Evelyn Gammons Costello
Mary Elizabeth Harrington McMann
Evelyn Gammons was born in 1888 when her mother was 18 years old, the same year the National Geographic Society was founded, the same year Benjamin Harrison cheated Grover Cleveland out of the presidency and the same year that Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left ear. Evelyn became a painter herself later in life but never showed any interest in self-mutilation or starry nights. She was a proper lady and carried herself with a dignity that belied the mundain tasks of her daily life, or maybe came from their repitition day after day, week after week and year after year. Even late in life Evelyn had an air of strength and noblilty about her. It really is a wonder how she managed it and if you were to compile a list of her habits, her likes and dislikes, or read her letters I don't think you'd understand it any better.
The story itself is nothing special in 20th century America, for that was a time of astounding technological change, of world wide war, devastation and genocide and of the rise of the American Empire. It was a time of great suffering and great joy. Evelyn suffered along with the rest. But like most of the people, her sufferings and joys were personal and nothing I write can convey the loneliness, the mystery, the pride, the humility, the patience, the wit and the charity that carried through the air on the sound of her voice.
Her mother was Fidella McMann who was born on March 31, 1869. Fidella's mother was Mary Elizabeth "Liza" Harrington who married John "Jack" McMann on February 22, 1865 in a Presbyterian Church. Liza came from a proper and prosperous Catholic family and when she married outside the church her family cast her out. All but one brother, Bernard, a sea captain who sailed the tall ships to China, refused to speak to her.
The Civil Was was just ending and both of their families suffered loss. One of Liza'a brothers, Thomas Harrington, enlisted for the Union in the Massachusetts Volunteers in 1863 at the age of 18 and died in the filth and stench of Andersonville Prison one year later. Her husband's brother, Michael McMann, enlisted in the Navy on 24 July 1861, served for the Union on the USS Pensacola, and lost a leg in battle. So they were both damn, and damn unlucky, Yankees.
The McManns settled in South Boston where Jack ran a sucessful trucking business with two wagons and four horses. There Liza gave birth to four boys, three of whom died from diptheria in a single week and to one girl, Fidella. In the 1890's when his business took a turn for the worse, Jack sold his horses and wagons and after 25 years of marrage disappeared from their lives forever.
The story itself is nothing special in 20th century America, for that was a time of astounding technological change, of world wide war, devastation and genocide and of the rise of the American Empire. It was a time of great suffering and great joy. Evelyn suffered along with the rest. But like most of the people, her sufferings and joys were personal and nothing I write can convey the loneliness, the mystery, the pride, the humility, the patience, the wit and the charity that carried through the air on the sound of her voice.
Her mother was Fidella McMann who was born on March 31, 1869. Fidella's mother was Mary Elizabeth "Liza" Harrington who married John "Jack" McMann on February 22, 1865 in a Presbyterian Church. Liza came from a proper and prosperous Catholic family and when she married outside the church her family cast her out. All but one brother, Bernard, a sea captain who sailed the tall ships to China, refused to speak to her.
The Civil Was was just ending and both of their families suffered loss. One of Liza'a brothers, Thomas Harrington, enlisted for the Union in the Massachusetts Volunteers in 1863 at the age of 18 and died in the filth and stench of Andersonville Prison one year later. Her husband's brother, Michael McMann, enlisted in the Navy on 24 July 1861, served for the Union on the USS Pensacola, and lost a leg in battle. So they were both damn, and damn unlucky, Yankees.
The McManns settled in South Boston where Jack ran a sucessful trucking business with two wagons and four horses. There Liza gave birth to four boys, three of whom died from diptheria in a single week and to one girl, Fidella. In the 1890's when his business took a turn for the worse, Jack sold his horses and wagons and after 25 years of marrage disappeared from their lives forever.
Fidella McMann Gammons Loring
In 1886 Fidella married Herbert Gammons, a conductor of horse drawn street cars and childhood friend and reputed gambling buddy of the infamous mayor of Boston, James Micheal Curley. Later he became a designer of wickerware at the Haywood Wakefield Company in Reading some 10 miles distant. His job kept him away from home six days a week and on his way home on a Saturday night he often stopped at pubs along the way for a little fellowship. One week when Evelyn was 4 or 5 he never made it home and she never saw him again.
