Izannah Walker's Tombstone

       ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Izannah Walker has what appears to be two tombstones, one in Providence, Rhode Island, and one in Somerset, Massachusetts, which can be very confusing for her fans.

Izannah's death notice does not state that she was buried in Providence, but it would not have been unusual for her funeral to have been held in her house in Central Falls and for her to have been buried in nearby Providence. 

The tombstone that she shares with Emeline B. Whipple suggests a final resting place for her. That means that her name on the stone in Somerset, Massachusetts serves as a cenotaph, which is a memorial for someone whose body is somewhere else. 

The more interesting question is not how this happened, but why it happened.

My husband has an ancestor who died as a result of his wounds in the battle of Vicksburg during the Civil War. He was interred in the national cemetery there. At some point after the war, his widow and one of their sons traveled to Vicksburg with the intention of disinterring his body and taking him back to Illinois. However, once they visited the cemetery at Vicksburg, they decided to leave him there and extended their visit in order to purchase and erect their own tombstone for him in the national cemetery. His is one of a handful of personalized obelisks in a sea of military stones. When his widow died in Illinois, his name was included on her tombstone as a cenotaph. 

Something along those lines may explain why there is a cenotaph for Izannah in Somerset, Massachusetts.

In July 1889, a year and a half after Izannah died, her sister Jane H. Walker made a quick trip from Somerset, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island to visit friends. 

I would think that she visited Swan Point Cemetery where Izannah was interred. Was there a tombstone there at the time? Did she also visit Emeline B. Whipple? If there was not a tombstone, was there a conversation with Emeline about when and how a tombstone would be erected for Izannah? Was erecting a tombstone for Izannah the purpose of Jane's trip? 

It's just a guess, but Jane seems to have entered a "putting your affairs in order" frame of mind, following Izannah's death. Within a month after Izannah died, Jane H. Walker had written her own will, leaving all of her property, both real and personal, to her sister Ann R. (Walker) Smith. Like Izannah, Jane named George A. Holbrook as her executor. That means that the task of administering her estate probably fell to his widow, Mary Helen (Smith) Holbrook, who was Ann R. (Walker) Smith's daughter. 

Something about the Swan Point tombstone makes me think that it was erected following Emeline's death, which, of course, might not be the case. However, if it was, Jane may not have been happy about Izannah's grave being unmarked. If the tombstone at Swan Point was erected after Emeline's death, then my guess is that Mary Helen (Smith) Holbrook erected it with funds from Izannah's estate. It may be one of the sundry expenses that she filed with the probate court in 1914. 

Within months of returning to Somerset, Jane had a monument for her family erected in the Palmer Street Cemetery. One side records her parents, Izannah, and a young brother. Another has the records of her Swasey grandparents. One side is devoted to her Uncle Anthony and Aunt Jane Hintz. The last side was reserved for Jane herself. The stone seems to be the only one for the whole family plot. It's so large that it was newsworthy at the time:

Izannah Walker's Central Falls Neighborhood

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Newspapers provide information and stories that flesh out the life and times of people and add color to what is known about them. With that in mind, I researched Izannah Walker's immediate neighborhood during her residence there. Life on Illinois Street in Central Falls, Rhode Island, was filled with both excitement and sorrow. 

Izannah Walker probably took up residence in her house at 14 Illinois Street shortly after she purchased it in 1871. Even though the house number changed to 24 Illinois Street shortly after her death and eventually to 60 Illinois Street, during her lifetime, the house was number 14, so that will give the reader a rough idea of the proximity of these events.

By 1876, Pray's had opened a greenhouse at 6 Illinois Street, which would have been just down the block from Izannah, located near the intersection of Illinois Street and Central Street. Pray's offered cut flowers and was within a reasonable walk from the railroad depot. We learn from this advertisement that 30 trains a day arrived in Central Falls from Providence. Izannah was only fifteen minutes away from Providence if she traveled by rail. 

Shortly afterward, Pray's added a telegraph office to their services. That means Izannah could have easily walked down the block to send a telegraph to her family in Somerset, Massachusetts.

 

In 1882, curbing was added to Izannah's side of the street. 

Funerals were frequently held from the residents' homes on Illinois Street, and they would have also been social events. William Worden's funeral in 1883 was an elaborate and highly attended event. His residence was just north of the intersection of  Rand Street and Illinois Street.

Mostly, these funerals were for the elderly. It was not uncommon for there to be more than one funeral a year in the immediate neighborhood. Emily E. Burnham's funeral in 1883 would have been held in a house almost directly across the street from Izannah. 

Large birthday parties for the young were also neighborhood events. In 1884, fifteen-year-old, Carrie Vaslet's birthday party was attended by thirty-five of her closest young friends! It would have been a day filled with the happy sounds of singing and games. The Vaslets would have lived in a house on Illinois Street located between the intersections of Rand and Central.

