This Blog describes reactions that a woman who was born and raised in Pawtucket has when she returns to her native city after an absence of thirty years, recalls the sites of her childhood and registers the way she is affected by the changes and lack of changes that have taken place since her childhood.
I have mentioned before the fact that Pawtucket holds a Fenian Grave. It is, in fact, the centenary of the burial of Fenian James McNally Wilson in the cemetery at old Saint Mary's in Pawtucket.
I recall that my old and dear friend Al Mc Aloon told me how he was a student at Saint Mary's School on the day of the burial. Their teacher a nun took them to the window to see the burial "of a great patriot".
That day made an enormous impression on Al. James Wilson had been captured and jailed in Australia. From there he sent a letter to O'Reilly, a poet and writer who escaped and went to Boston.
Here is an account of the letter that Wilson sent to O'Reilly.
In 1869, O'Reilly escaped on the whaling shipGazellein Bunbury with assistance of the local Catholic priest, Father Patrick McCabe, and settled in Boston. Soon after his arrival, O'Reilly found work withThe Pilotnewspaper and eventually became editor. In 1871, another Fenian,John Devoy, was grantedamnestyin England on condition that he settle outside Ireland. He sailed toNew York Cityand became a newspaperman for theNew York Herald. He joined theClan na Gael, an organization that supported armed insurrection in Ireland.[3]
In 1869, pardons had been issued to many of the imprisoned Fenians. Another round of pardons were issued in 1871, after which only a small group of "military" Fenians remained in Western Australia's penal system. In 1874, Devoy received a smuggled letter from imprisoned Fenian James Wilson, who was among those the British had not released.
Captain George Anthony, circa 1897
Dear Friend, remember this is a voice from the tomb. For is not this a living tomb? In the tomb it is only a man’s body that is good for worms, but in the living tomb the canker worm of care enters the very soul. Think that we have been nearly nine years in this living tomb since our first arrest and that it is impossible for mind or body to withstand the continual strain that is upon them. One or the other must give way. It is in this sad strait that I now, in the name of my comrades and myself, ask you to aid us in the manner pointed out… We ask you to aid us with your tongue and pen, with your brain and intellect, with your ability and influence, and God will bless your efforts, and we will repay you with all the gratitude of our natures… our faith in you is unbound. We think if you forsake us, then we are friendless indeed.
James Wilson
That letter had a profound effect and the ship The Catalpa was purchased and Captain Anthony captained it to rescue the remaining Fenian prisoners.
WHAT A WONDERFUL FIRST NAME ---AND WE ARE RELATED! FREELOVE!
Finally, an illustrious woman relative.
Gravestone of Sylvanus and Freelove Jenckes
Freelove Whipple Fenner, daughter of James Fenner and Freelove Whipple, was born on March 25, 1751 in Providence, Rhode Island. Though of “ancient and honorable family,” both of her parents died before her first birthday. The Whipple family were among the most prominent in Providence and the Fenners possessed one of England’s oldest lineages, as the name derives from the Fens, a Celtic tribe that settled on the island prior to the arrival of the Normans, the Angles and Saxons, and the Romans. More than a millennium later, Freelove Fenner’s great-great-great-grandfather Captain Thomas Fenner apparently was vital in England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
James Fenner Fourth Governor of Rhode Island
As a young woman from a political family, Freelove Fenner was celebrated for her beauty and well known for her participation in the“Daughters of Liberty,”
who organized themselves in Rhode Island in 1766. As Rhode Islanders began to resist the enactment of the Stamp Act, many women decided that they were going to join the fight against perceived British tyranny.
Eighteen young women collaborated at the first meeting in Providence and decided that “Daughters of Liberty,” derived from the “Sons of Liberty,” would be a suitable name.
Members of the organization included many young women who either were born into a politically prominent family, or married into one. The organization eventually sprouted branches throughout New England, in Massachusetts, Connecticut and in Newport and Providence.
