
Edna Hambly Brown
1879 – 1947

It is important to document our histories, collectively they provide a perspective on our own being. They can provide a mirror in which our reflection is a merger of those gone before us and ourselves. These histories can help us discover our own capabilities, provide a solid base for us to stand on, mold our moral character, and bring out our inner strengths.
Edna Maria Hambly, my grandmother, lived in a past time, she grew up, went to school, contributed to her community, raised a family. She led by example, she taught the life lessons we needed to be a member of our society. At one time George Brown, Husband Frank, daughter Helen, Helen’s husband John, her Grandchildren John and Agatha and Aunt Jen were together at the Brown Farm, each under the influence of Edna. That influence manifested itself though them to me.
Edna’s family traces to: John Hambly and Mary Wyatt. John and Mary are first recorded in 1700 in Newport R.I. The Negus side traces to England with the earliest record I have found being one Henry Lake born in Childwall, Lancashire England 1611, died 1673 in Dartmouth Massachusetts.[1]The Descendants of John Hambly and Mary Wyatt, Vincent C. Rose, 1998, page 56.
Edna’s mother, Ann Maria Negus was born on August 20, 1841, in Tiverton, Rhode Island, her father, Samuel, was 33, and her mother, Phebe, was 32. She married and bore four sons and six daughters to James Otis Hambly between 1860 and 1886. She died in 1923 at the age of 82.
Edna Maria Hambly was born on January 19, 1879 in Tiverton R.I. to James Otis Hambly (1837 – 1912) and Ann Maria (Negus) Hambly 20 Aug (1841 – 1923). She was the ninth of ten children. When Edna was born her father James was 41, and her mother Ann, was 37. She married Frank Brown on January 9 1906, in Little Compton. They had one child during their marriage, Helen M. Brown (1907 – 1998). Edna died on February 4, 1947 at the age of 68. She had outlived all her siblings save one, Sylvester Lawrence (1886 – 1957) Sylvester was unique in that he registered for the draft for both WW I & II.
Over her lifetime Edna resided in two homes:
From her birth until her marriage to Frank in 1906 she lived with her Mother, Father, and siblings in the “Edward- Bennett House/James Otis Hambly Homestead 1822”; at 1137 Main Road: Described as “A Federal’ cottage with a large brick, center chimney; a central entry in a 3-bay façade; and a shed roof dormer on an addition at the rear. The small lot, behind a stone wall, includes a barn. The- house was built by Edward Bennett, then went through several owners until 1867, when it was acquired by James Otis, Hambly. Several generations of the Hambly family ‘lived here until the mid’-201h ‘century. (1850- P. -Dunbar.)[2]“Historic and Architectural Resources of Tiverton, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report: State Of Rhode Island And Providence Plantations Preliminary Survey Report, Town Of Tiverton, Rhode Island … Continue reading
The Brown Farm was Edna’s Home from her 1906 marriage to Frank until her death in 1947 age 68.
The farm house was built around 1740 on land that had been owned for decades by the Browns and formally land of the local Indian tribes the Sakonnet branch of the Wampanoags.
Known as “The William Brown House” —-: (It was) A shingled, 2½-story, center-chimney dwelling with a 5-bay facade and center entrance framed by sidelights and capped by a broad entablature. Brown 1727-1792 was a farmer, and as late as the mid-2Oth century this property included a small tool house, a barn, and a well. The house devolved in the Brown family until its sale in 1951 by his great-great-great-great-granddaughter (Helen).[3]Historic and Architectural Resources of Little Compton, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission 1990 Item 335 (Carlton Brownell, co-author)
Both homes remain today and have been given historic status.
In the early nineteenth century, married women in the US were legally subordinate to their husbands. Wives could not own their own property, keep their own wages, or enter into contracts.
Edna lived in a time when many American women were resisting the notion that the ideal woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother, concerned only with family and home. But things were changing; by 1879 in many states married women were granted more control over their property and finances. The Women’s Suffrage movement was in full bloom but it was a long battle for women’s rights. The right to vote finally was granted in the 19th amendment in 1920. Edna was 41 years of age!
