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My great-grandparents
Edgar Moses NOEL was born on May 6, 1885, in North Adams, Berkshire Co, Massachusetts, the son of Charles NOEL & Mary BAKER.1 Edgar married Josephine BRUNELL on 2 October 1905 in Brockton, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts.8 She was the daughter of Leandre BRUNELL & Hermenilda "Emeline" D'AOUST , born to them about 1879 in Lyon Mountain, Clinton Co, New York.2,3,8
The story of Edgar and Josephine seems to begin in North Adams--the town in which Edgar had been born and raised. Josephine was a girl of New York's "North Country"; a native of the small mining town of Lyon Mountain. Sometime between her father's death in 1891 and 1893, Josephine's mother, Emeline, married a man named Roma Venette. In 1893, the Fitchburg (Mass) Sentinel ran a small news article stating that one 'Roma Venette, of North Adams, MA, was arrested in North Pownal, VT for felonious assault on his stepdaughter, Josephine Brunelle, aged 15 years.' Which tells us that Josephine was in North Adams by 1893 at least. According to the 1900 census, Josephine was 21 years old and working in a Berkshire County shoe factory.2
In 1900, Edgar would have been only 14 years old. It wasn't likely that he looked older. According to both his World War I and World War II draft cards, he was of medium to short build--his WWII draft card shows his height as 5'4" tall with a small frame, weighing only 128 pounds in 1942!
Unfortunately, Edgar is absent from the 1900 census. He is not listed in the household in North Adams with his mother and sister. I don't know if there was an oversight on the part of the census taker or if Edgar was off living with his father, Charles, who has been MIA in census records since 1880. Edgar must have spent considerable time with his father during his formative years, as he spoke with a thick French accent all of his life--not something that he would have picked up from his mother, who was of English descent.2,6
Edgar followed the example of both of his parents and worked in the shoe manufacturing industry; most of the records found for him have listed his occupation as such.At some point, Edgar and Josephine, along with a host of shoe employees, left the beautiful Berkshire Mountains and headed east. What could have caused the exodus of shoe workers from Berkshire County to the easternmost counties of Plymouth and Norfolk? Some of the reason can be found here.
Brockton would eventually have so many shoe factories that it would be known internationally as "Shoe City".So....how did Edgar and Josephine meet? The following scenarios come to mind:
Some evidence points to the two latter scenarios. At the time of their marriage in 1905, both Edgar and Josephine listed their address as 445 Montello Street in Brockton. This was the same address that would appear on Josephine's mother's death certificate the following year. As Josephine and her mother had been living with Josephine's brother Charles Brunell since 1900, it would be safe to assume that the Montello Street address was his residence--and that Edgar may have been rooming there.
- Edgar and Josephine make acquaintance in Berkshire County, probably meeting in a shoe factory. Edgar is 14; Josephine is 21. Not much chance of romance at that time. Fast forward five years: Edgar and Josephine, independent of each other, find themselves in Brockton; a much larger and less friendly place than small-town North Adams. The pair may have naturally gravitated toward each other, delighted to find a familiar face. They then fall in love.
- Edgar and Josephine, again, meet in a Berkshire shoe factory. They either become friends or romantically involved. One of the couple moves with their family to Brockton and sends word back to the other about the job opportunities in the area. They and their family also make the move the Brockton, where the couple eventually marry.
- Edgar and Josephine did not know each other at all in Berkshire County; they did not meet until they both ended up in Brockton and found common ground in the fact that they had both worked in Berkshire County shoe factories. From this, they fall in love and get married.
- Edgar and Josephine actually moved to Brockton together and got married there.
