The Callans and McClarys

The Callans and McClarys Presented to Al and Nancy Callan on Their Wedding Day April 20, 2002 ~ Blackwater, Missouri

~ 1 ~ The Callans and McClarys Contents

Introduction ...... 1

Part I ~ The Callans of Coolkill Chapter 1 ~ Feudal Kings and flax spinners ...... 5 Chapter 2 ~ Widows and hardship ...... 9 Chapter 3 ~ Famine and exodus ...... 14 Chapter 4 ~ Our Irish Cousings ...... 21 Chapter 5 ~ A Journey to Coolkill (‘Tis no more) ...... 25 Chapter 6 ~ A Seminarian Falls in Love ...... 28 Chapter 7 ~ Bernard Callan and Mary Anne Magill ...... 32 Chapter 8 ~ Bernard Callan and Elizabeth (Lizzy) Carroll ...... 37 Chapter 9 ~ The McGiverns ...... 38 Chapter 10~ Paternal Grandparents: George Callan and Gertrude (McGivern) Callan ...... 41

Part II ~ The Byrds and Messiers of Vermont Chapter 11 ~ The Byrd/Messier Family ...... 43 Chapter 12 ~ Maternal Grandparents: Edward Byrd and Cecilia (Messier) Byrd ...... 48

Part III ~ Al Callan’s Family Chapter 13 ~ John F. Callan and Margery (Byrd) Callan ...... 52 Chapter 14 ~ Letter from Mom: Margery Callan remembers Al’s childhood ...... 55

Feature: Childhood Photos of Nancy and Al

Part IV ~ The McClarys of Cooper County

Chapter 15 ~ Introduction ...... 62 Chapter 16 ~ John Robert McClary and Cynthia Ann Marrs ...... 64 Chpater 17 ~ John Robert McClary (Jr.) and Mary Nancy Brownfield ...... 65 Chapter 18 ~ John Raymond “Ray” McClary and Stella “Ida” Brownfield ...... 67 Chapter 19 ~ Paternal Grandparents: Clinton McClary and Kathryn Helen Gerhardt ...... 69

Part V ~ The Davis Family of Boonville Chapter 20 ~ Dolphin Davis and Ophelia Chaffee ...... 77 Chapter 21 ~ Dolphin Chaffee Davis and Mattie Gough Bustin ...... 79 Chapter 22 ~ Robert James Murray and Bertha Davis ...... 81 Chapter 23 ~ Maternal Grandparents: Mathew Cary Davis and Bertha Elizabeth Murray ...... 84

Part VI ~ Nancy McClary’s Family Chapter 24 ~ Hubert “Bert” McClary and Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Davis ...... 90

Part VII ~ Al and Nancy Callan Family Engagement and Wedding Photos ...... 94 The Callans and McClarys

Introduction

My earliest memory is of a May afternoon in 1965. I was four years old, standing on my tiptoes on the front steps of our family Johnny and little Albie, ca. 1966. home in Gates, a town just outside Rochester, New York. Until a few weeks earlier, I had been the youngest of five children. I was straining early 1960s. He was a solid, strong man just hitting 60, which seemed that day to see number six, Albert Francis Callan, born April 26, who a lot older then that it does now. He and our grandmother, the former had come home from the hospital a few days earlier. The living room Gertrude McGivern, lived rent-free in their Rochester apartment in was full of relatives, so much so that I had been told to go outside to return for the upkeep of the building. On this rainy summer day, play. every floor had the warm smell of sweat and cigars. Before long, I had tiptoed back in to see what all the commotion The long hallway approaching Nan and Gramp’s apartment was about. I found myself standing amid a forest of knees in the crowd echoed nicely as I screamed at one of my four older brothers and of grownups, just to get a glimpse of him. Just like his musical fans sisters. I had just been pushed off of a wooden freight wagon that we would decades later, I wanted to hug this little grinning boy, the latest used to ride up and down the hallway. Gramp poked his head out the in a long line of apartment door to investigate. The Callan kids, almost complete: Back row, Maureen, Bernard, Callans to enter Linda; Front row, Stephen and John, ca.1963 Rather than hand out firm justice, by spanking the sibling who the world with a had pushed me, and all the others as accessories to the crime, Gramp wry smirk that took me aside. He said he’d like to show me something in the work- promised years shop. He broke the end off of a of mischief cigar he snatched from an ashtray ahead. near the apartment door. He My next stuffed the stub in his pipe, lit it up memory is of with a few quick puffs, and ambled our grandfather, down the hallway in a blue smoky George Callan haze, fumbling with a huge ring of Sr., conspiring skeleton keys. Once inside the with me in the workshop, he rummaged through dark basement his greasy old wooden toolboxes, hallway of a Rochester apartment Gramp (George) Callan, in a festive mood at building he his 50th wedding anniversary in managed in the Rochester, N.Y., in the summer of 1978. ~ 1 ~ The Callans and McClarys finally pulling out a four-inch nail, a pig iron pipe wrench, a rat-tail Of course, as kids, we hardly cared that we were losing touch file, and finally a red and white horseshoe magnet as big as my fore- with all the relatives of the current generation, and were growing up arm. knowing little of generations past. We thought of it only when wisps of “I’ll show you some magic, Johnny,” he said. Then he gave me a past glory would drift out in my parents’ conversations. wink, which even at four years old I knew meant he was up to no We were related to Jim McGivern, a NASA moon shot specialist good. in Houston “who never had an education, but got his job by showing Gramp tossed the nail on the ground, then waived the big mag- up at the manager’s office every day until they hired him.” That taught net over it. The nail mysteriously followed the magnet, though it never us perseverance. touched it! Next he placed the magnet on the ground and placed a We were related to the Kennedy family, we were always told, piece of notebook paper over it. I was sure he was going to make the whenever one got shot. That taught us the value of being successful, magnet disappear. He had something even more amazing in mind. but not too successful. With the rat tail file, he scratched the side of the pipe wrench over the And we were reminded, whenever we fought one another, that paper. As iron shavings sprinkled over the paper, the outline of the we were descended from the Carroll family, one of whom was the magnet underneath slowly emerged. “How does it do that?” I asked. only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. We were Gramp grinned. reminded of this because our parents punished us by making us stand “You’ll figure it out,” he said. Then he handed me the magnet for an hour in front of a full-sized copy of the Declaration of Indepen- and the nail. “Keep ‘em till you do.” dence that had been varnished onto a board. I’m not sure what All the rest of my memories of Gramp in Rochester are of him reading about independence, while being punished, was supposed to sitting in our uncle George’s backyard, drinking Genesee Creme Ale teach us, but I have an idea it was a wry bit of Irish humor in itself. and telling Pat and Mike jokes. At dinner parties in our new home in the Ozarks, my parents would regale their hillbilly pals with stories of their misspent youth. Mom and Dad could conjure up a never ending litany of great uncles, Beginning the search second cousins, Shropps and Dwyers, Magills and Maguires. Long after company had left, Mom and Dad would sit at the table puzzling Nan and Gramp moved to Orlando a few years after that, and a over who was at what party where or when in those golden summers few years later, Gramp’s mother and surviving brothers and sisters did on Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York, in the late 1940s and early too. Then in 1972, our dad, an accountant at R.T. French company, 1950s, when they were still dating. moved our family to Springfield, Missouri, along with the mustard Talk of dad’s uncles would invariably spill over into memories of factory. the uncles of my mother, Margery Helene Byrd. Her dad, Eddie During our first year away from the old sod of Upstate New Byrd, was a charismatic French Canadian chef from Vermont who York, our Irish cousins from Rochester had pity on us. They were changed his name from “Bird,” and died in 1950 of a heart attack kind enough to call often, reminding us we would never make it and when he was only 43. He passed away one morning while my grand- had best come home. And whenever my teenage sister Linda ran mother was making him pancakes. My grandmother, Cecelia Messier away to visit them, which was often, she came back with CARE Byrd, remarried a few years later to George Gunkle, a widower and packages of white hot dogs and Genesee by the case. World War I veteran, who was thus the only grandfather on my In time, we lost touch with the old ways and the previous genera- mother’s side that we ever knew. tion of Callans. Great Grandma Callan, Aunt Mary, Aunt Pat. Some Growing up in Rochester in the 1960s, we sometimes visited of them made it out to Missouri once or twice, some never made it out at all before they passed away. Gramp Gunkel’s children, a couple named John and Dottie Gunkle. In our new home in the Ozarks, we learned to eat “corn dogs” at But mostly we visited mom’s sister, Nancy and her husband George school, with French’s mustard, of course. Our Dad made do with Nunamaker, who lived on a beautiful country hillside outside Naples. Schaeffer’s or Missouri’s own Budweiser beer, and his sons did the And as long as we were down in the Finger Lakes area, we often same until they got their driver’s licenses. And we whiled away the swung by to visit Eddie’s older brother, the strong and stern Uncle nights of that first summer listening on my crystal radio to the St. Leo, and Leo’s wife Rose. Louis Cardinals. Rochester and its Red Wings were fading in Eddie’s younger brother Uncle Joe was a practical joker who memory. visited us rarely, but always had a mile-wide grin. As kids, we grinned ~ 2 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Gertrude (McGivern) Callan, Elizabeth (Carroll) Callan, Pat Callan, Mary Callan, Bernard Callan, Jerry Callan (daughter of Albert) at Cayuga Lake, Spring 1950.

street from his house, that he had left town “sure this very morning” to go fishing for a few weeks. With no place to stay, I hitchhiked to Callan, in County Killkenny, with a hope to find free lodging and some news of my ancestors. There was little of either to be found. I scrounged a $7 bed in an abandoned monastery somewhere along the way. Once in Callan, I found talkative men in each of the town’s two pubs. As they sipped their wee bits of Guinness, each noon hour until dark, they all agreed it was a wonder they had never even met a Callan! Late that evening, as one bar tender got too, whenever we heard his knock on the door and recognized the along in his cups, he invited me to go behind the rail and continue belly laughs from the battery-powered giggle box he carried in his suit pouring “the Guinness” until the bar closed down. On leaving, one jacket pocket. gent in his 60s paused at the door, then turned to me and admitted Our favorite of all of Mom’s uncles was Uncle Francis Messier, that he had not lived in Callan all his life. Having moved there when the brother of my mom’s mother, Cecelia Messier Byrd. He was he was already seven, he said, he couldn’t hold himself to be an strong, funny, daring, dauntless, wreckless and larger than life until the expert on the area. day he died, barreling down a Florida turnpike in a ball of fire, when I left Callan with a hangover, wondering why my ancestors left, the pickup he had customized with extra gas tanks exploded. not realizing that they had never there in the first place. When I got In the decades since we left Rochester, I have filled in some home, I assembled a 75-page scrapbook of photos and stories from pieces of these early scenes. I’ve learned there were silly feuds on my my adventures in Callan. As it turns out, it has nothing to do with us, mother’s and dad’s sides of the family that made frequent visits too as none of our Callans came from Kilkenny at all. Which reminds me awkward for the grown ups. But that’s nothing new. As I discovered in of a Pat and Mike joke of my grandfather’s. He told it to me years my research, our family has feuds dating back a thousand years, and later when I was down in Florida on spring break from grad school. we have had a lot of those in our generation, too. I’ve learned Gramp Callan was a tool and die maker before and Murphy walks up to Pat one day and says to him, “Have ye during World War II. That’s where he got the tools, and the magnet seen Mike lately, Pat?” he gave me. I know he and “Gert” had four children: George, Betty, Pat says, “Well, I have and I haven’t.” Jack and Jimmy. While visiting Nan Callan’s sister Dorothy in Los Murphy asked, “Shure, and what d’ye mean by that?” Angeles in 1992, I learned there was a fifth child, Eugene, who died at Pat says, “It’s like this, y’see...I saw a chap who I thought was age two of poisoning, which he got into when some kids wouldn’t let Mike, and he saw a chap that he thought was me. And when him play with them. we got up to one another...it was neither of us.” I picked up the trail of the Callan family when I was 27 and sick with wanderlust. Actually. I had a month’s vacation coming from the I didn’t start recalling all these stories and many more until late first job I was sick of, it being my first job out of college as a journalist. 1999, when my wife Julie Kay (Fadenrecht) Callan was pregnant with So I lit out for Ireland. I had only a backpack, a notebook, a vague our first child, Brendan Riley Callan. We attended a family reunion of notion to never return, and a promise from a friend that I could stay Julie’s mother’s relatives, who descended from Oregon pioneers. I with her Uncle Liam outside of Dublin in Dun Laoghaire for the first wrote down as many stories as I could that day, so that Brendan could week of forever. know them when he grew up. A few weeks later, Julie’s mother Rayla When I arrived on the ferry from Wales on a cold October (Beerman) Fadenrecht brought me a box of old newspaper clippings, morning, I discovered, from a few of Liam’s friends in a pub down the bible entries and baby albums from the early 1900s. In those tattered