My knowledge of Edna comes from oral histories and the large amount of family documents that her daughter Helen kept and passed on to me. They are a treasure trove, documenting earlier times and providing a glimpse into Edna’s life, and the impacts to her family, and the next generation(s).
Among the many and assorted papers are legal documents, general notes, ledgers, pictures, bills and just day to day accumulations of documents. Among them, a priceless collection of letters written by John Jr. during his Navy career, a ledger started in 1907 by her father Frank Brown, and numerous family pictures many taken by noted photographer O. E. Dubois who often stayed in one of the Brown’s cottages while photographing the local country side.
Edna was one of the few women that received an education – the Hambly’s were a relatively progressive family and only wanted what was best for their family. Edna went off to school and became a teacher: I believe that she was the first Little Compton Teacher to have graduated from Normal School. This profession led her to Frank who would eventually become her husband.
Edna was responsible for the Little Compton district 4 school commencing in the 1896-7 school year. The 1899 school report noted that students of school No. 4, because of the continued tutelage of Edna “have had greater opportunity for advancement than any other school”. School district #7 was likewise singled out. Again in the School Report of 1901: “very notable progress has been made at No. 4 during the year. Miss Hambly taught with her usual success the Spring and Fall terms and then it was thought best to place her in No. 9”. (No. 9 was having discipline problems and it was left to Edna to gain control of this district. Later reports showed that she accomplished this in her usual manner) District 4 school was located just north of Peckham road to the east side. This is just about a mile from the Brown farm. District 9 school No.9 was located on the east side of Long Highway approximately opposite of what is now John Sisson Road.[4]The Stories Houses Tell, A Collection of Little Compton House Histories”, Little Compton Historical Society Copyright 2015, pages 203-204.
In 1906 Edna was recertified by the “State of Rhode Island Teachers Certification Department of Public Instruction Renewal certificate of Edna Maria Hambly: “This certifies that Edna Maria Brown has given satisfactory evidence of the passion of the required literary qualifications and of good moral character and has therefor been granted by the State Board of Education a Certificate of the Third Grade good for six years unless sooner annulled.”- “Providence August 1st, 1906, Renewed for four years, August 1, 1912, Renewed for four years, August 1, 1916”
A note of interest: Edna’s niece, Vida Hambly Sylvia, followed her Aunt’s footsteps eventually teaching fifth grade at JF Wilbur, holding this positon for many years. Among her students were Edna’s Grand children, John and Agatha. Both would latter relate to me on how hard-hitting Vida could be in keeping discipline. In this respect she was very similar to Edna. Tragically Vida was killed in auto accident in 1954 on Cape Cod while viewing Hurricane Carol Damage. She would have been my fifth grade teacher in 1955. I knew her well and was struck by this calamity.
Anxious moments for Edna as Helen and John marry: Now Helen always told me that she and John were married three times: First by a Justice of the Peace in Portsmouth, then, in order to placate the Gomez family, by a Catholic priest in Portsmouth and finally by a priest in the Little Compton parish on April 4th 1925. The end result of all this was Edna had a new family member in the Brown household and later the addition of their son John Jr. (1925) and daughter Agatha (1928). It was an interesting situation as it turns out Edna did not care much for Catholics never mind of recent immigrant descent. From the Gomez family perspective John was an outcast at least until they were properly married by the correct priest. They would not even speak to John (I am sure that Gram Gomez – ignored this but Gramp was adamant). The result was acceptance into the Brown home. Helen, an only child, could be rebellious i.e. marry a Catholic. But before you get concerned, I will say that it did not take long for Edna to cherish her new family members. Turns out some Catholics were good people – The children were baptized and raised Catholic holding their faith until death. What about Frank – well he didn’t think much about it he and John had often worked together and liked each other very much. In fact Frank treated him as the son he never had. Ah! Such is life!
Over the years Edna and Frank doted heavily on their Grandchildren, lavishing excessive fondness and affection on them. – Life couldn’t have been better for them.