A few months later, Izannah's own tenant, Catharine Trafton, died and the funeral was held from Izannah's house. Since it was a two-family house, the service was likely held from the Trafton's residence. Catharine Trafton and her daughters can be found in Izannah's house on the 1880 census.

That summer, the neighborhood was abuzz with the shenanigans of a flower thief who was creeping around Illinois Street near the intersection of Rand Street, stealing flowers from people's yards. It seems very likely that Izannah, the grower of Concord grapes, may have been one of his or her victims. 

A little more than a month later, a large party gathered in the evening at the residence of Alonzo Burt to see a night-blooming cactus. Burt's house would have been across the street from the old Pray's Greenhouses. It is easy to imagine Izannah and Emeline in that curious group of onlookers.

A few weeks later, the neighborhood was shaken by what many believed to be the aftershock of an earthquake that rattled windows and dishes.

That fall, the local Republicans paraded through Central Falls during the presidential campaign season. The streets were lit with small fires, the houses were decorated and illuminated, and the paraders carried torches. Some houses offered refreshments. A band accompanied them through a portion of the parade route, which crossed Illinois Street at the intersection of Summer Street. From the description of the parade route, it seems like they may have turned south at Illinois Street and traveled down it to Rand Street, then turned west at Rand and headed toward Dexter Street, and then south toward Cross Street. This would have taken them along the northern side of Izannah's house. If you like old maps, you can try to recreate the parade route here. 

In 1885, the funeral of Henry Pearse was held from the location of the old Pray Greenhouses. 

Also, in 1885, homeowners on Illinois Street were actively taking in boarders and advertising in the Providence newspaper.

By 1886 the neighborhood may have been in transition. A stray bullet, fired off by a gang of men at the intersection of Illinois Street and Central Street, passed through Timothy Vaslet's dining room window. This was the same home where a large, happy birthday party for his daughter had been held just two years before.

Finally, in January of 1888, shortly before Izannah's own death, James B. Taylor died and his funeral was held from his home at 4 Illinois Street.

Izannah Walker's Central Falls House Revision

      ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Shortly after I posted about Izannah Walker's house on Illinois Street in Central Falls, Rhode Island, it became obvious that I would have to revise it. Another researcher told me that her research indicated that Izannah's house was at a different location on the block, and she was correct.

So what went wrong with my research?

After digging back through the City Directories, it became apparent that the houses on Illinois Street had been renumbered between the time that Izannah died in 1888 and the creation of the 1895 map that I was consulting.

At the time of her death, Izannah was living at 14 Illinois Street, where she had been living for over a decade. After her death, her friend Emeline B. Whipple continued to live in the house. Emmeline was there in 1888 when Izannah died.

However, the City Directory for 1889 shows Emeline at 24 Illinois Street:

Emeline Whipple did not move; the house numbers changed. Something similar can be seen with her neighbor Jabez W. Wilmarth, Jr. In 1888, he was at 12 Illinois Street:

In 1889, he was at 20 Illinois Street:

Wilmarth is more problematic, though. In 1892, he was at 22 Illinois Street:

Revisiting the 1895 map sheds a little light on the situation.

The house numbers beginning at the intersection of Central and Illinois on the west (left) side are 6, 10, 14, 18, skipped house, and 24. By 1895, 24 Illinois St was the former 14 Illinois Street and was the location of Izannah's house. Emeline was still in residence there in 1889. The house between 18 and 24 was skipped and is unnumbered. There is a numbering pattern going on from 6 to 18, with each number increasing by four. Then it goes haywire between 18 and 24. Logically, it seems like the unnumbered house would be 22, making Izannah's house 26. That sort of problem may be why the area was renumbered again in the 20th century. 

The unnumbered house is probably the former 12 Illinois street, where Jabez W. Wilmarth Jr. lived, and logically, it should have become 22 Illinois Street.

The problem must have arisen in part because of Izannah Walker's sale of a lot on Illinois St. to Jabez W. Wilmarth in 1885:

Valued at only $100, there were probably no buildings on the lot. A description of that lot reveals that she basically sold her southern side yard. The first corner of the lot began 100 feet south of the intersection of Rand and Illinois on the west side of the street. It then ran 60 feet south to Mark Monkhouse's property, then 153 feet west to land bounded by Julia Oldham's heirs, then north 63 feet with John Crenshaw's heirs on the west, then back to Illinois Street with Izannah's land bounding the northern side. 

Izannah had bought her property from John Crenshaw in 1871. 

I have not found Jabez W. Wilmarth, Jr. listed as the property owner of the original 12 Illinois St., which later became 20 or maybe 22 Illinois St. I would think that the lot he purchased from Izannah would have become 22 Illinois once a house was built on it. 