~ 3 ~ The Callans and McClarys clippings were detailed the fantastic adventures of her mother’s family, the Browns and Owens, of Polk County, Oregon. They traveled the Oregon Trail from Central Missouri in the early 1850s, about the same time Nancy McClary’s family was showing up there, and my own ancestors were leaving Ireland for Upstate New York. A few months later, Julie’s grandmother, Rosie Schultz Fadenrecht, went to a Schultz family teunion in Colorado. I discovered that at about the same time the Callans were leaving Ireland, the Schultz and Fadenrecht families were emigrating from what’s now Germany to the Northwestern Unites States, by way of New York and Wisconsin. Intrigued by all this overlapping activity in Julie’s family and mine, one day I tried to write down all the ancestors on our side of the family I knew of. I drew a blank within two generations. I knew the names of my parents’ brothers and sisters, but not much about them or whom they married. I had only sketchy details of my grandparents’ generation. I had only a few childhood memories of our grandfather and his clan, and the knowledge that they were born in the first decade of the 1900s, the same era as these ancestors of Julie’s. I knew of no one before, on either my fathers or mother’s side of the family. With a hope to uncover the sources of that magic twinkle that Gramp Callan always had, and that I see now in our own little son Brendan, and our daughter Hannah, I started writing letters, calling up relatives and county clerks, and reaching back over the years. That was in early 1999. At this writing, in April 2002, I have chronicled nearly 1,000 ancestors and relatives of Brendan and Hannah, and John, Hannah, Julie and Brendan Callan, and Nancy’s dog Scooter, at Al and Nancy Callan’s Julie and me. first home, Thanksgiving 2001. Now, with the addition of Nancy McClary to our family, and the help of Nancy’s mother, Beth, and father, Bert, we have added over followed. 500 more relatives, cousins and kin of every relation, greatly expand- For Al and Nancy, for their generation, for those before and ing the Callan -McClary family tree that is chronicled in this volume. those to come, we hope that these stories warm your hearts, bring you With more than 1500 relatives in the family, many of them happiness, and inspire you to add some pages of your own to this having passes through Missouri, and nearly three fourths of them of volume. Irish or British descent, it would not be surprising if somewhere back Best wishes on your Wedding Day, Al and Nancy, and Wel- in the generations, our ancestors crossed paths. But even as the names come to the Family! change, and the branches occasionaly intertwine, our research shows John Edward Callan that the stories of our families have a familiar plot, though played out a Julie Kay Callan century apart: Brendan Riley Callan In the Callan family, it all started when a young Irish seminarian Hannah Nicole Callan in the 1860s, Bernard Callan, spied a pretty young woman and realized that the vow of celibacy was beyond his grasp. Blackwater, Missouri In the McClary family, it was a young Irish man in the 1960s, April 20, 2002 Bert McClary, who convinced a novitiate nun to trade in her habit for vows of matrimony. In both families, holy intentions surrendered to stronger forces, and, as is often the way in these Irish stories, numerous children soon

~ 4 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 1. became synonymous with saying Clontarf on Good Friday in the they were from this area. year 1014. Feudal Kings When the Normans in- With Brian’s death, a and flax spinners vaded Ireland in the 1100’s, they Kingship of all Ireland seemed anglicized the Gaelic pronuncia- within grasp of any clansman tion, “O’Cawlin,” into O’Callan, courageous enough to attack his while the Scots among them weaker neighbors. Perhaps it was spelled it “O’Culhane.” with that in mind that Cathalain It’s likely Cathalain grew up of Farney struck out on a raiding hearing of the great fetes of party in October of 1025 against Brian Boru, who conquered the his neighbors, the Fernmagh, in Vikings after nearly 40 years of what is now County Monaghan. battles starting in 976. It’s certain The ancient name of that that Cathalain was a young man county meant “land of low hills,” when Brian, having almost not the most easily defended Nearly a thousand years secured his rule over all of geography. But as early as the ago, long after the journeys of St. Ireland, died at the Battle of 700s, the Fernmagh had begun Brendan the Navigator, and just a few years after the death of O’Cathalain, Land of Cathalain Brian Boru, their lived a mighty warrior named O Cathalain, king Niall Calle, aka King Callan of Farney. He is the ancestor and namesake of all Callans, and a fierce feudal bloodline he gives he lead an attack us. His strength and courage was on a stronghold on Lough (lake) praised in song by bards of old. Ooony, in the barony of Farney, His fame came from a which in Gaelic is “Fir singular battle in 1025, in which Fernmaige.” In doing so, he cast a shadow of Kilnaleck, County Cavan, and bordering County Monaghan legend and patrimony over all of the area now covered by Fernmach and Monaghan counties. In time, saying people were ‘O’Cathalain’ or, de- scended from Cathalain, ~ 5 ~ The Callans and McClarys

as stony islands with trees and shrubs. This particular crannog in our story seems to have been the headquarters of the Fir Fernmaige for many centuries. It is mentioned in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient history of what is now North- ern Ireland. In an entry for August, 719, the Annals noted:

U719.8 “The killing in An irsh crannog. Loch Uaithne of the two lords, i.e. two sons of Mael The Annals of Ulster also moving mountains of rock and These ancient places were in use Fothartaig, with their kinsman, report that, in 1025, the dirt into the middle of a lake from the Late Bronze Age to the namely Cremthann Corrach.” Fermanach attacked the Ua there to create an island fortress Early Christian period. to which they could retreat in the Large tree trunks were event of attack. driven into the mud of The county’s most celebrated the lake like piles and crannog, or man-made island, was these were built upon to at the end of Lough Ooney, near form the ‘island.’ what is now Smithborough. On Crannogs were the eastern shore of this lake are principally built as the crannogs which formed the defensive habitations centre of the ancient ríocht or and most were con- kingdom of Dartraighe-Coninse, structed in the 6th and from which the later barony of 7th centuries. Those Dartrey, including the district of that have survived show Connons, takes its name. From an opening in the here the Boylans and O’Carrolls circular palisade facing and other dynasties ruled the the shore. This would surrounding countryside until have been to enable the eventually displaced by the intru- arrival of boats. Some sion of the Normans into the area crannogs had cause- and the rise of the MacMahons. ways. The occupants There are crannogs remain- lived by farming and ing from that era all over Ireland, raising dairy cows on such as one pictured above near the shores. From the Sligo Town in Ballygawley Lough. shore crannogs appear They were built of timber, hence the name ‘crann’ meaning a tree. Right, Ireland in 1808. ~ 6 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Nadsluaig on the brink of Loch n-Uaithne [Lough Ooney], It may where they burned buildings and have been this killed seventeen men on the incident edge of the lake. which finally persuaded the U1025.5 “Cathalain, king Ui Nadsluaig of Fernmag, made a raid on Fir i.e., the Manach. The Fir Manach O’Neals, to forthwith made a raid to Loch look east- Uaithne, and burned [the wards. This district] and killed seventeen would bring men on the shore of the lake.” them into immediate In June of 1025, Cathalain conflict with struck again, this time plundering the an area called Termann Feichín. Mugdorna, Ui The next entry about Cathalain Meith, Fir is the last. It comes in Sept. Rois, and 1027, and hints at what he had Conailli. As it been up two in the previous two happened, all years. of these John Callan the author, wanders by past Kilkenny Castle, while touring Ireland in 1989. kingdoms “M1027.9 Cathalain-Ua- were doomed to disappear very Now, let’s pause and think could be ruling England to this Crichain, lord of Fearnmhagh, quickly. for a minute what might have day. and of the Airghialla in general, The O’Carrolls, kings of been. Of course, if he had slaugh- and Culocha Ua Gairbhith, lord Farney, were of the Ui Nadsluaig On that fateful September tered the Carroll’s, their might of Ui-Meith, mutually fell by who moved eastwards from in 1027, if Cathalain’s sword had not have been any around 700 each other. Lough Ooney. The most power- fallen a few seconds earlier on years later, when we needed ful of the O’Carroll kings of Culocha Ua Gairbhith, perhaps them. It took just about that long The area of Airghialla, also Farney was Donnchadh, who our Cathalain might not have for the Carrolls and Callans to be called “Oriel,” was an ancient ruled from 1125 until his death died that day. Perhaps the reunited. Which you could say chiefdom, founded in the 4th in 1168. He was succeeded by O’Carrolls, of Gairbhith’s clan, sets the record for feuds in our century and stretching over his son, Murchadh, who surren- might never have fled eastward, family. almost all of the Kingdom of dered the lands to King Henry II to encounter and eventually On Oct 2, 1881, Elisabeth Ulster. It appears that in just two of England. He nonetheless surrender to England’s King Carroll was born to Andrew years, O’Cathalain had greatly fought the Normans and troops Henry II. Carroll and Anne Kennedy, in expanded his conquered lands. of John de Courcy in 1176 and In the split-second it takes a St. Patrick’s Parish in Seneca It was inevitable he would clash 1177, but afterwards allied with sword to fall, we might have Falls, New York. In 1903, at the with one of the stronger clans of Hugh de Lacy and his Normans. become destined to sit on the age of 22 in that same village, she Airghilla. These included the Ui- Murchadh O’Carroll died in 1189, throne of England. Instead of married Bernard Callan, the Meath, as well as the O’Carroll still the nominal king of Airghialla, Henry II controlling Ireland, parents of George Callan, Al and O’Boylan, whose regions are although the Normans had perhaps Cathailain would have Callan’s grandfather, pictured on identified on the map on the occupied part of Meath that his conquered the O’Neils and page 1. bottom right of page 6. father had controlled. Carrolls that day, and his sons With the Norman Inva- ~ 7 ~ The Callans and McClarys

and then Callan, Ireland, who was drowned in ever since. An Callan in 844.A.D. in the Kings ancient Irish family River. More recent scholarship name map notes suggests the town gets its name the area as being from the plentiful supply of tall the home of both callow grasses (in Irish ‘cala’) that the O’Cathalain, grown along the banks of the river. and the Still, to the tourists who have O’Baoighlans. visited Kilkenny’s Callan over the This latter became years in search of their roots, it the O’Boylans, certainly does warm ones heart to and then the see our name plastered on every Boylans. wall in town. As we’ll find If Cathalain looked down out later, a Ber- Mill Street at the Callan Video nard Callan Club and Callan Motor Garage, I emigrated to think he would be proud to see America from this how widely his name had been area in 1865. He spread. And if he did come back was the son of a today, we could just keep it our Rose Boylan, and little secret that by the early 1840s, he was named his progeny had actually became after Bernard starving flax spinners living in three Boylan, Rose’s dirt-floor cottages on a tenant farm sions, (see map on top right of brother. They were both sons of in Coolkill. page 6) the O Cathaláin become William Boylan, who was born in sirname Callan is unconnected You see, oppressed by O’Cahalane or Culhane in other 1754 in Monaghan. with the town in County Kilkenny, centuries of Norman and British areas. But in counties Louth and Incidentally, though many of circled in the map above left. That rule, our Callans actually grew up Monaghan it has been O’Callan, our Callans have visited it, the quaint hamlet on the King’s River just a few miles from where was founded in 1207 by the great Cathalain himself fell under the Norman chieftain William Earl sword. But in the early 1800s, with Marshall, Lord of Leinster (1144- the Potato Famine coming to 1219), husband of Isabel, a County Cavan, they would embark daughter of the “Strongbow” who on heroic adventures to strange drove the Vikings out of Ireland in lands which Cathalain could 1170. Marshall incorporated the never imagine. town and laid it out in the shape of a cross. The area had been inhabited by pagans since the Stone Age, and there are remains of structures there that predate the pyramids. Ancient tradition had it that the Kilkenny town was named after Niall Caille, High King of

