Thursday, October 20, 2022

Grave Tales #31: Thomas Bright

I am an avid genealogist. The past is very important to me. I spend a lot of time in cemeteries photographing tombstones to upload on website the FindAGrave.

I enjoy recognizing long dead people by putting memorials to them online. However, every once and a while something grabs me about a specific grave. It could be the name, or the dates or a ceramic photo. In those cases, I feel compelled to dig a little deeper. That's what this series of blogs is about: The tales behind those graves. Some of my subjects will be heroes. Some will be villains. Some will be victims. And some will linger in between, like most of us. However, don't be surprised if the tales are inherently tragic. These are grave tales. They all end in death.

The photograph above shows the final resting places of Thomas Bright and his six-year-old grandson Edmond Barnes McCaffrey. To the naked eye, their gravesites seems little different than the gravesites of the tens of thousands of other people buried within the vast expanse of Baltimore Cemetery but it is indeed unique. Every grave is the final resting place of the person buried beneath its soil. However, this gravesite was also the place of Thomas Bright's death. 

In my previous grave tale about the death of Walter Ross Jester, I wondered how a family survives the death of a beloved little child. The Brights weren't as fortunate as the Jesters. Little Eddie's death proved to be the first in a chain of premature deaths that decimated the family.


Let's start with Eddie's death. Here is his death notice from The Baltimore Sun dated 10 August 1896:

The key word here is suddenly. The word suddenly bespeaks tragedy. Something unexpected. Something shocking. Eddie did not succumb to a lingering illness. The family didn't have time to contemplate a life without him. According to his death certificate, Eddie died of papilloma of the larynx and pneumonia. The duration was a mere twenty-four hours. That was sudden indeed.

The shock of the boy's death was too much for his grandfather Thomas.

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 6 January 1897, Tue:


TWO MORE SUICIDES
-----
Grief at His Grandson's Death Drove
Mr. Thomas Bright to Self-Destruction
-----
PUT A BULLET IN HIS BRAIN
-----
And Was Found Dying Across the Child's Grave
-----
Said He Heard the Little One Calling Him -- A Man Who Registered
at the Hotel Rennert as V. W. Stiles, of Washington, Sat Before a
Mirror in His Room and Shot Himself.

     Mr. Thomas Bright, 1738 Oliver street, a well-known resident of Northeast Baltimore, committed suicide at noon yesterday in his lot in the Baltimore Cemetery by shooting himself through the right temple. His body was found lying across the grave of his grandson, Edmund Barnes McCaffrey, who was buried August 10, 1896.
     Mrs. Wm. T. McCaffrey, 1246 North Broadway, the mother of the child, said her father had grieved over the death of her son and had frequently said he could hear the child talking to him during the night and at times while walking along the street. He was always talking about the child.
     Mrs. Bright said her husband left his home at 8 o'clock in the morning. He said he had spent a restless night, and could hear his dead gandchild calling to him. He kissed her, Mrs. Bright said, and left the house, but returned in a few minutes and kissed her again and then went out, giving her to understand that he would return for dinner.
     Soon afterwards he was seen in the Baltimore Cemetery by Venzei Kares, one of the grave-diggers. Kares said Mr. Bright was standing in his lot., No. 405, in section B, and he (Kares) was with him until nearly 12 o'clock. He told Kares he was waiting for his wife, and several times said he was tired of waiting. He also got Kares to help him put the lot in order, and then, after taking a walk around the cemetery, went back to the lot. Kares said he left Mr. Bright kneeling on the lot attending to the flowers.
     About thirty minutes later Undertaker M. A. Daiger, drove into the cemetery with a funeral, and Frank Hawkins, one of the drivers of the hacks, saw the body of Mr. Bright lying across the grave. The man was not dead, but died a few minutes later.
     Superintendent John C. Park, of the cemetery, was notified, and sent for the patrol wagon. In Mr. Bright's pocket was found an envelope, on which was written his name and address. The envelope had no stamp upon it and there was nothing in it. His body was first removed to his home, but as the house was locked up and his wife was out, it was sent to the northeastern police station and was later sent to his home. The pistol with which he took his life was found covered with blood beside him.
     Mr. Bright was sixty years old and had been in the cake and cracker business for thirty years on Caroline street, near Orleans street. He also had a stall in Lexington Market. He was a member of Kedron Lodge of Masons and Monumental Council of Royal Arcanum. Three sons and two daughters survive him, with Mrs. Bright.
     Coroner Silljacks decided the case was one of deliberate suicide and would hold an inquest....

