Life in Newburyport 1900-1950.
Bossy Gillis was sort of a jerk.
I knew he was combatitive. Afterall, he's most famous for punching elderly (or very senior) Mayor Cashman in the mush. I also understand how the populist sentiment swept him into office several times. Frankly, sounds like the city needed it.
The book also presents a softer side (and more complete picture) Gillis. But overall, the guy comes off as well...a jerk in most cases. In one particular instance, a talk at City Hall just prior to the U.S. entry into World War II he demonstrated an ugly streak (one that's refuted later in the book.)
No real surprise there, I know. I just find it funny that we named our biggest monument, a bridge, after him.
But I suppose the Gillis bridge is a fitting book end to the Lord Timothy Dexter Industrial Park. By John Marquand's account in Timothy Dexter Revisited, Dexter was a brilliant (or lucky) business man with a healthy and extremely eccentric ego (not to mention a weakness for liquor and women.)
I thought he was actually a Lord until I read the book. The title was largely sarcastic by my reading.
While every interested Newburyporter should read Marquand's book, every Newburyport home should have a copy of Jean Foley Doyle's in their bookcase.
At the very least you'll get a chuckle while driving through the industrial park or over the Gillis bridge. We need to come up with a fitting name for the rail trail that will connect the two.
Yet another reason to love this city. We honor our characters, even the flawed ones.
p.s. After I wrote this I see Time Magazine beat me to it by 80 years or so. Classic stuff. Mary Eaton made a slightly more recent connection. I need to hunt down this biography next.
8 comments:
I believe Bossy's best quote was "You haven't lived 'till you've punched a Mayor in the nose."
Now why would anyone ever want to do that?
Rail Trail: Tom Salemi Not Yet Memorial Transportation Connector seems a fitting moniker.
I am not worthy.
But I had another Tom in mind.
He isn't dead thank goodness, but he is in New Hampshire. That'll do.
And he's still taking dedications. Go to http://tomandatticus.blogspot.com/2007/12/dedicate-one-of-4000-footers-to-your.html
Why is the city's industrial park named after such an eccentric buffoon? He exported stray cats to the Caribbean, says Wikipedia. Who exports cats??
Thanks for the Wikipedia link. I should have included that in the post.
This settles it. An industrial park isn't enough, we must have a Lord Timothy Dexter Day in Newburyport.
Tom S., you are so right about the charms of Newburyport, warts and all.
Take a visit to Sawyer Hill Burial Ground and check out where Marquand's grave is compared to the rest of his family, other than his son and daughter-in-law. There's a good story behind this.
Read "Yankee City" available in the Hamilton Room at the library for more information about Bossy and why he mattered, warts and all, in a community that Ivy League sociologists thought enough of to do a study on class separation.
The wonderful history of Newburyport is full of twists and turns where good guys and bad guys are often the same guys.
When Marquand was here and a Pulitizer Price winner, NY publications flocked here and worte tons of articles. One of them, perhaps it was Vanity Fair (but I'm not certain of the source), wrote that in Newburyport you saw all the same dysfunctions and strange personalities you see in NYC, the only difference is that in Newburyport, you know them all.
Heck, what other city could claim to have a character like Larry "The Weeper" Howard end up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for his tendency to show up at all wakes and funerals?
Or how about the great "Million Dollar Sexcretary" headline in the NY Post a couple of years ago. NYC's million dollar sexcretary was not only in the center of one of the biggest scandals in corporate America, she is also the daughter of a former mayor. Part of the pay off to leave her corporate job, as was reported in all publications other than the Daily News, went towards her down payment in starting the PI Grille. (She has since been bought out.)
And even Jean Doyle, the author of this wonderful provincial study you are referencing is an interesting study. She will go down in Nbpt. history for being locally famous for giving us both this book and her son, the controversial police detective David Foley.
Oh the twists and turns are fascinating and that's what we won't see as much as when the Bobos continue to find this Paradise. These are just a few of the many things that are lost when we lose the old-timers.
And to think none of it mattered or matters is wrong, it's part of what shaped Newburyport.
Ah...the good old days when crooks, drunks and incompetents provided the entertainment.....personally I'd rather 'good government' even if it sounds less exciting.
Bloggers note: Tom Ryan did reply to Nostaglia with a few specific examples of how the "good ole days" aren't entirely gone.
However, I declined to publish the comment because frankly, I don't want to go there with the blog.
Tom graciously understood and agreed, but I did want to acknowledge his reply.
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