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Chapter 2. time. Widow Rose and her husband Widows and hardship are most likely buried in the Crosserlough Catholic Grave- yard in Coolkill. This cemetery lacks records or headstones for most of the burials prior to the 1880s. Consequently, we do not know the exact location of The earliest record known keeping with geneaology re- their burial plot. that captures our Callan ancestry search traditions, we can label Widow is the 1821 Census of Ireland. him simply “FNU Callan,” for Rose’s son, Philip With a bit of deduction, that first name unknown. However, Callan, went on to census offers clues that trace our Irish traditions of the day called marry a Rose family well back in to the 1700s. for naming the first grandson Boylan in Coolkill The 1821 Census of after the paternal grandfather. in the early 1830s. County Cavan shows a Philip His first grandson, born in 1834, In the next chapter, Callan living in Coolkill as a 19- was named Luke Callan. So, the we piece together a Above, last standing Coolkill Cottage, now used for storage. year-old on a 6-acre home site odds are that the first name of relationship be- Mattie Lynch is in foreground. with his widowed mother, Rose widow Rose Callan’s husband tween Rose Boylan Below, a restored thatched-roof cottage nearby. Notice how simi- Callan, age 46, and 3 siblings; was Luke (not FNU!). As we and known early lar in design to the one in the photo above. This is probably the best guess we’ll ever have as to what the Callan homestead th Ellenor, age 23, James, age 15, follow the subsequent genera- 19 century Boylan looked like when the young seminarian Bernard Callan lit out and Catherine, age 13. tions of our Callans, the name families in the for a new life as a priest in America. Philip’s mother, Rose Luke becomes common to our Coolkill area. Callan was thus born in 1775, Callan family line. The name Upon marriage, it appears one year before the American Philip has also been prominent, that Philip and Rose lived in the hold. They were also expected to Colonies declared their indepen- as has been the name Bernard. same Callan home with Philip’s work the small acreage around dence from England to become Widow Rose Callan’s mother, the widow Rose Callan the homestead to produce the the United States of America. husband (Luke?) died before the of 1821. The common practice food necessary to sustain the We know from her son, Luke 1821 Census was taken. His last of the day for poor Irish families needs of the family household. If Callan, who wrote a memoir in child, Catherine, was born in was that newlyweds lived in the lucky, they had enough left over 1933, that this early Callan 1808. Thus, he died sometime home of the husband’s parents. to sell in the local markets. family came to Coolkill, Co. between 1808 and 1821, presum- The young husband in a poor In contrast to sons, Irish Cavan, from Co. Monaghan ably in Coolkill. Irish family did not have the families were anxious to have sometime during the early 1800s. It appears, from the death means to establish a separate their daughters married off to We do not know the first records of Crosserlough Parish household. His aging parents join their husband’s family. To name of widow Rose Callan’s that his wife, Rose, died in needed him and his new wife at them, the daughter was one less husband because he died before Coolkill in 1851 or 1852 at age home to contribute meager mouth to feed and care for. The the 1821 Census was taken. In 76, an unusually long life for the wages to the good of the house- daughter at home, starting at age

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10 or so, spun flax for the Irish the same 3-room cottage. Catho- widow Rose Boylan Callan, then that time, all of Philip’s siblings (read British) linen industry. The lic Irish families of the early became the head of the Callan and their families were living in income to the family from this 1800s had, for the most part, no home site in Coolkill. America, his oldest brother, terrible female child labor was other choice. Housing, separate Ireland’s Griffith’s Valua- Luke, having been there since meager and was insufficient for from their family home, was not tion of 1855-6 for Coolkill 1854, and his younger brother, covering the costs of having the available to them. More impor- records a Rose Callan as the our Bernard, having moved daughter stay at home into her tantly, the parents depended on head-of-household of the 6-acre there in 1865. Philip’s family adult years. Marriage was the their children from early age to Callan home site in Coolkill. was, thus, the last of our dominant venue for an adult adulthood, particularly the Death records from Callans still living in Coolkill. daughter to leave the family males, to stay at home to work Crosserlough Parish indicate that Undoubtedly his siblings, over household. for the survival of the family. only one Rose Callan died in many years, encouraged him to Many Irish parents, strug- The parents also expected that Coolkill, and that was in 1864. move his family to the Ameri- gling to care for their flock, an adult son, once married, There can be little doubt that she can dream. Their oldest chil- “farmed” their young daughters, would continue to live with them was Rose Boylan Callan. Upon dren, Maria (27), Margaret (22) as early as 9 or 10 years old, to with his new wife so that the son death, this “struggling widow” and, probably, Rose (20) were be live-in maids and servants to would continue to contribute to would have been in her late the first to leave. It is not local Irish families of means. the family household. fifties or early sixties. known as of this writing if they This practice eventually ex- One wonders how procre- At the time of Rose Boylan left together or separately, tended to sending their young ation could have taken place Callan’s death in 1864, the single or married. It is known daughters to England and, in the under the crowded circum- Callan household probably that they initially settled in late 1800s, to America. They stances. Philip Callan and Rose consisted of her children Philip Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a loved them but they could not Boylan found a way, and found it (22), Bernard (20), Margaret (?), mecca for Irish immigrants of feed another mouth and, given often. They had 8 children, John (?) and Rose (18). Her the time owing to its rubber the poverty of life then, the Luke (1834), James (1835), Mary other children, Luke, James and and textile fabrication industry. parents saw no hope for their (unknown), Margaret (unknown), Mary were in America by 1864. Also, their uncles Luke and daughters except elsewhere. The John (unknown), Philip (1842), Her son Philip was likely living John Callan had lived in daughter assumed, as she left her Bernard (1844) and Rose (1846). within the household in 1864 Woonsocket. parent’s household, that she The father, Philip, died in with his bride of two years, Philip (48) and Kitty (49), would eventually return to the 1846 at age 44. He left his wife, Catherine (Kitty) Reilly and their with children John (8), Philip family fold. Mostly, she never Rose Boylan, with eight children, first born, Maria, born in 1862. (10) and Luke (11) soon fol- did and, often for those abroad, the youngest being daughter Philip and Kitty went on to lowed in 1890. They arrived at she never saw her parents again. Rose, only 2 months old. In have 10 children on that same Boston Harbor on the S.S. The Callan cottage in addition to the newly widowed six-acre Coolkill home site. Two Samaria on May 7, 1890 and Coolkill was a 3-room thatched- Rose Boylan caring for her eight of their children died at birth or settled initially in Woonsocket. roof cottage with dirt floors at the children, she also had the re- soon thereafter, Patt in 1869 and Kate (15) and her brother time that the newlyweds, Philip sponsibility for caring for her late another Patt in 1877. Their eight James (19) are recorded in US Callan and Rose Boylan, moved husband’s aging mother, the surviving children were Maria records as also arriving in in with Philip’s mother, the widow Rose Callan of 1821. (1862), Margaret (1867), Rose America in 1890, but they are widow Rose Callan of 1821. It Author Luke Callan referred to (1869), James (1871), author not listed with their parents on may have been also that widow his grandmother Rose Boylan as Luke (1874), Kate (1875), Philip the manifest of the steamship Rose’s daughters, Ellenor and “a struggling widow,” and, (1878) and John (1880). S.S. Samaria. It is not yet Catherine, were living there as indeed, she was that. As men- At some point in time in known how they got to well. It was common, in those tioned earlier, the aging mother the late 1880s, Philip and Kitty America and with whom. days, for three generations of the of Philip appears to have died in decided that life for their family Philip and Kitty’s family, same family to live together in 1851 or 1852. Philip’s wife, the would be better in America. At including Kate, were the last of

~ 10 ~ The Callans and McClarys our Callans to live in Ireland. Our Callans in County “native” to County Monaghan. have been a long trek. When they left for America in Monaghan (pre-1800) Unfortunately, Luke provided Monaghan and Cavan share a 1890, they, in essence, blew out no additional details on where in common border. (see County the candles for the last time at According to author Luke Monaghan his grandfather Philip map) our Callan ancestral home in Callan in his 1933 book, our Callan was born. The distance between the Coolkill. It appears that the earliest Callans originally lived in The second source involves town of Carrickmacross in Callan home was never occupied County Monaghan. Finding a two Callan brothers, Peter and Monaghan and the Townland of again. This was a home that the record of their existence there is James, recently of the town of Coolkill in Cavan is about 25 four generations of our Callans futile. There were no official civil Kilnaleck, near the Townland of miles. just described lived in, sequen- or church records of Irish Coolkill. Why did they leave tially, for almost 100 years in Catholics kept prior to the When Terry Burke of Monaghan for Coolkill? Prob- Coolkill. 1820s. The British occupiers of Ohio, a descendant of our ably for the same reasons Irish The exact location of the the times apparently did not Coolkill Callans, visited Coolkill have been moving for centuries home site of the Callans in consider Irish Catholic peasants in 1995, he came across Peter in to this day, better jobs and Coolkill is known, but the worthy of being officially re- Kilnaleck. Peter Callan told quality of life. Other members of Callan cottage itself no longer corded. Catholic Church records Terry that he believed that our the Monaghan Callan clan may exists. Kate’s brother, John in those days were nonexistent. Callans were related to his have preceded our Callan family (Jack) Callan, revisited his The Catholic Church was Callans and, according to the to Coolkill and, once estab- boyhood home in 1919 and banned from existence in the oral history in Peter’s family, lished, beckoned our Callans to found the roof collapsed within 1600s, after the defeat of the they originally came from join them. the four walls. Kate, herself, Irish Catholics by the British in County Monaghan, possibly Prospects for documenting visited the site in 1927, but The Irish Wars. It was not until from the town of that our Callans originated from there is no family record on the late 1700s that a partial ban Carrickmacross. Peter’s brother, County Monaghan are dim. what she observed. Her on the Catholic Church was James, now living in Toronto, Official records of Irish families, brother, author Luke Callan, lifted. It took decades for the Canada, tells basically the same particularly of poor Irish Catho- visited the site in 1932. Catholic Church to reestablish story, adding that, at one time, lics like our Callans, were not Luke recalled, in a book itself with churches, priests and his early Callan family also lived taken in Ireland prior to the 19th recounting the trip which he infrastructure. The keeping of in the Townland of Coolkill. century. With few exceptions, wrote in 1933, that he found records on their flock was not a Both Peter and James did not the creation of official civil that the walls had collapsed to high priority. The old Catholic know the specifics as to how our records on the common Irish stone rubble. Jim Lynch, a churches were either destroyed Callans related to their Callan people did not commence until decendant of Kate who visited by the British or converted to line. But shortly, we will suggest after the 1820s. Our Callans the site in 1982, reported that places of worship for Anglican how they may have been related were in Coolkill by that time. all evidence that a home had Protestants. to our Callans Ironically, the best records found ever existed there had been The basis for County There are other factors that today of common Irish families removed. The only vestige was Monaghan being the place of would support that our Callans of the 1600s and 1700s are those two rounded stone gate piers, origin of our earliest Callans originally came from County which were created by the British barely noticeable now as part of comes from two sources. The Monaghan. The Irish literature on Irish convicts and their a stone wall. The posts, at the first is a reference in a 1933 on the origins and history of families who the British de- time of our Callans, anchored book, Ireland- After Forty Years, surnames in Ireland shows that ported to Australia and New the proverbial Irish garden gate which was authored by Luke the Callan surname was com- Zealand. that served as the entrance to the Callan. Luke states in the book mon to County Monaghan and Catholic Church records in Callan cottage’s front yard from (p. 20) that his grandfather not to County Cavan. Addition- Ireland prior to the 1820s are the lane. Callan, who we know from other ally, our Callan’s travel from sparse as well. The British, after records to be Philip Callan, was Monaghan to Cavan, would not defeating the Irish in 1690,