So there they were, three woman and no man to provide for them. They provided for themselves. Liza bought a house in Jamaca Plain and cleared out a few rooms to take in boarders. During the days she sewed shirts and overalls. One day she stuck a needle into her skirt. The needle hit her leg and broke. Part of it worked its way to the bone and caused so much damage to her leg that she had to cut it off. First at the knee and later on up at the hip. Nonetheless, when she got out of the hospital she had a crude prostesis made and continued working to provide for her daughter and granddaughter.
Fidella found work with the BF Strudevant Company in Jamaca Plain as foreman of fifty Polish women making molds to build metal parts for fans. For a couple of years she traveled to St Johnsbury, Vt to do the same work at the Fairbanks Scale Company. When she got home at night she cooked, cleaned, ironed and took care of her mother and daughter.
Evelyn grew up in a time very different from now. There were no cars, airplanes, electricity or internet. People got around on trains and horse drawn trollies and the streets were full of manure, flies and disease. There was plenty of work for everyone to do and children were expected to work right along with adults. As she grew, Evelyn began to help with the chores and never stopped working till she was bedridden 80 years later.
However, Liza was deterrmined to see that Evelyn got the best education possible and enrolled her in the Bowdwich Elementary School for Girls where she did well enough to go to West Roxbury High School where she did well enough to go to Boston Teachers College and graduate in 1907. She excelled in French and pretty much everything else. She also studied piano at the New England Conservartory of Music. I only heard her play once. She was 80 at the time, I was the only other person in the room and I was astonished to hear the delightful notes. She told me that during the entire first year of study at the Conservancy they practiced on a silent keyboard and never heard a note.
So there they were, three woman and no man to provide for them. They provided for themselves. Liza bought a house in Jamaca Plain and cleared out a few rooms to take in boarders. During the days she sewed shirts and overalls. One day she stuck a needle into her skirt. The needle hit her leg and broke. Part of it worked its way to the bone and caused so much damage to her leg that she had to cut it off. First at the knee and later on up at the hip. Nonetheless, when she got out of the hospital she had a crude prostesis made and continued working to provide for her daughter and granddaughter.
Fidella found work with the BF Strudevant Company in Jamaca Plain as foreman of fifty Polish women making molds to build metal parts for fans. For a couple of years she traveled to St Johnsbury, Vt to do the same work at the Fairbanks Scale Company. When she got home at night she cooked, cleaned, ironed and took care of her mother and daughter.
Evelyn grew up in a time very different from now. There were no cars, airplanes, electricity or internet. People got around on trains and horse drawn trollies and the streets were full of manure, flies and disease. There was plenty of work for everyone to do and children were expected to work right along with adults. As she grew, Evelyn began to help with the chores and never stopped working till she was bedridden 80 years later.
However, Liza was deterrmined to see that Evelyn got the best education possible and enrolled her in the Bowdwich Elementary School for Girls where she did well enough to go to West Roxbury High School where she did well enough to go to Boston Teachers College and graduate in 1907. She excelled in French and pretty much everything else. She also studied piano at the New England Conservartory of Music. I only heard her play once. She was 80 at the time, I was the only other person in the room and I was astonished to hear the delightful notes. She told me that during the entire first year of study at the Conservancy they practiced on a silent keyboard and never heard a note.
Bartley Joseph Costello
Evelyn was very lucky to get a job teaching 4th grade at the Minot School, as only ten out of a hundred graduates got placed. She taught vocational education and weaving in the 4th and and then the 6th grade for four years. On June 27, 1911, the same year Amundsen reached the South Pole, the same year Proctor and Gamble introduced Crisco and the same year they broke gound on Fenway Park, she married Bartley Costello in Boston at St. Thomas Catholic Church.
Bartley was a natty dresser, witty, ambitious, generous and well liked. Not that his children ever knew it. He worked six days a week, went in early and came home late. Except on Sundays after Mass when he'd walk to St Peter's field to watch a ball game with his eldest boy, Richard or "Dick" known later as "The Governor". He was a slim man about 5'7" tall and weighed 150 pounds. He was prematurely bald and grew his hair long in a comb over. He tried every remedy for baldness and Dick remembered him shampoing with "Lucky Tiger" to no avail.