What a tragic tale. It's either sad and touching or sad and frightening, depending on your point of view. I hate to say it, but Mr. Bright's death could have come right off the pages of my novel Chapel Street, in which a demonic entity poses as a deceased loved one to lure victims into suicide. I'm not saying that happened here, but I couldn't help but notice the similarities.

The story was reported in newspapers all around the country, sometimes in connection with two other suicides in Baltimore the same day: V. W. Stiles, who was also mentioned in this story, and Richard Cornelius, who had drowned himself in the lake in Druid Hill Park. The newspapers reported it as an epidemic or mania of suicides in Baltimore. (I will deal more directly with Baltimore's suicide mania, and its main place of execution, in my next Grave Tale.)

Having lost two siblings to suicide I can appreciate, at least to a degree, Mr. Bright's grief. I'm sure he was not alone in his feelings either. I suspect many people in his family felt the same way or worse. Sadly, in his obviously distraught state, I doubt Mr. Bright realized how his own death would compound the emotional suffering of his family. 

Thomas Bright took his own life five months after his grandson Eddie McCaffrey died. Emma E. French, Thomas' daughter, died five months later on 19 May 1897. She was about twenty-seven-years old. Here's her obituary, which ran in the Baltimore Sun on 22 May 1897:

There's that word "suddenly" again. I wondered what kind of tragedy took her life so I found her death certificate. The cause: Intestinal Hemorrhage. 

About a year and a half later, Emma's brother Daniel B. Bright died on 26 October 1898. He was also about twenty-seven-years-old. Here's his death notice from the Baltimore Sun dated 27 October 1898.

Thankfully, the dreaded word suddenly was absent from this notice. His death certificate indicates he died of malaria. Still, there's no denying the Bright family suffered more than its share of premature deaths over a very brief amount of time. 

What happened to the rest of the family? Thomas' wife Hannah Barnes Bright married Charles H. Sprenkle in November of 1907. She died on 8 February 1919. Sadly, she lived long enough to see another one of her children die. Thomas Bright died on 7 July 1918 at the age of thirty-seven. Another Bright life cut short.

His cause of death was tuberculosis.

What about little Eddie's parents?

William T. McCaffrey and his wife Ida V. Bright McCaffrey were next mentioned in the newspapers in a story about their 15th wedding anniversary on 5 June 1902. Here's the story:

I was relieved to find the couple still married. Oftentimes the death of a child breaks up a marriage. Sadly, my relief was short-lived. Ida made her next appearance in the Baltimore Sun on 19 April 1905. The subject was divorce.

Here's the story.

William T. McCaffrey would die on 13 December 1927. His former wife Ida would survive until 19 November 1956. I don't know when the final Bright child, G. Harrison Bright, a minister who served mainly in Indiana, died. However, he seemed to live a long and productive life.

I guess my self-imposed prohibition against suicide stories in these Grave Tales has ended. However, I do want to remind anyone reading this story that suicide is never the only or best option. If you are contemplating ending your life, please reach out to someone who is able to help you right now. Just dial the number 9-8-8 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You're only three digits away from help twenty-four hours a day.

9-8-8.

I don't want to be writing about you....

Remember, there is a story behind every grave. You never know what you're missing when you walk past one....

Grave Tales:

My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble. Chapel Street is the tale of a young man battling a demonic entity that has driven members of his family to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting. 


Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:


Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3

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