~ 11 ~ The Callans and McClarys banned the Catholic Church for ning of this chatper, the earliest circumstances, our Callans did a first child with Rose Boylan in almost a hundred years. That record we have of our Callans is leave Monaghan and resettled in 1826. The 1821 Census of ban was lifted in 1790, but it the 1821 Census of Coolkill. It Coolkill in the early 1800s. Lack- Coolkill shows 2 Callan/Callen took several decades later for the captures a Callan family in ing any records in Monaghan, can families, each with a teen son, Church to reestablish itself and Coolkill believed to be our we find this resettled Callan family Philip. One is a family headed by a the necessary infrastructure for Callan family who left Monaghan from records of Coolkill? Fortu- widow Rose Callan, age 46, record keeping. for Coolkill in the early 1800s. nately, the answer is, yes. It ap- occupying 6 acres with 4 children, Our early Irish Callans did The analysis leading to this view pears our Callan family from including a son Philip, age 19. The not document their lives and follows. Monaghan is captured in the 1821 other is headed by a James Callen, those before them. Our earliest Census of Coolkill. We need to age 52, occupying 11.5 acres with Callans were most likely illiterate Callans in Coolkill, County digress here as to why we say it his wife Judith and 6 children, and, thus, could not have created Cavan (1800-1890) was fortunate. including a son Philip, age 12. written family records. This is The 1821 Census of Ireland For reasons set forth, it can because the British Penal Laws The Townland of Coolkill was the first census ever taken of be concluded that the widow Rose of the 1700s banned the educa- is a small patch of land, 427 Ireland. It was organized and Callan’s family is our ancestral tion of Irish Catholics. Jim acres in size. Why our Callans reported right down to households Callan family. It also appears that Lynch found records on other from Monaghan chose this spot and family members at the level of the James Callen of 1821 may Irish ancestors of ours who were to resettle may never be known Townlands, including Coolkill. have been a brother of the de- using X as a signature as late as for sure. Did they just pick up Since then, a census of Ireland was ceased husband of widow Rose the 1880s. We are left, therefore, and leave Monaghan on their taken every 20 years. A devastating Callan. with whatever oral history has own? Or did they join Callan fire in the Records House in Following are the records been passed down the genera- relatives already in Coolkill, just Dublin in 1922 destroyed all and analysis supporting this tions. as their decendants would later census records except that for conclusion. That oral history probably follow one another to America? 1901 and burnt parchments of the As mentioned earlier, the held up quite well while our early One push factor of little others. Fortunately, Cavan, unlike 1821 Census shows two Callan or Callan families lived amongst doubt was that our Callans from the other counties, made a copy of Callen families with a son, Philip, each other in Ireland. Unfortu- Monaghan were seeking better the Census. Thus, we have de- living in Coolkill. One is a widow nately, the oral history faded as work opportunities elsewhere. tailed information on households Rose Callan, age 46, living on a six- the elders died off and their The factors of economics and and families living in Coolkill in acre site with four children, descendants left Ireland for the quality of life have been driving 1821. Ellenor (23), Philip (19), James far reaches of America. With the the Irish people to many The Townland of Coolkill (15) and Catherine (13). The other exception of Jack Callan’s letter elsewhere’s for centuries and the consists of 427 acres and in 1821 family is a James Callen, age 52, of 1919 and Luke’s book of outflow continues to this day. had 61 households. Two of those living on 11.5 acres with his wife 1932, there is no family record The pull factor to selecting households were occupied by Judith (47) and seven children, of our early Irish Callans. The Coolkill may have been Callan families and one household Mary (26), Rose (22), Peter (17), Callans who left Ireland for prompted by Callan relatives occupied by a Callen family. Anne (14), Philip (12) Catherine America rarely discussed their already there. There is some Callan and Callen are, tradition- (9) and Judith (6). Irish roots with their children. suggestion of this in author ally, the same surnames. Also, the Several factors point to the That is unfortunate because Luke’s book. On pages 94-95, he difference in spelling could have widow Rose Callan family of 1821 whatever conversational informa- refers to his Callan family in resulted from transcription errors. as our ancestral family. The 12- tion they had on 18th century Coolkill as the “lesser Callans” in In 1821, our Callan family in year-old Philip in the James Callen Callans in Monaghan and 19th relation to a “closely related “ Coolkill would have to have had a family would have been too young century Callans in Coolkill is Peter Callan family in Coolkill.. son, Philip. Also, this son, Philip, to have sired a child in 1826. In now in the grave, lost forever. More on this later. would have had to be in his teens 1826, this Philip would have been As mentioned at the begin- For whatever reasons and in 1821 to have married and sired 17 years old. In contrast, the 19-

~ 12 ~ The Callans and McClarys year-old Philip in the widow Rose home site exactly where we know often collecting much of the rent home site became a key determi- Callan’s family of 1821 would have Kate Callan lived with her parents in the form of goods (farm prod- nant in identifying the widow Rose been of an appropriate age to sire prior to the family departing for ucts and spun flax produced at the Callan of 1821 as our earliest a child in 1826, at which time he America in 1890. For the reasons home site) and services (male known Callan. would have been 25 years old. following, it appears certain that family members working the fields It appears that the widow Another reason for choosing the 6-acre home site cited for the of the landlord). If good tenants, Rose Callan of 1821 lived at the the widow Rose Callan’s family as widow Rose Callan of 1821 was the landowner and his descen- home site until her death in the our ancestral Callan family rests in the same 6-acre site we know to dants continued to lease their early 1850s. Crosserlough Parish the first names of the family have been occupied by later land, home sites and farms to the records show two widow Callans members. Rose, Philip, James, Callans. same family and their descendants (no first names given) as having Ellenor and Catherine, are consis- There was no map associated for generations. died in Coolkill during this period, tent with first names passed on in with the 1821 Census. Conse- Why is all of this relevant? one in 1851 and the other in 1852. subsequent generations of our quently, we can’t prove that the More than 30 years after the 1821 One of those records is almost Callans. This is less so with the location of Widow Rose’s 6-acre Census was taken, a survey of certainly for our widow Rose James Callen family. Their names home site in Coolkill in 1821 was Coolkill was conducted in 1855-6, Callan. The other record was of Judith, Peter and Anne are not the same 6-acre home site we which recorded the head-of probably for a Mary Callan who found in our Callan line. It was know was occupied by our Callans household only, the size of the was listed as a 50 year-old Coolkill traditional and honorable in old from the 1850s until 1890. How- property they occupied and, with a widow in the 1821 Census. Thus, Irish families to pass on family first ever we do know from the history map, the exact location of that our Rose Callan of 1821 died at names to subsequent generations. of land ownership and usage in property in Coolkill. This survey is age 76, a rather ripe old age for the The tracing of Irish first names is, Ireland in the 1700s and 1800s known as the Griffith Valuation time. Her last years and days were today, a powerful genealogical tool that land boundaries were rarely and it was conducted throughout most likely spent at the Callan 6- for establishing ancestral links. redrawn, land was rarely sold and Ireland. Its purpose was to assess a acre home site in the care of her Another piece of evidence that it was not unusual for tenant tax for each household to help daughter-in-law, the widow Rose points to widow Rose Callan of families to occupy the same home defray the costs of Ireland’s Boylan Callan and her 8 children. 1821 as being a direct ancestor. site for several generations. “workhouses.” In those days, there were no Author Luke Callan refers (p. 106- The mark of success and Workhouses were places hospitals to speak of. People 107) to a “granduncle” Shamus nobility in Ireland amongst the set up by the Irish government simply died at home in the care (James) Callan who lived in English and Irish Protestants in the to house families devastated by of their families, with occasional Coolkill. This argues that his 1700s was the amount of land they the Irish potato famine of the visits by a doctor and frequent grandfather, Philip Callan, had a owned. Most of that land was 1840s. visits by the local priest brother James. The 1821 Census confiscated from Irish Catholics as The Griffith Valuation and As noted below, Rose shows, in fact, Philip did have a the spoils of the Irish Wars of its map of Coolkill showed that Boylan Callan lost her husband, brother, James. 1600s and 1700s. The sale of land, there were only two six-acre sites Philip, in 1846. He left Rose Yet another factor pointing to in those days, was considered by of the 43 sites recorded in with a two-month-old daughter, the widow Rose Callan of 1821 as noble peers as a sign of a family’s Coolkill. One of the two six-acre also named Rose, and a two- being our direct ancestor is that financial weakness and an embar- sites is listed as occupied by a year-old son, Bernard. This she is recorded in the 1821 rassment to the family of the Rose Callan. The map places this Bernard would grow up on the Census as occupying a home site landowners. Additionally, because Rose Callan’s site in Coolkill in Coolkill farm, and as a young of 6 acres. We know from an of the poverty of the day, there the exact location where we know man would emigrate to America 1855-6 survey record of Coolkill were no buyers. our later Callans lived. We believe to study to become a priest in (Griffith Valuation and map) that Consequently, most land that this six-acre site is the same Baltimore and upstate New our Callans in 1855-6 occupied a owners long-termed leased their six-acre site occupied by widow York. There he would eventually 6-acre home site in Coolkill. The lands to peasant Irish, like our Rose Callan and her family in meet a 16-year-old girl, serving 1855-6 map locates that Callan Callans, as home sites and farms, 1821. This linkage of a Callan meals at a parish rectory in Seneca Falls, who would change ~ 13 ~ his plans forever. The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 3. (1835), Philip (1842), Bernard John, do not exist because (1844), Margaret and John Crosserlough Parish did not Famine and exodus (birth years unknown.) and Rose commence record keeping until (1846). A Crosserlough Parish 1842. As a point of reference, record shows that a Philip Callan this baby Rose Callan became of Coolkill died on February 26, Rose O’Rourke upon marriage 1846. This was the only death in Ireland and, with her family, record for a Philip Callan of moved to Providence, Rhode Coolkill. This Philip Callan must Island, where she died in 1931. have been the husband of Rose The names of Philip and Boylan. Author Luke Callan Rose Boylan Callan next appear referred in his book to his in an 1857 record at All Hallows grandmother, Rose Boylan College in Dublin. Their son, Callan as having been a “strug- James, studied for the priesthood gling widow.” She is shown as a there and they are listed as his Widow Rose Callan’s son well-being of the household. As a widow in the 1855-6 Griffith’s parents. Their names also Philip married a Rose Boylan practical economic matter, there Valuation survey of Coolkill. appear as parents on US death from Coolkill or nearby in the was no alternative housing If, in fact, the 1846 death certificates for a number of their early 1830s. In keeping with the available to the newly married record cites our Philip Callan, known children, including Philip tradition of the day, her oldest couple. If a family had the Philip died at age 44 and left his Callan. So the convergence of son and his new wife most likely means, they could build, with the wife, Rose Boylan, with 8 chil- these documents and facts leave lived in the Callan home with landowners permission, a sepa- dren ranging in ages from 20 little doubt that Philip and Rose Philip’s widowed mother and her rate cottage on the same prop- years-old (Mary) to 2 months-old (Boylan) Callan were in our unmarried children. The eco- erty. Our Callans of the time (Rose), indeed, a struggling ancestral line. nomics of the time forced these were not of those means. widow. Adding to her burden close living arrangements. Philip, Between 1834 and 1846, was that she was caring also for The Callan Home Site although now married, was Philip and Rose went on to have Philip’s aging mother, the widow in Coolkill expected to stay in the family 8 children in the Callan cottage; Rose Callan of 1821. household to contribute to the Mary (1826), Luke (1834), James Unlike the records on the The exact location of the widow Rose Callan of 1821, Callan home site in Coolkill is New Crosserlough Church, just after its completion in 1885. where we infer, through analyses, known. As indicated earlier, it an ancestral connection to her, appears to have been the only the records on Philip Callan and home site in Coolkill occupied Rose Boylan as being our ances- by 4 generations of our Callans. tors are quite conclusive. Their It was first occupied by widow names are first recorded on an Rose Callan and her family when 1846 baptismal record from they arrived from County Crosserlough Parish, Coolkill as Monaghan in the early 1800s the parents of a newborn, Rose and her Callan descendants Callan. Baby Rose was the continued to occupy the site until youngest of 8 children born to 1890. The brother of our Ber- Philip and Rose Boylan Callan. nard, Philip Callan, and his Baptismal records for her older family were the last of our siblings, Luke, James, Mary, Callans to live there. They left Philip, Margaret, Bernard and for America and Rhode Island

