Evelyn Casey, Page Two

Evelyn Casey, Fall River, Massachusetts, June 17, 1916. Photo by Lewis Hine.

Three days after the newspaper article appeared, I received an email from a woman named Paula Geary. She said, in part:

"While reading the article about Evelyn Casey in the Fall River Herald News, I had the feeling that the story was familiar. I went to my computer and entered the name Evelyn Casey into my Family Tree database...and there she was! I was so excited to see that she was the sister of my Aunt Mary."

"I never knew any of Mary's family, but I did know that they were a large, Irish family. While researching Mary's family, I found that Evelyn had married a Simonetti. I've attached the research that I have on the family. It will give you a little glimpse into what life was like in Fall River at the turn of the century."

Shortly after, I was contacted by Joanne Potvin, Evelyn's daughter, who had also read the article. I interviewed her several weeks later.

Evelyn V. Casey was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, on November 22, 1901, the fourth child of Michael Joseph Casey and Johanna (Harrington) Casey. They married in Fall River on October 9, 1893. Evelyn married Alfred L. Simonetti in 1922. They had four children.

Edited interview with Joanne Potvin (JP), daughter of Evelyn Casey. Conducted by Joe Manning (JM), on April 22, 2008. Transcribed by Jessica Sleevi and edited by Manning.

JM: What did you think of the photo of your mother?

JP: I had seen it once before. I had gone down to Battleship Cove (ship museum in Fall River) to see the USS Massachusetts. I went into the gift shop and saw a book about weavers and spinners in the textile mills. I was glancing through it and saw the picture. I thought, ‘Oh God, it's my mother.' And then recently, you got the Herald News to publish the picture. So I'm sitting at the table and ready to go to work, and I said, ‘What is my mother's picture doing in the paper?' And then I read your article and I thought it was unbelievable.

JM: Did she ever mention to you that she worked as a young child in the mill?

JP: No. I only knew of her working for the American Thread Company, which was located in the Kerr Mills. It was right near our house. She was called a corner stayer. When you put a box together, you have tape to hold the corners. She put the tape on the corners of the box. That's what her machine used to do.

JM: So she was doing that when you were growing up?

JP: I was born in 1932. When I was young, she stayed home for awhile. Then she went back to work when I was about eight or nine years old.

JM: Did she go back because your family needed the money?

JP: Yes. My father worked on a National Biscuit Cookie truck, and he wasn't making much money. They had bought a home and had four children. I was the youngest of the four.

JM: Do you think that she welcomed the opportunity to go back to work, or do you think that she didn't want to do it?

JP: I really don't think that she wanted to go back. She would have rather stayed at home with the children, although when I was eight, my brothers were already 14, 16 and 19. She assigned tasks to us children while she worked. I had to do the cleaning on the first floor, and my brother had to do the second floor. I had to do the wash and another brother did some cooking, and then I took over all the cooking. She would go to work at six o'clock in the morning and get home after five at night. She worked there until it closed down, I think sometime before 1950. So she stayed home for awhile and then went to work at the Slater Paper Box Company in Warren, Rhode Island. The children were all grown up by that time.

JM: Do you know anything about Borden Mills, where she had worked when the picture was taken? Did you have any other family members who worked there?

JP: No, but I found two pictures of her working at the Wampanoag Mill (textile mill that closed in 1929). These were group pictures from work, probably taken by the company. She must have left the Borden Mills and went to the Wampanoag Mill.

JM: In the Hine photo, the caption says she lived at 129 Gaynore Street.

JP: I don't remember that. I only remember her living on Covel Street.

JM: Also in the caption, it says: "Left because of no work and expects to learn weaving in Flint mill with a girl friend. At certificate office applying for certificate for second position."

JP: I don't know anything about that, either. I don't know much about her life before she married my father.