Izannah and Jane H. Walker's Inheritance

          ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Izannah Walker and her sister Jane H. Walker inherited a house with property in Somerset, Massachusetts, from their Uncle Anthony and Aunt Jane H. (Swasey) Hintz. Jane Hintz was their mother's sister, and Jane H. Walker was her namesake. The Hintz's had purchased the property from Jane Hintz's father Jerathmael Swasey on 1 October 1819. The deed stipulated that Swasey was to have use of the buildings on the property for the remainder of his life. This suggests two things: Anthony Hintz and Jane H. Swasey had married by 1 October 1819 and they were living with her parents. 

One version of the oral tradition about Izannah Walker is that when her mother died in 1824, her father sent her and her siblings to live with the Swaseys. Another version is that when her father Gilbert died in 1825, they were sent to live with the Swaseys. 

It seems likely that the elder Swaseys were the initial caregivers of the Walker orphans. Jane's husband Capt. Anthony Hintz was frequently at sea and like other captain's wives, Jane accompanied him. How often she traveled with him is unknown, but being childless, she may have frequently gone with him. This includes the time period immediately following the death of Gilbert Walker, who died in May 1825. On 12 December 1825, 40-year-old Anthony Hintz and 29-year-old Jane Hintz were listed on the manifest of the Brig Monroe. This newspaper notice provides the information that Capt. Anthony Hintz had recently been the master of the William & Jane. 

The William & Jane had been wrecked at Turks Island on October 28, 1825, when it was several times driven back out to sea until finally its keel was knocked off. The passengers and crew were rescued by boats from the shore. Jane H. (Swazey) Hintz would have been among those rescued. 

It's impossible to know if Jane continued her adventures with her husband or if the responsibility of her elderly parents and young nieces would have discouraged her from continuing her travels.

Captain Antony Hintz was still putting out to sea in 1836 when yet another of his ships was lost at sea. His ship Atlantic was wrecked on the rocks on Borman's Key, one of the Perry Islands, filling with water in just three hours.

 

Capt. Hintz died in 1839. His will noted that he was of bad health, so he was not lost at sea. He left the Swasey property to his wife Jane with the stipulation that after her death it was to pass to her nieces Izannah and Jane H. Walker.

An 1858 map of Somerset, Massachusetts provides the location of the Swazey/Hintz house on Main Street:

A close-up of the property that Jane Hintz inherited from her husband:

This map also shows the distance between the Main Street house and the house that Izannah and Jane purchased later on South Street:

An 1871 map of Somerset provides a much better view of the property's location and reveals that Jane also owned the property directly across the road in front of her house. There is also the indication that while narrow, that additional property offered an unobstructed view of the Taunton River.

Then there is this 1877 Bird's Eye View of the house, which is very much like the house as it looks today.

The Swazey/Hintz/ house on Main Street:

When Jane H. (Swasey) Hintz died in 1872, the property was passed to Izannah F. Walker and Jane H. Walker. The census indicates that like her Aunt Jane Hintz, Jane H. Walker continued to have tenants in the Main Street house. This would have given Jane and Izannah Walker incomes from both the Main Street house and the South Street house. When Izannah died in 1888, she left a portion of her inheritance from Anthony Hintz to her sister Ann R. Smith and her remaining property in Somerset, Massachusetts to her sister Jane H. Walker. This map from 1895, shows the house, currently located at 373 Main Street, in Jane H. Walker's name:

In 1887, the I.O.O.F held their festival on the lawn of Miss Jane Walker. This article, which appeared in the Fall River Daily Evening News on 2 September 1887, bemoans the fact that Somerset did not have a park for such gatherings. That left people gathering on Jane's "lawn," sidewalks, the steps of houses, and the doorways of stores. Jane's "lawn" was probably the lot across the street from her house. 

The situation did not change and groups continued to gather on Jane's property for several more years. 

Jane Hintz Walker died in the Main St house on 6 October 1899:

After Jane Walker's death, her heirs continued to own the house for several years. It was still owned by the family when this notice about putting a new fence around the property appeared in the Fall River Daily Evening News on 1 April 1902.

On 29 September 1905, the Fall River Daily Evening News noted the improvements being made in Somerset, especially along Main Street. Jane Walker's property had undergone the most striking transformation:

In 1912, Jane Walker's house was still being rented out by her heirs:

When Dolls Were Weaponized

         ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

I have spent the last couple of years reading period articles about doll manufacturing processes and factory conditions as well as the vocabulary associated with dolls. Occasionally, articles surface that reveal instances when dolls have been used in what we now call culture wars. I have hesitated to post the negative side of doll history, but I think that ultimately we can still enjoy our antique dolls while knowing that they were sometimes used for a nefarious political agenda. It is not too extreme to say that dolls have been weaponized in some instances.

