The Arab and the Brit: The Last of the Welcome Immigrants

10 Florence Elsie Belcher

87 10 Florence Elsie Belcher Up until Bill Curnick had brought his family to the New World, he hadn’t given much thought to finding a spouse. After he and the rest of the Curnicks moved to Watertown and the New York Central Railway, he began to be more aware of his age and the young women around him. Florence Elsie Belcher was twelve years younger than Bill Curnick. She didn’t enter his life until 1905. Her story was as harrowing as his and similar. Hannah Belcher (“Annie” to her family and friends) was born on November 18, 1866, in Abingdon, Berks County, Great Britain. She was the daughter of Wellington and Mary Ann Belcher, who lived at 230 Oct Street. Wellington was a sawyer, and the Belchers were not people of means. Mary Ann Belcher told her daughter that she descended from a line of wealthy landowners named Koenig (German or Dutch). The males of the family, she said, drank away the family fortune prior to 1850. Annie was an impressionable young woman easily swayed by the desire to please. All she ever wanted out of life was for someone to take care of her. She was attractive and enjoyed many suitors. She suffered, however, from low self-esteem and was susceptible to the persuasion of those who might use her. Annie, not yet married, became pregnant in late 1887. Florence Elsie Belcher, known to family as “Florence” and to friends as “Elsie,” was born on June 28, 1888. The child never knew who her father was. Two years later, in 1890, Annie Belcher married Eli Stimpson. He became Florence’s stepfather, and he and Annie had five more children in quick succession. A daughter, Ellen, was born in 1891; a second daughter, Alice May, in 1892; a son, Charles Eli, in 1894; a third daughter, first name Elsie, in 1896; and a fourth daughter, Daisy, in 1897. The family lived in Abingdon in a rented home. 88 | The Arab and the Brit Eli Stimpson worked as foreman for G. C. Hobbs Coal Company of Didcot. Perhaps as a result of breathing coal dust much of the time, he contracted tuberculosis. He suffered a long illness and died on July 12, 1898. Annie was left with six children, all ages ten and younger, but no way to support them. To make matters worse, little Daisy, the youngest, had contracted tuberculosis from her father. Annie was a desperate mother of six at age thirty-two. Eli’s parents, James and Ann Stimpson of 41 Edward Street, Abingdon , were also of modest means. James earned ten shillings per week as a coal carter. They could offer their daughter-in-law no support after their son died. Annie’s own parents, the Belchers, were quite elderly and no better off than she financially. Annie set about selling needlework that she produced herself. When proceeds from this work did not cover expenses, she began selling and pawning her furniture. She also took a job for two shillings per week as a shop worker at a local clothing factory. She still did not earn enough to care for the seven of them. Annie did not know where to turn. She was not a resourceful woman and was accustomed to being cared for, first by her parents and then by her husband. She decided to consult the pastor at the church that she and her family attended. The Reverend Arnold Foster, who was minister of the Congregational Church in Abingdon, was acquainted with the Stimpsons and their plight. “Annie, I know this will be difficult for you. I think you must consider breaking up your family,” said Reverend Foster quietly and firmly after he had heard her story. “Oh, Reverend Foster, I don’t know! Isn’t there some way for us to stay together?” Annie sobbed. “Little Daisy is seriously ill! She won’t last long without proper care, Annie!” the reverend admonished. “Where can I take her?” “I’ll help get her admitted to a sanitarium. They won’t charge anything to care for her, and she’ll be in good hands,” said Foster. “All right, I’ll consider that,” said Annie. “But what about the rest of us?” Florence Elsie Belcher | 89 “Well, now, that will be more difficult. There is a home called Barnardo ’s in Barkingside that takes in destitute children. They raise them until they are...