• Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Events
  • Photo Gallery
  • Blog
  • Contact

A Joyful Noise

west brookfield massachusetts

Throwback Thursday: Annie Elizabeth Harding, one of countless immigrants

November 19, 2015 by Melodye Shore

My great grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Aldrich, was born in Hertfordshire, England in 1859.  In this snapshot , she’s about 45 years old and has long since moved to Nottingham. As mother to 11 living children (9 girls and 3 boys), it’s no surprise that she looks a bit weary. Even so, she was by all accounts a very happy woman who probably imagined herself living out her days among the people she knew and loved, in the homeland she cherished.

unnamed-14

May (L) and Evelyn (RO were the youngest of Annie Elizabeth Harding’s 12 children.

But when World War I erupted, Nottingham was hit hard. Annie’s boys enlisted in the military, and my great-grandparents sought refuge on American soil. They were second class passengers on the USMS Philadelphia, which was chased by German submarines for countless, terrifying miles.

82d57933-00c5-4aef-a4ab-d70c03453dac

Her daughters found work at a local corset factory, and Annie — who, by then, was 56 years old–set about creating a new life for them on Pleasant Street in West Brookfield, Massachusetts.

She and her husband George worked hard, saved diligently, and eventually purchased a comfortable home on an old country road, across from a yeast-making factory and adjacent to the railroad tracks. Annie planted flowers on the hillside and was feted by her beloved children on the occasion of  her 50th wedding anniversary.

d34b50f7-0169-4be6-a093-6e9c2a696805

Within a month, the Great Depression hit. They made do and did with less, so as to lend financial support to those in need.

unnamed-13

Annie Elizabeth and George Harding, on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary in 1929.

Just five years later, my great-grandfather passed away. Annie was 75 years old. A widow now, she once again rolled up her sleeves. She endured floods and other hardships, but as it was with her pet canaries, she never lost her song. Local historians told me that hobos etched friendly symbols in the dirt roads that led from the rail cars to her house. “Hot meals offered here,” they said. “Everyone’s invited.” How utterly Annie, to share what little she had!

unnamed-12

When I met the current owners of her humble abode, they offered me a gift.

FullSizeRender-10

Pulled from the crumbling remains of the original foundation, this brick reminds me of my personal roots. Too, it grounds me in the truth of things, within and beyond the current narratives we’re hearing. That is to say, that we are a nation of immigrants, settled by great-grandmothers who sacrificed much in the name of safety and freedom, and who were welcomed equally at Ellis Island.

Posted in: family, genealogy, memoir, nana, TBT, Throwback Thursday Tagged: Annie Elizabeth Harding, Ellis Island, genealogy, Great Depression, Immigrants, nana, Refugees, west brookfield massachusetts

#TBT A portrait of my Great Aunt Eleanor, drawn from memorabilia

May 7, 2015 by Melodye Shore

I know very little about my Great Aunt Eleanor, but these artifacts sure paint an interesting portrait!

Eleanor (“Nelly”) was born in Nottingham, England in 1887. She–along with many of my maternal grandmother’s family members–emigrated to West Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1916.  Years later, Nana told us stories later about the WWI German submarines that chased their ship across the ocean, but at the time of their passage, the United States hadn’t yet entered “The War to End All Wars.”

People described Nelly as “high-spirited” and “adventuresome.” She and her husband, Allen T. Godfrey, were nothing if not enterprising. That’s what I heard tell.

When I steered my Nancy Drew roadster down bumpy roads, I found evidence of that.

GoldenRuleLunchroom

GoldenRuleLunchroom_abt1927_ReedNewOwner

The Golden Rule Lunchroom, about 1927 (via West Brookfield, MA Archives)

Whoa, Nelly!

She died the year before I was born, which makes me wistful in this remembering. I think we might’ve shared some things in common. And oh, the family secrets we could spill, over afternoon tea!