During the Christmas season of 1912, newspapers across the United States ran an article expressing bemusement over what was viewed as an odd statement coming from a German official. From our 21st-century point of view, the message is bone-chilling, and the idea that brunette dolls were sold to Germans for evil purposes is just beyond comprehension. This is a copy from the Philadelphia Inquirer of 29 December 1912, but it is the exact same text that was duplicated by other papers: 

Transcript:

"German Wants Fair Dolls

Calls Dark Puppets 'Instinct Violating' - Desires all Blondes

BERLIN, Dec. 28 - Some serious attention and not a little amusement has been argued by the latest published warning lest Germans lose their pride of race. Christmas shoppers were urged seriously to avoid the brunette type in purchasing dolls for the rising generation. The writer said that the children should be supplied with Teutonic blondes. The fabrication of dolls, he asserted, had passed into the hands of persons whose influence was along lines foreign to the German people. They did not make dolls respecting the German ideal of feminine beauty, but rather representing types that embodied the ideas and ideals of the makers. The change had been greatly in favor of the brunette type.

'Naturally,' he added naively, 'those members of our folk who depart from the blonde type are not therefore the less worthy, but we recognize the value of an inborn racial unity for the whole folk and its culture, and desire at least in the representations of our ideals to take this into account. Therefore one should reject these instinct-violating dolls, no matter whether they are offered to us with evil purpose or not.'"

The direct audience for this piece is the German shopper, with the primary message being to buy only blonde dolls. The subtext is that parents should not allow their children to have anything but blonde dolls or risk being guilty of lacking "pride of race." The indirect audience is the German doll maker, with the primary message being to manufacture only blonde dolls. The subtext is that manufacturers who produce brunette dolls are guilty of offering something evil to little German children and will shortly be deemed "less worthy." 

While blonde dolls represented the official German ideal, the government official who made these statements either knew nothing of the manufacturing process of their dolls or chose to ignore the most ironic aspect. Those golden blonde tresses that were so highly valued did not begin that way. Just a year before, a U.S. newspaper reported the process that Germans used to make blonde doll wigs. They were importing human hair from China, extracting the natural color, and dying it blonde!

A small portion of an article entitled, "Christmas Dolls," published in the Stamford, Connecticut Daily Advocate on 14 December 1911, related the German's wig making process: 

Izannah Walker's Property on South St., Somerset, Mass

        ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Most records point to the possibility that Izannah Walker was living in Providence County, Rhode Island from some time prior to 1860 until her death in 1888. Specifically, she was on the 1860 census of Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island; the 1865 state census for Central Falls, Providence County, Rhode Island; the 1867 City Directory for Central Falls, Rhode Island; and the 1870 census for  Providence, Rhode Island.

However, in 1864, she was a resident of Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts. At this point, I can't say when she returned to Somerset or why or how long she lived there. It's possible her decision was influenced by the Civil War.

On 9 July Izannah Walker and her sister Jane H. Walker purchased a lot with buildings on it, for which they paid $3,000, from Joseph N. Smith. The deed notes that Izannah and Jane were "both of Somerset, in the County of Bristol in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, single persons." That lot was "situated in the southerly part of the village of Sommerset on the northerly side of the highway that runs from the village aforesaid to the dwelling of Phillip Bowers, bounded on the south by the said highway, on the west by the land of Horatio N. Eddy, on the north by a way, and on the east by the lands of the heirs of Howard Peterson." Smith had purchased the property in 1857 from the Mount Hope Iron Company.

The $3,000 that Izannah and Jane paid for this property would be a little over $55,000 in 2022. Since they seem to have had cash in hand rather than taking out a note, I have to wonder how they managed to save so much money for this investment. I also wonder if their Aunt Jane Hintz helped them with the purchase. This is one of many questions that can't be answered.

Using the description of the landowners on the property's boundaries, I searched the 1858 map of Somerset for it and found the house of J. N. Smith located next to H. N. Eddy, just north of the Mount Hope Iron Company:

The location on this map lines up with what is now South Street.

