Tom Cruise (NOT the movie star)

True American, Trenton NJ 1909, Lincoln Composition Contest

Thomas W. Cruise, 1900-1912

Thomas was born 17 January 1900 in Lambertville, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, the first of eight children to the union of Bartley Bartholemew Cruise, a quarryman according to the 1900 U.S. census, and the former Nellie Veronica Flood. Not much record of his life remains. He was a student at St. John's Catholic School in Lambertville, according to the 1905 state census, where he is listed with the middle initial "W" and at the age of five was reported able to read, write and speak English. Tom was recalled decades later by his brother Bill as "very bright and industrious." In the upper corners of this page are the two sides of a copper medal which he brought home from a school-sponsored contest for an unknown composition. The front of the medal bears the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey and the words "True American, Trenton NJ 1909, Lincoln Composition Contest." The reverse simply states, "Awarded to Thomas Cruise." The medal was given to me through his youngest sister, Ella C. Shannon, presently of Ellicott City, Maryland, in what appears to be its original brown padded box, bearing the imprint, "Horace Fine Engraving, Stamps & Stencil Works, Ground Floor, 19 E. State St., Trenton, N.J."

Almost 70 years after Tom's death, Tom's brother Bill, two years his junior, remembered stealing a Christmas tree from a neighbor with his big brother:

I wasn't any more than eight years old, I guess, when my brother Tom and I went out in the country to get a Christmas tree. This was where a man by the name of Mart Holcomb lived. He was very upset when people would go in and take down trees. However, we went in with the ax, we cut down this tree, and started for home. Then he came out and he called us all kinds of vile names. It had been raining and the mud sucked off my rubber overshoes. I had to stop, put the tree down, and put my overshoes on. When we started back, we put the ax in the tree, but the ax soon fell off. It fell down in the mud. We had to stop and pick it up. When we finally got it home, it was too big to take it into the house. We had to take the top out of it. It was big enough for a community tree. That was my experience of going and getting our own Christmas tree. We didn't even have to pay for it. [SOURCE]

When Tom died suddenly of spinal meningitis, on 22 November 1912, two months before his 13th birthday, his mother took two pennies she found in his pocket and had them mounted onto a pin as a brooch (above center). Visible signs of his illness reportedly only lasted one day. The child was buried in a tightly-sealed casket, as his younger sister recalled decades later, to prevent contagion.

In 1979, his sister Ella (1914-), who gave me the above brooch several years later, seemed not to know what I was talking about when I asked in a tape-recorded interview about what I understood about some Indian head pennies which belonged to Tom. This interview, on 27 December 1979, took place in the home of William and Kathryn Cruise in Passaic, New Jersey. Later she found the brooch among some belongings. In 1979, I asked if the coins had been placed in the coffin with their mother, who died in 1963 and lay buried in a grave next to her late husband and Tom, as I thought I had heard?

. . . I never heard of any Indian head pennies. The only thing that she had like that were some of Thomas' toys. Now, you and David were very small when she died, and you got a hold of them and were banging them. They were going to be gone in no time at all. One was a little zeppelin and the other was one of those little hand pump-carts you used to see on the railroads. They were very old toys. We should have given them to a toy-collector or something, but they were just taken away. I don't know where they ever went. We just didn't want to see them destroyed. [SOURCE]

The child was buried in plot at St. John's Cemetery, Lambertville, together with his parents. The memorial stone reads, "Cruise, Bartley B. (1871-1921) + Nellie V. (1878-1965), Thomas, Helen, Edward, Baby Boy." Helen Ann Veronica Cruise was born on February 13, 1908 and died ten days later on the 28th. Edward Joseph Cruise was born March 1, 1909 and died August 4, 1909. Records at the church rectory list a stillbirth on December 19, 1901, cause listed as "difficult labor."

Sources:

1900 U.S. Census, New Jersey, Hunterdon County, Lambertville, p. 15 (49 Ferry St.)

1905 N.J. State Census, Hunterdon County, Lambertville, p. A8 (240 Main St.)

Birth and death records, Lambertville City Hall.

Christening and death records, rectory of St. John's Church, Lambertville.

Transcript of oral interview, W.B. Cruise, E.C. Shannon, K.D. Cruise, T.S. Rue, 12-27-1979.

Related Links:

Interview with William B. Cruise (1903-1988), 27 December 1979 - Passaic, New Jersey..

Meningitis, Study Web links.

Alexis' parents sound alarm after meningitis claims baby, Pottsville Republican Herald, Schuylkill, Pa., 04-15-1998.

Bacterial meningitis in children, The Daily Apple: Your guide to total health.

Sudden death, slow answers: Helping families stay together after the death of a child, Counseling Today, Vol. 39, No. 3.
What can you do for a person who is bereaved?, by Tom Golden.

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