Hartford CT. Events that fostered free speech, Frederick Douglass 1848, Barack Obama 2008.

Hartford has a history of efforts to loop back to find injustices and fostering a remedy. Occasionally.  Not always, not for all, but often enough to add to our pride of place. Here, Hartford's Center Church, at the Ancient Burying Ground.

Hartford Center Church, by Ancient Burying Ground, CT. Frederick Douglass spoke here, Abolitionist. Reminder

I.  Frederick Douglass, black abolitionist, was on a circuit of rallies in 1848 and was denied the pulpit by the congregation for giving an address inside Center Church, First Church of Christ, next to the Ancient Burying Ground.  The clergyman, the Rev. Joel Hawes,  was an abolitionist but under other social pressures, so provided instead the courtyard outside which is now labeled and set aside as a commemoration. Until 2017, the tribute was a small plaque downtown; then in 2917 this step toward correcting an early wrong was taken. The Hartford Courant records it.

II. From 1848 and a place for speech, move to 2008, where then-presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to a capacity crowd at downtown Hartford's Civic Center, now the XL Center.  Representative Rosa DeLauro, Senator Ted Kennedy Caroline Kennedy and others of the birds and beasts of the day were there.  The Press Corps milled about in a relaxed way, and politics were optimistic.    

Dan Widing and Uncle Don Scharfe, Dan learns something about politics, a rally for Barack Obama in Hartford 2008.

The teletron!  Barack Obama, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Rosa DeLauro. See Wiki photo.

Hartford rally, 2008, Barack Obama, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, RosaDeLauro

Obama rally, Hartford  CT 2008, John B. Larson, Barack Obama,  Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg,, Ted Kennedy, Chris Murphy

17,000 people of Hartford.  Obama rally 2008.

Did somebody get to Scholastic.com, because their article is gone:  mustn't let the kids know?

"www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748959

He drew the biggest crowd at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, since Hannah Montana rocked the stage in December. On February 4, Barack Obama held a rally of about 17,000 excited supporters at the center. They were doing the wave and clapping to the music while waiting for the candidate for the Democratic nomination for President to arrive."

Scholastic.com has removed its coverage

So let's show some more.  We were in a top tier.

Politics used to be informative and even enjoyable. Explore choices. Obama rally, Hartford 2008.

NYC. The Riverside Rehab. Site rooted in name of Native American Saint Kateri 1656-1680

Saint Kateri.  She who bumps into things. Vision affected by smallpox. She became the patron saint of the Kateri Residence, that became the Riverside Rehabilitation. Track a building in an old city. First, get there.

George Washington Bridge from the Henry Hudson Parkway

Aim for The Riverside Premier Rehabilitation and Healing Center tat #150 Riverside Drive, 10025 to visit a soul-mate, brother and Dan's uncle, suddenly needing long-term care, and find a fine old New York building: Responsive care, good choice, but focus here is on its roots -- revive the patroness Kateri from long ago.

The Riverside, Rehabilitation and Healing, Riverside Drive, NYC

Inside,is a healthy aviary.  Excellent.  But what is behind this building, so New York solid.

1. The site was  a hotel, then a care residence named for Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks; a Roman Catholic saint ultimately. What she achieved in 24 years of life -- and with a vision handicap, and smallpox scars.

Timeline,  Kateri Tekathwika
[See also Wiki
"The Lily of the Mohawks"

1658 - Birth of one Kateri Tekathwika , whose mother was an Algonquian convert to Christianity; and her father was Mohawk.  Dedicated her life to Christianity.  The name is Mohawk.  Afflicted with smallpox, vision affected, called,"she who bumps into things."  Miracles and works.
1680 - Death of Kateri,
1943 - Pope Pius declared here "venerable"
1980 - Pope John Paul II beatified her and declared her "blessed"
2011 - Pope Benedict XVI canonized her, approving as a needed second miracle the healing of a boy, Jake Finkbonner, who had a "flesh-eating disease."
There are attestations of other special favors and healings. Much detail at Wiki, above.

