Family Chronicles

Our grandfather, Ralph Barker’s sister Sarah Barker was the first graduate from this school.

New York Training School for Deaconesses Project
(History Provided by the Episcopal Diocese of New York Archives)

THE NEW YORK TRAINING SCHOOL FOR DEACONESSES was founded in October 1890, by the Rev. William R. Huntington, D.D., as a school where women might be trained to meet the requirements of the Canon on Deaconesses, drawn by him and passed largely through his efforts at the Convention of 1889. Through the instrumentality of Dr. Huntington a considerable sum of money was raised with which a building on East Twelfth Street was bought, where the pupils were first housed. Rooms in Grace Settlement House were used for Recitation Halls. This, however, he always regarded as an inconvenient and temporary arrangement; and when his life-long friend, Archdeacon C. C. Tiffany, left to the School a legacy of $120,000 upon the condition that a suitable school building in memory of Mrs.

Tiffany should be erected in the Close of the Cathedral, Dr. Huntington took immediate steps toward fulfilling these requirements. The planning of the building was a great joy to him and one of the last acts of his life was the signing of the contract for its construction. Designed by architects Heins & Lafarge, the cornerstone for the building was laid May 7, 1910. The building contains a chapel at the eastern end known as the Oratory of the Good Shepherd, a Library, a Refectory, recitation rooms and dormitories for 50 students.

From 1890-1919 284 women were admitted to the school; 169 graduated, of whom 95 became deaconesses. As enrollments dropped the school was closed in 1947 and the building was turned over to the Cathedral to be used primarily for offices, with the upper floors used as residences for the Suffragan Bishop and for the Canon Ministers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The New York Training School for Deaconesses records are part of the archives collection of the Diocese of New York. The archives received a grant from EWHP to provide a finding aid for the 19 banker’s boxes and 8 hollinger boxes of material that comprise the NYTS collection. The archives has now processed about two-thirds of the material. You can access the new finding aid in Word here. In addition we are providing a link to a 1907 description of the school from The Churchman. the Archives are located in the former training school building (now Cathedral offices) on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. For access to the collection, contact Wayne Kempton, Archivist at 212-316-7419 or archives@dioceseny.org.

From Bob Barker on July 8,2017: Attached  is a picture of the plane that I crewed on during my stay in the squadron, 1952-1955. It is a Consolidated P4Y Privateer, the Navy version of the Airforce B24 Liberator. That plane has a twin tail. After a year or so the Lockheed P2V Neptune was added to the mix. That is the type plane your picture showed, all rigged out for long distance surveillance. I knew the whole crew and flew with many of them on occasion.

The pilot was Lt. Cmndr Westover, fairly new to the squadron with little or no real hurricane experience. The Co-pilot was Lt. Herlong. His father was in the Florida legislature and a small landing field just north of town, Herlong Field, was used by us for touch and go landings from time to time. He raised heck with the Navy at his loss. Joe Combs, the radio operator, a Petty Officer First class was a crew mate of mine at one time, as was the photographer (forgot his name) an aerologist (meteorologist) w carried on the missions.

The last words received from the plane was “we are hitting a wall of water” (between Cuba and S, American coast) Your picture shows probable cause: Note the two wing tanks at the end of each wing. Extra fuel was needed for extended time on station. It was absolutely essential that all wing tanks be empty before entering extreme turbulence. It was concluded that Westover being a bit “green” may have overlooked this fatal detail.

Except for some debris, no one was ever recovered as far as I know. I had just got out of the Navy and Mom and I were in Middlebury looking for a place to hunker down for my final year there.

As for the house, I couldn’t tell you. Hardly ever saw the front. We were in a little two BR bungalow in the back yard. The only pic of the house I can quickly find is also attached featuring KB

The Florida Times-Union Jacksonville, Wednesday, September 28, 1955

Navy Plane Missing With 11 Local Men

A Navy Hurricane Hunter plane with 9 Jacksonville Naval Air Station men aboard and 2 news men has disappeared while probling the 110-mile-an-hour winds of Hurricane Janet.

Cmdr E. L. Foster, Commanding Officer of VW-4 at NAS, said the ship was operating out of NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and has been overdue since 6:30 p.m., yesterday.

He said the ship had enough fuel to last until about 10:30 last night. The last radio contact with the plane was made at 10:15 a.m. yesterday.

An air-sea rescue team has been alerted and will begin combing the Caribbean area at dawn today if no word of the missing plane has been received.

