After the marriage of great grandparents James Louis Hynes and Bessie Gordon in 1905, the Gordon and Hynes branches of our family tree remained entangled in the 1910s and 1920s in surprising ways. These entanglements give us the opportunity to discover things about each of the branches that we would not otherwise have been able to learn.
Addie, our second-great-aunt, was the third child, born in 1877. She was 28 years old when her sister, Bessie, married James Hynes in 1905. Addie never married but, in 1908 at the age of 31, she left home to go to Nashville, Tennessee, where she remained for 8 years.
The 1910 U.S. Census shows James and Nettie, ages 72 and 62, living in the Newburgh house alone. Son Edward Gordon was in medical school during this time. Daughter Bessie Gordon Hynes then lived with her husband and four children nearby, soon to move to Cornwall.
In 1912 James Gordon died at age 74. According to legal documents pertaining to his estate, Addie still lived in Nashville at that time.
According to the Newburgh City Directory, Nettie lived in the house alone until 1916, when Addie returned. Nettie and Addie were still living there in 1920, according to the U.S. Census.
I have no information of what Addie was doing in Nashville for 8 years. She appears to have been left out of the 1910 Census, which would have provided useful information, including an occupation. My guess is that she was teaching and perhaps a student. The guess is based on her father’s life in New Jersey and Philadelphia at a similar age. Recall that her sister, Bessie, was also a teacher, until her marriage.
The 1925 New York Census continues to show Addie continuing to live with her mother in the house.
A closer look at the 1925 New York Census reveals something very unexpected. Nine rows below the entries for Addie and Nettie are two additional entries for 182 Liberty Street. The entries are separated as if the census taker got interrupted and came back a little later. In 1925 Elizabeth and Eleanor Hynes, ages 18 and 16, lived in the house at 182 Liberty Street with their aunt Addie and great aunt Nettie, 50 miles away from their family home in Brooklyn.
As previously reported, our great grandfather James’ father, Matthew Hynes, died in 1905 in New Haven. The family left Newburgh in 1910, moving five miles south to Cornwall, New York, where James became the pastor of a small Baptist church.
The 1910 Census shows James’ mother, Hannah, and sister, Blanche, living together in Brooklyn.
Blanche is of interest in our story, but is difficult to find information about. She was 19 in 2010. By the 2015 New York State Census she has returned to live with her brother’s family in Cornwall. Strangely, she appears as Blanche Detmar or Ditmarr. If she was married after 1910 it does not seem to have lasted. There is a December 1910 record of a marriage to a Lester Ditmas, but no other records of Lester can be found. Later information on Blanche is also difficult to find. In 1920 she still lived with her brother’s family, now in Freeport, Long Island. After 1920 there is one additional Social Security record in which Blanche appears as Blanche McAllister, so it seems that she remarried. Second great grandmother Hannah is nowhere to be found after 1910 except that she appears to have eventually gone back to Newfoundland where she died in 1950.
James moved his family to Freeport sometime after 1915 to become pastor of the Freeport Baptist Church. In 1919 he took a position as pastor of the Bushwick Avenue Baptist Church in Brooklyn. He must have commuted to Brooklyn from Freeport for a while since he still lived in Freeport at the time of the 1920 Census. The 1925 New York State Census seems to have missed James and his family, but they probably lived in Brooklyn by that time. As we have seen, James’ and Bessie’s daughters lived in Newburgh in 1925, with their Aunt Addie.
We have discussed that James had improper relations with his sister Blanche, as related in family oral history. The timeline of Blanche living with her brother, both as a young child before the death of their father and after 1915, provides a broad timespan where this could have taken place.
Aside from census reports, direct information about James in Cornwall and Freeport is pretty scarce–just a few church notices in local papers. Even if there were more published, it would certainly not reveal the true nature of what was going on. Family oral history also says that our grandfather, Gordon Hynes, who was 8-18 years old between 1915 and 1925 had to spend parts of his childhood defending his sisters from the advances of their father. The situation culminated with James fathering a child with younger daughter Eleanor around 1922. It is clear that Elizabeth and Eleanor were removed from the household, by family intervention, in the years leading up to 1925, sent to live with their Aunt Addie in Newburgh.
Consistent with the theory that she shared her father’s penchant for learning and was a student in Nashville, Addie established a professional career after her 1916 return to Newburgh that continued for at least 36 years. The Newburgh City Directories provide an outline and timeline for the development of this career:
- In 1918 she is listed as the Assistant Secretary of the YWCA
- In 1919 she is listed as a Protective Officer for the City of Newburgh.
- In 1920 she is listed as a Probation Officer. The 1920 Census also lists this as her occupation.
- Between 1924 and 1960 (ages 46-83), she is listed in various executive positions with the Newburgh Girls Services League
A 1921 publication of a transcript of a presentation Addie gave to the New York State Probation commission summarizes a paper she wrote on some of her findings in the field, and gives insights into her work.
Since we don’t know what Addie did in Nashville, we can’t tell whether her earlier studies led to this career or it is something that came about after 1916. But it is difficult to believe that the similarity between Addie’s lifelong work in support of young women and the circumstances of her sister’s marriage to James Hynes could be a coincidence. Addie must have been aware of Bessie’s problems from the time of her marriage to James in 1905. It is possible that, in addition to needing to take care of her widowed mother, Addie’s return to Newburgh had something to do with her sister’s problems. At the very least, Bessie would have had too many problems of her own to be able to attend to their mother, so the responsibility must have fallen to Addie.
At the time of Addie’s return to Newburgh, James and Bessie had Blanche living with them (after something went wrong with her marriage), their daughters were entering their teenage years, and their son was learning to protect his sisters from their father. With all this going on, Addie would have been looking for ways to help her sister and nieces, making contacts and asking questions, which may have sparked her career interests. Between Newburgh and Freeport is New York, so I can imagine that Addie’s entanglements with her family problems led to the development of contacts and sources in the big city.
By the time the illegitimate baby came in 1922, Addie must have been the one in the family with professional knowledge about how such things were dealt with. She must have played a role in putting the baby up for adoption or whatever the solution would have been. And she must have been the one to set in motion the plans for removal of her nieces from their home in Brooklyn for the remainder of their teenage years.
I have summarized the purpose of this forum as “exploring the lives of eight great grandparents who led astonishing or extraordinary lives”. The definitions of the words “astonishing” and “extraordinary” do not necessarily imply “virtuous” or “agreeable”. James Hynes did not lead a virtuous life despite outward appearances, nor could much of Bessie Gordon Hynes’ life have been considered agreeable. Addie’s life, on the other hand was astonishing and extraordinary in all of the good ways. She was an educated career woman in an era when that was not common. She gave a life of service to her family and community.
Bridging the Silences 
9 thoughts on “The Extraordinary Life and Accomplishments of Second-Great-Aunt Addie”