Emeline continued to live at 24 Illinois St until she moved to Providence in 1892:

In 1880, the census shows that Izannah had tenants, and my guess is that her house was set up as a two-family tenement like many of the other houses in her area. This would have provided her with an income stream separate from her doll business. After Izannah's death, the City Directory reveals that Emeline continued live with tenants and that Mrs. Eliza Whipple also resided with her.

It appears that after Emeline moved out in 1892, tenants continued to reside in the house. It is possible that Emeline moved out for purely economic reasons. She may have found it less expensive to rent a room and live off of the proceeds of the house. Since Izannah's will gave her estate on Illinois street to Emeline for her natural life, she would have been free to live in the house or rent it out. The will did not stipulate that she had to live in it continuously. 

On 23 May 1903, Emeline Whipple turned the property at the corner of Rand and Illinois over to Izannah's nephew, David H. Walker, in a quitclaim deed for $1.  

By 1903, Emeline was about 79 years old. Her reasons for signing over the property may have been purely practical. She had collected rents from the two-family structure for 15 years, which may have provided her with what she thought were enough savings to last the rest of her life. She may have also had some other income stream to utilize. She would have had no way of knowing that she would live for another eleven years. Additionally, she may have wanted to escape from the responsibility of maintaining the property, which would have been a challenge for an elderly woman. 

Then about six months later, on 29 January 1904, David H. Walker mortgaged the property to the trustees of the New England Southern Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for $1,500, which he was able to repay by 14 or 15 June 1905. 

David H. Walker had a son named David H. Walker, Jr., who was just starting school at Stanford in 1905, which may explain why he needed $1,500. However, Stanford may not have even been charging tuition at the time. Even if they had been, tuition would have been much less than this. I have seen statements that Harvard was charging $150 in the same time period. 

Then on the same day, 15 June 1805, Walker sold the property to Goldsmith & Wood, real estate brokers who purchased and rented tenements. 

It is odd is that Walker sold it for only $100. Surely a property worth mortgaging for $1,500 would be worth more than $100 on the same day the mortgage was paid off! 

Even though the paper got the name wrong, the sale of Izannah's house to Goldsmith and Woods was listed in the newspaper. Note that it was listed as being a two-family house: 

If you have noticed the three-day difference between the newspaper date on 12 June and the deed dates on 15 June, the explanation is that deeds often contain a filing date rather than a sale date. In many instances, deeds are filed decades after their sale date. Sometimes you can figure that out from the wording of the deed and sometimes you can't. 

In 1908, Jabez W. Wilmarth purchased property on Illinois Street from Goldsmith. Since Wilmarth is found living at 24 Illinois St. on the 1910 census, my best guess is that the property he purchased was Izannah's house. 

Once Wilmarth owned 24 Illinois St., he could squeeze in another house between it and the neighboring house to the south. Of course, he may have built on that lot prior to 1908. The result is the neighborhood as it looks today. Izannah's house is currently number 60 Illinois St., and 58 Illinois St. is located on what was once Izannah's southern side yard:

And Izannah Walker's house as it looks today:

When the house was sold in 1954, it was considered a single-family house with eight rooms. 

Walker Cloth Dolls

     ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

I am working on my revision for the location of Izannah Walker's house in Central Falls, Rhode Island. 

In the meantime, I thought I would share another advertisement for Izannah's dolls that was placed by E. W. Billings in the Providence Evening Press in Providence, Rhode Island in 1875.

This little advertisement suggests a couple of things. One, the business relationship between Izannah and Billings was ongoing. Two, her dolls were offered in May, a time of year other than Christmas -  in a time period when advertisements for dolls rarely appeared at any other time of the year. 

Izannah Walker's House, Central Falls, RI

    ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Like most genealogists, I have several of my own personal rules, and they apply to my research into doll makers and quilters. One rule is to be open-minded and flexible. That means I am always prepared to make corrections to my own research. It also means that I don't slavishly adhere to accepted research conclusions drawn by other researchers. Another rule is to avoid making assumptions because they lead to false conclusions. That one I'm still working on. 

Warning!  It turns out that I identified the wrong house in this post. I will be writing an updated post soon with corrections. 

This post is intended to make a correction to my previous post about Miss Izannah Walker's Celebrated Dolls in terms of where her house in Central Falls was located, and my conclusion that it was no longer standing.

The existing nineteenth-century Central Falls, Rhode Island City Directories place Izannah Walker in a house at 14 Illinois Street as early as 1873, the year she received her patent. That means she was probably in residence there while she was working on her patent. At this point, I don't know when she took up residence there.

Izannah was still in residence at 14 Illinois in 1887, the year before she died. That means she was in residence there throughout the time period when she was making the post-patent dolls and supplying E. W. Billings with dolls for his trade. 

