Here’s the ad of a refrigerator company agent in Providence in 1910. Note that the name is that of Lovecraft’s uncle Edwin Everett Phillips (1864-1918). This is from just before he lost a load of money for Lovecraft and his mother in 1911…
In 1911, is this him being the Secretary and a Director in the new Providence Rotary Club?
The Boston Rotary Club (in 1912 apparently on rocky foundations, according to an open letter from the Chairman in 1912), sponsored the first Providence Rotary Club in 1911. The Providence club was set up alongside the established Rhode Island Rotary Club. One wonders if the new Providence Rotary got off to a shaky start, and/or if the Boston Rotary Club had to call in its sponsorship? A history of the Providence Rotary Club and its later merger with the incumbent club is given in The Rotarian, Oct 1917.
One wonders if Providence Rotary Club, being a commercial venture, was the same commercial venture which lost Lovecraft and his mother a lot of money? In 1932 Lovecraft remembered in a letter that…
“an uncle lost a lot of dough for my mother and me in 1911” (Selected Letters III, p.267)
Uncle Edwin (if indeed it was he) appears to have vanished as both Secretary and Director of the Providence Rotary Club by 1912/13, as evidenced by this picture and list of the officers. One wonders of his disappearance might suggest some financial calamity, one which necessitated his resignation?
I think I read somewhere that the Edwin E. Phillips of the Rotary Club is indeed HPL’s uncle.
Great research. Here are a few more leads — I never got around to blogging about them. Sometime in either late 1908 or early 1909, Edwin either met or decided to enter a business contract with two individuals: Joseph Lantagne and John E Flanagan. // April 12, 1910 filing Edwin E. Phillips, Ernest L. Matthews, and John B. Murphy formed the Antislip Clutch Company” // Susan is listed in the records of 1910-1911 with a real asset of $1300 and a tax of $42.90 // We have one small note for the year ending 1908 wherein Edwin (dba Edwin E Phillips Company) paid a $100 fee to the General Treasurer. It is as yet unknown what this company did, but perhaps the implication was that he was in real estate? // Sometime in either late 1908 or early 1909, Edwin either met or decided to enter a business contract with two individuals: Joseph Lantagne and John E Flanagan. // in the Acts and Resolves of the General Assembly of 1910 that on 9 April 1909 the Lantagne Refrigerating Company was formed to engage in the manufacturing, buying, selling, trading, and dealing in refrigeration equipment // so I don’t know which, if any, of Edwin’s partnerships took Susie’s money, but there were at least two – the Antislip business, and the Lantagne Refrigeration business. I vaguely recall that Brunswick was a franchise business. Keep up the great work!!