Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey New
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RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY NEW BRUNSWICK AN INTERVIEW WITH HOWELL O. ARCHARD FOR THE RUTGERS ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVES INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY SHAUN ILLINGWORTH and SANDRA STEWART HOLYOAK NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY MAY 12, 2011 TRANSCRIPT BY DOMINGO DUARTE Shaun Illingworth: This begins an interview with Dr. Howell Osborne Archard on May 12, 2011, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with Shaun Illingworth. Dr. Archard, thank you very much for coming in. To begin, could you tell me where and when you were born? Howell O. Archard: I was born in St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, New York, because Yonkers Hospital that my mother's obstetrician usually used had an outbreak of puerperal fever, a streptococcal infection. I almost made it to March 26th, but my official birthday is March 25, 1929, which makes me 82 now. SI: Okay HA: I think it was about 11:55 pm, and that was in 1929, a rather auspicious year because my father had just opened his business in Wall Street at 25 Broad St, directly across from the New York Stock Exchange, as a broker or independent stock and bond dealer. He was going great guns until I came along! [laughter] Anyway, I guess everything went well as he had a number of people working for him and a caretaker nursemaid to care for me, because my mother was spending much time caring for her ailing mother in Yonkers. Then, of course, in October of 1929, everything changed completely. It must have been a particularly devastating year not only for him, but for my mother because her mother died in December. I have this only on my mother's word. I am attaching an ancestry pedigree of my family pedigree. SI: You were told. HA: We lived, at that time, in Oradell, New Jersey. My parents had met at Yonkers High School in Yonkers, New York, around 1911-12; it was a very good and well respected high school at that time. My mother's family were Seventh Day Baptists and arose from old New England families. They were strict abolitionists, as her grandfather was a hero in the Civil War, a state assemblyman and later a state senator in Rhode Island. Her mother's side were Yale and Alfred University graduates. My maternal grandmother's name was Sarah Frances Chipman, and she married Charles Newell Richmond on June 22, 1893. A number of the Chipmans are buried in Mystic, CT, in the Elm Grove Cemetery on River Road, as you enter Mystic along the Mystic river. One was the Health Commissioner of New London, and another was a school architect in New York City with offices on Broadway in downtown NYC; they were all Yale people. That is the Chipman side of my mother's family, while on her mother's side they were Saunders from Westerly, Rhode Island. I am not certain what they all did, (some ran a cabinetmakers shop there that made furniture for homes in Newport and ship steering wheels during the Second World War), but some apparently had enough money to help endow a building at Alfred College, named Saunders Hall. Alfred was one of several Seventh Day Baptist colleges; others are found in Wisconsin and Iowa. They were educated, intelligent fundamentalists who were so fundamental they worshiped on Saturday, which made me wonder if they weren't some sort of Christianized-Jewish sect, but I did not know these people nor did I get raised in that religion. My mother's family, on the Saunders side, did trace their ancestry back to the 'infamous' Elizabeth Tilley of the Mayflower, who apparently had eight children after she landed here. They of course propagated and spread out. I believe John Adams was descended from that same heritage. [Editor's Note: Elizabeth Tilley was among the original Pilgrims who settled North America from England. She and fellow passenger John Howland promulgated many important 2 descendants, Founding Father and second President John Adams among them.] I used to visit the Babcock-Smith house (a national heritage site) in Westerly as a child, as Mrs. Orlando Smith, (Phoebe Alice Smith) who was a distant relative of the Saunders, lived there. John Adams and Ben Franklin stayed there; Ben Franklin set up the first post office in Westerly in the house. The Chipmans, I don't know too much about, but the Richmonds were middle-class, entrepreneurial types - general store operators and undertakers - in Hope Valley, R.I. That is where my grandfather, Charles Newell Richmond, and my mother's brother, USCG Captain Edward Allen Richmond, are buried in Pine Lawn Cemetery. My grandmother, Sarah Frances Chipman Richmond, is buried there also, as well as my grandfather's first wife, Sarah Clark. They were married in 1882, but she died of "galloping consumption" (tuberculosis), in six months. I have considerable family records which I have put into albums that may go to the archives of the Oradell, NJ, Library, if not staying in my family. My mother had one brother, Edward Allen Richmond, who was born in Hope Valley, RI, in 1894, and my mother was also born there (as Rachel Richmond) on January 2nd, 1897. SI: Before we go to your father's side, I wanted to ask a couple of questions about your mother's side. HA: Yes SI: First, it is very interesting that she was college educated, at that time. HA: Right SI: There were these family ties with Alfred College. HA: Yes. SI: Did she ever talk about why she went to college and what it was like? HA: Well, let me get into that, because that's important. Actually, the Richmonds were quite religious to the point that they encouraged my mother to pursue church-related activities, namely the liturgy. She always said she was funneled into the liturgy for the Baptist church, as she was given piano lessons at an early age and apparently showed considerable talent. Indeed, she must have been quite smart and talented, because one of the reasons, I think, that they moved to Yonkers was not only that the Chipmans lived there, but that the high school was known to be very good. Her mother was a graduate of Alfred and reflected those educational values. My mother's father (Charles Newell Richmond) was a steam fitter and heating and plumbing contractor who worked with his hands; he was very strong and a very hard worker, but not a very good business man. His wife, Sarah Frances Richmond, known as "Fanny," had graduated from Alfred College with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree; she taught school in Hopkinton, RI, and they lived in Hope Valley and later in nearby Moosic, CT. My grandfather ran hardware stores in Hope Valley and Moosic, and later did heating and plumbing work, but was not very successful at most of these things, so he did not make any significant amount of money. Although I do not know this for a fact, the Chipmans did have some money, as some of them went to Texas and were, I believe, instrumental in founding the Chipman Oil company in Texas. 3 It could have been that my mother's Alfred College studies were funded in part by the Chipmans, as I do not know of any scholarship, as such, that she might have had. She majored in music but could only stay for two years because basically she had accomplished what I guess her parents wanted to and could afford. I know she loved those days at Alfred and had many friends there and kept in contact with a number over the years. She was then sufficiently proficient with piano and organ to now perform the liturgical church services in such churches as the Judson Memorial Seventh Day Baptist church in Washington Square in NYC, as well as other churches. [Editor's Note: Dr. Archard is referring to the Judson Memorial Baptist Church opposite Washington Square Park in Manhattan]. It is now the Judson Center, I believe, owned by New York University; but it was previously the Judson Seventh Day Baptist church. She played the organ at a number of churches and studied privately with a professional pianist, a Professor Meyerhof is the name I recall. I believe he was a concert pianist and quite well known. She may well have been his prize student because when he retired he gave her (or sold to her) his music, books on music, several chairs and his baby grand Steinway piano. All I remember is that the piano took up about a quarter of our small living room at 729 Greentree Lane in Oradell, NJ. Incidentally, our phone number was Oradell 8-0292, and to make a call you spoke to an operator who connected you manually. Now that comes from almost eighty years ago! My mother took summer courses in music at Smith College as well, and thoroughly loved the college scene. She made friends easily with her thoughtful and kindly personality. My mother must have been a remarkable person in college by virtue of her intelligence, her talent and her remarkable moral upbringing, reminiscent of the "Devotio Moderna" movement of the 1400 and 1500s. She graduated from Yonkers High School with a NYS Regents Diploma. Those were very difficult diplomas to obtain as they were the result of very difficult exams that tested everything, including Latin. [Editor's Note: Regent examinations are standardized tests given in the New York State public school system measuring proficiency in all subjects]. She found her way into college, I think, on the basis of her skills and intellectual ability.