100 Years after the death of my Fraternal Grandfather--Andrew Lennox --- July 20, 1923

     A century ago today, my fraternal grandfather, Andrew Lennox, died when the New York City police truck he was in ran off a hilly, rutty road north of New York City.

     He was on his way back from working at a police department summer camp for officers and their families. His 4th child---my father---was a newborn baby. Andrew was just 45.

Andrew Lennox, my Grandfather

 

        NOTE; In researching your family's history, expect mistakes...as an example the date in this newspaper shows it to be 1920, though it clearly was 1923. My sister has been the unofficial family archivist, and she also says name misspellings are common...such as "Lennox" with one "N" in Andrew's death certificate. The newspaper also incorrectly reports that they lived in Brooklyn. They lived in The Bronx... where I was born thirty years later.

 

 

I never knew my father's father, Andrew.

He died long before I was born. In fact he died in 1923, when my father was just a babe in arms.

 

     Andrew was a police officer when virtually all employees of the New York Police Department were sworn, armed officers. So Andrew, a carpenter by trade, wore a badge and carried a gun.

     But his job was carpentry, and he was doing just that the day he died.

     He was working on cabins at a Police Camp at Platte Clove in Saugerties, New York.

     He mailed a post card (below) to his wife, my paternal
Grandmother, advising her that he had sent his paycheck home with a fellow officer. (named Tim?) He signed it Andy.

     On Friday,  Andrew and several other police department workers got on the white department truck for the ride back to headquarters in New York City.

 

    The article incorrectly reports that my Grandfathers wife...my Grandmother, was in the truck when the accident. She was not. It also reports they lived in Brooklyn, but they actually lived in The Bronx.

 

  

 

 

 

The fact that the postcard he mailed to my Paternal Grandmother was saved for all of those years is indicative of its importance.