The Marriage Book with Winfield and Susan

You should be able to click and expand the image.
The link is:

https://www.familysearch.org/s/image/show#uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpilot.familysearch.org%2Frecords%2Ftrk%3A%2Ffsrs%2Fidgs%3A004279727.004279727_00143&hash=HloWXpZgU9zB10k5M56iYku8TUc%253D

In any event, once again WSL is listed as a salesman out of New York at the time of their marriage. This continues to be consistent, and seems to again lead to him being associated in some way with his relative Fred Lovecraft.

Susan Lovecraft: 1900

Census notes often had minor errors. I've added a few notes in {}'s

United States Census, 1900 for Sarah F Lovecraft {obviosuly Sarah Susan Lovecraft}

Name: Sarah F Lovecraft
Residence: Providence city, Providence, Rhode Island
Birth Date: Oct 1857 {17 October 1857}
Birthplace: Rhode Island
Relationship to Head-of-Household: Daughter
Spouse Name: {Winfield Scott Lovecraft}
Father Name: Whipple V Phillips
Father Birthplace: Rhode Island
Mother Name: {Robie died January 1896}
Mother Birthplace: Rhode Island
Race or Color (expanded): White
Head-of-household Name: Whipple V Phillips
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Widowed
Years Married: 10

{not quite true just close. Married June 12, 1889; WSL died 19 July 1898}

Estimated Marriage Year: 1890
Mother How Many Children: 1
Number Living Children: 1
Enumeration District: 0013
Sheet Number and Letter: 14A
Household ID: 263
Reference Number: 35
GSU Film Number: 1241506
Image Number: 00257
Household Gender Age
Parent Whipple V Phillips M
Lillian D Phillips F
Sarah F Lovecraft F
Howard P Lovecraft M

Maggie Corcoran F

Dickinson {This is a separate entry, and thus a different person}

An Oddity in Susan Lovecraft's Documentation

All of this data alligns, except that somehow the State of Rhode Island declared her parents French-Canadian. Certainly not true.

Rhode Island, State Census, 1905 for Sarah S Lovecraft

Name: Sarah S Lovecraft
Residence: Providence, Ward 002, E.D. 0022, Providence, Rhode Island
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Race or Color: White
Marital Status: Widowed
Birth Date: 12 Oct 1857
Birthplace: Foster Rhode Island
Father's Birthplace: Canada French
Mother's Birthplace: Canada French
Relationship to Head of Household: Self
Number of Family in the Order of Visitation: 202
Number in this Family: 2
Mother of how many children: 1
Number of these children living June 1, 1905: 1
Digital Folder Number: 4479189
Image Number: 00491
Film Number: 2111138

Another oddity is her age in the next state census.

Rhode Island State Census, 1915 for Sarah S Lovecroft


Name: Sarah S Lovecroft
Residence: Providence Ward 02, E.D. 248, Providence, Rhode Island
Age: 50
Estimated Birth Date: 1865
Place of Birth: U S
Relationship to Head of Household: Self
Gender: Female
Race: White
Place of Birth: Father: U S
Place of Birth: Mother: U S
Page Number: V
Line Number: 39
GSU Film Number: 1763988

Wheaton College and Susan Lovecraft

When then Susan Phillips (b. 1857) was about 14, she attended then Wheaton Female Seminary (founded c. 1834) in Norton, Massachusetts. She only spent one year there, and Chrispy does not know why she left, nor read anything about this.

The timing is interesting, and hopefully research will bring new ideas as to why in 1872, Susan left the school.

Here is an article very near the time she attended -i.e. compiled from data from 1875. Note the importance given to French, a specialty and long an avocation of Susan's. Otherwise, here is a portrait of the life she lived there.

(You can expand the images in a new window by clicking)

Susan Lovecraft's Annual Income (1911)

Her personal income:
Lovecraft Sarah S // 1300 // 21 45
(page 309, Providence Tax Book)

_____
Howard Lovecraft is not listed - that I can find.

A pause for speculation

I emphasize this is sheer speculation, but a few things are curious about the mental and health collapse of Lovecraft's father. Just a cursory look at 21st century posts on syphillis shows three stages of the disease. The forst shows a sore that appaeras withing 3 weeks, and then it disappears only to appear sporadically off and on for up to 30 years. These are pronounced sores, often on the face.

In ST Joshi's invaluable HPL: A Life, we read the medical report (p. 13) ... for the past year he has shown obscure symptoms of mental disease ...

This is precisely the time that Susan and Howard were secluded at Guiney's. Were they not just waiting for a real estate transaction as they planned a new house, but a bit of safety as Winfield traveled on sales calls?

The effects of tertiary syphillis are incredible and horrific. Sometimes soft, tumor-like balls of inflammation appear as big as billiard balls. (16% of reported patients). I won't reproduce those shocking images, but they are easily googled if you wish to check them.

One famous case of syphillis was Al Capone, who contracted the disease as a young man, and it is considered that his anger and out of control behavior grew as the disease progressed, despite the other members of "the business" wanting a lower profile.

At the end of his life he often raved on about Communists, foreigners, and George Moran, who he was convinced was still plotting to kill him from his Ohio prison cell.

Compare this to the paranoid rantings reported by Winfield.

