What began as generic research as to who lived in the house turned into a fun investigation…

McGrath

Henry McGrath (1846-1915) held various jobs but we believe was primarily in the Coal industry. 

Census records during the McGrath ownership:

1900-
Henry McGrath, head
Marie D Jordan, servant
Stephen A Cronan, servant
Sophia Larson, servant

1910-
Henry McGrath, head
Stephen Cronan, gardener
Anna Peterson, servant
Louise Foell, housekeeper

What was curious is that only Henry and staff are listed but both identify Henry as married… so who was his wife and why didn’t she live there? Obviously, it’s possible they were separated- divorce was not an acceptable practice… but something just seemed off, so we started looking at previous Censuses to find out who she was and dig up a little more…

1880- 
Henry McGrath, saloon keeper
Mary M McGrath, wife, keeping house

Mary McGrath (McCue) (1849?-1935). They married in February 1876. The couple did not have any children.

The reason she never lived in the house? 

She was committed to an insane asylum for 24 years…  (1891-1916).
It is still unclear as to why but we’ll keep trying to solve this mystery too!

After Henry’s death, his niece, Katherine McGrath (1876-1957), became the beneficiary of the will.

1920-
Katherine McGrath, head
Ellen McGrath, sister
John McGrath, brother
Fannie Johnson, servant

1930-Have not located yet. 

1940- (this year doesn’t make any sense- and may not be accurate)
Mary J McGrath, niece
Katherine McGrath, niece

1950-
Katherine McGrath, head
Laina Palo, maid

With the death of her husband, Henry McGrath’s wife, Mary, appealed for her release. It was said she no longer had any ‘symptoms’ and should be released from care. The contested will went to the Supreme court in 1916. There are newspaper articles nearly every day in February that year covering the case. The McGrath’s total estate was valued around $700k. (please look this up in today’s dollars- it’s insane)

Ultimately, Katherine still inherited the home and lived there with her siblings until her death in 1957.

McNamara

We bought the house from the McNamara Family (David S. and Eleanor) who’s door knocker still hangs today. Most of those we meet in Fitchburg still refer to the house as the McNamara home. They purchased the house April 29, 1957 for $17,000. (Worcester Northern District Deeds Book 799, Page 259) The McNamara Family was a large Catholic family with 11 children. When we moved in- we were told that the realtor had the family take out the kitchen island and stationary stools as it made the kitchen look much smaller than it is. To this day, we can still see the bolts from the 13 stools around the original island.

A few of the grandchildren and neighbors have stopped by to say hi and tell us a few stories.

We’ve learned that many of the flowers planted on the property were done by David for his wife.

We know the family battled the same invasive species for years that we continue to fight ourselves.

We’ve learned that David allegedly hated the second floor stained glass windows that were above the porch, and learned he could sell them for quite a bit of money since they were original and therefore unique to the home. He kept the top ‘transom’ windows but would have gladly eliminated those as well. While this breaks our heart that these are forever gone to us- we also have to laugh.

Part of the underground railroad? Our lovely next door neighbors passed on the story that our barn was once part of the underground railroad. There is a trap door in the barn stairs up to the hayloft. While this feels less believable now that it appears to only lead to the closet under the stairs, the timeline checks out and it’s believed that many of the prominent families of Fitchburg took part in the Underground Railroad. We won’t shut this theory down, but we cannot confirm it either.

We’ll continue to share these anecdotes as we’re told more.