A Soldier's Letter Home: Thomas Francis Cordis, 1843-1915

Thomas (Tommy) Francis Cordis was born in Longmeadow in 1843 and enlisted in the 46th Mass. Volunteers in September of 1862, at the age of 18. Enrolled as a private, he was honorably discharged in July of 1863 with the rank of sergeant.

During his time in North Carolina, Tommy wrote letters to his parents at home in Longmeadow. Here is an excerpt from a letter written April 6, 1863 to his father.

"When I was out scouting I went over to see the Rebel Pickets and had quite a long talk with them. We go down to the river and lay down our guns and they do the same. Then we talk with one another. They have five on a post. They are very large fellows dressed in butternut-clothes and look like thunder. I asked them how they was and they said that they wished they were out of it. We asked them all kinds of questions. They say they don’t like Old Lincoln’s proclamation. They have got good rifles and carbines. They don’t offer to fire on us so we can talk with them all we want to without any fear of being shot at."

Contributor: Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published June 30, 2022

Longmeadow’s Physician From Kyiv

Jacob Zuslofsky, who became Dr. James Z. Naurison, was an immigrant from Kyiv, Ukraine living much of his life in Longmeadow. He led an exemplary life providing medical care to his community and left a lasting legacy to promote future education of its residents. Dr. Naurison was a prominent Springfield physician who established the Cardiology Department at Mercy Medical Center. Born Jacob Zuslofsky in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1888, he emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in 1891 along with his parents and two siblings. Two additional siblings were born after the move to Boston.

Naturalization Record for Dr. Naurison

Dr. Naurison graduated from Boston English High School and Tufts Medical School. College premedical education prior to WWI was uncommon. He trained in Internal Medicine in Boston. At some point, he changed his name to James Z. Naurison. He married Helen Granstein from Chicopee in 1908 and eventually opened his medical practice in Springfield in 1910. A home on Roseland Terrace in Longmeadow was built for Dr. Naurison and his wife in 1919 where they raised three sons.

Naurison home on Roseland Terrace

Dr. Naurison did postgraduate training in cardiology at Johns Hopkins University in 1924. He was Jewish and was quite active in the local Jewish community and the Temple Beth El congregation. At this time there was significant antisemitism and Jewish physicians were looked upon as second or third-rate professionals. Local hospitals systematically ostracized them and denied them privileges. Organized medicine ignored them and denied membership. Their patients were primarily the poor and first-generation immigrants. It was against this backdrop that ten Jewish physicians, including Dr. Naurison, organized the Maimonides Medical Club in 1924 named after the preeminent 12th-century Jewish Spanish physician, philosopher and religious scholar, Moses Maimonides. Their mission was to integrate Jewish physicians into the mainstream medical community in Springfield. This goal was eventually achieved and the medical club was active for 90 years, holding its last meeting in October 2014. By the early 1930s, the first Jewish Pediatrician (Dr. Jurist) became an active staff member at Springfield Hospital and a major operation was performed by a Jewish surgeon (Dr. Glickman) at the same institution.

Maimonides Medical Club meeting 1930. Dr. Naurison circled

He was an active Springfield area physician focusing on Cardiology for 60 years retiring in 1970. Dr. Naurison eventually served as the president of the Hampden County Medical Society.

Helen Naurison died at age 75 in 1961 and Dr. Naurison died at 84 years old on October 14, 1972. In his will, he established a $3,000,000 college scholarship fund to provide $150,000 annually to “worthy young men and women from Western Massachusetts, Enfield, and Suffield, Connecticut.” At the time this was the largest scholarship fund in the area’s history and is still in existence.

contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published June 23, 2022

Sources

Springfield Republican

U.S Census

Genealogy Bank

Maimonides Medical Club records

Fire! Fire!

If you were one of the many people who voted at the Community House this week, then you were visiting the site of a significant mid-19th century fire 177 years ago this week. On Friday, June 27, 1845, people received reports about this devastating fire in Longmeadow. The fire started across the street in the chimney of the "large and fine" house of Mr. Roderick Burnham (702 Longmeadow Street). The large wooden structure burned quickly in the high winds and was not saved. A burning ember from that fire blew across the green to the east, igniting the wooden shake roof of the old, grand house built by the Reverend Stephen Williams almost a hundred and thirty years before on what is now the site of the Longmeadow Community House. Volunteers valiantly fought the fire, but the roof and upper part of the Williams' house, now occupied by the late minister's grandson, Col. Samuel Williams, were severely damaged. The fire engines that fought the blaze were identified by the Springfield Republican newspaper account as the "Lion, the Niagra, the Ocean, and the U.S. Armory engine."

Even though both houses were destroyed, much of the contents were saved from the conflagration. Mr. Burnham's property was insured for $2500, but the paper reported "his loss will far exceed that amount, as the house was one of the largest and most expensive in the county." Unfortunately, Col. Williams' house was not insured.

Two volumes of Stephen Williams' diaries, Collection of First Church Longmeadow

We always imagined that many brave people must have dared to enter Williams' burning house, or that the fire was a very slow, indolent fire, because the records in the Historical Society list a large number of items that were saved from the burning structure and brought to the home of the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs several doors to the north. The Reverend Storrs had passed away in 1819, but his widow Sarah Williams Storrs, sister to Col. Samuel Williams, still resided there.

Snowshoes belonging to Stephen Williams

One of the pieces of furniture belonging to Stephen Williams' mother

Clerical collar or Geneva bands, belonging to Stephen Williams

Among the rescued items, according to the Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883 published nearly fifty years after the fire, were "most fortunately the ten manuscript volumes of Dr. Williams' diary covering the entire period of his ministry." Other items included an oak writing table and inkstand, court cupboard, dower chest, old pistol, courting stick, chair, very old highboy (sold at auction in 1916 in two parts), 4 Chippendale chairs, Dutch or Queen Ann chairs, wing chair, old musical instrument, bands worn by Dr. Williams (Geneva bands or clerical collars), snow shoes, a handwoven towel, a collection of original letters, and bonnets. This list was enumerated in the original inventory list of the Society's collection, compiled by Mrs. D. T. Smith in 1930. Many of these items are still in the collection of the Historical Society--alas not the 'very old highboy"! Now you can see why we believe the fire to be a slow one--the hardy rescuers had time to move a house-worth of furniture plus many other treasured items before it was unsafe. More than 60 years after Stephen Williams' death, he was still a revered citizen of Longmeadow, and the relics that remained were considered worthy of saving.

Williams pistol

Williams desk

-contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published June 16, 2022