The Rebekahs: Edna was a member of the “Social Rebekah Lodge, No. 11 IOOF of Rhode Island. She being the first noble grand of the Social Lodge. Her contemporaries included Mrs. John H. Bixby, Mrs. Edmund D. Carton, Mrs. Clarence E. Grinnell, Mabel C. Sowle, Cora L. Teachman and Vida Hambly Sylvia. The IOOF building still remains on our common area, located just East of the Basketball Court. I believe this building was once a Methodist Church eventually owned by Colonial Henry Sission and was sold to the Town.
Life on the Farm in the Twenties: John Jr. was born in 1925 and spent his early years on the Brown farm with his parents, grandparents, great grandfather and in 1928 his newly arrived sister Agatha. Grandfather Brown was at various times a farmer, fisherman and carpenter. A close relationship developed between John and Grandparents that he often talked about.
Often I queried “What was your childhood like on the farm? What did you do? What occupied your time? What were your favorite toys?” The responses would provide a glimpse of the farm environment that Edna was partner in. “Did you know that it was important for a boy to learn skills that could relieve a man to perform more dangerous / difficult work?” There were stories of Hanes and whiffletrees used to harness the farms draft animals. “I learned to work the team of horses. I made my first money driving a team tending neighbor’s fields.” Or: “I learned to knit nozzles for gramps lobster pots. You know, he made me my own knitting needle. It was made out of wood. You would wrap the line around it and using a rectangular wooden frame onto which were attached numerous “cup hooks” and would sit, usually in the large warm farmhouse kitchen, and knit a nozzle.” Edna would be nearby and supply drink and her pastry treats. “Sometimes, when the codfish were in the river, we would go up towards Fogland” and would dig 500 clams. The tub trawl contained five hundred hooks.”
“And the farm animals: there was “Stubby” the Muscovy who lost part of his feet when he froze into a puddle one night, there were “Curly” and “Lollipop” our pet pigs and of course the numerous dogs, Ruben was the favorite, there were cats, guinea hens, chickens, horses, cows, sheep and on it went. It was work to take care of them but for a young boy and girl it couldn’t get any better.
The Outhouse: At one point in our discussions I noted “You and I are a generation or so apart here. And so your stories and mine are different. We certainly have different perspectives. I grew up with electricity, toilet paper and running water – the Brown Farm had none of these!” “Yeah. That’s right. We used to have a Sears Roebucks book. And then you would yank out a page, roll it around and soften it up. And so, Frank Brown came in one day – he never closed the goddamn door on the outhouse. He came in, he said, “Oh, “Johhnay” I just wiped my ass on Barb Wire.” The outhouse was directly north of the kitchen door and in full view when it was opened. Edna just shook her head! I guess that’s Yankee humor. – Well it was back when you didn’t have any toilet paper. But he was using the Sears and Roebuck book. Poor Edna! Now she had two of them.
Phebe: Another of Edna’s sisters, Phebe L (Hambly) Hunt,(17 February 1867 – 22 March 1929) and her husband, John W. Hunt (25 April 1859 – ). The Hunts, John and Phebe married on 1 January 1887 in Little Compton, lived on the east side of the “Great West Main Road”, opposite what was and to this day is “Red Top Farm”. John and Phebe had a daughter “Bessie”, cousin to Helen and who was a constant visitor to the Brown farm. John’s occupation was as “Egg Gatherer”. Helen would tell me about his wagon showing up at the Farm to buy eggs produced there. Chickens were big business in Little Compton – several farmers had several thousand chickens. The Browns flock was considerably smaller but supplied both food and an income. Edna and Helen managed the Hens.
Edna loved to cook: Edna’s cookbook is wonderful collection of now very old recipes initiated by a young teenage girl written into an old hardcover notebook which exhibits many telltale signs that it was well used and added to for a number of years. Likely initiated in 1896 – 7, a 45 star flag adorns its cover. Inside the Flag adorned cover is the following:
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner ‘in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
There are over 70 recipes handwritten into this book. Edna would be about 17 years of age at the recording of her favorite recipes.At this young age Edna already leaned heavily towards patriotism and community – a trait she carried throughout her life. She attended church regularly and continued to do so after her marriage.
