Jim who spoke to Alice's sister Mabel who lived to 101, also tells us that Alice was the nurse who worked for Charles L Shackford caring for his wife Ida Mary Litchfield Shackford who died of pneumonia on October 27, 1912. A year and a few days after Ida's death, Charles and Alice were married. We have not yet found a copy of that marriage record but six months later, Alice's death in this tragic fire was reported across the United States.
Jim shared this transcription from the April 15, 1914 The Daily Hampshire Gazette which described Alice's funeral: “The funeral of Mrs. Alice L. Bridgman, wife of Charles Lee Shackford and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dwight S. Bridgman of Westhampton, will be held at the home of Mr. Shackford’s parents in Dorchester this afternoon and in the Westhampton church parlors at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. She was a graduate of the Northampton High School in the class of 1907 and after training as a professional nurse at the Charter Oak private hospital took a post graduate course at the Brookline Woman’s Private hospital in Boston. She had lived in Boston, practicing her profession until her marriage to Mr. Shackford, Oct. 31 [sic], 1913. Details of the death of Mrs. Shackford are meager, but from the news received by friends here it appears that she was awakened by the smell of smoke and arose, without awakening her husband, to investigate its cause. As she had not been in normal health recently it is thought that after discovering the flames she was overcome with faintness and rushed to a window, where she lost consciousness, and fell limply to the street below. The exact facts will probably never be determined.”
The article shown below mentions that her husband, Charles L Shackford whose parents were Edward W Shackford and Georgianna Lee was also badly burned in the fire. Alice's death record states that the caue of death was "Internal Injuries including Fracture of Skull, caused by Precipitation from a Height during a Conflagration". What a sad death for this 26 year old young woman who had served so many others during her career path of nursing.
WOMEN DIE IN BOSTON FIRE.
Mrs. Shackford and Mrs. Bemis Killed in Commonwealth Avenue.
BOSTON. Mass., Tuesday, April 14.- Two women were killed early to-day in a fire which swept through the Melville apartment house, at Commonwealth Avenue and Long Avenue, in the Aliston district.
The women who were killed, Mrs. C. L. Shackford and Mrs. Edith Bemis, jumped from windows.
Mrs. Shackford's husband was badly burned before he was rescued by firemen. Mr. and Mrs G. A. Rogers and Miss R. Adams escaped from the fourtn floor by a rope ladder made from bed clothing.
The building was wholly destroyed, but all persons are believed to have been taken out. The loss probably will reach $200,000.
SOURCES:
"DEATHS.," Boston Daily Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), 28 October 1912; digital images, ProQuest Obituaries (http://obituaries.proquest.com : accessed 13 January 2015).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915, BIRTHS REGISTERED in the town of Westhampton, Mass for the Year eighteen hundred and eight eight, page 47, , ; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 24 January 2014).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, , Alice L Bridgeman Shackford, 1914; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 May 2015); Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts
Jim Bridgman, "Re: Shackford/Bridgman," e-mail from [e-mail for private use] ([street address for private use]), to Joanne Shackford Parkes, 9 March 2015
"SEVEN DIE IN BOSTON HOTEL FIRE," Syracuse Journal, 14 April 1914; FultonHistory (www.fultonhistory.com : accessed 23 January 2014).
"Seven Lives Lost in Fire," Ogden Standard, 14 April 1914; (http://udn.lib.utah.edu : accessed 14 June 2013).
"SEVEN LIVES LOST WHEN APARTMENT HOUSE IS BURNED," The Tulsa Democrat (Tulsa, Okla.), 15 April 1914; digital images, The Gateway to Oklahoma History (okhistory.org : accessed 24 September 2001).
"SEVEN PERISH IN BOSTON FIRE Trapped by Flames in Big Apartment House.," Bemidji (Bemidji, Minnisota) Daily Pioneer, 15 April 1914; digital image, Library of Congress Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 8 August 2013).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, , Ida M Litchfield Shackford, 1912; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 April 2014); Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts..
"Women Leaps, Seven Killed as Fashionable Hotel, Attacked By Flames, Burns to Ground," Laramie Daily Boomerang (Laramie, Wyoming), 17 April 1914; digital images, Wyoming Newspapers (http://pluto.wyo.gov : accessed 9 September 2013).
"WOMEN DIE IN BOSTON FIRE," New York (New York, New York) Times, 14 April 1914; online archives (query.nytimes.com : accessed 19 June 2013)