This is the home of a chimney sweep. A truck out of view said so. Long ago, this was the home of my great-grandfather, the Irish immigrant Michael Lynch. In the New Bedford Directory of 1896, he was listed as a “stonecutter” living at this address. In records he was described throughout his life as a laborer, a stonecutter, a granite cutter and a concreter.
Not far from this house is where Sullivan Ledge was – a granite quarry. Perhaps that’s where he worked for a couple of years while he lived in this town on the southern coast of Massachusetts. Back then, working in a quarry was a dangerous job. The workers were hurt often and they inhaled huge amounts of dust and particles. In 1912 Michael died in what we believe was a work accident near Boston. He was 46 years old. On a death form, it says: “Cause unknown, fractured skull, inter-cranial hemorrhage?” The story goes that one day, he didn’t come home from work. The family learned of his death a few days later.
Not long after the Sullivan quarry closed in 1932, it became a dumping place for toxic industrial waste. What was a dangerous hole became in time, a dangerous field. The EPA has declared it a Superfund Site. Someone will have the dirty job of cleaning that up.
Visiting the Relatives 