~ 14 ~ The Callans and McClarys

from this home site in 1890. By The walls of the home were no Journey to Coolkill.” unpaved and barely wide enough that time, none of our Callans longer there and the stones that The cottage was then being for a small car. The site is about ¼ remained in Ireland. Our dis- once constructed the house were used as a storage shed for farm of a mile down this lane on the tance cousin Jim Lynch was told, strewn as ruins around the home materials. The size was not much right. Look for a small creek when he visited the site in 1982, site. He noted that the two larger than a one-car garage. The under the road and the site that it was locally known as the rounded gate pillars that marked structure had three rooms, two property begins as soon as you old Callan home site and that no the entrance from the lane (road) very small bedrooms and one cross the creek. The only site one occupied the site after 1890. into the site were still there, kitchen/social area. The open marker would be the two round Philip’s youngest son, Jack “between which was hung a four- hearth and much of its swing-out stone gate piers, adjacent to the Callan, visited his boyhood barred gate”. cooking hardware was still in road and now part of a stone wall. home site in August 1919, the Jim Lynch visited the site in place. The cottage then had a You need to look closely to find home where he was born in 1982, some 50 years after Luke. It sheet metal roof, but Mattie told them as they are most likely 1880 and from whence he left was completely clear of any Jim that in the Callan days the roof covered with all manner of brush. for America as a 10-year-old boy. evidence that a home had occu- would have been made of The home site was just inside the He is the first of our native pied the site. It was then part of a thatched straw. Mattie was a piers. Coolkill Callans living in cow pasture. Mattie Lynch from thatcher in his earlier days. He In early Sept. 2001, several America who is known to have nearby Kilnaleck, a first cousin of also made note that many of the of the family had planned to fly to paid a visit on their former Kate Callan Sullivan and familiar homes of the Callan days had dirt Ireland to place a commemorative homeland. with the Callan home site, escorted floors. A description by Jim’s Callan plaque on the site. But the In a 1919 letter from Jim on this visit. He sited the Granduncle Jack (our Bernard’s terrroist attack on the World Coolkill to his brother, James, in location of where the Callan house brother John) of grass growing on Trade Center on Sept. 11 of that Rhode Island, he described his was by pointing to 2 cows grazing the floor suggests that the Callan year caused international flights to visit with some emotion. He on the exact spot. He next pulled home may have had a dirt floor. be cancelled for a week, including shed tears when he discovered the heavy overgrowth away from a It is hard to imagine how our the flight the family had planned to that “the old house has fallen in stone wall to expose the two round ancestors and their eight children take. That put an end to those and only the walls are left stand- gate piers that once guarded the and the Callan families before plans, and so the site is still un- ing. The old fireplace is there, entrance to the Callan home from them lived in such conditions. It’s marked. but no trace of the loft, and grass the road, the piers that Luke wrote no wonder that our Callans sought If you continue on the lane is growing on the floor.” about. The space between the a better life in America. for another ½ mile or so, you will James and his sister, Kate piers was now filled in with stone Directions to the Callan come across the Crosserlough Callan Sullivan, visited the home to complete a continuum of an old home site in Coolkill are a bit Church and graveyard. Our site in 1927. There is no family stone wall. Mattie stated that the difficult to describe because there Callans worshiped there when record of what they found there. stones within the gate piers were is no building structure marking living in Coolkill and some of our Their brother, Luke Callan, probably taken from the ruins of the spot. It is in a rural area, about early Irish Callans are buried visited the home site in 1932, the Callan house. Jim took one of ½ mile east of the town of there. and did describe what he saw in the stones home to America. Kilnaleck and ½ mile south of the his 1933 book, Ireland After Although the Callan cottage Crosserlough Catholic Church. Forty Years. (note: This book was no longer there in 1982, The route Jim Lynch took with Death and Burial Records was published by Angel Guard- Mattie Lynch took Jim Lynch Mattie Lynch in 1982 took him In Coolkill ian Press in the Archdiocese of that year to a nearby structure down Main St. of Kilnaleck about The probable Crosserlough Boston in 1933.The only known which was still standing and, ½ mile to the southeast of town, to Parish death records for the public copy is available in the according to Mattie, identical to the first road or lane where you widow Rose Callan of 1821 were Library of Congress reading what the Callan cottage was. This could make a left turn, referred to described earlier. Additionally, room in Washington, D.C.) He journey is described and pictured locally as the Crosserlough Road. Crosserlough Parish holds only was distraught by what he found. in the following chapter, “A This lane was, in 1982,

~ 15 ~ The Callans and McClarys

The Callans of Coolkill, circa 1895. SEATED (L-R): Catherine (Kate), father Philip (Phil, son of Philip Callan and Rose Boylan), John (Jack), mother Catherine, Philip (Phil); STANDING (L-R): Margaret (Mag), James (Jim), Rose, Luke, Maria. Taken at The Outlet Studio, Provi- dence, R.I.

Crosserlough Graveyard. Churches burned to the Tombstones were not custom- ground, one in the 1830s and ary then. The common Irish one in 1880. Construction of simply could not afford them. the current Church com- If our early Callans had tomb- menced in 1884 on the site of stones or grave markers, they the previous Church. The are no longer discernable. funds for the building of the Author Luke did, in 1932, pray new church were raised over a over the Crosserlough number of years in America by gravesites of his grandparents, a Father John Boylan. Accord- Philip and Rose Boylan Callan, ing to author Luke, this Father in the new graveyard. He gave Boylan was his catechism one death record for a Philip Crosserlough Church in no clues as to where their teacher in the 1880s. It can be Callan of Coolkill. This Philip Coolkill. It is believed that gravesite is located and if it had concluded from Luke’s com- died in Coolkill in 1846. It is individuals from 3 of the 4 a grave marker. We know, ments that Father Boylan was a quite certain that this death generations of our Coolkill today, none can be found. nephew of Luke’s grand- record relates to our Philip Callans are buried there: There is no Callan family mother, Rose Boylan Callan Callan, the husband of Rose generation 1, widow Rose memory today of where in the and, consequently, he would Boylan, the “struggling widow”. Callan of 1821 and her hus- Crosserlough graveyard our have been a first cousin of Another death record band; generation 2, their son, Callan ancestors are buried. Luke’s father, Philip Callan.. shows that a Rose Callan died Philip Callan, and his wife, The closest we can come to a There are two in Coolkill in 1864. This was Rose Boylan and possibly location is a comment made to Crosserlough graveyards, the the only death record in the some of Philip’s siblings; and Jim Lynch by Mary Ellen “graveyard old” and the “grave- Parish holdings for a Rose 2 male children from genera- Lynch Wilson of Attleboro, yard new”. The old graveyard Callan from Coolkill. It is tion 4, both named Patt. They Massachusetts. Her late father, serviced the needs of the believed this Rose Callan was were 2 son of Philip and Charlie Lynch, born and raised earliest Church and is located a the “struggling widow,” Rose Catherine (Reilly) Callan (our in the Lynch family of Coolkill, short distance away from the Boylan Callan, the grand- Bernard’s nephews) who died told her our Callans were current or new graveyard. mother of Kate Callan, and at birth or soon thereafter. buried next to his parents. Widow Rose Callan’s unknown author Luke Callan. In 1864, Nobody from the 3rd genera- In addition to the lack of husband, who died prior to she would have been about age tion of Coolkill Callans, that family knowledge or records, 1821, is most likely buried in 60 at the time of her death. is, the children of Philip and we have found no Church the old graveyard and widow None of the death records Rose (Boylan) Callan, are burial records for our Callans Rose probably joined him there identify the spouse, other know to have been buried in Crosserlough Graveyard. It when she died in the early family names, date of burial or there. All of their children appears that Crosserlough 1850s. Their son, Philip Callan where the deceased is buried. went to various parts of Church, in those days, did not (!802-1846) and his wife, Rose The burial site for most of America and died in America. keep records on who was Boylan (circa 1805-1864) are the Roman Catholics who died There are no tombstones buried where in their grave- likely buried in the new grave- in Coolkill has been, for 200 or records that locate the yards. Even if they did, those yard. There are four Callan years or so, the Crosserlough exact burial sites for any of records may have been lost to tombstones within the Grave- Graveyard adjacent to the our Callans within the fires. Two Crosserlough yard but all show burials of ~ 16 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Dublin. He results of her quest. At top left left for of page 22 is Father James missionary Callan himself, in a photo that work in the likely was taken In Seneca Falls gold fields when visiting his brother Ber- around nard, our ancestor. In the third Marysville, column is St. Joseph's Church, California, Marysville, CA., built in 1855. in 1862. He Fr. Callan first served here is often when he arrived from Ireland cited promi- in 1862. Then, it was the nently in bishopdom of the Catholic literature Church for that region of about the California. pioneering This was changed in the priests of early 1880s when Sacramento the gold was designated the bishopdom. rush days. Fr. Callan, over the years, He died in served as Pastor in a number of Marysville parishes within the Diocese, in 1887, building the first church in after serving some. His last assignment was for many as Pastor of St. Joseph's, where years there he died in 1887. His tombstone Children of Philip and Kitty Callan, circa 1925. Standing: (L-R) Philip, Catherine (“Kate”, grandmother of author of this article Jim Lynch), Rose, Margaret, and John. Seated (L-R): James, Maria and Luke (author of Ireland -- After Forty as a parish is pictured on page 22 as well. Years). priest at St. On the next page is also a Joseph;s closeup of the tombstone, and is ordered in the time sequence Callans from other Townlands Church. The principal sources his death record from St. that they left for America. and mostly with burial dates of on James have been Colm Joseph’s.. Luke Callan (1834-1916), the 1900s. McQuinn, Archivist, All Hal- Fr. Callan shares his the eldest child, was the first to lows College and two books tombstone with six other From Coolkill to America leave the old sod. He arrived in written on the early priests in priests. Each are buried within America in 1854 at age 20. He California, Hallowed Were the base circle surrounding the All eight children of Philip initially lived in Woonsocket, The Gold Dust Trails, 1946, common tombstone. At one Callan and Rose Boylan emi- RI, married there and eventu- by Henry L. Walsh, S.J. and time, smaller tomb-stones were grated from Ireland to America ally settled in Middleboro, MA. Condemned To The Mines, within the circle for each of the between 1854 and 1890. Some Luke died there in 1916. His 1976, by John T. Dwyer. seven priests, marking their left single and others left after great-grandson, Paul Callan of A distant cousin, Jetty specific burial site. They were they married and had their Middleboro, has been our O'Rorke Uebner from Cathey's destroyed years ago by vandals. children in Ireland. Below is contact on this branch of our Valley, CA, graciously re- If you look close enough on detailed what is known about Callans. sponded to our interest in Fr. the circle on the previous page, each of their lives in America James Callan (1835-1887) Callan by going to Marysville, you will see remnants of the in the sections devoted to their left the home in Coolkill in Calif. in search of Fr. Callan's individual grave markers. family branches. The following 1857 to study for the priest- burial place. The photos on Bernard James Callan is a summary of each child and hood at All Hallows College in the next two pages are the (1844-1879) left Coolkill for

