At this time last year, I wrote that we were in the process of selecting images to illustrate the second volume in the Discourses on History series, published by the FRHS Press. Indeed, Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties by Thomas Richmond Burrell (1861-1953) was in the final stage of production, with its publication originally planned for May, 2018.
That was the case, until the transcription of another paper written by Burrell – A Businessman’s Reminiscences of Fifty Years – prompted the very wise decision to halt the presses in order to amend the second Discourses release.
Burrell’s Reminiscences was the perfect companion to his Main Street in scope and content, making it clear that they had to be published together in one volume. Hence the delay.
Both manuscripts were originally conceived as lectures; it was on the evening of February 17, 1936, that Burrell presented his paper, “Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties,” to the members of the FRHS in the parish hall of the First Congregational Church. His presentation, based on his vivid recollections – brilliant, really – “of those persons who carried on business on Main Street and the central section of the city,” was delivered in his amiable, chatty style, much to the delight of all those present.
Three years earlier, on May 22, 1933, he had presented another paper, “A Businessman’s Reminiscences of Fifty Years,” in which he detailed his recollections “of men … with whom [he] came into contact at the beginning” of his lengthy business career; many of those individuals were also mentioned in his “Main Street” paper.
Although the 1936 paper was not, apparently, conceived as a sequel to the 1933 work, the text was highly complementary. Due to the narrative and historical nature of the content, it was decided to publish the two papers in an order opposite than that in which they were originally delivered as lectures. Simply put, they flow much better that way.
What of the author?
Thomas Richmond Burrell Sr. was a successful Fall River businessman with a diverse seventy-five-year working career. Through his near-daily interactions with many of the city’s leading industrialists and other key players in the business and civic community, he gained a unique personal insight into the prodigious business acumen possessed by some of the city’s grandees, as well as their personalities, peculiarities, and, in some cases, their peccadillos. So, too, did he engage with the shopkeeper, the politician, the clergy, and the common man-on-the-street.
Perhaps unknowingly, much of this interaction was seared into his extraordinary memory, allowing him decades later to conjure up “out of the distant past” a “flood of memories … grasping one here and there as they whirled through [his] mind.” As these scenes played out in thought, as they once had in reality, and “slowly … approached and passed from [his] vision,” they flowed, ink-like, to his descriptive pen as he put thought to paper.
Burrell was a long-time member and director of the FRHS and one of its most popular lecturers, and it was noted that his papers “served to perpetuate the history of Fall River.” When he was being introduced as a speaker by the secretary of the organization, his talks were habitually complimented with the words: “All of those who have heard Mr. Burrell’s former papers will know what an interesting evening is in store for them.”
His anecdotal recollections are fascinating, and make for a great read.
As with the first volume in the Discourses on History series, the text comprises expanded versions of Burrell’s original manuscripts, which are housed in the Charlton Library of Fall River History at the FRHS. The formats of the manuscripts were slightly edited for punctuation and readability, and italicized information in square brackets has been added for the purposes of clarification and context. To preserve the integrity of the original manuscripts and retain the “voice” of the author – Burrell, a great wit, clearly wrote as he spoke – the phraseology and opinions conveyed in the text remain that of the writer.
To illustrate the 130-page volume, 113 images – some fabulous photographs – pertinent to the text have been selected from the collections of the FRHS, as well as private collections.
Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties and A Businessman’s Reminiscences of Fifty Years will be released in early May, and will be available for purchase at the Museum Shop or via mail order through the FRHS website.
The release date and price will be announced shortly.
Stay tuned!
