manville Hill Road .

The family does not make the newspapers again until 1951 when Joseph's will causes a big controversy and makes for good reading in the local paper.

During these thirty years (1920-1951) Joseph's wife Sarah dies. His daughter Mary E. Whittaker marries her second husband Joseph Bedard and they have two children Clarise Bedard and Eugene Bedard. His son Joseph Walker Jr. marries Nora Whitehead and they move to Connecticut. Son George Walker moves to Los Angeles, California. George never marries but lives with his employer Alfred DeBarr. Son William Walker marries Annalene O'Leary and they have three boys and live in Pawtucket. Joseph's sister Rachel Walker Shaw marries her second husband John Rowland.

In April of 1939 Joseph Walker, a widower, makes his will while living with his widowed sister Rachel Rowland in Central Falls, RI

In his will he names his daughter Mary E. Bedard to be executrix of the will. He gives his gold watch and chain to William J. Whittaker (Aka Buster, son of Mary E. Walker Whittaker Bedard). The remainder of his property is to be split between his daughter Mary E. Bedard of Central Falls and his son George Walker of Los Angeles, California. Joseph specifically states that he makes no provisions for his two remaining sons, William Walker and Joseph Walker Jr..

George dies in 1945 and daughter Mary dies in 1949. Joseph, himself dies in 1951 without amending his will to reflect these deaths. So after Joseph dies the courts have to get involved and appoint someone to administer the will. The court appoints his disinherited son William Walker.

" Court Appoints Disinherited Son"

I do not know why my grandfather and his brother were disinherited. My grandfather William Walker died in 1972 when I was just 9 years old. My memory of him was of a kind, gentle man who loved his family. William's son Robert (aka Bob) only had good memories of his father and could not explain why he would be disinherited. He never talked to his father about the situation. Bob was only 14 when his grandfather Joseph died. He does remember seeing the gold watch mentioned in the will at his grandfather Joseph Walker's home when he visited. There were many newspaper articles about the disinherited son having to take care of his father's will. His son Bob thought all of this sensationalism must of been difficult for his kind soft spoken father.