Ahnentafel

Today’s grim tale concerns William Edwin Fyfe and his daughter, Dora Josephine Plummer, my fourth cousin 5 times removed and fifth cousin 4 times removed, respectively. William’s 3G-grandfather, Jerimiah Willson, was my 8G-grandfather. William was born 10 August 1837 in Bolton, Massachusetts. He appears with his parents in the 1850 census in Clinton, Massachusetts. His father is listed as a yeoman.

By 1860 William’s father (also named William) had died, and the younger William was living with his mother Sarah in the household of William and Nancy Snow. The 22-year-old William’s occupation is listed as “cracker peddler,” which is fun. Sarah died in 1862, but a year before that William married Mary Josephine Carruth on 7 November 1861 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. William’s marriage record lists his occupation as “grocer,” which I assume is a step up from peddling.

By 1870 William and Mary are living in Cambridge with their 7-year-old daughter Dora Josephine, as well as a domestic servant from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Dora had been born 25 October 1862 in Cambridge. William’s real estate value is listed as $6000, and his personal estate as $2000. If the inflation calculator I used is accurate, the total value of his property would be about $200,000 today.

In 1880 the family was enumerated in Clinton, Massachusetts. William is now listed as a real estate agent. In the household with William, Mary, and Dora is a nephew, Walter Rivers, 14. On 7 November 1886 in Clinton, 24-year-old Dora married 26-year-old Edward L. Plummer, a merchant who had been born in Sandwich, New Hampshire.

Since nearly all the 1890 census was destroyed by fire, this is the last time we will see William or Dora in a census enumeration. The bare facts of their deaths are given in their Massachusetts death records. There, listed one after the other, we learn that on 23 June 1899 in Lancaster, Massachusetts, both William and Dora died of shock from a railroad accident.

For the specifics of the accident we have to turn to contemporary newspaper accounts. The Boston Globe of 24 June 1899 calls the railroad accident “one of the most shocking tragedies in this community [Clinton] in years.” It also notes that William was the “wealthiest citizen of the town and one of the most influential men in the community.” According to the article, William and Dora had gone to Lancaster, starting back home about 4:30 p.m. On the way William began to cross the B&M railroad tracks but never made it to the other side. A woman living near the tracks indicated that William’s horse either stopped directly on the tracks or was pulled, and then she heard a train strike the Fyfes’ carriage.

William and Dora’s bodies were thrown 250 feet and the carriage was destroyed. Somehow the horse was unscathed and ran home. Similarly William’s body was “very little bruised,” though Dora was unrecognizable. The medical examiner who had been quickly summoned stated that both had been killed instantly. Investigation into the accident found that the engineer saw the carriage on the tracks and tried to reverse the train but was unable to do so in time to prevent the accident. A warning bell had been rung, but according to the newspaper article William was slightly hard of hearing and may not have heard it.

The Globe also detailed how Dora’s husband came racing to the scene after hearing of the accident, only to be overcome when he realized the extent of the tragedy. Others went to notify Mary (described as an invalid) of the death of her husband and only child. At the time of her death Dora was the mother of three children, listed in the newspaper as ages 3, 5, and 7. The Plummer family were then living with the Fyfes in their “mansion at the corner of Prescott and Water Streets,” which had just been built.

The newspaper account had harbored fears for the invalid Mary’s life after the tragedy, but she would live another 15 years. In the 1900 census Mary is living at the “mansion” at 237 Water Street in Clinton. This house still stands (though broken up into apartments) on the corner of Water and Prescott. Only a few households away from Mary on the census form, though at 133 Prescott Street, Dora’s widower Edward is enumerated, along with with Dora and Edward’s three children. It seems the newspapers account got the ages of the two youngest Plummer children right but not the eldest; in 1900 George was 4, Josephine was 7, but Helen was 12.

By 1910 Edward has moved in to the house at 237 Water Street. He is listed as a retail merchant of groceries. With him is a new wife, Susan; they are listed as having been married for two years. Edward and Dora’s children Helen, Josephine, and George, are still living at home. There is also a son named Richard, age 14. It’s possible he is the son of Susan from a previous marriage. Mary is still here, too, in the same house, though she is enumerated as the head of her own household with her own income.

In July 1915 Mary made out her will. She appointed Helen Plummer as her executrix. She bequeathed “the cottage house and land numbered 18 William St. Clinton, Mass” to her grandson George. She bequeathed $300 to her granddaughter Josephine, and gave to Josephine and Helen “the home place at the corner of Water and Prescott,” as well as two house lots and part of a lot on Beech Street in Clinton. Helen was to distribute Mary’s personal property. Mary died about six weeks after making out her will, and she and William are buried at the West Burying Ground in Bolton, Massachusetts.