More About the Giffords
Gossips received a comment yesterday on a post published almost a year ago. The post, entitled "More Giffords," was inspired by Peter Jung's discovery of another row of Gifford graves near the Gifford family plot where the artist Sanford Robinson Gifford is buried.
In his initial report about the graves, Jung indicated that Malcolm Gifford and "a son of the same name" were buried in this row of graves, and Gossips included that information in the post. The comment received yesterday, from someone identifying himself as "Murphy--the mink with moxie," provided evidence from the Canadian Great War Project that Malcolm was not buried in Hudson.
As Gossips reported, Malcolm, Jr., with some of his fellow students at Williams College, enlisted in the Canadian Army in February 1917, two months before the United States entered World War I, and died in battle in November 1917. The war records indicate that he was buried in Belgium. Had a monument been erected for Malcolm, Jr., here in Hudson even though his remains had been interred near the battlefield where he died?
A hasty trip with Jung to the cemetery confirmed that the original report was in error. No tombstone for Malcolm, Jr., could be found. The graves of Malcolm, Sr., and his wife, Marion, along with those of their eldest son, Benedict, and other offspring, were located, but there was none for Malcolm, Jr.
One interesting bit of information emerged from yesterday's research escapade. The war records indicate that Gunner Malcolm Gifford was the son of Malcolm and Marion Wells Gifford who lived at 345 Allen Street in Hudson, New York--the same house that made the news yesterday (in Gossips at least) as the site of an extreme pruning of trees growing on an adjacent property. U.S. census records indicate that the Malcolm Giffords were living in that house, which is now Eric Galloway's residence, in 1910 and would have been living there when Malcolm, Jr., was tried twice for allegedly murdering a chauffeur. The 1900 census shows the family living at 602 Diamond Street--the corner house of the five houses that made up the north side of Gifford Place.
I know I'm not from these parts,so would you mind going back to the casual mention of Malcolm Jr.being twice tried for allegedly murdering a chauffeur ?
ReplyDeleteIs this the same Malcolm Jr who enlisted in the Canadian army, 2 months before the the US declared war, got himself killed in Belgium 10 months later,then you get a mysterious message one year after to posting about Gifford Graves, from a Murphy ,the mink with moxie,that Malcolm Jr.
was not buried in Hudson.So you and Peter Jung go check at the grave yard yesterday and there is no Malcolm Jr.
First what happened with the chauffeur?2 trials?
then explain why any American ,except someone on the lamb... would join the Canadian Army?Canadians don't even like doing that.Is that like teaching English in China?I really would like to hear more about this,Gossips!...please
Prison Alley--You will get the whole story if you go back to the original post, published on July 19, 2011. I mentioned it in the first paragraph of this post and provided the link, but here it is again: http://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-giffords.html. It's not a story that everyone in Hudson knows, but since I'd told it before, I hoped those who hadn't read it before, or had and didn't remember it, would use the link and go back to it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carole,
ReplyDeleteSorry, I missed the link at the beginning.
That's some story! and apparently Murphy the mink with moxie,just read it too.
Hudson, has certainly never been a dull town.
Poor Mr and Mrs.Gifford.
Odd that Galloway lives in that house now.