Later on he partnered with Bill Carbine to buy a mens clothing store and open another in Whitehall New York. He became active in the Rotery and the Hybernians, an Irish fraternity, and traveled throughout the state to their gatherings where he was a speaker and entertainer of note. He was a Catholic and practiced a lot. Evelyn remembered that Father Kelly was in the house almost every day to stratigize with her husband when he was trying to raise money to build the present Christ the King Church. As if he didn't have enough to do, Bartley became President of the School Board and Comissioner of Public Safety overseeing the Police and Fire Departments.
But when Evelyn met him Rutland was much less developed than it is now, Bartley worked as a sales clerk and she thought he was something of a country bumpkin. She had come to Rutland on the advice of a physician who urged her to leave the fetid air of the Boston summer fearing she'd contracted consumption. Bartley wooed her on long walks around Main Street Park and on trolly rides to and from the dances popular then at Lake Bomoseen. They honeymooned in Philadelphia and when they came back to Rutland someone had moved into the apartment they'd rented so they stayed with Bartley's parents until they found a spot upstairs in an apartment on East Washington Street. After a few years and a few children they bought the house at 27 East Washington for $4,000 with a $100 down payment provided by Fidella.
Bartley Joseph Costello was the fifth child of Bartholomew and Ellen Costello and was born in Rutland, Vermont in 1879. His parents emigrated to America around 1872 or 1873 from Liverpool in England where they ran a pub. Barthelomew had emigrated to Liverpool only two years earlier where he met, wooed and wed Ellen Sweeney who was born in England in 1846, the same year the US annexed California and New Mexico, the same year Elizabeth Barret and Robert Browning eloped and the same year Henry David Thoreau was jailed for tax evasion. Bartholomew was born in 1841 and was the son of John and Bridget McLaughlin Costello of Westport in County Mayo Ireland. Once in Rutland, Barthelomew found work as night watchman for the Rutland Railroad and was also town constable.
Bartley was a natty dresser, witty, ambitious, generous and well liked. Not that his children ever knew it. He worked six days a week, went in early and came home late. Except on Sundays after Mass when he'd walk to St Peter's field to watch a ball game with his eldest boy, Richard or "Dick" known later as "The Governor". He was a slim man about 5'7" tall and weighed 150 pounds. He was prematurely bald and grew his hair long in a comb over. He tried every remedy for baldness and Dick remembered him shampoing with "Lucky Tiger" to no avail.
Later on he partnered with Bill Carbine to buy a mens clothing store and open another in Whitehall New York. He became active in the Rotery and the Hybernians, an Irish fraternity, and traveled throughout the state to their gatherings where he was a speaker and entertainer of note. He was a Catholic and practiced a lot. Evelyn remembered that Father Kelly was in the house almost every day to stratigize with her husband when he was trying to raise money to build the present Christ the King Church. As if he didn't have enough to do, Bartley became President of the School Board and Comissioner of Public Safety overseeing the Police and Fire Departments.
But when Evelyn met him Rutland was much less developed than it is now, Bartley worked as a sales clerk and she thought he was something of a country bumpkin. She had come to Rutland on the advice of a physician who urged her to leave the fetid air of the Boston summer fearing she'd contracted consumption. Bartley wooed her on long walks around Main Street Park and on trolly rides to and from the dances popular then at Lake Bomoseen. They honeymooned in Philadelphia and when they came back to Rutland someone had moved into the apartment they'd rented so they stayed with Bartley's parents until they found a spot upstairs in an apartment on East Washington Street. After a few years and a few children they bought the house at 27 East Washington for $4,000 with a $100 down payment provided by Fidella.
Bartley Joseph Costello was the fifth child of Bartholomew and Ellen Costello and was born in Rutland, Vermont in 1879. His parents emigrated to America around 1872 or 1873 from Liverpool in England where they ran a pub. Barthelomew had emigrated to Liverpool only two years earlier where he met, wooed and wed Ellen Sweeney who was born in England in 1846, the same year the US annexed California and New Mexico, the same year Elizabeth Barret and Robert Browning eloped and the same year Henry David Thoreau was jailed for tax evasion. Bartholomew was born in 1841 and was the son of John and Bridget McLaughlin Costello of Westport in County Mayo Ireland. Once in Rutland, Barthelomew found work as night watchman for the Rutland Railroad and was also town constable.
