Ethel May (Elliott) Rogers (1879 - 1965)

Born 7 Apr 1879 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Nov 1965 at age 86 in Newton, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Edwin Rogers [send private message]

Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Burial

Date: 8 DEC 1965

Place: Mt Auburn Cemetery

Age: 86

Type: cremated

Cambridge, MA 02138

Lot 3969, Halcyon Ave. Grave #9

Note

Note: #N24

Note: #N287

Note: #N301

Note: #N590

Note: #N1058

Note: #N1060

Marriage

Husband: @I649@

Wife: Ethel Mary Elliott

Marriage: Y

Date: 4 FEB 1903

Place: Roxbury, MA

Child: Arthur Warren Rogers

Child: @I651@

Child: Elizabeth Rogers

Note: #N52

Note: #N481

Note: #N715

Note: #N1120

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Date: 6 AUG 2010

Time: 14:11:12

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Husband: George Warren Elliott

Wife: Mary Jane Peaslee

Marriage: Y

Date: 9 JAN 1873

Place: Boston, MA

Note: #N48

Child: Arthur Warren Elliott

Child: Ethel Mary Elliott

Note: #N50

Note: #N482

Note: #N1634

Data Changed:

Date: 25 JUL 2012

Time: 23:23:24

Sources

1. ↑ Elliott-4630 was created by Edwin Rogers through the import of EFRanc-6mr14.ged on Nov 5, 2014. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.

• Source: SR6 Title: WeAreAllFamily3ja06.ged Publication: Merged on 1 Apr 2006 at 15:58:14 Data Changed: Date: 1 APR 2006 Time: 15:58:14

Notes

Note N1058Newton City Directory

1943 Ethel M Rogers wid Edwin H, h 79 Hillside av W N

1945 ROGERS Ethel M wid Edwin H h 79 Hillside av WN

1948 Rogers Edwin H Mrs, h 25 Canterbury rd NH

1949 Rogers Edwin H Mrs h 25 Canterbury rd NH

1951 Rogers Edwin H Mrs h 25 Canterbury rd NH

1953 Rogers Edwin H Mrs h 25 Canterbury rd NH

1955 ROGERS Ethel (wid Edwin H) h 25 Canterbury rd (NH)

1957 Ethel Rogers (wid Edwin H) h 25 Cantertury rd (NH)

1959 ROGERS Ethel (wid Edwin H) h 25 Canterbury rd (NH)

1963 ROGERS Ethel (wid Edwin H) h 25 Canterbury rd (NH)

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Reference: 1 FEB 2010 14:42:13

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Time: 18:04:58

Note N1060Polk's Newton City Directory 1959 Rogers, Ethel (wid Edwin H) 25 Canterbury rd (NH)

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Reference: 1 FEB 2010 14:47:10

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Note N24Ethel May Elliott Rogers

My grandmother had been a debutante in the Boston tradition of the late 1800’s. She was a ‘proper’ Boston lady, reared in Roxbury during its ‘better’ period, married to my grandfather Edwin Henry Rogers and living in Newton. She had threechildren, Arthur Warren, Eliot Francis and Elizabeth. (She didn’t believe that girls needed a middle name, since they’d use their maiden surname after marriage. My sisters were not given middle names either --- a fact mildly resented by them.)

Sadly Edwin Henry Rogers died of heart failure at a relatively early age (in 1932) after a successful career as a civil engineer with the City of Newton and the Boston Metropolitan District Commission. His work included many public works,including the first band shell on the Charles River esplanade (where these days Boston celebrates the Fourth of July in a spectacular way). He planned and oversaw railways and roads as well as drainage and public parks.

He traveled to Europe twice to study public works on the continent. On the second of these trips he took his wife, leaving their children in the charge of a live-in friend. These trips are recorded in family photo albums and scrapbooks as wellas my grandmother’s diary.

The albums also contain pictures of Edwin and Ethel during their courtship and the years spent with their children, including a motor car trip to Quebec and the Gaspe peninsula.

Over the years she had three homes in Newton. The first two were on fashionable West Newton Hill not far from the Second Congregational Church. The children were born while they lived there on Temple Street. Sometime later they moved to thehouse I knew at 79 Hillside Avenue.

That house was huge to my young eyes. There was a large cast iron range in the kitchen. At a big butcher block table Grandmama made taffy for us to pull and eat. She had a deep pantry off one corner (here I discovered the jar of powder she usedto make delicious cocoa for us; the powder tasted even better to this thieving palate) and a butler’s pantry between the kitchen and the dining room. Off the dining room was a sun parlor with a baby grand piano. The front parlor was generallyclosed and unheated.

