Historical note:

            Evelyn Estella Sutcliffe was born February 5, 1897 in Lincoln, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Roger Sutcliffe and Ida Britton. Her mother Ida (Britton) Sutcliffe remarried to accountant Robert B. Hough in 1903. She had a stepsister named Marion Hough. The family moved to the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Providence in 1909, where Evelyn attended the Academy Avenue School and graduated from Technical High School in 1915. She worked at the Providence Telephone Company circa 1916 to 1919. Evelyn married Casimir A. Wosko in September 1921, possibly in Detroit, Michigan, where Casimir was working. It was not until late 1924 that she left Providence to live with him in Newport, Vermont. Circa 1953, she and Casimir retired in East Providence, R.I., next door to her widowed mother. She remained in East Providence through at least 1986. Evelyn E. Wosko died October 23, 1995 in Manchester, New Hampshire at the age of 98. She is buried in Moshassuck Cemetery, Central Falls, Rhode Island.

            Casimir Andrew Wosko was born January 19, 1896 in Massachusetts to Polish immigrant parents: weaver Henryk A. and Julia Wosko. He had siblings named Victor, Walter and Anna. He attended Academy Avenue School in Providence, R.I. and graduated circa 1915 from a Polish-American institution, the Saint Cyrillus and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1916, and was stationed at Fort Wright, New York and College Station, Texas, serving until 1918. After his discharge, he went to work for the Dupont Co. in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He moved to New Bedford, Mass. in May 1920 and then to Indian Orchard, Mass. in September of 1920, where he was employed by Indian Motorcycle Company. He passed a Civil Service exam in October 1920 and was sworn in as a immigration inspector for the U.S. Department of Labor in December 1920. He was initially stationed at Detroit, where he was probably married in 1921. He was transferred to the border station in Newport, Vermont in September of 1923, and remained there until at least 1951, when he retired to East Providence, R.I. Casimir A. Wosko died May 19, 1958 in East Providence, Rhode Island.

Bibliography:

RI Cemetery Transcription Project, compiled by John Sterling

RI Birth Records Index, 1890 - 1900

1910 RI Census

Providence City Directories, 1910, 1920, 1925

1958 East Providence City Directory

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Scope and content:

            The bulk of this collection consists of letters received by Evelyn E. Sutcliffe from her courtship and early marriage to Casimir A. Wosko (before 1924), and from her mother Ida Hough (after 1924). There is also correspondence between Evelyn and her aunts, sister and friends, and between Casimir and his brothers and sister. There are also letters between Evelyn and her brothers-in-law and sister-in-law. The letters discuss daily weather conditions, social news, work, health and travel in Rhode Island, Michigan and Vermont. The frequent letters from Evelyn's mother are particularly detailed in their descriptions of daily life in the Riverside neighborhood of East Providence after 1925.

            There are also two diaries written by Evelyn E. Sutcliffe, covering from January 1, 1915 to March 21, 1916. There is also a page which has a June 4 entry no year, but the stationary indicates that it could be from about 1919 because this was when Evelyn worked for the Providence Telephone Co. The diary entries discuss Evelyn's trips to the movies by trolley, her relationship with Casimir, and Providence social events. The first smaller diary also contains her address book.

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Provenance:

            The bulk of this collection was purchased from Veronica Owen in March of 1992. About fifty additional letters were donated by collector Thomas E. Greene later that month.

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Processing note:

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Inventory:

Box 1:

Folder 1- 1903, 1905, 1906, 1913-1915

            Includes first letter from Casimir Wosko, 1914.

Folder 2- 1916-1918

Includes chatty letter from friend Lily Balfour re work at Providence Telephone Company, 4/24/1916; invitation by the Mount Pleasant Working Girls Club to the opening of the Nickerson House, Providence, 1917; letters from Casimir in Army bases in Fort Wright, N.Y. and College Station, Texas, 1916-1918.

Folder 3 - 1919

            Includes ten letters from Casimir in Bridgeport, Conn.; discusses the Dupont Co.

Folder 4 - 1920

Includes letters from Casimir in New Bedford re doing some mysterious "sort of propaganda work which takes in all seven days...this outfit becomes involved with the labor difficulties of its clients, so that the work is somewhat different than it is in ordinary times", 5/20/1920; and re being sworn in as an immigration inspector for the ferry docks between Windsor and Detroit, 12/27/1920

Folder 5 - January - June 1921

Includes letters from Casimir 1/12/1921 re possibility of marriage as soon as he can be transferred to Boston; 2/27/1921 re the IWW: "Did you know your fellow was a I.W.W.? Well he is. He belongs to the Federal Employees Union which is connected with the A.F. of L... you see it's sort of a case where you have to belong."; 5/18/1921 re the Russian, Polish and Jewish illegal immigrants he helps deport, who he finds generally "a low sort who would do this country a lot of harm."

Folder 6 - June - December 1921

Includes letters from Casimir 9/10/1921 (first letter after wedding); and 9/22/1921 re Wosko family’s reaction to their marriage

Folder 7 - January - June 1922

Folder 8 - July - December 1922

Folder 9 - January - June 1923

Folder 10 - July - December 1923

Folder 11 - January - June 1924

Folder 12 - July - December 1924

Folder 13 - January - June 1925

Folder 14 - July - December 1925

            Includes first letter from sister Marion after family move to Riverside, 11/17/1925.

Folder 15 - January - June 1926

Folder 16- July - December 1926

Folder 17 - January - June 1927

Folder 18 - July - December 1927

Folder 19 - January - June 1928

Folder 20 - July - December 1928

Folder 21 - 1929

Folder 22 - 1930

Folder 23 - 1931

Folder 24 - 1932

Folder 25 - 1933

Folder 26 - 1934

Folder 27 - 1935

Folder 28 - 1936

Folder 29 - 1937

Folder 30 - 1938

Folder 31 - 1939

Box 2:

Folder 32 - 1940

Folder 33 - 1941

            Includes letters discussing defense stamps and anxiety over war, 12/1941.

Folder 34 - 1944

Folder 35 - 1945

Includes letter from sister Marion, 8/22/1945: "Things look pretty bad at Raytheon - they had made no plans at all for reconversion and already have fired hundreds of workers."

Folder 36 - 1946

Folder 37 - 1947

            Includes letters concerning the death of Evelyn’s stepfather

Folder 38 - 1949, 1951, 1957

Folder 39 - undated material

Folder 40 - Diaries - 1915, 1916 and [1919?] (loose undated page)

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Subjects:

Diaries - 1915-1916

East Providence, R.I. - Social life and customs

Emigration and immigration

Hough, Ida (Britton) (Sutcliffe)

Love-letters

Polish Americans - Vermont

Providence, R.I. - Social life and customs

Sutcliffe Family

United States. Department of Labor - Officials and employees

Vermont - Social life and customs

World War, 1914-1918

World War, 1941-1945

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RIHS1822