The Costello Family of 67 River Street
The Costellos lived in a small house next to the railroad tracks where they raised 8 children and an unknown number of chickens which became the subject of the only anticdote from their lives to come down to us 100 years later. Ellen didn't like Tom Dormandy who married her daughter Catherine and lived in Troy, NY. Tom was part of the train crew running into Rutland at 2:30 in the afternoon and back out to Troy at 6:00. He offered to build Ellen a henhouse but she said no thanks she didn't want any henhouse built by Tom Dormandy. Nonetheless, for a week between shifts, Tom built her a proper henhouse 10 feet square and covered with shingles. When he came up from Troy the day after he'd finished he found it on the ground, chopped to pieces with an axe at the hand of his loving mother in law, Ellen.
None of the Costello boys went beyond grammar school but it didn't hold them back much. They were an industrious lot and for a while Bartley ran a grocery store and meat market on the corner of West and Pine with his brother Joe. It was not a success and when it failed he went to work selling clothes at Hopkins Clothing Co on Merchants Row. The owner retired in 1915, the year the Red Sox beat the Phillies to win the 12th World Series, the year Germany introduced poison gas to the world of warfare and the year the Girl Scouts and the KKK were founded, and he bought the store in partnership with Bill Carbine and moved it up to the corner. Just a couple of years later he bought the house at 27 and got to work expanding and improving. Not that Bartley did any of the work himself. His son Richard rembered that there was always a pair of overalls hanging in the cellar stairway but that he never saw his father put them on.
It looks big in the picture. Proud, prosperous and comfortable. But 27 East Washington was all hallways and attics, four rooms down and three upstairs. Plus a bath. One bath. Ten people, one bath. A room for the boys and a room for the girls and a room for the renter. In fact if you visited in summer it was quite delightful. Full of nooks, crannies and hidden spaces. My uncle kept an elephant in the basement and when I couldn't find it he said it was hiding behind the furnace. But in winter it was frigid and no amount of blankets could keep the cold off the bone. I guess they were lucky to have each other to curl up with.
Then again if you compare it to your average house in Ireland or your average American condo today, it's was a mansion. So two generations into their American adventure the Costellos were living in a mansion. They quickly settled into family life. Daily life was quite different back in the day. The house was heated by a coal fired steam boiler and food was cooked on a coal fired stove. The house was illuminated by gas but there was just one jet in each room so they used keroseen lamps for light. The glass lamp chimneys sooted up quickly and had to be cleaned frequently. Occasionally they'd blow up and cause fires as one did upstairs at 27.
None of the Costello boys went beyond grammar school but it didn't hold them back much. They were an industrious lot and for a while Bartley ran a grocery store and meat market on the corner of West and Pine with his brother Joe. It was not a success and when it failed he went to work selling clothes at Hopkins Clothing Co on Merchants Row. The owner retired in 1915, the year the Red Sox beat the Phillies to win the 12th World Series, the year Germany introduced poison gas to the world of warfare and the year the Girl Scouts and the KKK were founded, and he bought the store in partnership with Bill Carbine and moved it up to the corner. Just a couple of years later he bought the house at 27 and got to work expanding and improving. Not that Bartley did any of the work himself. His son Richard rembered that there was always a pair of overalls hanging in the cellar stairway but that he never saw his father put them on.
It looks big in the picture. Proud, prosperous and comfortable. But 27 East Washington was all hallways and attics, four rooms down and three upstairs. Plus a bath. One bath. Ten people, one bath. A room for the boys and a room for the girls and a room for the renter. In fact if you visited in summer it was quite delightful. Full of nooks, crannies and hidden spaces. My uncle kept an elephant in the basement and when I couldn't find it he said it was hiding behind the furnace. But in winter it was frigid and no amount of blankets could keep the cold off the bone. I guess they were lucky to have each other to curl up with.
Then again if you compare it to your average house in Ireland or your average American condo today, it's was a mansion. So two generations into their American adventure the Costellos were living in a mansion. They quickly settled into family life. Daily life was quite different back in the day. The house was heated by a coal fired steam boiler and food was cooked on a coal fired stove. The house was illuminated by gas but there was just one jet in each room so they used keroseen lamps for light. The glass lamp chimneys sooted up quickly and had to be cleaned frequently. Occasionally they'd blow up and cause fires as one did upstairs at 27.
