Fitzpatrick, Nicholas
Nicholas Fitzpatrick died at age 32 on July 22, 1882. According to the Journal, he died “from the effects of drinking a large quantity of cold water while in a heated condition.” It must have been a brutally hot week on the North Shore, for on the same page of the Journal we find a few more stories in the same vein. A boy from Saugus named Willie Quimby died “from blood poisoning caused by bathing when in an overheated condition,” and a laborer named Chas A. Brackett was “prostrated by the intense heat.”
Gannett, Ezra S.
Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett was another victim of the Revere Train Disaster of 1871. Despite being listed in the Record, he is buried in Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery. Gannett was a preacher at the Universalist Church in Boston and was on his way to preach at the Universalist Church in Lynn at the time of the accident.
Gordon, Robert
Robert Gordon was born in Picton, Nova Scotia and came to Revere in about 1877. He was a carpenter, and according to the Journal was “considered a good, industrious and respectable citizen.” On April 12, 1882, he was working on a house on Beach Street when he fell 25 feet “striking his head on a small stone and fracturing his skull in a shocking manner.”
Harrington, Jonathan
Jonathan Harrington was a well-known stage magician in New England during his career in the 1800s. He performed in many of Boston’s notable old venues – the Concert Hall, the Federal Street Theater, the National Theater, and Barnum’s Aquarial Gardens. Sometimes billed as “Professor Jonathan Harrington,” he was renowned for his skilled ventriloquism, often using the puppet to tell people’s fortunes.
The Journal gave Harrington a eulogy fit for a showman, saying “There is no man in Revere whose biography would be read with greater interest than that of Prof. J. Harrington … His life has been filled with varied experiences, amusing, eccentric, and stern.” Professor Harrington died on May 4, 1881, and appears to be buried in Everett’s Woodlawn Cemetery. The “Locate a Loved One” search on Woodlawn’s website puts Harrington in the same location as a grave for three Harringtons – George (1885), Lucretia (1895) and Frances (1875) – and Hattie W. Barnard (1940), but Jonathan’s name is not on the grave. Perhaps this was a plot that belonged to the Harringtons, and if Jonathan had to be buried at the expense of the town, he may not have been able to afford to have his name inscribed.
Hastings, Helen M.
Helen M. Hastings committed suicide at age 38 on January 24, 1882 by drowning herself in a hogshead barrel in her basement. The Journal displayed the same lack of tact as it did when describing the suicide of Sarah Dunn (see Volume II of this series) by noting “Miss Hastings’ mind has for some time past seemed at times somewhat deranged,” and recounting a previous suicide attempt at the beach. Miss Hastings had been a very popular and successful teacher in Revere but had to give up her job due to ill health, which seems to have been the cause of her depression.
The Journal redeems itself somewhat by noting that Miss Hastings was a poet “of considerable merit” and printed one of her poems on page one the week following her death.