Capt. Frederick Davison of the Navy’s Weather Central in Miami said planes and ships from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Panama have been alerted.

Comdr. Foster, who said a communications alert for the plane was ordered at noon yesterday, said he did not know of any field in the area large enough to accommodate the P2V “Neptune” bomber “with which we are not in communication.”

He said it was possible, however, that the plane may have landed somewhere else under emergency conditions.

A liaison officer at the Miami station, Capt. David Rudle, said a communication from the plane about 8:15 a.m. indicated the pilot intended to make a penetration into the storm. He said the radio contact made at 10:15 gave no hint that the plane might be in trouble, but the signal from the plane’s radio was weak and fading.

It was not known whether the plane was in the midst of the hurricane at the time of the last radio message.

The plane took off from NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at 6:30 a.m. and was due to return at 4:30 p.m. It was considered overdue at 6:30 p.m.

Cmdr. Foster remained at his post at NAS throughout the night.

The plane was one of several sent from Jacksonville to NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to keep watch on hurricanes in the Caribbean area.

A four-engine Super Constellation left the Cuban base on schedule to relieve the Neptune, with special orders to be on the watch for the missing ship.

Lt. Cmdr. Grover B. Windham Jr. of Jacksonville, Plane Commander
LTjg Thomas R. Morgan of Orange Park, Navigator
LTjg George W. Herlong of Yukon, Co-Pilot
Aviation Electronics Technician Second Class Julius J. Mann, 22, of Canton, Ohio
LTjg Thomas L. Greaney, 26, of Jacksonville, Navigator
Aviation Mechanic First Class J. P. Windham, Jr., 32 of Jacksonville
Airman Kenneth L. Klegg, 22, of Cranston, RI
Aviation Electronics Man First Class Joseph F. combs of Forest Park, NY
Aerologist William A. Buck, of Jacksonville

The only Atlantic Hurricane Hunter flight to go down occurred on September 26, 1955. Snowcloud Five, a U.S. Navy P2V Neptune weather reconnaissance airplane flying out of Guantanamo, Cuba, was lost in Hurricane Janet, 300 miles southwest of Jamaica. Snowcloud Five was part of the Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four (VW-4), based at the Jacksonville, Florida Naval Air Station. Carrying a crew of nine and two reporters from the Toronto Daily Star, Snowcloud Five took off at 0630 local time, and performed its initial penetration into Janet at an altitude of 700 feet. At the time of the crash, Janet was a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds. The aircraft sent back this transmission, then was never heard from again:
NAVY RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHT 5U93, OBSERVATION NUMBER FIVE, AT 1330 GMT (8:30AM EST), MONDAY, LOCATED AT LATITUDE 15.4 DEGREES N, LONGITUDE 78.2 DEGREES W. OBLIQUE AND HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY 3-10 MILES, ALTITUDE 700 FEET, FLIGHT WIND 050 DEGREES (NE) 45 KNOTS (52 MPH). PRESENT WEATHER LIGHT INTERMITTENT SHOWERS, PAST WEATHER SAME, OVERCAST AND SOME SCUD BELOW, SURFACE PRESSURE 1,003 MILLIBARS (29.62 INCHES), SURFACE WINDS 050 DEGREES (NE), 45 KNOTS (52 MPH). BEGINNING PENETRATION.

Nuc1
Figure 1. Snowcloud Five, the U.S. Navy P2V Neptune weather reconnaissance airplane that went down in Hurricane Janet of 1955. Image credit: navyhurricanehunters.com
An intensive air and sea search operation combed a 300 by 200 mile region of the Caribbean for the airplane over the next five days. In all, sixty aircraft, seven ships, and three thousand personnel were involved. No trace of Snowcloud Five was ever found. A book called Stormchasers (David Toomey, 2002) provides a detailed story of the flight into Hurricane Janet, and provides some insight as to what may have gone wrong. Dr. Hugh Willoughby, former director of NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division, speculated on the fate of Snowcloud Five in a review of Stormchasers that appeared in the February, 2003 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: “The enlisted aerographer’s mate was left behind that day in order to accommodate the Toronto Daily Star reporter. This key crew member was normally responsible for keeping the pilots aware of altitude by calling out readings from the only radar altimeter on board, located at the aerologist’s station. Without him, the aerologist, Lt. (jg) William Buck, had to do two demanding jobs: He had to simultaneously read the bouncing, flickering altimeter and peer down from his Plexiglas bubble in the nose to discern the wind from streaks of foam on the sea. It is easy to imagine how he might have lost control of the situation as he struggled to keep the airplane safely above the waves and flying perpendicular to the wind towards the eye.”