~ 17 ~ The Callans and McClarys

James died in 1887. Her Rhode Island death record of 1921 shows that she was then living in Providence at the home of her niece, Maria Callan Walker. (This home at 6 Atkins St., known in this branch of the family as the Callan home, was originally purchased in 1904 by Mary’s brother, Philip Callan. It continued to be occupied by Callans until the death of Philip’s son, James, in 1945.) Mary is buried in St. Ann’s Cemetery, Cranston, Rhode Island, alongside her brother Philip, his wife Catherine, two of St. Joseph’s Church. their sons, John and James, and a sister of Catherine still with her information provided by his maiden name, Reilly. Although granddaughter, Rosella Callan the St. Ann’s burial record for Burke, and her son, Terry the plot lists these persons as Burke from Ohio. A major source of information on the details of Bernard and his descendants is a book written in Fr. James Callan, photo take in Seneca Falls, N.Y., ca. 1886. 1995 by his great-grandson, America as a single man of 21 Ann and their family lived Father James in 1865. On his arrival, he primarily in the Seneca Falls/ Brady Callan of Common grave for priests at St. Josephs Joseph’s Church studied for the priesthood in Utica area of upstate NY. While Rochester, NY, Baltimore. The following on a job assignment in Balti- The Callans of Winona Boule- buried there, Mary and summer he visited relatives in more, MD, in 1879, he con- vard. Catherine’s sister are not shown Seneca Falls in upstate New tracted tuberculosis and died Mary Callan (1826-1921) on the tombstone. York. Before he left, he fell there at age 35. He is buried in accompanied her brother James Our knowledge of Mary is sway to the charms of his Seneca Falls, New York. to California as his housekeeper based on information provided eventual wife, Mary Ann We have many sources of in 1862. Details are lacking on by Callan descendants Terry Magill, who was a 16-year-old information about Bernard Mary’s life in Ireland and Burke of Bay Village, Ohio and housekeeper at the St. Patrick’s James Callan, and will feature a America. Oral history has her his mother, Rosella Callan Church parish rectory. After they entire chapter on him later in leaving California for Rhode Burke, now in her 90s. Rosella is were married, Bernard and Mary this book. These sources include Island to live with relatives after the granddaughter of Bernard ~ 18 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Callan, a brother of Mary. Callan of Rochester, NY. He home site. He Zita McCabe of Johnston writes that one of the children of married Catherine RI , great -grand-daughter of Philip and Rose (Boylan) Callan Reilly from Coolkill Philip Callan) is in possession of was a John Callan, a baker living in about 1862 and an old steamer trunk from her in Woonsocket, RI. No records they had 10 children mother’s estate that belonged to have yet been found that verifies while living in the Mary Callan. Unfortunately, the his existence. The research Callan family home, trunk is empty. continues. eight of whom Margaret Callan (dates Rose Callan (1846-1931), survived to adult- unknown) married a Patrick was the youngest child of Philip hood. He and his Lynch in the nearby Townland and Rose (Boylan) Callan, born family left Coolkill of Derrylea in the late 1860s. two month before her father in 1890 for America. There, they had their eight died. At age 26 in 1872, Rose They initially settled children. Urged by Patrick’s married a Patrick Rourke in the for a number of relatives already in America, they nearby Townland of Listonish, years in left with their eight children plus County Cavan. There, they had Woonsocket, Rhode a young nephew for America in all six of their children. Some- Island, and, by 1904, 1881. They settled initially in where along the line, the family were living in Provi- Rantoul, Illinois, where four of adopted O’Rourke as the pre- dence. His wife, Patrick’s siblings from Derrylea ferred family name. The family Catherine, died there had settled earlier. The family left Ireland in the early 1880s for in 1908 and Philip in spent two years there, Patrick America and settled in Provi- 1909. working for the Illinois Central dence, RI. Both died in Provi- Our principal Railroad. In 1883, Patrick was dence, Patrick in 1910 and Rose sources for informa- enticed by his Uncle Jack Lynch in 1931. tion on Philip and Catherine and Fr. James Callan’s tombstone, above, and, below, his death entry in the St. Joseph’s and a cousin, Marcus Daly, to Our source of information their family were records from Church record book. join them in Rosebud, Montana for Rose Callan O’Rourke and the Cavan Research Center, the to help them manage their cattle her family has been her grand- US National Archives and operations. Marcus Daly eventu- son, Justin O’Rourke, of Rhode Island archival records. ally became one of the richest Warwick, RI. Additionally, Most important were the many persons in America, the infa- Cavan Research, a for-hire exchanges Jim Lynch has had mous Copper Baron who genealogical research company with living Callan descendants in founded the Anaconda Mining accessable over the internet, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Company. Numerous descen- found her Coolkill baptismal Ohio and Montana. dants of this family still live in the record, the only one found for Rosebud area. Patrick and this generation of Callans. Margaret died there. Their death Ellenor Fillo and Rosella Burke dates and burial place, as of this also shared their memories of writing, are unknown. this family in Providence. John Callan (dates un- Philip Callan (1842-1909) known) is somewhat of a mystery was the last of the Callans to live sibling. The only reference that at the Coolkill home site and the there was a John Callan is last of our Callans to leave contained in the 1995 book Ireland for America. He was written by Father James Brady born and raised at the family

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Chapter 4. brother of the deceased husband Callan. The two priests could not of the widow Rose Callan of have been first cousins since that Our Irish Cousins 1821. If so, his children and would have required Father those of widow Rose would have Callan’s father, Philip Callan, to been first cousins. In fact, there have had a sister, Anne, which are two instances in the research he didn’t. The 1821 Census literature that strongly suggest shows that Philip’s sisters were that a cousin relationship did named Ellenor and Catherine. exist between descendants of the So Father Callan’s cousin rela- 2 families. The first instance tionship with Father Lynch had involves James Callen’s daughter to come from another branch of Anne and the second instance Callans, a family who had a involves James Callen’s son, young daughter Anne in 1821. Peter. The logic of the analysis The 1821 James Callen that follows attempts to show that family in Coolkill seems to No direct descendants of prospects for finding descen- Anne and Peter were first cous- match that requirement. It is the Philip and Rose (Boylan) Callan, dants of these early relatives ins to the children of widow only Callan (Callen) family in our descendant line, currently living there today. Rose Callan, our Callans, and, Coolkill that shows a daughter, live in or near Coolkill. All of Widow Rose Callan’s consequently, their father James Anne. She, at age 14 in 1821, their children left Ireland for family of 1821. The 1821 Callen of 1821 was a brother of would have been 35 years old in America by 1890 and there is no Census of Coolkill shows that widow Rose’s deceased husband. 1842, the birth year of Father evidence known that any of their Philip Callan had three siblings, Charles Lynch. If this is so, Anne Callan of 1821 descendants returned to live in James, Ellenor and Catherine. Anne Callan of 1821 Fathers Lynch and Callan would Ireland. have been second cousins and Author Luke Callan, in his book Widow Rose Callan of We may, however, have Anne’s father, James, would have (p. 106), identifies a granduncle, 1821 had a grandson, Father distant Callan descendants still been a brother of our widow Shamus. Shamus is old Irish for James Callan, who served in the living in the Coolkill area. Philip Rose Callan’s husband. James. Shamus is likely Philip’s gold rush lands of California Callan, who died in 1846 in There is one other Callan sibling James recorded in the from 1861 to 1887. According to Coolkill, had three siblings, all of family identified in the 1821 1821 Census. This James would a 1946 book on the pioneering whom may have had children. Census as having a daughter be Luke’s granduncle. Unfortu- priest’s of California, Hallowed Descendants of these siblings Anne. This is the family of nately, Luke reveals little about Were The Gold Dust Trails, by may still be there. Additionally, Michael and Catherine Callan the descendants of Shamus. He Henry L. Walsh, S.J., Father there were other Callan families living in the Townland of does mention that Shamus had a Callan was joined in 1864 by a living in Coolkill in the early to Mullycastle, which is adjacent to daughter, “Big Ann” Callan, who “cousin” from County Cavan, mid-1800s. Mindful that Coolkill Coolkill. Their daughter Anne is married a Frank Reilly. Luke’s Father Charles M. Lynch. was only 427 acres in size, this 12 years old in 1821, certainly writings suggest that Big Ann The old records at All close proximity of the Callan qualified, chronologically, to died before she had children. Hallows College in Dublin, families suggests that a blood have been the mother of Father Descendants of Philip’s siblings, where Father Lynch studied for relationship may have existed Charles Lynch. Other children Ellenor and Catherine Callan, the priesthood, list his parents as amongst one or more of the of Michael and Catherine Callan could still be in the Coolkill area, Patrick Lynch and Anne Callan other Callan families. The data, were, Molly (24), Patrick (22), but not knowing if they ever who lived near Coolkill. It in fact, support this. Let’s try to Rose (20), Michael (16), Philip married, we may never know. appears, therefore, that the shed some light on how these (6) and what appears to be a set James Callen family of cousin relationship between the Callan relationships may have of 8-year-old twins, John and 1821. This James Callen of two priests derived from Anne existed and comment on the Coolkill may have been a Bridget. It may be that this family ~ 20 ~ The Callans and McClarys is also related to our 1821 Callan Luke did not elaborate on how the family of James and Judith and then on to his son, Peter. family. They lived within “shout- our Callans related to the Peter Callen of 1821. It appears that This was the Peter Callan farm ing distance” to one another. Callan family. the nexus is that James Callen of that Luke remembered. That Maybe they also came from It seems that our Callan’s 1821 was a brother of the de- they owned or leased a farm, Monaghan. “very close relationship” to the ceased husband of widow Rose which required hired labor, It seems more likely that Peter Callans goes back to the Callan of 1821. would explain why Luke would James Callen family was the 1821 James Callen and his son, There is another point of describe his Callan family as “the source of Anne Callan, mother Peter. The 1821 Census shows evidence that argues that the lesser Callans” relative to the of Father Lynch. They lived in only one Peter Callan living in Peter Callans of early Coolkill Peter Callan family. They were Coolkill like our Callans and Coolkill and he is the 17 year old were related to our Callans. the greater Callans because our author Luke and his brother, son of James and Judith Callen. There is, currently, a Peter “lesser Callans” worked for Jack, wrote about their Callan Thirty-five years later, the 1855-6 Callan living in the town of them. family and relatives only in the Griffith Valuation of Coolkill Kilnaleck, which is adjacent to There is no known evi- context of Coolkill. shows 2 Peter Callans still living Coolkill. In 1995, Peter told dence that our Callans in Another relationship that there, a Peter Callan on 21 acres Terry Burke, a descendant of Coolkill ever worked their own points to James Callen of 1821 and, a Peter Callan “(jun)” on 11 our Coolkill Callans, that his farm other then using their 6- being related to widow Rose acres. Luke’s locational descrip- Callans are related to our acre home site to raise foodstuffs Callan’s family of 1821 revolves tion of the Peter Callan farm he Coolkill Callans, but didn’t know for family consumption and the around James Callen’s son Peter visited in 1932 matches the the specifics. His brother, James occasional trip to the market and Luke Callan’s writings on a Griffith map location of Peter Callan, now living in Toronto, place to sell home grown prod- Peter Callan family in Coolkill. Callan’s 21-acre farm of 1855-6. Canada, contacted Jim Lynch by ucts. Peter Callan. Author Luke Peter (jun) was likely the son of e-mail in 1999 asserting a rela- It would be interesting to Callan visited a Callan family the other Peter. tionship to our Callans. Accord- learn more from Peter and farm in Coolkill when he was It is difficult to discern from ing to them, the relationship goes James Callan of Kilnaleck about there in 1932. Luke recalled in Luke’s writings which Peter “way back”. They say that their their current families there and his 1933 book that he and Callan he is referring to, the Callans originally came to also to probe them more about members of his family worked father or the son. The father, in Coolkill from the town of their ancestral Callan line. on this farm in the 1880s, which 1885, sort of the mid-point when Carrickmacross, County was then headed by a Peter Luke would have worked the Monaghan. If that is true, then The Boylan family Callan. He found himself, in Peter Callan farm, would have this current Callan family in in Ireland 1932, a stranger amongst his been 81 years old, an unusually Kilnaleck derives from the Peter Callan “cousins” whom he had late age for Irish males at the Callan family of old and the Our Boylan ancestral name not met before. He wrote (p. 94- time. For this reason, it is prob- 1821 James Callen family of derives from Rose Boylan who, 95) that, because of a “very close able that the Peter Callan whom Coolkill. If so, they and their in the 1830s, married Philip relationship” of his Callans to the Luke worked for was the son, families represent distant Callan Callan. We do not know as Peter Callans, his Callan family the Peter (jun) of the 1855-6 relatives still living in the Coolkill much about Rose Boylan’s was given the nod over other survey. In 1885, he would have area. family as we do about the Coolkill workers to work on been in his late 50s or early 60s Perhaps the 1821 James Callans, but there are some Peter Callan’s farm. Luke when Luke worked the farm at Callen preceded our Callans to clues in the 1821 Census of considered his Callans the age 10. Coolkill, established a farm there Coolkill and also some signifi- “lesser Callans” relative to the The point in all of this is and invited his brother’s family cant indicators of her family ties Peter Callan family of old. All of that our Callan line has a blood still in Monaghan, our Callans, to in author Luke Callan’s book. this suggests that our Callans relationship with the Peter join him and work the farm in In 1821, our Rose Boylan were blood related to a Peter Callans of Coolkill. That rela- Coolkill. The James Callen farm would have been a young lady, Callan. The question is how. tionship appears to go back to passed to his oldest son, Peter, likely still living with her parents.