Allen and Nelly Godfrey_Sept1946

Allen and Nelly Godfrey, 1946

Although she fashioned herself a writer, Nelly didn’t leave to future generations any poems, journals or books. She did, however, enter lots of contests, many of which she won. “Duz Does It All” was my great aunt’s award-winning slogan for a laundry detergent company.

war-time-cleaning-duz

Wartime was hard for everyone, with more than enough hardship to go around. Gasoline and groceries were rationed, and money was scarce. Few people owned automobiles in the small town where she lived. But there were whispers down the lane about a certain relative who very much enjoyed rumbling through the streets of West Brookfield,  honking and waving to pedestrians from the driver’s seat of a shiny new Ford. It wasn’t common, back then, for women to slide behind the wheel. But Nelly being who she was, I suspect she felt entitled, being the Grand Prize Winner and all.

I’m picturing all this in my mind’s eye this morning, and oh, what a happy portrait it paints!

1947 Ford Ad-04-2

1947 Ford, via OldCarAdvertising.com

Posted in: CAN I GET A WITNESS, family, genealogy, memoir, nancy Drew, Throwback Thursday Tagged: Du Does everything, family archives, nancy drew, throwback thursday, west brookfield massachusetts

Keys to the kingdom

March 3, 2013 by Melodye Shore

I've just returned home from my trip to Connecticut; and while I am grateful for your kind words and thoughtful gestures, I hope you'll understand that I'm not up to discussing the events of the last several days. Not yet, anyway. But I will say that there was lots of light among the shadows, not the least of which is the quiet comfort that comes of knowing that my father-in-law passed away peacefully in his sleep after enjoying a long, full life.

If you'll indulge me, though, I'd like to share a few blog entries about my visit to the East Coast, beginning with a last-minute field trip to central Massachusetts. It was a Nancy Drew adventure of sorts, in that I was physically retracing my maternal grandmother's footsteps.

Nana was 16 years old when she disembarked at Ellis Island. For several generations, the Harding family toiled at a lace-making factory in Nottingham, England. Quality handiwork was in high demand, so they were recruited by a State-side corset factory. That's how Nana ended up in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. (More about that in an upcoming post..)

May Harding, aka Nana, married Ernest Harding on September 3, 1933. She was 32 years old at the time, and he was 50.  I wish I could offer you a better picture of their wedding day, but I'm glad this image survived my childhood travels.

They were married in West Brookfield, MA, at this very church. Charming, don't you think? It's named for George Whitefield, the "sensational evangelist of Britain and America."

I admit now to being a bit naive. Perhaps overly optimistic, as is my wont. But I assumed that someone would be there to greet us when we arrived, maybe share some history or tell a few stories. But when I called the church, I got a recorded message. And when I eventually reached the pastor on his cell phone, he said he wasn’t available during the week. "Maybe I can get a parishioner to open the doors for you," he said…

…but that didn't pan out, either.

I circled the building several times, snapping photographs and jiggling knobs. Would that the doors would magically open, that a light would shine through the darkened windows!

!

 Though the grounds were shrouded in snow, and the stair-steps were cloaked in a mossy-green garment that was years in the making, I sensed what I couldn't see. There were traces of my relatives having been inside and around that building; I felt it in my bones.

I thought about expanding my search, but it appeared as if the neighbors had long since moved away, taking their stories and secrets with them.

CIMG8360

On the bright side, it's very likely I'll be returning to the East Coast in the very near future. This affords me the opportunity to do some advance work beforehand. No surprise to those of you who know me, I plan to revisit that church. Here's hoping (praying) that someone will grant me access when I do….

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: george whitefield united methodist churc, nana, west brookfield massachusetts

Topics

ab 2165 beach billy graham birds can i get a witness christmas dear bully family archives flowers freckles garden gardening harbor seals hope hummingbird hummingbird hatchlings hummingbird nest 2015 hummingbirds jeannine atkins joy joyful noise laguna beach land of medicine buddha memoir memoir writing monarch butterfly nana nancy drew new year's eve ocean orange county peace photography poetry rosa resolution rose sara seals tent revival thankful thursday thanksgiving the author's tent throwback thursday wordless wednesday writing

Recent Posts

  • International Day of the Seal
  • My uncouth neighbors: A murder of crows
  • Smitten with Kittens, by Florence and Wendell Minor
  • Happy Valentine’s Day!
  • Happy New Year, 2022
  • The Badlands
  • TINY BIRD: A Hummingbird’s Amazing Journey

Archives

Copyright © 2023 .

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall