Eugenie Belle - 1918 Pandemic

 Eugenie Belle Smith was born on July 30, 1891 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Joseph H. Smith and Laura Eunice Jones. Eugenie was sister to my paternal grandfather, Malcolm Leroy Smith.  

Eugenie married Herbert Farley Merrey on May 27, 1913. To them three children were born. Gertrude Eunice, named for her mother, Edwin (Eddie) Leroy, named for her brother Malcom Leroy, and Joseph, named for her father.

Life was wonderful, that is until the Pandemic of 1918 known as the Spanish Flu infected a estimated 500 million people around the world. In the United States, 675,000 died.

The only defense at that time was isolation quarantine, good hygiene, disinfectants and limitations of gatherings that many did not follow.

It was the second wave in the fall of 1918 that lasted three months, caused by a mutant virus that was especially brutal.  This took the life of Eugenie Belle on October 7, 1918 at the age of 27. She left behind a husband and three young children, a daughter age five, a son age two and an infant son, one month old.

Eugenie's husband, Herbert remarried to Anna Sophia Copeland. He died in 1970 and Anna died in 1933. They all rest together in Hillside Cemetery in Bridgewater.  Also in this cemetery lies her mother, her brother Malcolm and his wife, Mary Ann Pierce.

Eugenie's brother Malcolm named a daughter after his sister, Eugenie Belle born in 1921. She passed away June 10, 2020 in her 99th year.

We are at this moment in time under siege of a pandemic known as Covid-19. Many have died around the world.  At warp speed vaccines have been developed and history repeats as in 1918, many people don't follow recommendations. We are now in the grips of a mutant virus that is more contagious and deadly.  History is repeating itself and as we watch the numbers of those infected increase, more lives will be lost.

I've been vaccinated to protect not only me, but also my family and those I love.  Have you been vaccinated? 

The House of Helpfulness

 Yes, History and genealogy do go hand-in-hand.

Ferdinand Clinton Gammons, my 2nd cousin 4x removed was born September 29, 1845 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. He moved to Bridgewater at the age of 21. Here is where he met his future wife, Abbie Lawrence. He belonged to the Masons, May Flower Lodge.

Abbie had begun the work of knocking on doors to raise money to pay for a pastor.  She raised $400 and three months later the first service for the Methodist faithful was held in the Swedenborgian Church.

She met and married Ferdinand Gammons, a successful business man, on November 16, 1874. Together, in 1913 they purchased property on the corner of School and Cedar Street and built the Gammons Memorial Methodist Church.

 A stained glass window "The Good Shepard was given to the church by Abbie in memory of her mother.  It was dedicated by Abbie and Ferdinand on June 6, 1914.

I grew up in this church, first as a young student, then as a teen, I belonged to the Youth Group.  I sang in the Junior Choir, then later in the adult choir.  I became a Sunday School teacher.  I  was baptized at this church. I met my husband here, and we married here.  

We ended up moving to New Hampshire for a few years. Eventually we returned home to Bridgewater. Things were not the same as I remembered, my church home was not as it once was.  When the church disappointed me in a personal way, I never returned.

The other sad connotation here is that the name Gammons has been erased. It is now known as the Bridgewater United Methodist Church. I feel a sense of loss, in my genealogical way. How could they delete the Gammons name from which this church was founded.

Once their motto was " The House of Helpfulness", now it is Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors, yet I now feel neither.

Ferdinand died on Feb 23, 1929 and with a Mason Ritual Funeral Service he was buried in Mount Prospect Cemetery in Bridgewater. 

Abbie, in honor of her husbands passing,, purchased the parsonage on Bedford Street in 1930 giving it to the church in his memory.  Abbie passed away in 1932.