I incorrectly located 14 Illinois street on the east side (right side) of the street near the intersection of Illinois St. and Central:

Incorrect Location of Izannah Walker's House
Arrow Points to General Area of Her Previous Residence at 11 Jenks

This happened because I used Google Street View to look for 14 Illinois Street. It landed me in front of a house that it labeled as being 15 Illinois Street. That house does not have a house number on it. In fact, most of the houses along that street don't have house numbers. I went up and down the street, spun around several times, and even went around the corner. I probably made myself a little dizzy. Had I turned around and zoomed in on the house across the street, I would have realized that it is actually 15 Illinois Street. 

I've been bothered that I could not find a better period map. It bothered me so much that I stopped in the middle of another property-related search to try again. This time I had better, more accurate results.

I began by looking for a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Central Falls from the turn of the last century. I still have not had good luck locating Izannah's neighborhood on those maps but will keep trying. However, the internet shook loose a map of Central Falls, Rhode Island that was published by Everts and Richards in 1895. Here is Izannah's neighborhood with her house: 

Illinois Street was one block east of Madison Street. From the intersection of Central and Illinois, look on the west side (left side) of the street, where all the houses are evenly numbered. Lean in and squint a bit. The first house is 6, the second house is 10, and the third house is 14. It's an odd sort of offset-looking footprint with a small structure at the back, which could be a shed or a big chicken coop. Take a minute and look at the other structures in the neighborhood. Look at the footprints and the lot sizes. Not much has changed since 1895. This map was created seven years after Izannah's death. We could speculate that her house was still standing at that point and that Emeline Whipple was still living in it.

If you are having trouble spotting 14 Illinois Street, it is here:

My next step was to try and pinpoint the location of 14 Illinois Street on a current map. I was still faced with the frustration of the current houses being mostly unmarked in terms of house numbers. Google maps, however, came to the rescue anyway. This satellite view provided the house numbers for that area:

In case you can't see the house numbers on the rooftops, what was 6 Illinois St. in 1895 is now 14 Illinois street, 10 Illinois St. is now 24 Illinois St., and 14 Illinois St. is now 30 Illinois St. If you compare the footprints of the current structures with the footprints in 1895, they are mostly unchanged. 

If you are having trouble spotting the location of 30 Illinois St. aka 14 Illinois St., it is here:

My next step was to take the addresses on both sides of the street, including 30 Illinois St., as well as the houses around the corner, and investigate their build dates through online real estate sites. One was built in 1850, one in 1870, and one in 1880. The overwhelming majority, including 30 Illinois St., have build dates of 1900. That seems odd given that the footprints for many of them are the same now as in 1895. I know there were houses on these lots as of 1895. The odds that they were all torn down and rebuilt in 1900 seems unlikely unless there was a massive fire, and the rebuilds all used the same footprints as the original houses. Odd and unlikely. 

My feeling is that the original build dates are currently unavailable, and 1900 is a good epic number for an old house's build date. Poof, they were all built in 1900. 

My question was whether the house found at 30 Illinois St. has the same footprint as the house at 14 Illinois St. in 1895. At first blush, they seem different. Not quite the same, weird offset shape. It's more of an L-shape now?

A closer look at the rooftop suggests the original offset shape:

On Google street view, the front of the house shows the suggestion of an addition on the left:

Creep up the street with me a bit, and a side view makes that addition more obvious:

I would propose that this is very likely the house where Izannah Walker lived during the heyday of her doll-making business. The house is certainly large enough for two women to live comfortably and create dolls. Of course, it's also possible that Izannah was operating her doll-creating business at another location. 

So is there a way to know for sure? Yes, again, this project would need boots on the ground and an intense day among the Providence County, Rhode Island land deeds. A researcher would begin with the name of the current property owner. Then the researcher would go to the Reverse Index of land deeds for the present. It's possible that these are computerized. The current owner is the "grantee" (aka buyer). Note the name of the "grantor" (aka seller) on the deed. That name becomes the "grantee" in the next search to find out who the previous "grantor" was. That process continues back through time using the reverse index and checking land deeds until the research gets back to around 1915, following the death of  Emeline Whipple. At that point, a variety of names might appear as the grantor: Izannah's nephew David H. Walker, who was her heir or his lawyer, Charles Whitehall; Izannah's niece, Mary Helen Holbrook, who inherited the executor role from her husband but who also seems to have declined it in favor of Frank H. White. It is possible to continue all the way back to when Izannah purchased the property. 

Trust me, I would tackle it, but those records are not available to me online. Yet. 

Correct location of Izannah Walker's house:

Correct Location of Izannah Walker's House

I would beseech any Izannah Walker fans who are reading this to drive by, admire, and sigh a little but don't trespass and don't make it weird for the current property owners.