Smith advertised the house in the Fall River Evening News on 13 April 1864. The advertisement provided a detailed description of the property:

The property contained a two-story, two-family house with running water and a small pear tree orchard. There was also a 14' x 23' building that had been used as a Boot and Shoe Store. 

This property offered Izannah and Jane a variety of opportunities. They could lease the whole property out and have three incomes from it: two from the tenements and one from the store. Or they could move into one tenement with Aunt Jane Hintz, rent out the second tenement, rent out Aunt Jane's tenement that they had occupied on Main St, and use the outbuilding as a store for their own products or use it as a workshop. The property offered multiple possibilities for income and a place to create and sell dolls. 

For whatever reason, though, Izannah returned to Central Falls, Rhode Island, where she is found as a "doll maker" on the 1865 state census. However, she retained her half ownership of the house with her sister Jane for the rest of her life. This is one of the real estate properties that provided her with an income. Another was her own house in Central Falls which was also set up as a two-family tenement. 

It does seem that Jane H. Walker and her Aunt Jane Hintz lived in the South Street house briefly. There is no way of knowing if Izannah ever lived there with them. On the 1865 census, their near neighbors were Phillip Bowers and Job Leonard. Leonard was the owner of the Mount Hope Iron Company and had built a house on South Street west of the original house owner, J.N. Smith. For once, Jane Walker and Aunt Jane Hintz were not living with tenants in the building. It seems that they were probably using the property to fully realize the goal of manufacturing their dolls. By 1870, though, they had returned to Jane Hintz's Main Street house, where once again they had tenants. 

The 1877 Bird's Eye view of Somerset reveals the South Street house and suggests why they moved back to Main Street.

On this map, you can see the house and the "store." In the lower-left corner of the map is the Mount Hope Iron Company, with about fifteen stacks blowing black smoke from the ironworks in the direction of the Walker house on South Street. That smoke would have affected the air quality and resulted in almost nonstop cleaning. In sharp contrast, Jane Hintz's Main Street house would have offered better air quality, nearby shops, and an unobstructed view of the Taunton River. Plus, Aunt Jane was getting older and may have just simply been homesick for her childhood home. 

When Izannah Walker died in 1888, she willed her remaining property in Somerset to her sister Jane H. Walker, which included her portion of the house on South Street.

You can see the property on the 1895 map of Somerset, listed in Jane Walker's name. At that point, she was the sole owner:

The house, on this map, is the third one east of the intersection of South Street and High Street. It corresponds to the house now located at 74 South Street. The little store was on the southeast corner of the property, right on the road. You can also see the former residence of Job Leonard three houses west of Izannah and Jane's property.

When Jane H. Walker died in October 1899, she left all of her real estate to her remaining full sister, Ann Richmond (Walker) Smith. However, Ann only survived Jane by about eight months. For the next several years, the house was managed by the heirs of Jane Walker.

In July 1901, the outbuilding, which had housed a succession of stores at 74 South Street, was sold to Mr. Braley of Fall River. His plan was to move it to a property on South Street that he had purchased a few months before from Mary A.Cryan. He was going to use the old "landmark" as a hen house. That suggests that the structure was worth purchasing and moving but would end its days as a lowly chicken coop. 

When Braley purchased his property on South Street from Mary Cryan, it was being leased by Thomas Keefe. 

So far, I have not been able to determine where this property was and nothing on the Google Street View of South Street looks like it could be this old "landmark."

Finally, Jane Walker's heirs sold the house on South Street in 1906 to Lynch and Eagan:

Izannah Walker and the Dolls of Rhode Island

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

After locating the article about "two old maids" in Rhode Island making dolls in the Cincinnati, Ohio, newspaper, I began a search to find other newspapers carrying the same article.

The one that I found in the Chicago Daily Tribune on 26 December 1880 raised a lot of questions and concerns:

The last two sentences certainly don't fit with anything we know about Izannah Walker. Her dolls were not talking dolls or dolls that could be given a bottle. Were there two other women in Rhode Island making innovative dolls that could talk and feed themselves? If so, my theory that this article had been about Izannah Walker and Emeline B.Whipple was out the window.

A link to the full newspaper page is here.

However, this clipping also had the additional information that the original article had been published in the Providence Journal. I needed to track it down. 

