Born on the Fourth of July

On July 4, 1907, the Boston Red Sox split a double header against the Washington Senators at the Huntington Ave Baseball Grounds in Boston (3-1 and 7-0). Hall of Famers Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, and Tris Speaker helped pack in the crowds that day. Even with that much talent, the Sox ended the season with only 59 wins and 90 defeats. It would be another five years before Fenway Park was to be built and two more years before the team would buy George Herman “Babe” Ruth and two other players from the Baltimore Orioles for $8,000.

Republican Butler Ames generally supported President Teddy Roosevelt’s policies. He represented Lowell in Congress. There were about 100,000 people living in Lowell by then. Fredrick Farnham was elected Mayor of Lowell and construction of the Greek Holy Trinity Church was still proceeding.

The city was a thriving place. Polish, French Canadian, Greek, Irish, and Portuguese immigrants had settled in their neighborhoods and competed for jobs and opportunity. The population had survived fires and large strikes that sent thousands of workers into the streets with little opportunity. Lowell had been hit hard, especially in the Greek neighborhoods, by a tuberculosis outbreak from 1900-1905. While the Greeks were struggling, the French Canadians were busy building. St. Louis de France parish was founded in Centralville in 1904 and the Centralville Social Club opened up the next year. Lowell residents backed Roosevelt in 1904 over Democrat Alton Parker.

Lydia (Rheault) Gauthier likely did not care about Mayor Farnham that day. She likely also didn’t care whether the Red Sox would win the World Championship as they had a few years earlier. She didn’t care about the TB outbreak or international threats from the “Yellow Peril” that day. The only thing on her mind on July 4, 1907 was delivering her second baby.

Armand Gauthier entered the world in a tenement house in Lowell - 547 moody Street. Neither his mother or his father Arthur could speak or write English when he was born.

During his life, he would help build a church, run a business, travel to France, and serve as body guard to a world-renowned poet. He would survive the Great Depression, two World Wars and various other conflicts. As a boy he would make a treacherous crossing of the frozen St. Lawrence River, spend time living in an orphanage and see his father die of tuberculosis when he was only five. His father was only 26.

Armand Gauthier was in many ways the kind of American Teddy Roosevelt wanted to see the nation produce. He wanted Americans, even immigrants, to love their country, be strong in their support for their community, to take pleasure in the quiet joys of the outdoors, and to be playful with their children. Both Gauthier and Roosevelt shared these qualities. Both believed in hard work and a rigorous lifestyle. Both men loved sports but where Teddy disdained baseball, Armand thrived on it. Both would bear the sorrow with the passing of a child- Armand lost three in his lifetime. The tragedy would tie these great men tighter to their remaining children.

Roosevelt had ushered in a new century that saw the rise to prominence of the United States of America. Armand Gauthier is one part of the developing greatness of our nation. As the country developed and prospered, so did the Gauthiers.