The crew members lost on the mission were:

George Burroughs Torrey (1863–1942) was an American painter, best known for his portraits. He has been called the “painter of presidents”, because he painted portraits of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Herbert Hoover.

He was born in the old Astor House in New York City. His parents were Joseph and Harriet Louise Burroughs.

He had his first studio at 543 Fifth Avenue, where he drew and painted portraits. He moved to Paris, and had a studio there by 1893, just two doors from the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy, on the Boulevard Malesherbes, and began his studies with Léon Bonnat, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Alfred Philippe Roll. Roll used to come into his studio twice a week to criticise his work. In 1895, he exhibited his first salon portrait.[6] He was particularly impressed with and influenced by the work of the portrait painter Carolus-Duran and the mural painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Torrey returned to New York in the spring of 1897, still retaining his Paris studio, where he spent six months of each year until 1906,[6] He gave an exhibition at the Waldorf-Astoria and in the fall of 1897, he started leasing a studio at 543 Fifth Avenue.

In the summer of 1902, he painted his first portrait of King George I of Greece at Aix-les-Bains, which now hangs in the palace at Athens. Two years later, he painted another portrait of George I of Greece, who presented it to his sister, Queen Alexandra of England. This portrait hung in the queen’s private apartments at Buckingham Palace. When the second portrait was completed, the King gave a dinner in honor of Torrey at Aix-les-Bains and awarded him the Order of the Savior, and at the same time expressed his wish that Torrey go to Athens and paint a portrait of Queen Olga.

The portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt was painted for Secretary of the Navy Paul Morton, who wished to present it to the city of Chicago, his former home. Secretary Morton had his own portrait painted by Torrey for the Navy Department.

For a long time, Torrey lived at 27 East 35th Street. His house featured a “Pompeian Hall” that was decorated with vines and a Louis Quinze room. He hosted lavish dinners and vaudeville entertainment for guests such as the opera singers Geraldine Farrar, Antonio Scotti and Enrico Caruso.

Torrey married Almirita Howes in Bridgeport, Connecticut on November 10, 1891. She divorced him in 1912/13. He later married Lillie Hart Gay Torrey, a Hawaii artist. He spent much time in Hawaii, and painted numerous portraits of business people and politicians.

He was related to Capt. Isaac Burroughs, who helped finance the Bridgeport Public Library. Several of Torrey’s paintings were donated by his widow to the public library, including as a large painting of Capt. Bill Lewis at the wheel of a boat sailing on Long Island Sound.

Torrey in his days was a popular painter and drawer of the Gilded Age, even if his style went out of fashion over time. Torrey extensively studied the early English portraitists, whose influence is manifest in his glowing colour, and in the decorative disposition of his draperies.

From Ask/Art
New York based George Burroughs Torrey is most often known for his portraits and figures paintings. Sometimes nicknamed the ‘painter of presidents’, Torrey is especially noted for his portrait of Theodore Roosevelt. Other subjects were King George of Greece and President William H. Taft.

He was married to Hawaiian artist, Lillie Hart Gay Torrey, and he spent much time in Hawaii where he did numerous portraits of business people and politicians.

When Edith May Edwards was born on December 4, 1878, in Connecticut, her father, Louis, was 21 and her mother, Hattie, was 23. She married Russell Hitchcock Whiting on December 6, 1899, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They had two children during their marriage. She died on January 6, 1934, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, at the age of 55, and was buried there.

In 1880, Edith M. Edwards was 1 year old and lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut with her mother and brother. 1880 United States Federal Census.

In 1900, Edith M. Whiting was 21 years old and lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut with her husband, Russell. She married Russell H. in 1900. 1900 United States Federal Census.

In 1910, M. Edith Whiting was 31 years old and lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut with her husband, H. Russell, and son. 1910 United States Federal Census.

In 1920, Edith Whiting was 41 years old and lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut with her husband, Russel, and son. 1920 United States Federal Census.

In 1930, Edith E. Whiting was 51 years old and lived in Fairfield, Connecticut with her husband, Russell. 1930 United States Federal Census.

For some months Edith attended the Art league in New York city where she has attained considerable sucess.

From a news clipping titled “JOHN BROWN’S DOG”
An oil painting of charity commisioner John Brown’s Russian terrier, on exhibition at the Rembrandt art store, in the Arcade, is attracting much attention. The painting is by Miss Edith Edwards of this city, and is a fine piece of work.

