Lot Title

Location in Cemetery

Section: a     Lot: --     Grave: --

Date of death

Jan-10-1904

Date of birth

Oct-0-1843

Age

Verse (Legibility: N/A)

Father

Veteran Information

No War Periods Served

Veteran: No

Relatives

Unspecified

Stone Shape

Stone Decoration

Stone Condition

Stone Material

State of Stone

Other Information

Charles G. Petty was born in Fall River in October of 1943 to Blossom Road farmer David D. Petty (1811-1904) and the former Mary L. Borden (1815-1874). David and Mary had a large family, with sons Thomas, Edward, George, Charles and David being joined by daughters Ellen, Ruby, Eudora, and Lydia. In addition to the nine children, after his mother’s death, David’s father, Asa Petty, lived with the family in the 1860s. While some documents list Charles’ name as Petty, other records include a second “e”, hence the Pettey spelling, which many of his family members and descendants assumed. His gravestone is engraved with his birth name, Charles G. Petty. Charles worked as a farmer, farm laborer, and, for a time in the 1870s, as a clerk in a wholesale grocery store. After the Civil War, Charles married Mary A. Strange, who was three years his junior. Their first son, George, born in 1869, died as a youngster. Two other sons, Herbert “Bert” (1874-1918) and John Irwin Pettey (born in 1876), followed. In 1895, Charles purchased three acres of land from William H. Gifford just across the Westport boundary line on the west side of Blossom Road in Fall River. Charles’ father, David, and brothers, David and Thomas also farmed parcels of land on Blossom Road to the “east of the pond”. Bert married in 1902 and moved to Harrison Street in Fall River. John Irwin married in 1903 and moved to Robeson Street. In January of 1904, both Charles, who was 60 years old and still farming, and his 92-year-old father, David, became ill with pneumonia. David became sick first on January 3, and grew steadily worse. Charles was initially diagnosed with pleurisy when he fell ill three days later, but the following day, his doctor noted that he, too, had pneumonia. More than 40 years before the introduction of antibiotics, both father and son died on January 10, 1904 in their respective homes of the infection. Funeral services were entrusted to undertaker John Hicks in Westport and Charles was buried first, in the Babcock-Gifford Burial Ground nearest his property on January 13 after a service at his home. The family gathered together the following day to bury his father, David, at the Rufus Wordell Burial Ground on Old Bedford Road, beside his wife, Mary. Without the ability to work the farm and pay the mortgage, Mary needed to sell the property when her husband died. Four months later, in May of 1904, Charles’ three acres of land were sold to Albert Sherman. Bert Petty died in his 45th year after a long illness in 1918. John Irwin moved to New Bedford where he was employed in the leather goods industry. A death record could not be located for him, but he did apply for social security in 1937 when he was in his early 60s. Mary lived out her final years with her nephew, Franklin Pettey, and his family, on Blossom Road. She is not buried with her husband and her final resting place is unknown. Todd Baptista 12/22

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