Now, we move to the famous and amazing declaration by Susan (reported by Clara Hess), years later, about Howard who often had ingrown hairs (p. 85): "...Mrs. Lovecraft talked continuously of her unfortunate son who was so hideous that he hid from everyone ... when I protested that she was exagerating ... she looked at me ... as though I didn't undersatnd about it ...".

This incident is undated, but as Clara would have known HPL from High School and would have noticed something odd, this must have been past 1908 and before Susan being hospitalized before March 1919. Unfortunately this spans a decade, but could this have been (again sheer speculation) a vivid remembrance of the shock of Winfield's last days?

Providence Blue Book of Society (1905)

A number of folks are listed here, notably:

_____

Prof. and Mrs. Winslow Upton
Mrs. Eleanor Stuart Upton
Professor Astronomy and Dean Brown University
Author: Star Atlas for Schools

_____

Mr. and Mrs. John Rossiter Hess
21 Oriole Avenue
Miss Clara L Hess

{This must be THE Clara Hess of the 1940's anecdotes}
_____

Mrs. Winfield S Lovecraft (nee Phillips )
Mr. Whipple V Phillips
{no adress listed}

_____

Roff. and Mrs. Hohn Howard Appleton (nee Day)
209 Angell Street
Miss Ruth Appleton
Mr. Everard Appleton
Mr. William Day Appleton
Miss Alice Walker Appleton

_____

{Chrispy continues to make a point that the then (1905) late Packard was influential in Beast in the Cave. They were neighbors, as we now can see.)

Prof. and Mrs. Alpeus S{pring} Packard {Jr.} (nee Walcott)
275 Angell Street

Summer Residence: Merepoint, ME
Miss Martha W Packard

{which might explain why HPL had less contact with this professor, plus as a biologist he traveled greatly more than a chemist or an astronomer, one suspects.}

_____
Addison Munroe is prominent:

Vintage Images of Butler Hospital in Providence

These images are from circa 1910 or before.




>Drive to hospital<

Opened in 1847 as the result of a grant from Nicholas Brown, one of the wealthy Brown brothers. Lovecraft’s father, Winfield, was admitted here in 1893 and remained until his death on 19 July 1898. In early 1919, Lovecraft’s mother had a collapse and she entered the hospital on March 13. She died there on 24 May 1921—as the result of a possibly bungled gall bladder operation.

Early 1900's Post Card: April Fool's Day

My French is pretty rusty after all these (30) years (someone help!!), but I think it goes something like:

In April, fish go for lovely walks. So, let's be like them, and skim quickly across the water, friends.

On this April Fool's Day, we can remember that Susie was a French language specialist, that Lovecraft hated fish, and would have little to do with superstitions. Or maybe, just consideer these to be Innsmuth Ichthians.

Lovecraft's Autograph - and more

Once again, Ebay is an extraordinary time machine. This offering should really be in a museum or at the John Hay library - but here it is for auction for about $1500.

Below, here are the Ebay reproduced images, since Ebay is obviously a fleeting moment in time. A few days, and poof !!, the images are gone for maybe a generation into a collector's hands.

{There are numerous other HPL autographed images in the archives}

The seller says:

Up for auction is a copy of one of the books from Lovecraft's library. The book, listed in the Joshi & Michaud "Lovecraft's Library: A catalogue" as item #132 which is, Joseph Butler's "The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature..." published in New Haven: A H. Maltby, 1822. Butler's book, first published in 1736, is considered a masterpiece of British theology. What influences it had on Lovecraft is subject to debate. At this point, a little history. Lovecraft's mother, Sarah Susan Phillips (Lovecraft) was the 2nd of five children of Whipple and Robie (Place) Phillips. She was born Oct.17, 1857 at the Stephen Place Jr. homestead in Foster, Rhode Island. Stephen Place was Howard Lovecraft's maternal great grandfather. What makes this book so special is that it belonged to him. Yes, this is Stephen Place's copy and is signed numerous times by him. One photo shows his name, Foster, Rhode Island and the date, 1833. It is well known that Howard had access to the vast library of Whipple and this may have been one of the first books HPL read. The reason for this statement, is that at the rear of the book on the free endpapers, someone was practicing their Greek letters using the 'Stephen Place' name as an example. It is known, Howard was familiar with Greek & Latin before he was ten. Are these his scribblings?? Don't know. Now for the 'good' stuff. The front pastedown has Lovecraft's bookplate and his special code #'s and opposite on the f.f. endpaper is his full signature and the 598 Angel St. address. His family moved to this address in 1904, when he was 13 years old. On the title page, at the top, is written, H.P. Lovecraft R.I. The last signature, also on the f.f. endpaper is that of his aunt, Annie E. Phillips Gamwell, and dated July 7, 1924. Howard was in New York during this time period, so the book now belonged to her. What a GREAT piece, and as one photo shows, there are three signatures on one page covering four generations of Lovecraft's family. The book measures 7 1/4" x 4 1/2" and is very worn. The cover is nearly detached (99%). The photos show the front & back covers as well as the gold stamped spine reading, "Butler's Analogy". A note, Lovecraft often made text corrections in books he owned. None were seen in this volume but if the greek lettering is his, WOW! Please note, that the dark areas at the bottom of the pictures are shadow, not a blackend book. Here is your chance to own a "real" piece of Lovecratian history.