Miss Edwards is a student of Artist Torrey, and is a talented young woman, of much promisein her chosen field. Her latest effort is pronounced a most excellent piece of work.

Commissioner Brown values the painting as highly as the terrier itself, and at the requet of a New York artist has consented that the painting should be shown at a coming exhibition of amateur artist in the metropolis.

From Eugenia Barker's photo album

Along with the photos of Eugenia’s family was a photo of Sarah Kirtland Barker, Ralph Barker’s sister, and a hand written note. Here is a translation:
Sarah K. Barker B. Aug 28 1859-
Stated on January 18 1942 that she was born at East 26 near Lexington Ave New York City
Baptized in Presbyterian church in Westchester Village NY when six weeks old.

Confirmed in St Ann’s church Brooklyn by Bishop Neile of Maine substituting for Bishop Little John of Long Island. Birth should be registered in City Hall NYC (Born 1858-9 ? sister of Ralph Barker.

Related to Major Clark who was in action in the Battle of Bennington VT his son 16 years old was with him and carried flag the battle both survived the battle for detail consult Harry Whipple Manchester VT.
Church work under Dr Warner. Christ church but CT & transferred to NY Deaconess school.

2/6/44 To New York Deaconess school in 1890 “set apart” as a Deaconess Fall of 1892. First server 1 year at Grace church

Bridgeport Telegram
March 30, 1918
Miss Bessie O’Brien of Oak street, Miss Betty Brady of State street and Miss Violet Stiff of Lenox avenue left yesterday for New York where they will spend the week-end as guests at the Hotel McAlpine.

May 31, 1918
Attorney Charles A. Hopwood, Mr. and Mrs. J Dous and family, and Miss Bessie o’Brien motored to Boston yesterday where they will be the house guests of friends for the weekend.

November 3, 1922
Wealthy Auditor Made Defendant in Divorce Suit
Fannie Beers Edwards Brings Action Against Husband on Two Charges

A sequel to the recent investigation in Milford, which is said to have found Louis R. Edwards, wealthy auditor in a local manufacturing company, in a comprising situation with a Bridgeport girl, was written yesterday when a petition for divorce was filed against him by his wife Fannie Beers Edwards of this city. Property valued at $15,000.00 has ben attached in the proceedings.

The complaint alleges intolerable cruelty and misconduct on the part of her husband, and names Bessie A. O’Brien of this city as co-respondent. The petitioner avers that her husband has been guilty of intolerable cruelty since January 1, 1917 until the present date and that he has misconducted himself with the O’Brien girl on various and divers occasions between August 1, 1919 and May 31, 1922 in Milford, Bridgeport and New York City.

The date of marriage is given as June 14, 1900. There are no children. Mrs Edwards, in her complaint, says that her husband has an annual income of $7,500 and ask for a divorce, alimony and the right to assume her maiden name, Fannie May Beers.

Norman Leeds (

Bridgeport Telegram
Friday, January 19, 1923
Protective Ass’n Chooses Leeds as President Again

The annual meeting and reception of the Bridgeport Protective Assoc.iation was held yesterday afternoon at the home on Myrtle avenue, when all annual reports were read and the report of the nominating was read and accepted.

The officers are Norman Leeds president; William B. Boardman, first vice president; Mrs C.B. Doremus, second vice president; Mrs Frederick E. Morgan, recording secretary, Mrs. Herbert Sherman, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. Charles E. Weeks, treasurer

Bridgeport Telegram
July 13, 1948

Mrs. George M. Barker, Brooklawn Terrace returned Wednesday from Colorado Springs, Col. where she has been visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs.Norman Leeds.

Mrs Norman Leeds Sr.
Memorial services for Mrs. Frances Fuller Leeds, 86 of 13 Nash Lane, widow of Norman Sr., who died yesterday will take place tomorrow at 2PM in the Howland Chapel of the Congregational church, Park avenue and State street. The Rev. Wallace W. Anderson, pastor, will officiate.

Born in Cleveland, Mrs. Leeds has been a resident of this area since 1902.

Mrs. Leeds’ husband, who died in 1944, had been vice president and general manager of the Automatic Machine company.

She is survived by two sons, A Fuller Leeds, of Southport; and Richard L. Leeds, of Bronxville, N.Y.; a daughter, Mrs. George M. Barker, of Easton; a sister Mr.s O.J Campbell, of New York City; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.