27 East Washington Street
There were no washer and dryer, so clothes and rags were hung in bags. Once a week dirty clothes were picked up by the Rutland Wet Wash Company then returned washed and wet. Evelyn would hang them to dry and then she'd press them with sad irons heated on the coal stove, the same hot and laborious method used since the middle ages. Food was kept fresh in an ice box. The iceman came around daily and you put a license plate sized card in the window to let him know how much you needed. She got meat from the meat wagon. Matt McDevett would stop to see what cuts were wanted and then go out ot his wagon and cut the portion in the street surriounded by dust, manure and horseflys. So there was plenty to do and plenty of children to care for and of course there were no Huggies. The midday meal was the big family get together and there was always a pitcher of beer on the table and a keg in the cellar. Richard said that he could tell a lager from an ale from a porter by the age of eight. So lIfe continued on its merry way.
Around this time Fidella came to live with her daughter. Some years earlier Fidella had divorced Mr. Gammons on the grounds that he was a no good, no account drunk. Evelyn testified at the hearing and when asked what her father had done for her said the answer was easy, "nothing". Her mother promptly remarried a man called Al Loring who she'd met at work. Al was a professional man and they enjoyed a good life together for some years. But as Fidella entered into the change of life she became distraught and a gap emerged in their relationship that widened as the years passed and the length of their separation grew. Finally Al Loring dropped from sight and was never heard from again.
Fidella's mental unease led to physical disabililty and she developed a paralysis in her legs, becoming chairbound. And as her physical self deteriorated, she began to consider the future of her spiritual self. She decided the time had come to set things straight with God and His Mystical Body on Earth, the Holy Roman Catholic Church. She petitioned the powers that be in Burlington, in Washington and finally in Rome to allow her to receive the Eucharist. She joined the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and received a plenary indulgence. Finally, on the pretext that Al Loring was an unbaptized heathen, she was allowed to confess and receive Holy Communion.
Around this time Fidella came to live with her daughter. Some years earlier Fidella had divorced Mr. Gammons on the grounds that he was a no good, no account drunk. Evelyn testified at the hearing and when asked what her father had done for her said the answer was easy, "nothing". Her mother promptly remarried a man called Al Loring who she'd met at work. Al was a professional man and they enjoyed a good life together for some years. But as Fidella entered into the change of life she became distraught and a gap emerged in their relationship that widened as the years passed and the length of their separation grew. Finally Al Loring dropped from sight and was never heard from again.
Fidella's mental unease led to physical disabililty and she developed a paralysis in her legs, becoming chairbound. And as her physical self deteriorated, she began to consider the future of her spiritual self. She decided the time had come to set things straight with God and His Mystical Body on Earth, the Holy Roman Catholic Church. She petitioned the powers that be in Burlington, in Washington and finally in Rome to allow her to receive the Eucharist. She joined the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and received a plenary indulgence. Finally, on the pretext that Al Loring was an unbaptized heathen, she was allowed to confess and receive Holy Communion.
Richard James Costello, The Governor
It was a solemn and joyous day at number 27 when Fr. Kelly arrived at the front door with the host. He was met with a lighted candle and led into the room where Fidella was confined to her bed. Everyone knelt and no one spoke. An altar was set up beside the bed with candles, holy water and a crucifix. After Communion he left without saying a word to anyone. She was back in the Faith where she belonged and Evelyn was overjoyed to think that her mother would rest with the Lord for eternity. Nonetheless, when Fidella died a short while later, Evelyn became hysterical with grief. Her mother was her only blood relative and she felt the loss and the lonliness for the rest of her life. But hard as the loss was, there was more grief in store for Evelyn Gammons Costello. Just a few cold weeks after her mother passed, her five month old daughter, Evelyn Virginia, caught pneumonia and died as well.
But mostly life was good to the Costellos at this time. In fact it seems that the 17 years she was married to Bartley were the happiest years of Evelyn's life. She was proud of him, proud of his ambition and delighted in the many small acts of kindness he showered on her mother. It must have felt like a dream to her to have found herself at the center of such a large family with such an industrious husband in such an out of the way place as Rutland Vermont. The family continued to grow and prosper. They were a typical Irish Catholic family in America doing what typical Irish Catholics did, procreate! First Richard, then Bartley, then Elizabeth, then John, then Edward, then Evelyn Virgina, then Joan, then Mary joined the family. Evelyn had her hands full with children and children and more children while Bartley worked, and worked and worked harder.
