Ornament

Object Name:

Ornament

Object ID:

2022.024.09

Place of Origin:

United States

Date:

1903-1914

Description:

Set of six brass uniform letters, Rockland Military Academy, West Lebanon, NH. Letters R (1), M (2), A (2), and B (1).

Material:

Brass

Dimensions:

H-0.5 W-0.5 inches

Provenance:

Worn by Oscar Tyrrell (1887-1962) while attending Rockland Military Academy, which operated in West Lebanon, NH, from 1903 to 1914.

Oscar Stilman Tyrrell was born in Hinsdale, NH, in 1887. His father Sumner Gordon Tyrrell was a supervisor in a textile mill, and died in 1894 at the age of 35. Oscar and his mother Nellie then moved to Vermont to live with her parents. After a year spent in Tempe, Arizona, with relatives (possibly a great uncle with the surname of Hart), Oscar attended the Rockland Military Academy in West Lebanon, NH, for three years. He then worked for General Electric in Troy, NY, for a year prior to his marriage to Lillian Hildreth in 1908. Lillian was a 1905 graduate of the nearby Kimball Union Academy. The couple were living in Cornish, NH, possibly at Hildreth Farm, when their daughter Ruth was born in 1911. Their son James was born in Hartford, VT, in 1917. Oscar worked in a number of professions in NJ, VT, MD, CT, and MA from the 1910s to 1940s, including as a machinist in Baltimore, MD, during World War I, and again in Bristol, CT, in the early years of the Great Depression. Oscar, Lillian, and their children lived together when possible. The 1930 U.S. Census notes Oscar, Lillian, Ruth, and James living in an apartment in New Britain, CT. Oscar was listed a machinist, while daughter Ruth was a librarian at a public library. In the 1930s Lillian and her children moved back to Hildreth Farm (closed since 1912). Oscar continued to travel widely for work, while Lillian grew food on the farm and did odd jobs including helping to take care of friends and relatives in VT and NH. She sometimes spent winters in their homes as a caretaker. Ruth graduated from Mount Holyoke College in the class of 1934. She married Bernard George Hooper (1910-1992) that September in Cornish. The couple settled in New York City, where Bernard was president of an import company, but went to England during WWII for his military service. They returned to New York in 1946, where sons Michael and Mark (the donor) were born in 1947 and 1950 respectively.

Credit Line:

Gift of Mark Tyrrell Hooper and Mira Rapp Hooper in memory of our uncle James Hildreth Tyrrell

People:

Tyrrell, Oscar (1887-1962)

Subjects:

Military academies, Military training