Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Lacy’s husband, Frank, died in 1919. His wife was returned to the county and buried with him after he death in 1923.

They tell us a bit about a person’s life or how they died but necessarily leave so many details to the imagination or, in fortunate instances, the historical record.

Two graves in Oakland Cemetery carry a detail that spurs a whole host of questions – “Perished in the earthquake at Yokohama, Japan Sept. 1, 1923.”

There are still many questions I have. But here’s what I’ve learned. In many ways, the violent earthquake brought to end nearly a decade of tragedy for a young Warren family.

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Frank VanCourt Lacy married Edith Roosa, a doctor’s daughter from Buffalo. Lacy’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. A.H. Lacy, lived at 118 Carver St. in Warren. Where they met and when they married isn’t clear.

By the time America became involved in World War I, the couple had lost a daughter, Mary Virginia, in 1916. The child lived less than a year.

As millions of young men were at this time, we find Lacy in the service during World War I. A report from the Jan. 2, 1918 Warren Evening Times said Lacy “of the 310th Infantry left this morning for Philadelphia and from there will go to Camp Dix, N.J. to join his regiment. Sergeant Lacy spent New Year’s in this city with his wife and parents.”

By June it was reported that Lacy had “arrived safely overseas.”

He wrote home on Nov. 4, 1918, a week before the war would end. That letter was published here in the Warren Evening Times on Dec. 3, 1918.

Dearest Mother, As an officer I have to censor my men’s letters and in several of them I found the excellent poem written below,” he wrote. “This goes to show that this war has brought out the right spirit among our men, for every one of them has been through a living hell (at) the front. They are “Rookies” no longer, they are veterans of three battles.”

It appears that Lacy remained in the service, though, because he died in Dec. 1919 at Ft. Dix. I found conflicting accounts of what happened to him – one said he died of influenza (the world’s last grand pandemic was raging at that time) while another says he died of gas exposure. I tend to believe the former as it seems the more likely outcome given that the war had been over for a year.

That left Edith without her daughter and now her husband.

A 1923 Buffalo Enquirer article said she “entered Y.W.C.A. work in the national training school in New York and was chosen for secretarial work in Japan where she has served since August, 1921.”

Just two years later, she would be dead as well.

More from the Buffalo Enquirer, published on Sept. 27: “Mrs. Edith Roosa Lacy, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Charles C. Roosa, No. 818 Potomac Ave., a Buffalo Y.W.C.A. secretary in Japan, was a victim of the earthquake and fire there Sept. 1. Her death was confirmed by a telegram received yesterday by Dr. Roosa from Kobe, Japan. ‘Lacy found. Known killed instantly’ was the message received. Unconfirmed reports of her death came last week through the New York office of the Y.W.C.A. but hope was not abandoned until the official message came yesterday.”

“Word has been received stating that Miss Dorothy Hiller, who has been secretary in the national office in Tokyo, lost her life,” the International Y.W.C.A. reported in an account published in The Missionary Review of the World. “Another secretary, Mrs. Edith Lacy, of Yokohama, was also killed instantly.”

The disaster that killed Lacy and Hiller is now known as the Great Kanto Earthquake.

“The initial jolt was followed a few minutes later by a 40-foot-high tsunami. A series of towering waves swept away thousands of people. Then came fires, roaring through the wooden houses of Yokohama and Tokyo, the capital, burning everything–and everyone–in their path,” according to a Smithsonian Magazine article. “The death toll would be about 140,000, including 44,000 who had sought refuge near Tokyo’s Sumida River in the first few hours, only to be immolated by a freak pillar of fire known as a ‘dragon twist.’ The (earthquake) destroyed two of Japan’s largest cities and traumatized the nation….”

Nearly every building in Yokohama was destroyed.

Obituaries for both women were published in “The Christian Movement in Japan, Korea and Formosa” and Lacy’s death was reported in a Presbyterian publican, the “Herald and Presbyter.”

A Warren newspaper account in 1929 tells of a letter from Edith’s parents to Frank’s parents to tell them of a Lacy Memorial College that had been developed in Yokohama in memory of their daughter and for the betterment of the community.

But a year before the Warren Tribune reported on a “TRIPLE FUNERAL.”

“Triple funeral services for Mrs. Edith Roosa-Lacy, her daughter, Mary Virginia, and Miss Dorothy Hiller, were held at Oakland cemetery, Friday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock, with the Rev. T. S. Dickson, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, officiating,” the paper reported.

“Mrs. Edith. Roosa-Lacy and Miss Hiller were killed in the Japan earthquake in 1925. Both were Y.W.C.A. secretaries in Yokohama. Their ashes were brought from Japan to Buffalo and then to Warren for interment.

It appears that Hiller wasn’t a Warren County native but I wasn’t unable to unearth much about her life.

“Remains of Mary Virginia Lacy, daughter of Captain and Mrs. Frank V. Lacy, also were brought here for interment with the remains of the father and mother.”

Writer’s note: Thanks to Gillian Rapp for tipping me to this story.