In 1925, the same year Hitler published "Mein Kampf", the same year Moussolini became dictator of Italy and the same year Texas and Tenesee outlawed the teaching of evolution, just about 2,000,000 cars were produced in the US of A. One of them, a 2 door Buick sedan, was purchased by Bartley Joseph Costello. Three years later he bought a 4 door version to accommodate his growing family and he and Evelyn took it on a road trip to Philidelphia to visit his relatives. He tired on the way home and Evelyn drove it back into Rutland from Castleton. Exhausted from the trip he nonetheless went to work the next day and to Church the day after that. He left in the middle of Mass and went home to lay down in bed. He never got up again and died from pneumonia that Friday.
In those days there were no funerial parlors and Mr. Clifford prepared the bodies for burial at home. He'd hang a curtain on the parlor door for privacy and did the embalming there. Bartley had an Irish wake. Richard, sixteen at the time, told me it was nothing but a big drunk. People came from all over the state and spent all day and all night drinking from the two kegs of wine in the basement. The ladies from Evelyn's bridge club arranged the food and the men passed out and slept wherever they could find a spot on the floor. Evelyn was overcome with grief and closeted herself with her husband's sister in a side room. She was pregnant again and no one but she and Bartley knew. Bartley had a wonderful funeral. It was on a bitter cold morning and the church was not large enough to accommodate the legions of mourners so there were crowds of people left standing outside. Two of them caught pneumonia and died themselves!
But mostly life was good to the Costellos at this time. In fact it seems that the 17 years she was married to Bartley were the happiest years of Evelyn's life. She was proud of him, proud of his ambition and delighted in the many small acts of kindness he showered on her mother. It must have felt like a dream to her to have found herself at the center of such a large family with such an industrious husband in such an out of the way place as Rutland Vermont. The family continued to grow and prosper. They were a typical Irish Catholic family in America doing what typical Irish Catholics did, procreate! First Richard, then Bartley, then Elizabeth, then John, then Edward, then Evelyn Virgina, then Joan, then Mary joined the family. Evelyn had her hands full with children and children and more children while Bartley worked, and worked and worked harder.
In 1925, the same year Hitler published "Mein Kampf", the same year Moussolini became dictator of Italy and the same year Texas and Tenesee outlawed the teaching of evolution, just about 2,000,000 cars were produced in the US of A. One of them, a 2 door Buick sedan, was purchased by Bartley Joseph Costello. Three years later he bought a 4 door version to accommodate his growing family and he and Evelyn took it on a road trip to Philidelphia to visit his relatives. He tired on the way home and Evelyn drove it back into Rutland from Castleton. Exhausted from the trip he nonetheless went to work the next day and to Church the day after that. He left in the middle of Mass and went home to lay down in bed. He never got up again and died from pneumonia that Friday.
In those days there were no funerial parlors and Mr. Clifford prepared the bodies for burial at home. He'd hang a curtain on the parlor door for privacy and did the embalming there. Bartley had an Irish wake. Richard, sixteen at the time, told me it was nothing but a big drunk. People came from all over the state and spent all day and all night drinking from the two kegs of wine in the basement. The ladies from Evelyn's bridge club arranged the food and the men passed out and slept wherever they could find a spot on the floor. Evelyn was overcome with grief and closeted herself with her husband's sister in a side room. She was pregnant again and no one but she and Bartley knew. Bartley had a wonderful funeral. It was on a bitter cold morning and the church was not large enough to accommodate the legions of mourners so there were crowds of people left standing outside. Two of them caught pneumonia and died themselves!
Evelyn Gammons Costello and her children about 1945
Evelyn sold Bartley's share of the store and gave birth to twins on June 15, 1929 just four months before the Stock Market Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. There she was with nine children and no income and a third of the country out of work. Richard was just 16 and in high school and the youngest were newborn. When her relatives suggested that Evelyn send some of the children to the orphanage she replied, "We may starve, but we'll all starve together." Two of the children did go to live with their cousins for a couple of years and they didn't want to give them back! Richard was a gifted student but he passed up a scholorship to RPI to stay home and help his mother. He assumed the duties of a father to the four youngest children and stayed by his mother's side untill her death. In her will Evelyn left him the house at 27 because, as she said, "he paid for it".
