Rusk Residence

Rusk Avenue Residence

1 March 1907: This fine house at 1617 Rusk was owned by Henry F. Fisher, an attorney whose father, Henry Francis Fisher (1805-1867) was the consul for the Hanseatic League to the Republic of Texas in 1838. He was sent by Sam Houston to Bremen as consul for the Republic of Texas, and later returned to Germany, where he died in Wiesbaden, in 1867 when his son was 11. His widow Mary E. Bonzano Fisher remained in Houston, where she died in 1879 and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery with a grave marker, “Citizen of the Republic of Texas.” Henry became an attorney, and before 1895 purchased a home at 1618 Commerce in the “Quality Hill” section of town, Houston’s first elite residential area away from the commercial centers of town. After 1902 he purchased this large residence at 1617 Rusk, corner of Jackson. Henry moved his family to California before 1920, where he died in 1939 and was buried in Forest Lawn, Glendale in what became a family compound holding his wife and two children.
Reference: Houston’s Heritage Using Antique Postcards by Joy Lent, published by D. H White & Co., Houston, TX, no date.

22 February 2014: In 1962 the Port of Houston Authority built the World Trade Center Building, the 12 story structure on the left, now the Westin Houston, a hotel largely serving the needs of baseball fans attending Minute Maid Park [Enron Field] across the street. The spire of Annunciation Catholic Church built in 1884 by Nicholas J. Clayton lies dead center, with the façade of the Incarnate Word Academy in front, also designed by Clayton in 1906. Sadly, this structure with its exceptional molded brickwork was demolished and replaced in 2017 by a new building, the first stage of which is here visible on the right. This loss represents a preservation tragedy on a par with the demolition of Ursuline Academy in Galveston, another splendid lost Clayton building.

Postmarked: Boston, Mass, Fenway Station; 1 March 1907 Stamp: 1c Blue Green Ben Franklin #300

To: Mrs. T. S. Jackson
2 Javett Pl., Utica, N. Y.

Message: At sociable Wed. night at Union Church heard John Andrews, a Scotchman, recite & read from Robbie Burns, very good. A lady played a violin very nicely. Then had ice cream & cake in a lower room around a grate fire. Tonight heard last two numbers of a recital at Faelten Pianoforte School four pieces in all two of which I enjoyed very much indeed “Dame Frost” by Bendel & “Midsummer Nights Dream” by Mendelssohn.
Louis 2-28-07

Louis was 5’ 7” with blue eyes and brown haIr, a young man who valued the liberal arts and science and who eventually pursued a career as a chemist and professor. When he sent the card, Henry Louis Jackson was 28, the only child of Mrs. Thomas S. Jackson and Eliza Anna H. Squires (1857-1914), daughter of John and Rachael Squires.
  Eight years before at 19, Louis had volunteered 2 May 1898 for the Spanish American War and mustered in 18 days later as a private in Company E 1st Infantry of the New York National Guard. In Honolulu he was hospitalized 19 October until 26 November for an unspecified illness or injury, and mustered out 22 February 1899 at Utica. In due course he returned to his studies, becoming a student at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, a liberal arts college with a solid classical curriculum of Greek, Latin, Natural History, Chemistry and Mathematics. He was a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity.
  In his message to his mother, Louis mentions Faelton Pianoforte School and Union Church, and mails the postcard from Fenway Station, all locations in the Back Bay area of Boston, MA. The piano school was located at 30 Huntington Avenue in Boston, and Union Church not far away at 485 Columbus Avenue. City directories do not identity him as a Bostonian, but students might well have been omitted from such a city directory.
  Where he got the postcard “Residence on Rusk Avenue” is not certain, but there is no evidence he ever traveled to Houston. Perhaps it reminded him of home [2 Javett Place, built in 1890, was a large home with 7 bathrooms and 4 baths when it last sold in 2009 for $1,000,000].
  Seventeen months after sending the postcard Louis married Bertha Taggart in Boston, daughter of David B. Taggart and Harriet Carey. Bertha was 34 years old, born in Tipton, IA and Henry Louis Jackson was 29, born in Utica, NY. Subsequent to their marriage in Boston, they moved around the Western States, in 1910 in Lawrence County, KS where Louis worked as a food inspector, living with his wife and mother-in-law, then later North Dakota where he was a teacher. In World War I he was appointed from civil life to Medical Officers Training Camp, then as 1st Lieutenant in the Medical Laboratory Department, where he served overseas from Nov 16, 1918 to Aug 12, 1919, and was discharged August 30.
He resumed his career as a teacher and by 1920 was teaching at an agricultural college in S. Kingston, Washington County, R.I. They stayed in Rhode Island through 1930 and 1940 working as a college professor and later chemist for the State of Rhode Island. They had two children, Helen L. (1916) and Robert T. (1939). Henry Louis Jackson died in 1947 and Bertha died in 1954. They are buried at Old Fernwood Cemetery in South Kingston, Washington County, Rhode Island. His mother had died in 1914, and father in 1927; they are buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica, NY.