The house was wrapped on two sides by a veranda with caned chairs for us to rock on. Inside the front door, a hallway led to the kitchen. The main stairway rose to the right of this hall. Under it was a long closet for coats. This closet had awindow and a small table on which sat the telephone.

The main stairway led around a right angle to a vast (to this child’s eyes) upper hall from which at least four bedrooms emanated. At the far end were doors to the ‘sitting’ room where Grandmama did her sewing and where we were introduced to thewonders of picture puzzles. Aunt Betty seemed to enjoy working on them.

On the right side of the door to the sitting room was the door to Grandmama’s bedroom. It was a bright room with a big bed and elegant dressing table. She often took her grandchildren into bed in the morning after a sleep-over.

To the left of the sitting room was Aunt Betty’s bedroom. She did not marry Uncle Gene until some years later, and lived with her Mother in Newton and caught the train at the bottom of the hill to her job with Denison’s in Boston each weekday. There was a great walk-through closet connecting the sitting room with Aunt Betty’s bedroom.

One of the doors off the upper hall gave access to the bathroom. It had been over-sized when my grandparents bought this house and Edwin divided it right down the middle and had a second bathroom plumbed, so his family of five did not have toqueue up so long in the morning.

Also, off this upper hall was a door into the back stairway. There were servant’s quarters on the third floor and the back stairs gave the cook access to the kitchen without disturbing the family in the morning. The remainder of that third floorwas given to storage. Grandmama kept boxes of perfumed soap there, letting them aerate and harden so they would last longer (so she said) when put out for use.

The house had a round turret-like corner over the front door. This made for partially round bedrooms on the second the third floors. The turret room on the third floor was where the model trains were stored. I was fascinated with them andfrustrated by the lack of grownup interest in setting them up to run.

Out back there was a detached garage, made of steel --- rather novel for the 1930’s (or earlier) when it was erected. A walkout basement at the back gave access to the clothesline from the washtubs inside.

In the late 40’s (?) the house was getting too big to justify for the two women. Moreover, it may have been approaching the time Aunt Betty had found Eugene Heiffel and was planning to marry. In any case, 79 Hillside Ave was sold and Grandmamaand Aunt Betty moved to 25 Canterbury Road in Newton Highlands.

This was a much smaller house with the MTA trolley running right across behind the back fence. Grandmama was certainly saddened to leave West Newton Hill after 50+ years, but she was a gracious lady and recognized the practicality of thesituation. She retained easy access to downtown Boston via the MTA. She never drove, so when Aunt Betty left after her wedding (reception at 25 Canterbury Rd), she had to rely on my parents for trips to the market and the like.

Of course, she retained the best of her furniture, including a stiff and ornate horse hair sofa on which young grandchildren sometimes had to sit quietly during Sunday or Christmas festivities with visitors. Among the other treasures, were acandelabra dripping with crystal prisms, a tall mirror with a gilded frame hanging on a living room wall, an enormous iron, chiming clock decorated with cherubs which had to be wound every week, a three or four section hand-blown decanter with aglass stopper, and of course, the family china and silver. Grandmama also had some fine jewelry (and some that was handsome paste). (The iron clock now hangs at 40 Seapit Rd, in Waquoit, MA. The jewelry has been dispersed to various femaledescendants.)

She outlived her son Warren, who died in Ohio of heart failure in 1954. (He and Aunt Ruth (Stowell) had moved to Shaker Heights, when he was transferred from Worcester, MA by American Steel & Wire and where he was a personnel executive.) Myfather had to go to Cleveland to help settle his brother’s affairs. It was not an easy time. For one thing, my Dad didn’t like to fly and probably went by train. Also, Uncle Warren had asserted himself as head of the family after his fatherdied twenty-two years before, and my father had to sort out the family affairs and deal with a somewhat demanding younger sister. (Aunt Betty was no doubt within her rights to want to be a full partner in such matters, but my Dad seemed rarelyto be on good terms with her and had his brother’s imperious precedent to follow --- if he wanted to assert it.)

--- As remembered by Edwin Rogers, May 2004

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Date: 5 AUG 2010

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Note N287Gravestone in Mt. Auburn Cemetery shows birth year as 1878.

Lot 3969 on Halcyon Ave. Interred Dec 8 1965.

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Date: 7 NOV 2010

Time: 14:25:02

Note N301MA Archives: Birth in Boston, 1878: v. 297, p. 160

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Date: 20 FEB 2014

Time: 15:59:16

Note N311First home: 105 Temple St., West Newton, MA

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Date: 24 JUL 2007

Time: 22:41:10

Note N590MA Archive - Marriage in Boston 1903: v. 539, p. 24

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