Henry G. Francisco Papers

Henry Gillespie Francisco (1892-1983), a graduate of Newark Academy, was born and raised in Newark. His father, J. H. Francisco, was a partner in Francisco and Barkhorn, Surveyors, Conveyancers, and Real Estate Agents, whose office was located at the Heath Building, 777-779 Broad St. Francisco and Barkhorn were "both natives of New Jersey [and] prominent citizens of Newark." His mother Lucy, nee Gillespie, was also a native of New Jersey. At some point before 1917, J. H. Francisco died.

At the time of his enlistment, in May 1917, Henry Francisco lived at 462 Ridge St. in Newark with his widowed mother and his younger sister Helen (b. ca. 1897). Francisco served as a private in the United States Medical Corps., 1st Division, 28th Infantry (1917-1919) during World War I. On October 4, 1918, Francisco was "severely wounded in action" at Exermont, France, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, when he was shot and the lower lobe of his lung was punctured. On November 14th, while still unable to sit up or use his left arm, Francisco was sent south to the Hotel Ruhl in Vichy-Les-Bains for further recuperation. He never returned to combat. On Christmas Day, he embarked on his journey back to the United States, and was mustered out of the army in February 1919. In 1921 he joined the Lt. Jeff Feigl Post, no. 247, of the American Legion, which had headquarters in the Hotel Biltmore, New York.

Francisco's address in 1925 was 50 Second St., Newark, but by the 1930s he was back on Ridge St., living with his mother, sister, and his sister's family. He lived in Newark until at least the late 1940s. He was living in Bloomfield on November 16, 1950, the day he married Margaret Eleanor Johnson in Brooklyn, NY. His daughter, Lucinda, was born on May 11, 1952. He later moved with his family to Bloomsbury, NJ, in Hunterdon County, where he was selfemployed in the real estate and antiques businesses. He died in Bloomsbury in 1983.

During World War I, his sister, Helen Francisco, volunteered at Fort Dix, where she prepared surgical supplies and served in the canteen. During this time, she met her future husband. By the end of the war, Helen was employed by E. T. Carrington, a jewelry firm at 7 Maiden Lane in New York.

Helen and Frederick C. Noyes (b. ca. 1889) were married in 1919. They raised their three children in the family home on Ridge St., where they lived until at least 1951. Noyes, originally from Montclair, NJ, was a Lieutenant and later a Captain in the United States Army (1917-1919).

Before the war Noyes worked for Coronet Phosphate Co. in New York (1909-1917); from 1919 until at least 1935, he was secretary of the Phosphate Export Association.