Chapter Four: |
Bess (Gardner) Wilson and Charles Edwin Wilson (1959) |
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the Wilson family's first contact with Hingham was in August, 1892. An outbreak of cholera in Chicago prompted John C. Gardner to send his wife, Margaret, and their two-month-old daughter, Bessie, to his step-mother's house in Hingham for their safety, while he stayed on his job as a Chicago policeman. The maneuver was successful, for they all survived. John's mother, Lydia Morey Hammond Gardner, was still living in Syracuse NY, now remarried to Dr. Lyman M. Conger. John's father, Emery, had died in 1887. So his choice of Hingham indicates he must have been on good terms with his step-mother, Julia Hurley Gardner and his step-sisters May and Ida. In fact, by 1894 Ida Gardner lived with John and his family while attending business school in Chicago. She wrote to her mother and sister that “Bessie talks about Aunt May and Grandma Gardner. She is so smart and just as good as she is smart. Today she was washing the window in the kitchen – Maggie had been washing them and when Maggie saw her she said ‘Bessie you get away from those windows and keep out of the water’ – Bessie says ‘Margaret Ann, don’t you have so much to say’. She hears John call Maggie Margaret Ann. If we tell her anything that surprises her she will say ‘You—don’t—say—‘ – just like some old woman.” |
 Elizabeth (Bessie) Gardner, age 3 |
 John Charles Gardner(1869 - 1924) |
Bessie’s father, John Charles Gardner, was the son of Emery B. Gardner and his first wife, Lydia Morey Hammond, born January 11, 1859.  He was just five years old when his parents divorced and Emery left New York for good. John had grown up in Syracuse with a half-brother, Frank W. Hammond; their mother was married to Dr. Lyman T. Conger. In 1884, John had gone to Chicago to start a dairy route which he later sold to Sidney Wanzer, whose company became one of Chicago's major dairies. John then joined the Chicago Police Force, working out of the Woodlawn Station for many years. In his later years, he worked as an inspector at the Malleable Iron Works. John married Margaret Ann Jones on December 6, 1886 in Chicago. Maggie Jones was born in Whitten Park, County Durham, England on March 2, 1862 and her family came to America when she was seven years old. |
 John and Margaret's only child, Elizabeth May (Bess) Gardner was born June 27, 1892.Some years later John and Margaret separated and divorced. Margaret secured work as a children’s nurse, living with the families by whom she was employed, keeping Bessie with her. While so employed by the Sutherland family in Pass Christian, MS, Margaret was taken gravely ill and notified her mother, Maria Jones, who lived in Chicago. Maria came and took her daughter back home by train, leaving Bessie behind in Mississippi. Margaret recovered and resumed her work with other families, but never had Bessie with her again. She was employed by the Hawley family in Oakland CA at the time of her death in 1936. Bessie later described seeing her mother leave Pass Christian on the train as one of the worst moments of her life. At just nine years of age she didn't know where her father was, but she did know that a grandmother and two aunts lived in Wisconsin. Mr. Sutherland wrote to them and May sent money for railroad fare to Wisconsin. How long Bessie Margaret Jones Gardner and Bess lived in Hingham is uncertain and at some point she went to live with "Grandma Conger" in Syracuse. She was apparently happy there; she added her grandmother's maiden name to her own. A bit of a stir was created at her high school graduation when her name was read out as "Bessie Elizabeth May Morey Gardner". |
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At this point, about 1910, Ida was living on Cornelia Street near Paulina in Chicago and working as a claims adjuster for the streetcar company. She invited Bessie to live with her and attend business school. After finishing, Bessie worked as a secretary for A. G. Spaulding Co., and later as private secretary to Dr. A. N. Hitchcock of the Congregational Board of Foreign Missions. |
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Edwin and Bess, as she preferred to be called as an adult, were married September 15, 1917. Less than three weeks later, Edwin was drafted into the army. The insurance business suffered due to his absence, and his mother filed a request for his discharge on hardship grounds. He was honorably discharged December 13, 1917 and took up his father's business again. |
The Wilsons planned a trip to California in December 1968 to spend Christmas with daughter Barbara and her family, but the day before they planned to depart Edwin was hospitalized with pneumonia. He was released from the hospital two months later, but never fully recovered.
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She had developed rheumatoid arthritis in 1945 and took the newly developed cortisone derivative, Metacortin, the long term effects of which were unknown at that time. Later, against the advice of several physicians, she continued taking it because it kept her pain-free and able to walk. | Charles E. Wilson, Jr. and Jeanne (Wesley) Wilson (1976) |
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