GenMassachusetts-L Archives

From: Peter Williams <>
Subject: Family
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 17:25:39 -0700

Recently, a search was launched to identify an individual, a Mrs Allen of Holyoak who was partt to a traumatic (understatement) event in 1888. The New York Times reported the events as follows:

New York Times 16 November 1888



A SINGULAR SUICIDE Holyoke Mass. Nov 15, 1888



Edwin T Side an Englishman committed suicide this morning in a peculiarly cold blooded fashion. He had travelled for years with an English circus as an aeronaut and reached this country on Friday last-"turning up at Holyoke on Tuesday. He at once went to the house of Henry Mould to visit a Mrs Allen, whose husband is absent in Idaho, and who not long ago came from England where she had worked for Mr Side as a housekeeper. She left him about a year ago and coming to this country married about 8 months ago her present husband J Allen. About 10 days ago a child was born to her and to judge by the contents of a letter left by the suicide, he claimed to be the father of the child. He was 54 years of age and yet deliberately ended his life on account of unrequited love.



The circumstances attending this suicide are as follows:



Last Tuesday, Side called on Mrs Allen and urged her to leave her husband and go with him to New York. This she refused to do and upon her urgent entreaty he left the house. - This morning he returned and entered her bed chamber and found her lying in bed with her baby. He kissed the baby and urged Mrs Allen to kiss him. She refused point blank and then seating himself on a rocking chair he told her that since she would not fly with him, he would leave her for "that country from which no traveller returns" and immediately whipping a revolver of the bulldog pattern from his pocket, placed it to his temple and blew his brains out. His death was instantaneous. The suicide leaves a grown up family in England."

The SIDE family on both sides of the Atlantic have extensively researched Edwin and his family in London but have never been able to uncover the identity of "Mrs Allen", what happened to her subsequent to 1888 and what happened to the child. As recently as yesterday I searched the Marriage register of Holyoke for several years before and after 1888 but did not find any candidate Allen's. So now we are stuck (again).

Can anyone with local knowledge suggest how we might proceed given that all our internet, Ancestory.com and LDS options seem to have been exhausted.

TIA,

Peter Williams

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