Category: Carman line

The brothers stormed down to the newspaper office

I finally found evidence of a story my grandmother told me. When she told me how her grandfather Joseph Funston died, she said that the newspaper reported it as a suicide and that his sons were so incensed by this false reporting that they stormed down to the newspaper office to demand a retraction.
All of the newspaper articles I have found up until now never mentioned one way or another whether his death was an accident or suicide. Today I found a small item on the bottom of page 16 of the January 1, 1921 Night Extra issue of the Evening Public Ledger:

Article that reports the death of Joseph Funston as a suicide.
Joseph Funston, sixty years old, 2089 East Somerset street, was found dead in his room, early today. Gas was flowing from an open jet, with the door and windows tightly closed. Police say it is a case of suicide. In one of the pockets of Funston’s coat, the police found more than $50.

It’s worth noting that the death certificate differs in both the cause of death and his age:

Age: 70 years 1 month 3 days.
Cause of death: … Gas Poisoning probably accidental

We’ll never know the true story of what happened that New Year’s Eve night. Despite the response of my grandmother’s uncles it could very well have been a suicide, or perhaps after a little too much celebration he accidentally left the gas jet on. Whatever the case, I am wondering why he had $50 in his pocket, which is about $665 in today’s dollars, and more than I would expect my elderly boxmaker great-grandfather to be carrying around.

Catherine W. Wettlaufer Carman Funeral Card (1981)

When my grandmother passed away I inherited a collection of funeral cards. Most were for family members, a few were for friends. I thought I would post them here on Fridays.

In Loving Memory of Catherine E. Carman, Died September 24, 1981.  (Robert B. Rowland, Funeral Home, 7013-15 Torresdale Ave., Phila., Pa.)

Jake- (Cass) [Written in by my grandmother]

Let us Pray
Almighty God, through the death of Your Son on the cross, you have overcome death for us. Through his burial and resurrection from the dead you have made the grave a holy place and restored to us eternal life. We pray for those who died believing in Jesus and are buried with him in the hope of rising again. God of the living and the dead, may those who faithfully believed in you on earth praise you for ever in the joy of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

[text on reverse]: And while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

Catherine Carman Funeral Card text side Catherine Carman Funeral Card reverse, illustration of Jesus ascending into heaven

Catherine Elizabeth “Cass” Carman née Wettlaufer was the wife of my grandmother Naomi Carman’s brother Jacob Carman (1907-1991). Born 28 August 1906 in Phillipsburg, New Jersey,1 she was the daughter of Hugh William Wettlaufer & Catherine Elizabeth Anderson.1 She died 24 September 1981.2


Sources

  1. Catherine Elizabeth Wettlaufer Carman, 163-10-0052, 1936, Application for Account Numbers (Form SS-5), Social Security Administration, Baltimore, Maryland.
  2. Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch, FamilySearch U.S. Social Security Death Index (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535 : accessed 10 December 2015), Catherine Carman, 163-10-0052.

 

Carmine Bocchinfuso Funeral Card (1988)

When my grandmother passed away I inherited a collection of funeral cards. Most were for family members, a few were for friends. I thought I would post them here on Fridays.

In Loving Memory of Carmine Bocchinfuso, August 24, 1988.  (L.A. DiGiacomo, Funeral Home, Inc., 1055 Southampton Road, Philadelphia, Pa. 19116, 677-9300)

This is the first card I’ve transcribed that does not have the twenty-third psalm. Instead it has this:

Father we entrust our brother to your mercy.

You loved him greatly in this life: now that he is freed from all its cares, give him happiness and peace for ever.

Welcome him now into paradise where there will be no more sorrow, no more weeping or pain, but only peace and joy with Jesus your Son, and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.

Image of Funeral Card text. Reverse side. Cross with text "In the Cross of Christ lies our Salvation")

Carmine Bocchinfuso was the husband of my grandmother Naomi Carman’s youngest sister Alice Ellen Carman. He was born on 29 October 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Santo Bocchinfuso & Teresa Mauro.1 He died 24 Aug 1988 in Philadelphia.2

Not long before he passed away, Uncle Carmine drove his wife and brother-in-law Jake Carman from Philadelphia down to the Jersey Shore to visit my grandmother. They were the last three Carman siblings left, and I remember the visit mostly because Uncle Jake teased my grandmother about something and it was the first time it sunk in that my grandmother had had a childhood, including brothers who teased.

Of my Uncle Carmine that visit I remember him sitting on the front step when I came home and he said “Hiya” as a greeting. It was a small thing, but to this day when I hear “Hiya” or say it myself I see Uncle Carmine sitting on our front step.

Sources

  1. Pennsylvania, Department of Health, birth certificate 162537 (1908), Carmine Boerhinfuso [Bocchinfuso]; Division of Vital Records, New Castle.
  2. Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch, FamilySearch U.S. Social Security Death Index (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535 : accessed 14 July 2014), Carmine Bocchinfuso, 165-01-1957.