Funeral home visit on February 17, 1918

On February 17 Mary says she "went down to see Mrs. Smith at 'Oliver Bair's.'"  Determining exactly what she meant required some detective work.  First, the fact she put Oliver Bair's in quotation marks suggested it was something other than a person's home.  I quickly found that Oliver Bair's was an important Philadelphia funeral home.  Recent references indicate that the company is now located in Upper Darby, PA.  A flyer from around Mary's era shows a picture of the building identified as the Oliver H, Bair Building at 1818-1820 Chestnut Street (see below).  Last year a building on the historic register at 1918-1920 Sansom St., also identified as the former Oliver Bair Funeral Home, was demolished.

As for "Mrs. Smith", that required some additional searching. There was an obituary in the February 16 The Philadelphia Inquirer of an Anna C. Smith, daughter of the late Patrick J. and Mary E. Meade.  However, no age was mentioned, nor was the fact she was survived by a husband or had been previously widowed.  But I found a death certificate of a 38 year old Claudia Smith who died on February 14, interred on February 18, and the undertaker was Oliver H. Bair, 1820 Chestnut St.  She was divorced, which would explain the "Mrs." in Mary's entry.  The information given on the death certificate was provided by George Meade, Mrs. Smith's parents being Patrick and Mary.  No doubt that Mrs. Smith, Anna C. Smith and Claudia Smith are all the same person.  It is likely that she was Catholic, as was Mary, or at least that Mary being Catholic, she only referred to her in the formal Mrs. Smith, avoiding any acknowledgement of her otherwise taboo divorced status.  And Mary's mother's maiden name was Meade, so it is likely that "Mrs. Smith" was a first cousin or other relative on Mary's mother's side.