This is also the first that we see of Josephine lying about her age. On the marriage record, Edgar's age is written as 21--which is stretching the truth by a matter of months. Josephine, however, also lists her age as 21--when, in fact, she was 26!By October of 1907, when Josephine gave birth to the couple's first child, Viola, they were residents of Randolph, Norfolk Co. This is about 10 miles south of Boston and about 6 miles north of Brockton. They were still living there when the 1910 census for Randolph was conducted, and through February of 1911 when their second child, Joseph Russell was born. It would seem that sometime between Joseph Russell's birth and the birth of their third child, Hazel, in 1913, they moved back to Brockton, which was Hazel's place of birth.2,10
Edgar and Josephine had 5 children:
Viola Emmeline
The Richardson men were the sons of Thomas Charles Richardson, Sr. & Elizabeth Gertrude Sinnott, both of whom had been born in Boston. Thomas was born on 22 November 1891; Elizabeth's date of birth is unknown. They were married in Somerville, MA on 26 May 1910. His parents were Charles Richardson & Catherine Durkin, of Laconia, NH and England, respectively. Her parents were William Sinnott & Jennie Brady or Brailey.6,8,14
Walter and Florence had two known sons:
- Walter Michael, Jr.- Born 8 March 1934 in Boston, Mass. Walter died 8 December 1994 in Syracuse, New York, where he was buried in the Onondaga Veteran's Cemetery in Syracuse. His obituary did not mention a wife or children.17
I met Wally Richardson in the fall of 1976 in Baltimore, Maryland. I was selling tickets for my cousin Sonny Pelaquin's motor drome during a 3-day street fair. Wally attended this fair and happened upon the drome. He and Sonny hadn't seen each other in years. I remember that he had the same brown eyes that my father had.- Charles Edward- Born 11 July 1938 in Massachusetts, he died in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on 20 July 2009 of natural causes. He was buried on 24 July 2009 in the Kentucky Veteran's Cemetery in Hopkinsville.16
After 14 years of marriage, Josephine died on 15 May 1920 in Brockton. This was also 2 months after the birth of their youngest child, Charles. The family was living on Franklin Street at the time. Josephine's obituary stated that the family had only been living in Brockton for a few months; however her daughter Marion Hazel was born in Brockton in 1913, seven years earlier. Did she have Hazel in Brockton and the family moved there later? I have no idea. The obituary stated that she had not been well after the birth of her son, and that she died from acute indigestion. The death record concurs, citing the cause of death as:
'An Epilectic. Attack of Acute. Indigestion with vomiting and convulsions. A few twists."
Spelling and punctuation are exactly as they appear on the death record.
Josephine was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Brockton.3,4Josephine's age is not officially known--no birth record has come to light thus far for her. The Dannemora, Clinton Co., NY census enumeration for 1880 has Josephine's age at 1 year old. In the 1900 census of North Adams, MA, she is listed as being 21 years old and born in 1879. She was 21 again in 1905 when she got married. In both the 1910 and 1920 census enumerations of this family, Josephine lists her age as 29 years old. Her 1920 death record lists her age as 38 years old--three years younger than her actual age. It is clear that Josephine was sensitive about the 6-year age difference between she and Edgar.2,3
Edgar, or Edward as he is referred to in most records, lived until the age of 58. He never remarried, eventually living with his mother--who ultimately outlived him. By 1942, his brown hair was gray and his brown eyes were framed by glasses.5 He is enumerated in the 1930 Brockton census as living at #18 Beacon Street in what appears to be a building with 2 apartments. His household shows his known children Russell, Hazel, Maude, and Charles. It also lists a child named Marion as his daughter. She is a little over a year old.2 Check out our family mysteries page to learn more about this interesting situation and see if you can give us a clue!
Edgar was living at #44 Haverhill Street in Brockton when he died on 25 January 1944, of carcinoma of stomach with metastases of liver (stomach cancer spreading to liver). Oddly enough, Edgar was not laid to rest with his wife. His death record states that he rests in Central Cemetery in Randolph.3,5My father--who inherited Edgar's brown eyes!--remembered regularly visiting Edgar on Haverhill St. before Edgar's death. Edgar would always insist on giving my father a snack of bread sprinkled with a little water and then sprinkled with sugar. My father also remembers him as always seeming to need a shave. He also remembers him speaking English with a thick French accent--which leads me to believe that Edgar was bilingual and that he spoke French conversationally at times. My father seemed to enjoy visting with his grandfather; he especially enjoyed the snack! Guess all grandparents like seeing their grandchildren and giving them something special.6
My aunt Mary Ellen Noel also remembered Edgar; and she even remembered Mary, Edgar's mother. For some reason, she didn't know that Mary was Edgar's mother--and she wondered why he was with someone so much older than him. She remembered Mary as a large woman--"as big as a barrel". Dad also remembered a woman always being there, but he didn't know who she was.6Sources:
1. Birth records from North Adams provided by lookup volunteer Julie
2. Census records
3. Death records from Brockton, Mass.
4. Obituaries from the Brockton Enterprise provided by Larry Noonan
5. Military records
6. Personal recollections Joseph Russell Noel, Jr. and Mary Ellen Noel Bolinder--who were my father and aunt.
7. Birth records from New England Historic Genealogical Society
8. Marriage records from New England Historic Genealogical Society
9. Death records from New England Historic Genealogical Society
10. Randolph birth records from lookup volunteer Catherine.
11. Records from a relative who I will call "S" to protect their privacy.
12. Massachusetts Birth Index
13. Massachusetts Marriage Index
14. Massachusetts Death Index
15. 1944 Boston City Directory
16. United States Obituary Collection at Ancestry
17. Find A Grave
This page was updated February 2012. .
Noel Family of Brockton, MA by Jolynn Noel Winland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States LicenseWhat does this mean? .
Email: littleangeljw@yahoo.com