They had no income for a few years until Dick graduated from high school and got a job. There was a little insurance money and they took in a boarder. As the children started working they turned over their earnings to their mother. They didn't have much but they had each other and that was enough. They were a lively group, told lots of lies and more than a handful for Evelyn. But she was religious and so were they. There was a statue of the Sacred Heart at the top of the stairs and when Evelyn had all she could take she'd ask them to "come up and sit with me" by the shrine. She taught them how to examine their conscience and so meet the world head on. They went to Christ the King Grammer School and Mount Saint Joseph Academy. They excelled in all the things high school students excel at: band,orchestra, plays, basketball and tennis, as writers, speakers, cheerleaders and majorettes. They were generally a credit to themselves and their mother.
Joe was a pitcher on the baseball team. But he said that the catcher threw it back twice as fast! Evelyn was editor of the Clarion, the school paper. Mary was editor, a basketball star and majorette. Joan graduated in music and performed the Hungarian Rapsody in recital. Ed, "Mouse", started his own paper and sold it for a nickle, half price of the Clarion. Elizabeth was voter "Most likely to suceed". Three of the boys managed to get into college at UVM where John and Bart worked as janitors in exchange for a place to sleep. Then came the second world war.
Hitler's quest for world domination disrupted the lives of the Costello family as it did to millions of others across the world. The three middle sons went into the fight and made it out alive again. Richard, Joey and the women stayed home and suffered worry, shortage and rations with the rest of America. They say war is hell but war was a boon to the Costellos of 27 East Washington Street. When it was over the warriors continued their studies on the GI bill and prospered in the aftermath. Everyone but The Governor got married and had children of thier own and when she died, Evelyn had 40 grandchildren.
Richard found work at Central Vermont Public Service Corporation and retired as Paymaster. Bartley married Catherine O'Brien, became an attorney and remained in Rutland his entire life. John married Marie Winberry, became a surgeon and settled in New Jersey. Elizabeth worked for the telephone company and married Gerald Butterfly. They settled in Rutland and she moved to Florida after his death. Edward married Dorothy Wimett and became an attorney. He served as District Court Judge in Burlington and the courhouse there is named in his honor. Joan became a nurse and married Richard Morris, a doctor. They lived in Florida as well. Mary worked in a factory and at the post office. She married Leonard F. Wing Jr. and they made their home in Rutland. Evelyn became a nurse and married Paul Black Cunningham. They made their home in Belmont, Mass. Joseph graduated from UVM and became an HR Director. He married Anne Morgan and they ended up in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
They had no income for a few years until Dick graduated from high school and got a job. There was a little insurance money and they took in a boarder. As the children started working they turned over their earnings to their mother. They didn't have much but they had each other and that was enough. They were a lively group, told lots of lies and more than a handful for Evelyn. But she was religious and so were they. There was a statue of the Sacred Heart at the top of the stairs and when Evelyn had all she could take she'd ask them to "come up and sit with me" by the shrine. She taught them how to examine their conscience and so meet the world head on. They went to Christ the King Grammer School and Mount Saint Joseph Academy. They excelled in all the things high school students excel at: band,orchestra, plays, basketball and tennis, as writers, speakers, cheerleaders and majorettes. They were generally a credit to themselves and their mother.
Joe was a pitcher on the baseball team. But he said that the catcher threw it back twice as fast! Evelyn was editor of the Clarion, the school paper. Mary was editor, a basketball star and majorette. Joan graduated in music and performed the Hungarian Rapsody in recital. Ed, "Mouse", started his own paper and sold it for a nickle, half price of the Clarion. Elizabeth was voter "Most likely to suceed". Three of the boys managed to get into college at UVM where John and Bart worked as janitors in exchange for a place to sleep. Then came the second world war.
Hitler's quest for world domination disrupted the lives of the Costello family as it did to millions of others across the world. The three middle sons went into the fight and made it out alive again. Richard, Joey and the women stayed home and suffered worry, shortage and rations with the rest of America. They say war is hell but war was a boon to the Costellos of 27 East Washington Street. When it was over the warriors continued their studies on the GI bill and prospered in the aftermath. Everyone but The Governor got married and had children of thier own and when she died, Evelyn had 40 grandchildren.