~ 21 ~ The Callans and McClarys

The 1821 Census of Coolkill and she and her three at-home Mullycastle. Judging from Luke’s identify descendants of her shows 2 Boylan families in daughters were spinners, prob- writings, Luke appears to be in family who may still live in the Coolkill, none of who have a ably the least paying labor at the Mullycastle on his way to Coolkill area. daughter Rose. However, there is time. Plus, she had a 10-year- old Ballyjamesduff when he remi- The Reilly or O’Reilly a Sheridan family in Coolkill “relative” to care for. In sum, a nisces about the home of his surname is the most prominent listing an 18 year old Rose good case can be made that the father’s cousins, Father John and in Cavan and in the Coolkill Boylan in their household as a widow Rose Boylan was the Charles Boylan. area. Most claim a relationship “servant”. If our Rose Boylan mother of our Rose Boylan and The Boylan family of 1821 to one another, however distant Callan came from Coolkill, then that widow Rose’s children were in Mullycastle lived on a 16-acre it may be, and it seems all claim the Rose Boylan in the Sheridan the sisters of our Rose Boylan. farm. The family consisted of a relationship to Miles O’Reilly, family may have been the Rose The second of the two Matthew Boylan (56), wife the famous Catholic patriot, Boylan who married Philip Boylan families in Coolkill in Catherine (49) and children John warrior and martyr in the wars Callan. 1821 was too young to be consid- (24), Philip (22), Peter (20), against the English in the 1700s. One of the two Boylan ered. It consisted of Philip Mary (17) and Margaret (15). Kitty Reilly Callan’s parents families shown in Coolkill in Boylan, age 26, his wife Judith, With 16 acres, this family would were Philip and Ann O’Reilly. 1821 is arguably the family of the age 24, and son Francis. Con- have been considered a promi- When Kitty was born in 1841, servant, Rose Boylan. This ceivably, this family was related nent family of the area. This they lived on a farm in the family is headed by a 52-year-old to widow Rose Boylan. Could would be consistent with Luke’s Townland of Ballymachugh, widow, Rose Boylan. She is Philip had been a son of widow characterization of the later County Westmeath. Kitty’s shown living with daughters, Rose Boylan? Charles and Father John Boylans childhood farm, located on the Catherine (29), Margaret (27), Author Luke Callan refers as prominent Boylans in banks of Lough (Lake) Sheelin, Anne (24) and a “relative”, to several Boylan relatives in his Crosserlough Parish. was confiscated by a local with Martha Boylan (10). book. We have mentioned, Suffice it to say that the the help of the British. Accord- It seems likely that the previously, Father John Boylan Boylan surname is still promi- ing to Luke, the local was later servant Rose Boylan belonged to of the Crosserlough Church. nent within the areas around assassinated by Irish patriots. this family because of her name Luke cites him (p180) as a Coolkill and that we probably, Philip and Ann O’Reilly, Rose. It is highly probable, given cousin of his father, Philip today, have relatives from our with daughter Kitty and her the Irish tradition of passing on Callan. This would mean that Boylan line still living in the brother Charles, moved the parent’s first names to their Father John was a nephew of Coolkill area. short distance to Coolkill. It children, that the mother Rose in Philip’s mother, Rose Boylan. appears they joined Reilly this family would have had one Luke also cites a Charles Boylan, Reilly or O’Reilly relatives already farming in of her daughter’s named Rose. a prominent magistrate in Luke’s Coolkill. The 1821 Census of The Reilly name in our That the unmarried daughter days, as a brother of Father John Coolkill shows a number of ancestry derives from Catherine Rose was living apart from the (p. 182). He notes that the (Kitty) Reilly who married Philip Reilly families clustered on the family in 1821 is not unusual. children of Charles Boylan were Callan, brother of our our same farm. An 1855-6 survey of Older daughters were often sent “exceptional talents as boys and Bernard, in the 1860s. They Coolkill shows a similar cluster to live with well- healed families girls.” were the parents, in Coolkill of of Reilly families and a map of as housekeepers and servants. It There is only one other Catherine (Kate) Callan, author this survey places them exactly provided additional income for Boylan family near the Luke Callan and six other where we know, today, to be the the parent family and it was one Townland of Coolkill in 1821 children. Kitty Reilly Callan was location of the old Reilly home less mouth to feed. and it may be the early family of born in Ireland, April 1841,and site near the Lynch farm. The One can imagine the Father John Boylan and his died in Providence, RI, July 25, survey also identified 2 Philip 1821widow Rose Boylan needing brother, the magistrate Charles 1908. The purpose here is to try Reilly families as part of that such help. She was a widow, had Boylan. The family is located in to capture her Reilly or O’Reilly cluster. One of those would have no sons to bring in farm wages the nearby Townland of family lineage in Ireland and to been the family of Philip and

~ 22 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Ann O’ Reilly from 1932. He notes that Phil was Rose in 1926. It is sad, for having stayed Ballymachugh. now farming and no longer in Jim Lynch says he had the on in Coolkill, they were the last Kitty’s brother, Charles, her the cooper business, metal privilege of meeting all of their ones living who could recall the only sibling, took over the farm replacing wood as the choice for sons, Charlie and Jimmy Lynch family farm as it was before the after his parents died. By that containers and that butter churn- in Rhode Island and John, British destroyed it in the 1920s. time, his sister, Kitty, had mar- ing at home was history. Luke Mattie, Paddy and Michael and ried Philip Callan, who lived just also notes that Phil was raising their families in Coolkill in 1982. down the lane. Charles became three “motherless” children. Paddy and his wife, Rose, were known in Coolkill as Charley the The tombstone data calcu- running the Lynch farm when Cooper, a cooper being one who lates that Phil’s wife, Margaret, Jim Lynch was there in 1982. All crafts all sorts of things for farm died at age 36, leaving him with of the Lynch brothers had use out of wood. Luke writes three children, ages 9, 6 and 1. passed on by the end of the fondly about his Uncle Charley. Phil the Cooper died in 1961 at 1980s. Paddy and Rose’s son He and his wife, Rose, had two age 85 years. Two of their Jimmy Lynch, with his family, is children that are known about, children are buried with them, now in charge. Philip and Ann. Patrick and Annie. Their third The ancestral Reilly name Philip took over the Reilly child is Rose Reilly Coleman. may have been lost through home after his father died. He She was 81 years old in the year marriages over the generations. became known as Phil the 2000, still living in Unlike Irish traditions of the old Cooper. In 1919, Jack Callan Ballyjamesduff, near Coolkill. days, the Reillys did not have big stayed with his cousin Phil. He Their daughter Annie died families, two or three children at found Phil’s mother Rose still quite young in 1955 at age 31. most, and most of the children living, old but alert. Jack com- Her son, James, joined her in were female. What few Reilly mented on how old looking Phil 1960 at age four. It’s not known males were produced didn’t was relative to his young wife and whether she she had other marry, died early in life or their noted that they had three young children, nor do we know the child-bearing wives died early in children. name of her husband. He is not life. There is no known Reilly When Jim Lynch visited cited on the tombstone. Her surname today which has carried Coolkill in 1982, Mattie Lynch brother, Patrick, is cited as through our direct Reilly lineage. directed his attention to a Reilly having died in 1968 at age 52. More research on this may prove tombstone. Jim took a photo of His name is cited without any differently. it but had no idea of who they indication that he had his own There is a Reilly bloodline were. He later realized that it family. He may never have through other surnames created was Phil’s gravesite. From the married. by marriage. The Lynch family inscription can be found that his Phil the Cooper’s only of the Coolkill area is the most wife’s name was Margaret, 13 sibling was Ann Reilly who was prominent and, also, the family years younger than Phil, and they born about 1875. She married of Rose Reilly Coleman. Added had two children buried with the boy next door on the Lynch research on this may identify them, Patrick and Annie. A third farm, James Lynch. She and other family lines living today child, Rose, is still living. She is James lived on the farm and ran that relate to our Reilly ancestral the Rose Coleman of the farm after the death of name. All of the Lynch brothers Ballyjamesduff with whom Jim James’ parents. They had 8 had passed on by the end of the Lynch has corresponded. children there, 2 daughters and 6 1980s, but many of their chil- Luke, in his book, writes sons. Their two daughters died at dren and grandchildren still live about visiting his cousin Phil in a young age, Annie in 1922 and in the area.

~ 23 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 5. Teresa of Calcutta, who inscribed mother) Catherine was a Reilly a blessing for the Lynch family on whose sister, Ann, married a A Journey to Coolkill the back of a blank sheet con- James Lynch in Coolkill and ( ‘tis no more ) tained in my booklet of travellers together brought forth the Lynch checks. How more American can brothers. Keep in mind that the one be! Lynch name here has nothing to do with our Lynch name, which, The Callan-Lynch link of course, came through my My research was a bit skimpy father’s line. on my roots in Ireland, most of it On my grandfather’s side derived, over the years, from (Kate’s husband and Nana’s conversations with Nana and Aunt father), I had the least information. Rita, neither of whom had visited James Joseph Sullivan was born in Ireland. In fact, my visit to Ireland Tramore, County Waterford to was to be the first in my family’s James and Mary (McCarthy) Jim Lynch , a former CIA analyst and a great, great, great- lineage since my grandmother Sullivan on Feb. 11, 1880, and grandson of Philip Callan and Rose Boylan, spent several days in Kate (Callan) Sullivan’s visit in the lived on Peters Street in Tramore. Coolkill in the late summer of 1982. In this chapter, he recounts a late 1920s. Nana’s and Aunt Rita’s Aunt Rita was unaware of any of visit with one of our Irish cousins to the old Callan homesite. knowledge was also limited his relatives still living in Ireland. because their father, Grampa Coolkill could not be found Many James Sullivan, did not talk much on any of the maps I checked at times over the about Ireland. Apparently, his the CIA. Surely they would know years of my early years living in Ireland were if Coolkill existed! Whilest in life, I longed quite difficult, a life’s experience London, prior to my travel onto to visit my he wished to forget. Scotland and Ireland, I shared my ancestral According to relatives, ignorance with the Irish Tourist grounds. My Grandmother Kate Callan was Bureau and the Irish Embassy in mother used born in Coolkill, County Cavan London. They too were less than to tell me I and she still had relatives in finest, not being able to find was too Irish. Coolkill by the name of Lynch: Coolkill in their records. They Whether she brothers Mattie, Patrick, Mike and offered that I must be seeking meant that as John. Two other brothers, Charlie Cootehill, County Cavan. I al- a compliment and Jimmie Lynch, emigrated to lowed that might be so given that or a criticism, America in their early years and the source of my information was I couldn’t tell. lived in Providence, Rhode Island. an American Irishman (Charlie How many I had met Charlie and Jimmy on Lynch), strong of the Irish brogue, times did I An 1892 map of County Cavan, showing Kilnaleck, lower left. It is the occasions of weddings and funer- passed on to my Aunt Rita who state to her nearest townland to what once was the small village of Coolkill, an- als amongst the Rhode Island clan. was getting up in years and then on that I wished cestral home of the Callans. In fact I last met Charlie at Nana’s to me at a time I had had a wee the name Lynch was more Irish? pany me to Erin, I struck for the funeral in December 1980. Jimmy little beer. So on to Cootehill! Little did I know how Irish was the emerald green on Aug. 1, 1982, died while on a visit to Coolkill in I arrived in Dublin the name Lynch until I travelled to on a flight from Glasgow to December 1981 and is buried evening of Aug. 1, 1982. Whilest Ireland in August 1982. Dublin. The Lord was with me there. The Lynch brothers are having a wee little beer in a With some sadness that my that day, for on the plane with me cousins of my grandmother Kate. Dublin pub, I engaged an elderly mother was not alive to accom- was the saintly woman, Mother Kate’s mother (my great-grand- Irish couple with conversation ~ 24 ~ The Callans and McClarys

James P. Lynch, far left, pictured with Mattie Lynch in 1982 in front of Mattie’s townhome on Main Street, Kilnaleck, County Cavan.