The handwriting, in cursive, was always good but grew stronger as later entries were made. The sometimes faint pencil writing gives way to use of pen and ink. Some ingredients appear to be more “modern”. This indicates to me that Edna’s Recipe Book was added to from time to time over a period of years. The last recipes were added well after her marriage.[5]The Descendants of John Hambly and Mary Wyatt, Vincent C. Rose, 1998, page 56.
Helen preserved this book along with a small collection of Edna’s other cookbooks. Alongside the notebook was a 1904 copy of the “Gold Medal Cook Book”.[6]Compliments “Gold Medal Flour – manufactured by Washburn-Crosby CO., Minneapolis, Minn. This well used book was certainly a “go-to” book in her early life and marriage. (Available on Ebay if you are so inclined).
The names associated with many of the recipes suggest that family members may be their genesis. There are Eva’s Molasses Cookies, Aunt Lucy’s cakes, (and cookies, buns, gingerbread), Aunt Bessie’s Cake, Susie’s Cake, Evelyn’s Chocolate Brownies, and a Fruit Cake recipe from a Mrs. S. H. Brownell (Hannah Brownell (1818 – 1896)? (Was Lucy Hunt “Aunt Lucy” or was it George Brown’s wife Lucy or was it neither?). There are puzzles to solve.
One of John Hunt’s sisters, was Betsey Almy Hunt, better known as “Bessie” Almy Hunt. Bessie was born on 24 January 1856 (died 22 June 1945). She may be the author of “Aunt Bessie’s cake”. She would actually be a cousin to Edna? But then Frank’s mother, Sue Brown was always referred to as “Aunt” Sue.
At any rate Edna drew on a large family for her source material. She was naturally Family oriented, enjoying Church, Christmas, holidays, birthdays, community events etc. with them. This tendency eventually extended to the community around her.
Interestingly Edna’s first entry is a remedy for rheumatism!
Dr. Marsol’s Remedy for Rheumatism (probably Rheumatoid Arthritis)
“To the juice of 6 lemons add one level tablespoon of soda. Stir till it stops foaming, then add one quart of cold water. Keep in a cool place and drink freely, I usually take half a tumbler of it three of four times a day. In hot weather make half the receipt at one time. When you do this, divide your tablespoons of soda (lengthwise?)”
I have documented Edna’s cookbook. It was a trip into her soul. Her words, her handwriting, notations, sources all exhibit an intelligent, methodical and a structured personality. Edna seemed to drag me into the contents. – There were many mysteries in this digest. I found a need to research the recipes origins where they came from and why were they important enough to write into this book? And what were all those long ago ingredients and nomenclature. What is a “Scant”, a Gill”?
Some of the recipe names are magic in themselves:
Lightening Cake, Sour Milk Pies, Banana Flummery, Circle Cake, Cream TarTar Biscuits, Scant Dumplings, Baked Johnny Cakes, Indian Meal Pudding, Magic Yeast Bread, and Cod Fish Omelet all appear.
Emotionally my favorite recipe is the Chocolate Cake (page 51 of Edna’s Book). It is a simple recipe although it does use Sour Milk and Saleratus as part of the ingredients. What made it very personal to me is the small paper pinned to this page. It was dated “Fall River July 14, 1917” it contained a written copy of the recipe with a special note: “Mother this is a good cake” The note was written by Edna’s daughter, Helen, 10 years of age. I can picture my Grandmother and Mother working together in the large kitchen area on the North side of the family home. Edna the teacher – Helen the student and the family has a chocolate cake.
