Chateau Fairmount

History / Sources

Lowell Courier-Citizen, “Funeral of Judge Charles S. Lilley. Legal Profession, Judges, Justices and Many Friends Attend the Services”

Date
April 20, 1921
Type
newspaper
Repository
Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell (page copy sent October 27, 2026); also on NewspaperArchive (subscription)
Locator
Wednesday, 7.30 p.m. edition, front page
Access
Copy courtesy of Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell. The page is reproduced on this site in full, with the article enlarged. NewspaperArchive page: lowell-courier-citizen-evening-apr-20-1921-p-1. Read the source
Rights
Public domain (published 1921).

The funeral was held at 2 o’clock that afternoon “from his home, 236 Fairmount street.” Rev. Charles T. Billings, a former pastor of the Unitarian church in Lowell, officiated; judges of the Superior and Supreme Judicial courts attended; Philip R. Dunbar was among the bearers; burial was in the Lowell Cemetery.

The document

Newspaper column headed Funeral of Judge Charles S. Lilley (view full size)
“Funeral of Judge Charles S. Lilley,” Lowell Courier-Citizen, April 20, 1921, front page. Copy courtesy of Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell.

Open full size · Public domain (published 1921).

Front page of the Lowell Courier-Citizen, 7.30 p.m. edition, April 20, 1921 (view full size)
Lowell Courier-Citizen, April 20, 1921, front page, 7.30 p.m. edition. Copy courtesy of Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell.

Open full size · Public domain (published 1921).

Statements this record supports

  • C-015 — Judge Lilley died on Saturday evening April 16, 1921 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, 'aged 69 years, four months and three days'; the Lowell Sun obituary (April 18) says he 'sought few personal acquaintances following the untimely death of his wife and lived a secluded life among his books'. His funeral was held at 236 Fairmount Street on April 20, 1921 (burial Lowell Cemetery). The property was sold in 1925 by Bonney's granddaughter, Clara Bonney (Lilley) Dunbar — see C-016, C-049.
  • C-048 — Judge Charles S. Lilley died Saturday evening April 16, 1921 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, after a brief illness; his funeral at 236 Fairmount Street on April 20, 1921 was attended by many jurists; burial in the family lot, Lowell Cemetery. The 1921 obituary records that he married Clara Bonney on April 14, 1891 and that their daughter was 'now Mrs. Dunbar of West Newton'.
  • C-501 — Contemporary reports give glimpses of the house in use. At the Lilley–Bonney wedding on April 14, 1891, at 170 Fairmount Street (the house's number before 1894), the couple 'came down stairs arm-in-arm to the parlor', decorated with ferns and evergreens, and the cards asked 'No Presents'. In November 1896 the Lowell Sun counted the Bonney and Faulkner mansions 'among the sights always shown the visitors from out of town'. At the Dunbar–Lilley wedding of June 6, 1917, 'laurel twined the staircase', sweet peas were banked in the main drawing room and rosebuds decorated the dining room. Judge Lilley's obituary (April 1921) says he 'lived a secluded life among his books', and his funeral was held 'at the late home, 236 Fairmount street'.

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