I found the full paragraph in the Providence Evening Bulletin of 11 December 1880, p. 2. This is the third paragraph in an article called "News and Business About Town." The first paragraph was about the local weather, the second was about the coffee market, and the third and final paragraph was about the manufacture and sale of toys. Besides the tear across the article and the poor ink quality, which is difficult for computer recognition programs to index, the writing style is not fluid. This reads as a long list with few transitions between items to signal a shift. The list begins with French and German dolls, followed by the American-made dolls of the Rhode Island "maidens," then talking dolls, then dolls that feed themselves, then dollhouses, Noah's Arks, and villages and railroad trains. When the Chicago Daily Tribune picked up and copied a small portion of the paragraph, it also picked up two additional items in the list - talking dolls and self-feeding dolls. That gives the false impression that the Rhode Island women were making talking and feeding dolls. 

Here is the paragraph, followed by my attempt to transcribe it.

"The manufacture and sale of toys appears to enlarge at every recurrence of the holidays. According to dealers, the giving of presents becomes more universal, and this season, since business has been good and employment abundant, there is an unusual number of buyers in the holiday market. No boy or girl can be properly brought up without the aid of toys. They would go wild, or their parents would, if there were no toyish [counterseting ?] influences. Toys take the place of nurses, and thus aid in domestic economy; provide intervals of quiet, and save distracted older minds from [?] destruction; lengthen lives and save to the nation an incalculable amount of worry. The variety and peculiarity of toys now provided for juvenile destruction are beyond all reckoning. Dolls, French and German born, are offered in any quantity and quality. They are twenty per cent cheaper than last year, because, it is said, that manufacturers abroad are in active competition. Few dolls are made in this country, but it should be known that two maiden women in Rhode Island make, and have made for years, a doll that is sought for by dealers in all parts of the country, orders coming from the Southern states. Various attempts have been made to imitate these dolls, but have been unsuccessful, and the Rhode Island makers control the market for their specialty. There have been dolls that spoke various tongues, but until this year no doll was taught to feed itself with a bottle. Toys include about everything from a [?] to a whole village. The object of toymakers seem to be to provide for the comfort of dolls, and houses fully furnished are provided, including equipage and all that goes to make a complete establishment. Noah's Ark in different sizes and with different-sized animals finds [novel?] favor with youngsters. They are made abroad; this country cannot produce an Noah's Ark. Railroad trains, menageries, warehouses with goods [?] and porter ready, stables filled with well-groomed horses, ferryboats on wheels, race courses and the horses running, are among the larger and more attractive toys. An entire village can be bought in which manufacturing is already established. A military camp is represented by [ten?] soldiers, with the whole line in dress parade, and an Indian campaign is represented by the same means. The supply of animals on wheels and attached to wagons is very large. Mechanical toys are found in the usual variety." 

Izannah Walker and Emeline B. Whipple, Rhode Island Doll Makers, 1880

       ©  Kathy Duncan, 2022

Research often involves a process that I call widening the net while also clamping down on the filter. In this case, the search was widened to include all states but clamped down to the time frame in which there might have been advertising for Izannah Walker's dolls - 1870 to 1888. Then I had to select keywords that might be productive. I've tried a variety of keywords that I think might be related to her dolls like "rag," "cloth," "patent," and "everlasting." These are all very "wide" or general terms. Then I look at every likely hit. It's a long process.

In this instance, I scraped the bottom of my keyword barrel with just the keywords: "Rhode Island doll." In this case, the keyword  "doll" is very wide because it's general. Adding "Rhode Island" tightens or narrows the search. The search could have been narrowed further by adding "Walker," but as you can see from the results, I would not have found this particular article that way. 

The result of my search is this 1880 article from the Cincinnati Daily, which is so exciting I can hardly see straight.

Let's parse this article. During this time period, articles were written about people's activities, but often no names were used. This is particularly true of articles about women and tradespeople. However, it could be that the writer did not know the women's names.

The women are identified as "two old maids" in "Rhode Island." Any unmarried woman past her mid-twenties would have been considered an old maid. The only two single women I know of who worked together to make dolls in Rhode Island during this time frame were Izannah Walker and Emeline B. Whipple. 

Dealers from "all parts of the country" were ordering them, including the "Southern States." This suggests that the dolls were sold in a wide market, not just in New England.

Then there is the added information that "various attempts" had been unsuccessfully made to "imitate these dolls." That is interesting.

Finally, there is the statement that the "Rhode Island makers control the market for their specialty." That certainly sounds like a reference to Izannah's business relationship with E.W. Billings, who was the agent for her work. 

This article from Cincinnati is the only one that came up in my search. Normally, an article like this would have been copied by several newspapers. I will need to repeat this search in other newspaper databases. 

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.