Central Park Pedestal
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8 May 1911: As this postcard found its way from Galveston to Manhattan, the sculptor, Louis Amateis, was likely still working on the bronze casting at his studio at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The statue was in place and dedicated the following summer on June 3, 1912.
The five story courthouse building was built in 1898, replaced in 1966 with the present structure, although the county administration functions moved to 600 59th Street in 2006. |
23 March 2019: This public square is sparsely populated even on weekdays since most county business is conducted on 59th street. The occasional stray tourist with a camera mingles here with the homeless population camped out in the poorly-policed public space, including the idle gentlemen sitting on the retaining wall beneath the statue. They freely shared their skepticism about the “dignified resignation” of the soldiers vainly trying to protect a system that would have preserved the servitude of their unnamed ancestors.
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Postmarked: 8 May 1911; Galveston, Texas
Stamp: 1c Green Ben Franklin #374 Flag Cancel To: May Fisher #35 Wash Sq. W., New York City. Message: Thank you for Yonkers views Bldg very old. But looks substantial yet. A statue is soon to be placed on the pedestal in this park. Fine weather Best wishes -157- The recipient of the postcard, May Fisher, was the wife of William G. Fisher, a teacher of manual farming methods. They lived just off Washington Square, famous then as now as a cultural beacon for intelligentsia and those who loved the Bohemian lifestyle, a Greenwich Village park in lower Manhattan and the location of the core facilities of New York University. William G. Fisher was born in England in 1862 and immigrated to America May 14, 1890. He married Sarah Mary “May” Oliver in 1889, she was also born in England, in January 1870. They had one child, Wallace E. Fisher in 1895 and lived on Washington Square from before 1900 until after 1911, moving to Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, NY in the Hudson River Valley by 1915. They lived out the rest of their long lives in Rhinebeck, William died in 1953 at the age of 92 and May died in 1965 at 95. They are buried in Rhinebeck Cemetery in Dutchess County, NY, as is their son Wallace E. Fisher (1895-1959) and his wife Elsie (1895-1985).
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The writer of the postcard signs himself “-157-“ which was his membership number in a postcard exchange club of which May Fisher was also a member. A few days earlier he had written her another Galveston postcard and signed himself as James Hewitt, who, as it turns out, was a lifelong Galveston resident. His parents were Richard Hewitt and Mary Shea, both of Irish heritage. Richard immigrated from Cavan County, Ireland on board the Corinthian arriving in New Orleans on 27 May 1852 from Liverpool with his parents, James (28) and Rebecca (25) Hewitt and sisters Annie Eliza (4) and Mary Jane (an infant) when he was just six years old. 336 passengers disembarked, but 16 had died on the voyage from Liverpool, England. The family settled in New Orleans, but Rebecca was widowed before 1871 when Richard was 26 and was working as a driver for the New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad, one of the earliest public transit systems in America. New Orleans was then by far the largest port on the Gulf Coast with a population of 191,500 [Galveston had a population of only 14,000, though the largest city in Texas, and Houston was just 9,000].
By 1880 Richard Hewitt had moved to Galveston and met and married Mary Shea (Shay) at her mother’s boarding house at 107 West Market Street. Mary’s mother was Anna Shea, widow of Michael Shea, who like the Hewitt’s were Irish immigrants from Ireland into New Orleans in the 1850’s. Their eldest son John Shea (born 1852 in New Orleans) came to Galveston about 1875, and was joined by his mother and sisters, Mary (1857), Hannah (1859), and Bridget (1861). Anna’s boarding houses remained in operation for many years, lodging as many as 15 boarders, often including members of her extended family as well. Richard Hewitt married Mary Shea about 1878, and their son James M. Hewitt, the author of the postcard, was born in 1879, first of five children including also: Annie Rebecca (1883), Mary Leo (1885), Carrie M. (1891) and Richard John (1895). Some time in the 1880’s the widow Anna Shea married one of these tenants, Thomas Burns, who was a screwman, a low-skilled laborer unloading cotton in one of Galveston’s many cotton warehouses. Her daughter Honorah “Hannah” or “Annie” Shea married Robert Burns, probably an as yet undiscovered relation of Thomas Burns, both of whom are found on the 1880 census in Ann Shea’s boarding house, along with her son-in-law Richard Hewitt and her two infant grandsons, James M. Hewitt (the postcard writer) and John Burns, the son of Annie Shea and Robert Burns. James M. Hewitt lived only another 7 years from the time of the postcard exchange, dying on 18 December 1918 of the Spanish Flu. He was buried at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Galveston, not far from his father Richard Hewitt, who had died the year before. His mother died in 1921 in El Paso, TX, perhaps drawn to the climate there to treat her pulmonary tuberculosis, the cause of her death, and she is also buried in Calvary Cemetery. James’ sister Annie Rebecca Hewitt (1883-1974) worked in various bookkeeping and secretarial jobs in and around Galveston, and never married. His other sisters are buried in Galveston Memorial Park in Hitchcock, Galveston County, TX: Mary Leo Hewitt (1885-1948) and her husband Joseph Aloyious Moold (1884-1955), and Carrie M. Hewitt (1891-1962) and her husband William Joseph Delahunty (1896-1954). His brother Richard John Hewitt found a job as a cable operator with Mexican Telegraph Company in 1912, and worked in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, México on the Pacific Ocean at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and later in Washington, DC. After he served as informant on his mother’s 1921 death certificate, nothing further has been found. |
