An American Life: Family Truths

An American Life: Family Truths

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An American Life: Family Truths

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AN AMERICAN LIFE
Will Boutelle
family myths, truths & half truths

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AN AMERICAN LIFE

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AN AMERICAN LIFE
family myths, truths & half-truths
by
WILL BOUTELLE
ridgetop
press

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Copyright © 2024 by Will Boutelle
All rights reserved
Printed by Bookmobile in the
United Stat…

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For Christopher Curtis Boutelle
(1946-2021)
Every family has one member who acts as
glue or g…

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“It has all been very interesting,“
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)
on her deathbed

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viii An American Life
Table of Contents
Preface, 2
Our American Beginnings, 3
Boutelle Ancest…

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An American Life ix
Five Boutelles on Star Island, NH, summer 1992.
West Chesterfield, 69
Hog…

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AN AMERICAN LIFE

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2 An American Life
I awoke suddenly at five in the morning one summer Sunday with
the realizatio…

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An American Life 3
As noted by W.W. Hayward, the Boutelle family was of
Norman-French ancestry …

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4 An American Life
“Those who never look back to their ancestors will never look forward to
post…

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An American Life 5
Hayward’s history as teachers, shoemakers, sea captains, a dentist, a pharmaci…

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6 An American Life
My paternal great-great grandfather was Dr. David Knight Boutelle (1811-1891). …

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An American Life 7
Eugene and Margaret Boutelle were married in 1906, as were John
and Marie H…

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8 An American Life
My Great Aunt Mollie, Civil War Widow
The Watertown, MA, home of my grandpare…

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An American Life 9
My father was born in Providence but grew up in Watertown, MA,
graduating in…

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10 An American Life
The Merry Music Makers, my father’s high school band with Bill standing
in t…

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An American Life 11
Bill was student director of the Brown University Marching Band, playing saxo…

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12 An American Life
A Shipboard Romance
In 1929, my father’s band was hired to perform as the shi…

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An American Life 13
Bill Boutelle, Brown Class of 1931
Bill Boutelle had been badly injured in a…

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14 An American Life
Fraternity Brothers at Brown
At college, my father joined the Kappa Sigma fra…

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An American Life 15
Bill Finds a Career in Medicine
The Dr. William Eugene Boutelle family in 19…

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16 An American Life
John M. Holmes’ Farm
My mother’s grandfather, John M. Holmes, owned a farm in…

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An American Life 17
The Holmeses
My mother Sara Holmes was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota,
gro…

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18 An American Life
Sara Stratton Holmes
My mother, Sara Holmes, was a beautiful girl who became …

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An American Life 19
John Horace Holmes, My Grandfather
I now return to my grandfather, whom I ha…

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20 An American Life
John Holmes had the habit of getting off the train at every
station to purch…

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An American Life 21
John Horace Holmes Marries Marie Heloise Adams
Having discovered her home a…

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22 An American Life
Preface

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An American Life 23
The Holmeses in South Dakota
So, the new Mr. and Mrs. John Horace Holmes set…

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24 An American Life
Lady Girl & Baby Girl
John Holmes called his daughter Sara his “Lady Girl” an…

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An American Life 25
My Mother Marries the Left-Handed Surgeon
We now return to the marriage and …

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26 An American Life
I Am Born
I came along in November of 1940, by which time the shadow of
imp…

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An American Life 27
Men in Uniform
John Horace Holmes, my grandfather, in the
uniform of the S…

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28 An American Life
A Stranger Appears
At the defeat of Japan in 1945, Bill’s ship was anchored i…

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An American Life 29
Back to Manhattan
By early 1946 my parents’ little family had moved from Sou…

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30 An American Life
The Farm in Pittstown
The 1840 main house of the Hope Springs Farm, photo tak…

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An American Life 31
Mary Holmes, Artist
Mary Holmes’ painting of the three of us hangs on the wa…

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32 An American Life
Hope Springs Farm
The move was both exhilarating and troubling. I reveled in …

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An American Life 33
Lehigh Valle railroad, Sometimes, my father would drive us there to the
sta…

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34 An American Life
Family Dynamics, Birth Order, The Baby Boom
It may now be appropriate to ment…

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An American Life 35
Choir Boy
Like my father and his father before him, I’d always been naturall…

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36 An American Life
belonged to my grandfather and this was
destined to be my first car. Once th…

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An American Life 37
Touring in the Jim Crow South
We practiced four and five hours a day, housed…

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38 An American Life
High School
Home in New Jersey the summer of 1954 found me preparing for high…

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An American Life 39
My 1938 Buick
When I turned seventeen and got my first driver’s license,
m…

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40 An American Life
First Job in Medicine, Morgue Attendant
My first medical job was as morgue at…

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An American Life 41
Leaving Pittstown for Providence
Our family continued living the exurbanite …

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42 An American Life
My First Psychiatric Hospital
During the summer of 1962, however, I obtained…

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An American Life 43
Med School, Spaghetti on a Hot Plate
Driving for Mister Softee I found that…

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44 An American Life
Med School, Continued
Another thing I did to make money was to buy and
sell…

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An American Life 45
Three Months in Europe
During the summer of 1963, after finishing my first y…

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46 An American Life
I eventually got to Munich, where I met up with my brother
Jonathan. He’d al…

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An American Life 47
My Brother Jonathan
This might be a good time to recount a bit about my brot…

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48 An American Life
Back to Medical School
Back in the US, I quickly returned to work studying m…