Chocolate Cake (page 51) | ||
Ingredients | Measure | Comments |
Sugar | One cup | |
Butter | Small piece | |
Sour Milk | 1 cup | |
Saleratus | 1 teaspoon | Dissolved in milk |
Chocolate | 2 tablespoons | (or cocoa) |
Flour | Enough to thicken | |
Directions: No Directions given |
Every once in a while Edna would add a recipe I called her Mystery Recipes. They would be lacking some critical information. Such a mystery recipe is presented here for your amusement
1 tablespoon mustard
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Table spoon Flour
Mix together dry bread in one egg and mix smooth
Let come to a boil –Then add pinch salt – 1 Tablespoon butter
Solve this and you are a master chef
Mystery Recipe (page 49)
The ShelleyAllegro BT font is used as it is very similar to Edna’s handwriting which was likely some form of Spenserian script popular at the time.
Edna’s signature from inside her cookbook. Courtesy Donald T. Gomez. Another example of Edna’s script: a chocolate cake recipe. Courtesy Donald T. Gomez.
On one occasion I asked John Jr. about Edna’s baked beans.
Now realize that the house had a very large kitchen area. In it was a large a fireplace with various hooks, spits, hanging pots, and numerous tools to control the fire and cooking. In fact the house had six fireplaces, all connected to a central chimney. All rooms were heated by wood.
The kitchen was Edna’s domain. The kitchen fireplace would run through the winter. The farm had a separate cook house for summer use as the heat from cooking would have made the house unlivable. Beans were a winter item.
So back to Edna’s beans as told to me by my brother John: A simple answer,
Edna’s Method: It takes two days to make baked beans. The beans must be sorted though and debris removed as required. They were then soaked overnight, all floating beans were removed as they were uneatable and possibly contained worms. The beans would be drained, placed in a Bean Pot then molasses, specifically Brer Rabbit Molasses (Green Label), and generous amounts of dry mustard and salt pork added.
Beans required several hours of slow cooking. Did I mention the kitchen fireplace had a secret door on its backside? This door was located off the first landing of the stairs located across from the front entrance. Opening this small door exposed a warm space with appropriate shelving and hardware to cook the beans (also smoking small quantities of meats). The bean pot was placed inside in the early morning and would be ready for supper time. The beans along with Edna’s Brown Bread made the Saturday night meal. Coffee, Tea and Deserts were always available in the Brown house.
Johnnycakes and Venison:
Again related to me from John when asked what his favorite breakfast would consist of at the Brown Farm. John replied Johnny Cakes, and Lunch, Johnny Cakes, and your evening meal, again Johnny Cakes. Franks journal shows that the Brown’s grew Johnny Cake meal, having it ground at Grey’s Mill in Adamsville. The price to grind was typically a portion of the meal. The miller would sell this for the cost of grinding and for additional profit. “Grays Mill” was the mill of choice.
OK John! What else did you like? I knew John and I had talked about baking beans, salting fish, smoking meats, making sausage but none of these were in his answer. Venison, we had venison, I liked venison. – Venison and Johnnycakes – who knew. (I asked him once if they ate Lollipop – he did see the humor in that!)
John had spoken to his son Jack about an apple tree in the big lot going toward the river. The tree was located near a wet portion of the lot, called the “swamp lot”. He described how deer would be feeding under that tree when the apples fell in the fall. Frank would take one or two there each year. John implied that he often climbed that tree and indicated that he had also shot a deer from his perch in the tree. John had never mentioned any of this to me. I am glad that I asked his son, Jack, to query him on this seemingly trivial subject. No longer trivial as it is another lens to look back in time to a young boy, his grandparents and the Farm in the 1930s.
It is interesting to note that of the 74 recipes in Edna’s Cookbook more than 50 of them relate to Cakes, Pies, Puddings, and Breads and cookies. The sole Johnny cake recipe in her book is for “Baked Johnny Cakes”. Never had them but guess I will give them a try.
And by the way – a word on “Lightening Cake”: It is included in “the Boston Cooking School Cookbook” by Fannie Farmer dating back to the 1930s. The original Lightning Cake recipe, as published in the 1935 edition, did not specify a cake pan size, but later versions called for baking it in two 7-inch round pans or one 7-inch-by-10-inch pan
“Called a lightning cake because you make it in a flash. It’s so quick and simple and yet it has an amazing flavor, like something your grandmother might have made. – wonderfully moist and tender so it makes a great dessert cake.”