The “Daughters of Liberty” conducted and participated in boycotts of British goods in order to show their loyalty to the colonies. Members of the “Sons” and “Daughters” organizations worked together and met frequently to discuss the issues of the time. Their patriotic efforts of providing “homespun” fabric and other domestic products decreased colonists’ dependence on British goods. They helped to find substitutes for products such as tea and sugar that were controlled and heavily taxed by Great Britain.
Women’s new roles as “Daughters of Liberty” and leaders of boycotts became an integral part of the struggle against Great Britain. Without the dedication and commitment of these women, rejection of British taxation policies would have been much more difficult, if not impossible.
Freelove Fenner married Captain Sylvanus Jenckes in 1772. Jenckes captained ships for Rhode Island merchants, including John Brown’s infamous ship Sally, which Jenckes took to Suriname in January 1776 and brought back loaded with essential gunpowder and guns. In 1773 Freelove gave birth to her daughter, Sarah Whipple Jenckes, the only one of her three children to survive. Sarah later married James Fenner, her first cousin once removed, who served as U.S. senator from 1805 to 1807 and later in three separate terms as governor of Rhode Island. During his final term (1843-45) he became the first governor to serve under the new Rhode Island state constitution. Sarah and James Fenner also are buried at the North Burial Ground.
Arthur Fenner Third Governor of Rhode Island
Freelove Whipple Fenner Jenckes did not live to see the end of the war, dying in 1780. Her husband Sylvanus died at Petersburg, Virginia in 1781, one month after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. The two are buried at North Burial Ground, as are their daughter Sarah, and Sarah’s husband, James
Freelove Whipple Fenner, daughter of James Fenner andGravestone of Sylvanus and Freelove Jenckes
Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. ... Literature simulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse.” Pessoa
Two opinions of the role of art in our lives. One by Shaw the Irish playwright and the other by a Portuguese poet.
I don't know what I think of art--creativity--for me that is writing poems and plays and of course, this blog. Does it help me to bear the crudeness of reality? Or does it help me to ignore life?
As I have gotten older, my usual robust good health has left me, and I have had my first serious medical issues. I am not in unbearable pain, but I am in constant pain. So that has perhaps made me turn to the creative projects that I have had in my mind, but too often delayed starting because of my activities of work and travel.
Now all I can still do is write and read and talk and think, and so those are the things that I do much more. That has caused me to explore my creativity more and to publish poems and have some of my plays produced.
With the example and encouragement of another blogger, John Tew on Filiopietism Prism, I have had my entire blog turned into a book. Why? John convinced me that the facts of the quick invention of new technologies has made such things as floppy discs outmoded. What happens to material we have stored on old floppy discs? He raised questions about what will happen to old blogs when the blogger is gone. Then he mentioned an earlier way to reserve our words and thoughts,
WAIT FOR IT -A BOOK.
HE HAD HIS OWN BLOG TRANSFORMED INTO A BOOK AND HE USED TWO DIFFFERENT SERVICES TO ACCOMPLISH THIS. HE RECOMMENDED ONE OVER ANOTHER.
I followed his advice and got in touch with the group he had been happiest with.
Books may wane in popularity, but we will always be able to access them--to open the covers and read them. So after a few weeks, the people that are in the Netherlands sent back a lovely hardback book. It is set beautifully and has ten years of my blog in it.
I did this for my grand daughter.
How often I wish that I had asked my grandfather Oscar Jenckes, when he was alive and living with us, to tell me about his father who was wounded in the Civil War, Ferdinand Jenckes. Or ask him to tell me about his wife and my grandmother Ida Mowry, who died in the Spanish Flu scourge of 1919. I did not know enough to ask. I was too young.
Neither does my lovely grand daughter Rowan.
But when I am gone, perhaps, she will take up this book and find some of the answers to questions she might be pondering about my life and my time growing up in Pawtucket.
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