Richard found work at Central Vermont Public Service Corporation and retired as Paymaster. Bartley married Catherine O'Brien, became an attorney and remained in Rutland his entire life. John married Marie Winberry, became a surgeon and settled in New Jersey. Elizabeth worked for the telephone company and married Gerald Butterfly. They settled in Rutland and she moved to Florida after his death. Edward married Dorothy Wimett and became an attorney. He served as District Court Judge in Burlington and the courhouse there is named in his honor. Joan became a nurse and married Richard Morris, a doctor. They lived in Florida as well. Mary worked in a factory and at the post office. She married Leonard F. Wing Jr. and they made their home in Rutland. Evelyn became a nurse and married Paul Black Cunningham. They made their home in Belmont, Mass. Joseph graduated from UVM and became an HR Director. He married Anne Morgan and they ended up in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Evelyn Gammons Costello
As her children got married and started families of their own, 27 East Washington seemed to grow in size, but Evelyn realized that she was quite comfortable there with her memories and would not move. Like her mother before her she began to think about God and religion. In her youth her family had been pretty easy about church going and she had sung in the choir in the Congregational Church. She didn't recieve communion until she was 22 and had never been confirmed so when she was in her 60's she took the classes. It gave her great joy and peace of mind to receive the sacrament.
She took up oil painting and wool rug making. She continued to bake bread, make cookies, and generally keep house for herself and Dick. Her house was neat as a pin and she kept a list of chores to be done each day. In the morning she'd get up and get Dick's breakfast and when they were done in the afternoon she enjoyed a glass of Harvey's Bristol Creme. They hadn't had a car for decades but in the '70's Dick bought his first car and they spent weekends traveling to country auctions where she furnished her house and became a favorite of the Auctioneers. She loved to watch the Lawrence Welk show and wrestling matches on TV. In the winter she'd visit her daughter in Florida. Everyone gathered at her house on Christmas Eve and the out of towners would call and send flowers. Her children visited often and brought their children who'd run through the house and steal cookies from the cookie jar. Just like every other family in America.
Of course she was lonely. Her husband had been dead for decades. I remember when we went to mass on her 50th wedding anniversary. I was just 9 years old and wondered why we were celebrating. I guess she knew why. Her daughter, Mary, said she only saw her mother cry twice: once when her son, Bart, was called up for service in World War ll and at her husbands grave on their 50th wedding anniversary. In the last few years of her life Evelyn gradually lost the use of her legs and did not leave the house. First she could not climb stairs. Then she could only make it to the chair in the sitting room. Finally she was confined to her bed. At her funeral they read from the book of Proverbs 31:10-31.
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Evelyn Gammons Costello died on June 6, 1975.
She took up oil painting and wool rug making. She continued to bake bread, make cookies, and generally keep house for herself and Dick. Her house was neat as a pin and she kept a list of chores to be done each day. In the morning she'd get up and get Dick's breakfast and when they were done in the afternoon she enjoyed a glass of Harvey's Bristol Creme. They hadn't had a car for decades but in the '70's Dick bought his first car and they spent weekends traveling to country auctions where she furnished her house and became a favorite of the Auctioneers. She loved to watch the Lawrence Welk show and wrestling matches on TV. In the winter she'd visit her daughter in Florida. Everyone gathered at her house on Christmas Eve and the out of towners would call and send flowers. Her children visited often and brought their children who'd run through the house and steal cookies from the cookie jar. Just like every other family in America.
Of course she was lonely. Her husband had been dead for decades. I remember when we went to mass on her 50th wedding anniversary. I was just 9 years old and wondered why we were celebrating. I guess she knew why. Her daughter, Mary, said she only saw her mother cry twice: once when her son, Bart, was called up for service in World War ll and at her husbands grave on their 50th wedding anniversary. In the last few years of her life Evelyn gradually lost the use of her legs and did not leave the house. First she could not climb stairs. Then she could only make it to the chair in the sitting room. Finally she was confined to her bed. At her funeral they read from the book of Proverbs 31:10-31.
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Evelyn Gammons Costello died on June 6, 1975.