There are opportunities in life, some are game changers. Edna and her family experienced such a life altering event that indeed impacted their lives forever: PROHIBITION!
Prohibition – 1920 – 1933: Related from my mother: One night Herb (Cavaca) showed up and said the he would like to use the farm as an entry and distribution point for his operation. He peeled off ten 100 dollar bills and laid them on the table. A family discussion ensued and Frank asked “Pa” Brown what he thought. George replied “Well I guess it would be alright” So the deal was done and prohibition arrived at the Brown farm. Frank bought two very nice horses with part of the money. The Brown farm was ideally located for Rum Running! The Farm prospered!
John Jr. had a number of stories about this period. The following is representative.
“At times when there was no moon or when it was particularly foggy there would be a knock on the farm house door and Edna would say “Children it’s time for you to go to bed”. Large and fancy cars would arrive, often chauffeur driven, and boxes would emerge from the hayloft to be placed in the cars “boot” and driven away, (Be carefull where you stick the pitchfork when getting hay at the Brown Farm).
“(Herb) Cavaca (Tiverton Bootlegger) had a plane and he’d fly out and drop something – instructions or something like that. When he was going to pick up the booze off the boat and most of those bottles were wrapped in straw with, oh I don’t know, some kind of goddamn crap around the, around the case. And then Frank Brown would, if he was lucky, he could store it in his barn. And I think he got 2 cents a case or something like that for doing that. But I can remember one day we’re riding along in the back of a milk truck and dad says, “God, he’s got a load of booze on.” And I said, “How the hell do you know that?” He said, “Well when he goes up a hill there’s no water running out the back of the milk truck.” You know, that’s when they used ice to keep the goddamn milk cold. So just about everybody was involved with that everybody that had a place down on the beach.”[7]Taken from an oral interview of John Gomez Jr. by his brother Donald for a Little Compton Historical Society Project His mother taught John to talk – Edna would never speak like that!
Manual “Pete” Camera’s great escape – Manual was the youngest member of Brownies gang, his job was to lead the men from shore to barn – on foggy nights he had a white cloth attached to the back of his coat for the men to see him in fog. One night there was a raid with agents leaping over the wall to the north of the path to the barn. Everyone ran but Pete, visible as he was, was grabbed by his coat. As the story goes he slipped out of his coat and ran like the wind towards the North and home. Not sure what happened to the rest of them and their cargo?
The impact: Frank became an alcoholic and eventually lost the farm. Dad built a new house on the Gomez farm south of the commons – He and Frank quit when the real shooting started or so I’m told.
1946 was a bad year for Edna – she is sick, Frank is the “Town Drunk” and Helen (39 years old) is picking up the pieces.
- George Brown the Patriarch had passed on in November of 1937. Lucy, George’s wife, died on 23 January 1921.
- The Gomez family had moved to their new home on the Gomez farm on South of Commons.
- The Brown income from “Prohibition” was long in the past.
- Franks income from farming, fishing, trapping, handyman was greatly diminished due to his alcoholism
- Frank was by now a full blown alcoholic
- Edna, once a spirited beautiful young women, mother, aunt, sister and the terror of school #9 had become very obese and was succumbing to decades of a high sodium, high fat diet. She suffered a serious stroke (multiples) became bedridden and would remain so until she passed in February 1947.
- “Aunt” Sue was debilitated with cancer and would eventually move into our south commons home where she was cared for and died. Her pain was often excruciating requiring visits from the local doctor who administered morphine and other drugs as required.
Gram your faith and inner strength held your family together as long as you were able. 1946 was the watershed year that finally sapped you of all save your love for us and your God. I am glad that you found your peace!
Frank fully went to pieces after Edna’s death, abandoning his home and moving into one of the little rental cottages across the street. This is where I would see him as I accompanied mother as she would check in on him. I remember the smells, the rooms the basin filled with blood lying next his bed where Frank lay unconscious!!!! I was 7 ———
So Gram: I am sad that I missed you but as I look at myself, my siblings, my family and their families I know that you are present within us.