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An American Life 49
The French Teacher from Scotland
So it was that Annie ended up teaching Fren…

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50 An American Life
Annie’s Family
It is time in this account to offer some history of my wife an…

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An American Life 51
My Mother-in-Law Jean Blair Edwards
Annie’s mother. Annie’s grandmother, Ann…

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52 An American Life
Edwards Family History
Alexander Wishart Edwards, in 1938. Called Sandy, Anni…

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An American Life 53
History of the Blairs
In 1863 Matthew Blair formed the firm of McLennan,
B…

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54 An American Life
Jean Blair’s and Alexander Edwards’ Marriage
Another story is of the mother w…

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An American Life 55
Annie’s Education
Sheena was not particularly interested in school, but Anni…

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56 An American Life
Romance Blooms, A Letter Is Written, A Telegram Arrives
Mrs. Alexander Edward…

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An American Life 57
Annie Writes Her Mother
October 12, 1966
Dear, dear Mother,
This is the …

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58 An American Life
Jaguar Goes, Traded for the Bright Red Chevy Truck
So now I was in the final …

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An American Life 59
Harley in Harvard Square
1965 Harley Davidson in 2011, forty years later
A…

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60 An American Life
Getting Married in Scotland — The Subconscious Is a Bitch
I was now in the fi…

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62 An American Life
Race Riots and Lobotomies
My internship was not only hectic, it was dangerous…

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An American Life 63
Fifty Years of Psychiatric Practice
Concerning my half-century of active cl…

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64 An American Life
Annie Gets Her Ph.D.
Annie finished her dissertation, got her PhD and Jonatha…

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An American Life 65
Echos & Life Choices
At this point, it is interesting to contemplate some of…

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66 An American Life
Dr. Boutelle, Motorcycle Mechanic
During this time — this was the late 1970s …

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An American Life 67
The Berkshires
1980. For the first six months, Annie and the kids stayed in …

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68 An American Life
Country Acres, Call Anytime
When Annie and I moved our family to the farm, He…

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An American Life 69
West Chesterfield
In the previous century, the town
blacksmith Samuel Edd…

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70 An American Life
Hog Slaughter at Ridgetop Farm
I get up early and dress in my oldest work clo…

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An American Life 71
By this time, the older two kids are down and take the
wheelbarrow filled w…

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72 An American Life
How I Became an EMT
During those years on the farm I was busy. In addition to…

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An American Life 73
about 20 minutes later. After opening that car up like a tin can, the final
…

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74 An American Life
Soldier’s Heart
In early 1982 I became very interested in the condition of co…

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An American Life 75
Back on the Farm
Dickinson Hospital in Northampton. While he was an infant X…

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76 An American Life
The Garden, Maple Sugaring, Getting Wood In
That first year our garden was ab…

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An American Life 77
The Rhythm of Our Days
grandmother Jean Edwards, who had assisted Annie in b…

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78 An American Life
Transitions
The annual Fourth of July parade was a Chesterfield tradition and…

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An American Life 79
On Oban Bay
These photos are taken from the highest point on Kerrera, a tiny…

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80 An American Life
Annie Boutelle, Poet
I continued working at the VA, where I had risen to beco…

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An American Life 81
This Caravaggio, printed and published by Hedgerow Books of Levellers Press, …

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82 An American Life
Sara Holmes Boutelle, Julia Morgan Scholar
Shortly after moving to California…

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An American Life 83
Joyous Occasion Torn by Grief
One Way to Varanasi
19 January 1999
As the…

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84 An American Life
California
Laura with Iona Morgan Boutelle, born in Berkeley in 2018.
Rashmi…

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An American Life 85
Generations
Boutelle brothers in 1995.
The three Boutelle brothers in 1980…

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86 An American Life
Generations
Will and Annie, Cambridge, MA, 1973.
Jonathan in Cambridge.
J…

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An American Life 87
Generations
Three generations — Laura, Jean and Annie — at Ridgetop Farm.
…

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88 An American Life
Annie
I have so far avoided speaking of the central tragedy of our family
l…

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Annie on Mufra on Oban Bay.

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90 An American Life
My Best Pandemic
A funny thing happened to me on the way to
becoming a lone…

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An American Life 91
Lonely Old Man, Boy Next Door
Mary Engle at fifteen
Sonnet 58
The boy ne…

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94 An American Life
Appendix A— Con Keating
I write this on the eve of the 100th anniversary of G…

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An American Life 95
way, with the MacInerney car following. The weather, which
had been fair, b…

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96 An American Life
Appendix B — Obadiah Holmes
Upon his emigration to America, Obadiah Holmes …

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An American Life 97

He then fled to Newport where he continued his
ministry.
By way of mat…

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98 An American Life
Appendix C — My Best Pandemic
November, 2020: The world was reeling from the …

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An American Life 99

Then Covid came and no visitation was permitted
for many months. By the …

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100 An American Life
Timeline of the Boutelle, Holmes, Blair, and Edwards Families
BOUTELLE LINE
…

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An American Life 101

BOUTELLE LINE, cont.
HOLMES LINE, cont.
BLAIR LINE, cont.
EDWARDS LINE…

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102 An American Life
Books by Annie Boutelle
Thistle and Rose: A Study of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetr…

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An American Life 103
Index and Photo Index
Apollo Boys Choir, 35–37
Beth Israel Hospital, Bost…

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The body of this book is set in Galliard, an old-style French type based on a face fashioned
by R…

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An American Life
I awoke suddenly at five in the morning one summer
Sunday with the realization …

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