Wiki states there is a bronze representation of Tekakwitha as part of the bronze doors of St. Patrick's Cathedral, NYC.

2. 1920's.  Site at 150 Riverside Drive as an apartment-hotel combination, see https://www.nycservice.org/organizations/349

1968-1970's.  Building was converted to a nursing home.

1970's-1981 -- Roman Catholic Diocese  through Catholic Charities assumed responsibility for the nursing home. See. https://www.nycservice.org/organizations/349 .
Cardinal Cooke chose Kateri as patroness

1981 -- Ownership went to Kateri Residence organization

2019 -- Hello, home away from home.  Courteous, capable staff, really good food I see, and responsive to out of town relatives asking about Bed X. Life in the time of Corona. Thank you.

1999-2004 -- Renovations and improvements


The Kateri Residence, a skilled nursing facility was established at 150 Riverside Drive. https://www.nyconnects.ny.gov/providers/kateri-residence-sofanya407034

2673 Bainbridge Avenue in 1905, The Bronx, New York City, NY. McConaghy. Hilliard. Northern Ireland

America and immigration from Northern Ireland. Dan likes to know everything about everybody. This is about his great grandmother. Every family has its stories. Ours on this one side stems from Northern Ireland, proudly English roots, or indigenous landowners, and very protestant. Find the old pictures. Then look up the address and find someone who says the house was built in 1915.  Our records, not so: 1905. Complete with beams on the long wagon, with horses.  Then ask, what did it cost to build a single family home in the Bronx in 1905? No idea, but this is a fine middle-ground house. There used to be a snowball bush in front, my mother, Marjorie, would say.

We know that my grandmother was funded from Ireland, with recurrent visits by her natural father, William Brien (of the Lodge), and that she spent down what he provided when her husband died in his early 40's, and she had 5 surviving children to support in that house. Her mother, known as Nana, and an aunt, I believe, also lived there, top floor. My mother imitated Nana calling, "DorothEEE? DorothEEE" for Dorothy, the second daughter, who was the favorite gopher.

2673 Bainbridge Avenue, the Bronx, New York City, single family home, being built in 1905

My grandmother, Lucinda Louise Hilliard arrived second class on the ship with her mother, Margaret  (we have the ticket) at 18 . Margaret, was all of 32 by then, which tells you something.  It might have been a #me-too situation except Mr. Brien was honorable given the times, and supported my grandmother and visited her here, and was always concerned and respectful as to Margaret Hilliard.  Louise married here, to Robert McClure McConaghy. Had they known each other in what is now Northern Ireland?   Support?  Secret, but generous. Mr. Brien gifted stock, that Grandma sold off to support the children and others, until the two sons found out, and then worked to pay their own way at Columbia.late in high school, Girls did not go to college.

Louise Lucinda Brien Hilliard, before she became a McConaghy

Little Robby, the eldest child, died at 6  in about 1914 (flu) and is buried with most of the others at Woodlawn in NY,. There is still a stained glass little lamb window in his memory in the Sunday School at Bedford Park Presbyterian Church, the Bronx, and we asked recently if couldn't room be in Robby's plot for cremains of another descendant. Apparently, in the less than finest Dickens tradition, the Board was horrified at allowing such a thing. La de dah. We will ask again.  Cemeteries are still peopled with the dead. You can write them on our behalf at https://www.thewoodlawncemetery.org. The time has not yet come.  It is not too late.  The little lamb placed on Robby's headstone, is gone, though.  Careless mowers, grim reapers.

Member of the Board: Certainly NOT.

Listen -- What is that you say? This old regular and irregular family wants to add one more, as cremains in due course, in a little box tto be set in a plot with what is left of a casket with a 6-yr old planted there in 1914? Surely the little lamb, Robby, would like company after 106 years?