May you rest in harmony with your God as you lie next to Frank at your Pocasset resting place? (Hope he is behaving a little better!)
Your Loving Grandson
Donald
Epilogue: Edna’s rights as a woman i.e the right to have finances the right to own property, the right to vote, took nearly 100 years to achieve. Alcoholism is a similar fight. It became very flagrant during prohibition. In my work with the Navy, as a manager of people, I had to learn to deal with it. Many of the veterans returning from war and many others who lived through the depression and the prohibition era had an alcohol problem. I took courses to learn to recognize and to deal with it. Sadly I learned that, at the time, the cure rate was about 1 in 7. The Navy did not recognize alcoholism as a disease. The individual who was an alcoholic did it willingly and could stop willingly. We know today that this is incorrect. It was many decades before it was recognized as a disease and treated as such.
I draw a parallel between the Women’s Rights movement and the issue of Alcoholism as a disease. Somehow these kind of changes take decades. Maybe it is in the human psych that causes this? Don’t know but both problems seemed to impact the Browns. Edna was in her 40s before she could vote, the IOOF did not include women except as an auxiliary. Frank never drank before prohibition – he became the “Town Drunk” today called an alcoholic a person with a disease. (Frank spent his last years in a state hospital where he signed up to be used as an experiment in cancer research – massive use of radiation and many surgeries. He weighed less than 80 pounds when I last saw him – in his coffin.
Edna, Frank, John Sr., Helen, John Jr., Agatha – I stand on their shoulders and hope to be half the person they were. Leading by Example!
Back left to front right: Frank, Edna, Jen Brown, Sue Brown Smith, John Gomez Sr., John Gomez Jr., Agatha Gomez Frank, Edna, and Helen in 1909. All left to right. Back row: Sylvester Lawrence, James Alton, Otis Franklin. Second row: Phebe Laura Hambly, Emma Durfee Hambly, Mary Ann Hambly, Edna Maria Hambly. Front row: Ann Maria Negus Hambly, James Otis Hambly. Frank, Edna, and Helen, c. 1908. Likely taken by O.E. DuBois. Edna and Helen seated in the pony cart and dressed for church. Taken by O.E. DuBois c. 1910. Courtesy of Donald T. Gomez. Ann Maria Hambly, James Otis Hambly, and one of their 4 sons. (They also had 6 daughters.) Likely taken at Edna’s 1906 wedding, prior to James’ death in 1912. Frank and Edna’s first car. The grandchildren liked sticking their hands through the window shades to wave. Courtesy of Donald T. Gomez. Edna’s grandchildren sit on the farmhouse front stairs in 1930. Edna and Frank at one of their beach shanties. Ann Maria Negus, Edna’s mother. Helen has a birthday party at the beach. She is second from left in the middle row. Donald T. Gomez notes the presence of boys as unusual since many of them would have dropped out of high school to work. Helen c. 1912. Agatha with Lollipop, c. 1929, at Brown Farm. A resolution of respect from the social Rebekah Lodge upon Edna’s death. Edna Hambly and students outside of her one-room schoolhouse, possibly number 9. 1904.
Donald T. Gomez
April 2020
References
↑1, ↑5 | The Descendants of John Hambly and Mary Wyatt, Vincent C. Rose, 1998, page 56. |
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↑2 | “Historic and Architectural Resources of Tiverton, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report: State Of Rhode Island And Providence Plantations Preliminary Survey Report, Town Of Tiverton, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, 150 Benefit Street, Providence, Rhode Island, dated 1983 (pages 50, 74). |
↑3 | Historic and Architectural Resources of Little Compton, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission 1990 Item 335 (Carlton Brownell, co-author) |
↑4 | The Stories Houses Tell, A Collection of Little Compton House Histories”, Little Compton Historical Society Copyright 2015, pages 203-204. |
↑6 | Compliments “Gold Medal Flour – manufactured by Washburn-Crosby CO., Minneapolis, Minn. |
↑7 | Taken from an oral interview of John Gomez Jr. by his brother Donald for a Little Compton Historical Society Project |
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