Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Tombstone Tuesday

Edward Fitzireland Grace


Edward Grace was born to Gilbert Grace and Eliza Faulkner in 1866. His father died when Edward was only nine years old. At the time, his older brothers were much older, and his younger siblings were very young, leaving Edward oddly in the middle. Rumor has it he ran away and joined the circus.

Edward was a printer, journalist, and staunch union man. He was initiated into the International Typographers Union (ITU) in 1885 and was a member until his death. While in Memphis, he wrote for and published the Union Journal. In 1901, he was a member of the Board of Public Works for the city of Memphis. Later in Norfolk, VA he published the Union News. He wrote that "the common people have been ignored."


In his spare time, Edward seems to have been quite the ladies' man. For three years (between 1917 and 1919), Edward disappears from public record. Family lore says that Edward ran away to New Orleans with another woman. By the time he reappears in documentation in Virginia in 1920, he is living the life of a bachelor - moving from house to house each year and proclaiming himself to be a widow in the 1920 census (Gert didn't die until 1947).


In 1933, Edward moved to Colorado Springs, CO where he was admitted to the Union Printers' Home, which was built in 1892 by the ITU to care for its members. The filthy working conditions and long hours (often 11 hours per day) of most 19th century printers left a population of printers suffering from a variety of eye conditions and lung afflictions such as tuberculosis. Edward died five years later in 1938 at the age of 72 from senility and heart disease. He is listed as a widow on his death certificate and his obituary claims he left no survivors.




Personal Data Tombstone Data
Birth: 24 Feb 1866 City: Colorado Springs, CO
Marriage: 5 Nov 1890 to Gertrude McKee Cemetery: Evergreen Cemetery
Death: 25 Oct 1938 Section: Union Printers
GPS:


Monument bearing Edward's name (left column)

Closeup with Edward's name highlighted
Stone marking the ITU area of the cemetery
Entrance sign
The Union Printers Home, Colorado Springs, CO,
where Edward spent the last five years of his life





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