The Far Left Branch, Ch.5

1910

William Edwin, 41, lived in a boarding house at Corral Street in Rome, NY while working on the canals. The house he lived in was run by an Austrian Polish-speaking widow with four children under the age of 9. Poor woman! Widowed at 30 with no career and four kids to feed? I guess the only recourse is to run a boarding house.

Older brother Robert Garland Scott, Jr., 43, had been married for exactly one year to Frances Roberts, 35, when the newlyweds lived in a James Street boarding house in Rome, NY along with a fireman, four waiters, four chambermaids, two bell boys, an architect, a broker, a salesman, a hotel “stableman”, a vocalist (named Donella Jacques!), a master machine engineer, a hotel baggageman, a cook, a retired telegrapher, a porter, a secretary for the YMCA, and two clerks.

The head of the boarding house, Henry Cumming, was a hotel proprietor. I don’t know if all of these people actually lived in the hotel they worked at, but with all these characters I see the movie in my head; There are snarky side-comments, scenes in the lounge area with dark walls and cigarette smoke int he air, scheming in stairwells, starched and pressed uniforms, and of course a murder takes place. The stableman probably did it. He seems questionable to me.

Also, I may just be thinking of a movie based on an Agatha Christie that’s already been made.

Today, the area where this boarding house sat is the home to multiple chain hotels.

Younger brothers Edwin, 29, and Walter, 33 lived in different another boarding house in Rome, NY, this one filled almost entirely with laborers with titles like foreman, crane man, engineer, carpenter, odd job machinist. Both Walter and Edwin were barge canal foreman.

All five Scotts lived in Ward 2 (click to enlarge photos)

While her future husband William Edwin was building away in Rome and her sister Frances had been married for a year to Robert, my great-grandmother Mary lived with some of her siblings on Dearing Street in Lynchburg. Their mother died in 1903. Mary, 32, listed herself and her sister Griselda, 31, as “violet growers” at home. (I feel like violet growing is not really a career so much as a hobby, but I love the little vignet it creates in my head).

Living with them was their brother William, 45, a real estate agent, and sister Kate, 36, still going strong as a music teacher.

1925

Robert, Jr and Frances lived at 502 North George Street in Rome along with a 19-year-old servant named Thelma Anderson. A servant for two people? {yes, I am judging through time and space}

Adorably, Mary and William Edwin lived three houses away at 217 West Thomas Street, where they had been for at least the last five years, along with my grandad Bill, now 7, and great uncle Bob, 3.

Sidenote; their next-door neighbors were a bicycle salesman named Albert and his wife Jeanette. Albert and his niece-in-law Bertha, who also lived next door, were German-speaking Swiss. Less than sixteen years later, my grandad Bill, the 7-year-old mentioned above, married a German-speaking Swiss woman. (It’s not Bertha)

(click to enlarge photos)

I love to think of Mary and Frances living just a block away from one another. Who knows how long their husbands were away for work, and I imagine they enjoyed each others’ company. Otherwise, why live so close together? I can see one walking to the home of the other at the same time everyday. If Frances went to Mary’s, they’d sit around a little table in the kitchen and talk about everything and anything over a cup of coffee or tea. “That President Coolidge is such a dolt!” my great-grandmother would say.

“And how!” Frances would add, “He never has much to say and I wonder…” she taps her head indicating that he may not be very bright, but she’s a lady so she doesn’t say so out loud.

They would also discuss the pros and cons of rising hemlines in women’s fashion.

If Mary went to Frances’ with her sons, they’d sit on the porch and chat while the boys played Jacks nearby. Or maybe they’d roller skate up and down the sidewalk.

When I knew him my Grandad Bill was serious, quiet, and somewhat grumpy. His demeanor was intimidating and he was not warm and fuzzy. I didn’t dislike him, I just didn’t connect with him. In my twenties I realized I knew very little about him, so during a visit I asked him “Grandad, what did you do for fun when you were a kid?”

He remained stone-faced and serous when he answered without hesitation “Eat chocolate”. He wasn’t generally very funny but this had me laughing. After thinking a bit more, he added that he liked to go ice skating and sledding.

OK, back to 1925.
James and his family lived Auburn, NY, which I already mentioned is where I was for my first job out of college. They lived at 114 North Street. Where did I live? 83 South Street. It’s the same street, and changes names as it passes through the center of the “city”. Our houses, which are both still standing, are a twenty minute walk from each other. Small world, even though time!