On to Coolkill ing of a town of Coolkill. Sinking fast, I recovered my wits and On Aug. 2, I travelled the queried about Kilnaleck. Navan Road from Dublin in “Aye,” he says as he points to search of Coolkill (approx. 60 a footpath. “That’s where you go miles). Following the directions to Kilnaleck.” of my Dubliner pub friends, I “Where is the road?” I turned off at Virginia (pro- asked. He replied, “That is the nounced virgin-nay), County road.” Cavan and continued on to Driving down this footpath, Ballyjamesduff. There recogniz- with branches scraping both sides ing that the world had come to of the car, I come across a farmer an end, I inquired of a local (a on a tractor. Ballyjamesduffian?) the directions “Where could Kilnaleck to Coolkill. He proceeded to be?” I ask. direct me to Cootehill, not know- “Aye,” he replies, “just two about my search for the non- existent Coolkill and now planned to strike out for Cootehill. “Aye,” says the old man, “ya don’t want Cootehill. Ya be wanting to go to Coolkill near Kilnaleck and Crosser-lough. I have fished there all me life.” Saints be Jesus, me Aunt Rita wasn’t daft after all! Notes that I had taken while talking to Nana and Aunt Rita referred to the place names of Kilnaleck and Crosser-lough.

Entrance to Callan homesite. Photo taken looking from center of where the Callan home once stood. Note rounded stone gate pier on left. Similar gate pier is on right, cov- ered in brush.Stone wall between each pier replaced what used to be a swinging gate to the Callan home. The stones of the wall were once part of the structure of the Callan home. ~ 25 ~ The Callans and McClarys

I told Mattie my plans were to within the stone wall that used to make the same trip. be the gate pillar at the entrance to I asked Mattie where in the the Callan’s front yard. world was Coolkill, the place of I took a small stone from the birth of grandmother Kate. He pillar as a memory. He pointed to replied “Oh, it ‘tis no more. a rock depression near the stone He said it was a small wall as a collection point for country town of just a few impov- rainwater from which “many a erished stone cottages with dirt Callan carried a bucket of water.” floors. According to Mattie, all Coolkill was clearly alive in the the cottages were torn down eyes of this kind gentleman. earlier in the century by the As we left toward British, and that whatever was Crosserlough, Mattie pointed out useful, the British hauled back to the last standing reminent of a England, including all of the Coolkill house. It had a dirt floor, Looking from gate entrance, cows standing on spot where Callan home once stood. timber useful to the British a kitchen area with a large fireplace more miles and who would you be We agreed that his mother and shipbuilding industry. So no still containing all the hardware for looking for?” my great- grandmother (Kate’s wonder Coolkill was not on the hearth cooking -- oh how I wanted “Mattie Lynch,” I reply. mother) were sisters by the maiden map. Mattie said he knew exactly to take that hardware home -- and “Aye,” he says. “You’ll be name of Reilly. He had a bit of a where the Callan cottage once two small bedrooms to the side. having no problem finding Mattie. problem understanding why my stood in Coolkill and offered to There were only three small He has only one arm, ya know. surname, Lynch, was not related take me there. windows on the entire structure, all of them on the front side. You had I’m a Lynch, too, ya know, but I’m to his name, Lynch. The Callan Cottage not related to Mattie.” Mattie remembered vividly to stoop over to get through the doorways, giving you an idea of the This prompted a recollection the only revisit by my grand- We travelled east of average height of Irishmen from of Aunt Rita telling me that one of mother, Kate Callan, to Coolkill, Kilnaleck, about a mile, taking a those days. Although the cottage the Lynch boys had lost an arm in which took place in 1927. He left on yet another footpath-sized had a tin roof, Mattie pointed out a farm accident. I knew, then, I reacted as though that visit has road which leads to Crosserlough. that all roofs of the day were straw- was close to “home.” been the only significant life event The Callan property, about a thatched roofs. In fact, Mattie’s A Kilnaleck pubkeeper since then. It was the first experi- quarter of a mile down the road trade in his younger days was as a directed me to Mattie’s home. I ence for him and his brothers to on the right, was nothing more roof thatcher and he worked on knocked on the door to be greeted meet someone from America. than a cow pasture surrounded by many of the cottages in the area. by a wee man in his mid-70s, with He recalled everybody had to stone walls. Thatched roofing is still the choice the biggest Irish twinkle of pale dress in their Sunday finest to Mattie pointed to spots in the of many in Ireland. As I took blue eyes I had ever seen. meet with Kate, who was accom- area where other Coolkill cottages photos of the cottage, Mattie “Are you Mattie Lynch?” I panied on the trip by her brother used to be. Absolutely nothing expressed puzzlement as to why I ask. Jim Callan, her niece, Madonna remained but barren fields with a would want pictures of such a “Aye” he says, “I’ve been Walker, and Agnes Sullivan, a few milk cows grazing. Mattie gave dilapidated subject. called that all me life.” niece of Kate’s husband, my details of how the town used to be, “You wouldn’t be wanting to As I reached to shake his grandfather James J. Sullivan. recounting his visits to Coolkill as a make us look bad in America, hand, I realized he “had only one Mattie remembered that Kate young boy, including visits to the would you?” he asked. An interest- arm, ya know.” and Agnes went on their own, Callan house. ing bit of sensitivity.” We and his wife Bridget for a few days, to visit her He stood me in the center of discussed, over sausages and husband’s family in Tramore, where the house once was and sweetbreads, how we were related. County Waterford. At that point pointed to a round stone pillar ~ 26 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 6. on March 17, 1847. At Dublin of social upheaval in Seneca they boarded the “Henry Clay,” Falls. New work patterns were A seminarian falls in love a sailing vessel bound for New changing the roles of men and York. While they were crossing women. There were religious the Atlantic, the ship was buf- revival movements and agitation feted by severe storms and against slavery, drinking and sprang a leak. For weeks all immorality. It was in this context those on board had to bail water that the Women’s Rights Move- each day to stay afloat. Miracu- ment erupted in Seneca Falls just lously it finally reached the New as the Magill family arrived. York Harbor. There the wet and The year 1847 was the bedraggled families parted for same year a very famous woman various sections of the New came to live in Seneca Falls. Her World. name was Elizabeth Cady The Magill family took Stanton. She is now considered We will end the story of this another 1.5 million fled the passage aboard a packet-boat to the founder of the Women’s next generation with a certain country, in the year 1847 alone, Albany and then through the Rights Movement. Elizabeth Bernard Callan, a seminarian 258,000 Irish set sail for North Erie Canal system to the “Flats” Cady Stanton insisted on using born in Ireland, who was des- America. Thomas Magill and his of Seneca Falls, where they her maiden name, Cady, as part tined to sweep a teenager named family were among them. disembarked. At that time of her proper name. She also got Mary Anne Magill off her feet in With his wife gone and the Seneca Falls was already a the minister who witnessed her a Seneca Falls rectory. potato famine threatening the booming manufacturing town wedding to drop the “1 will But we begin in 1791, when rest of his family, Thomas Magill noted for its pumps, barrels, fire obey” part of the vows. Both of Thomas Magill was born in decided leaving Ireland was their engines, knitting products, etc. It these things were unheard of in Dowdstown near Ardee, County only chance of survival. They was a busy town and that was those days. Within a year of Louth, the northeastern part of packed up their belongings and probably why the Magills chose arriving in Seneca Falls, Eliza- Ireland. Thomas was a farmer said good-bye to the old farm. to settle there. But along with the beth Cady Stanton succeeded in and owned a cottage-type farm- They departed the Ole Sod rapid industrialization came a lot pulling together such notable house with several outbuildings. He married a woman named Mary McGuire, also born in The Packet Ship Henry Clay 1791. Thomas and Mary lived in It’s hard to imagine what passage from Ireland to America was like in the 1800s, but it may help to read a little bit about the ship that brought the Magills to NewYork. The following is excerpted from the book Queens of the Western Ocean Page 258: Dowdstawn and raised six children: Bridget, Michael, Alice, “Other fine two-deckers were soon afloat,but it was not until 1845 that the construction of three-deckers was resumed. In Mary, Anne and Catherine. that year Brown & Bell launched the Henry Clay for Grinnell,Minturn & Company`s Liverpool Line. Her depth of hold was Sadly, in 1835, Mary, the mother 29 feet, 8 inches and her registered tonnage was given as 1207 tons, although it was actually somewhat in excess of 1400 of these six children, died at the tons. The New York Herald for March 26,1845, gives the following account of her launching. “The new packet ship Henry Clay was launched yesterday morning from the yard of Brown and Bell,on the East River. She early age of forty-four. is 189 feet and 6 inches in length ,38 feet and 6 inches in breadth, and 1402 tons in bulk. She is, probably the longest, broad- To make matters worse, in est and deepest merchant ship now floating on the ocean. In a word, the ship is a monster of the deep. The launching was 1847 the potato crop failed In beautiful and a highly sucessful one. It was witnessed by nearly ten thousand persons.” Ireland. The population of Ireland was reduced by one- The Henry Clay was a well known packet ship, built for Grinnel & Minturn’s Swallowtail Line. In 1846, she went ashore on the beach at Barnegat, New Jersey, under the command of Captain Nye, with the loss of six lives but was refloated. She was later burnt out, her quarter within five years. At least charred hulk bought by Spofford & Tileston in 1852, rebuilt and sailed for many years on their Liverpool Line. She carried a crew of one million Irish people died of Master, four mates, carpenter, cook, steward, 30 seamen and two boys. starvation and disease, while

~ 27 ~ The Callans and McClarys people as Lucretia Mott, holic husband, working both ter of a sailor, an English sea Michael was greeted at the New Frederick Douglas, Jane Hunt inside and outside the home. captain by the name of Hand. York Central Railway Station by and Mary Ann McClintock to Thomas Magill lived only Her mother was Irish with the many people waving flags and bring about the First National eight more years after bringing maiden name of McCaul. In the children were striped in the Women’s Rights Convention. It his six children to the New those days it was the custom for national colors. Michael used to was held at the now-famous World. He died in Seneca Falls the captain and his family to live walk very proudly in the parades Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca at the age of sixty-four on July aboard the ship sometimes. And after that, showing off his cher- Falls, just blocks away from the 11, 1855. His grave can be found so it happened that while docked ished badge of the Grand Army family’s home, on July 19- today in Restvale Cemetery. at a port in Virginia, Mary was of the Republic. Upon returning 20,1848. All the editorials in the Michael Magill, one of born on May 6, 1832. She was from the Civil War, Michael local and national papers blasted Thomas and Mary’s six children, raised in England but later resumed his trade and resided the convention as unnatural, was born on April 8, 1824, while returned to America. Mary with Mary and his family at 28 immoral and causing the break- the family still lived back in Hand and Michael Magill raised Center Street. The home had down of the family. She really County Louth, Ireland. He a large family, ten of whom grew been purchased in 1865 from a caused a stir in that town! attended school in Dowdstown. to adult life. People in Seneca John McFarland.It was just a few Meanwhile the Magill At other times he helped his Falls remembered her shouting houses away from 15 Center family was trying to get situated father with the farm work. Upon out the front door of her Center Street, pictured on page 32, in their new surroundings. It arriving in America with his Street house to call her children, where Bernard Callan and Mary must have seemed quite shock- father and sisters, he found work home: “Tom, Dick and Harry! Ann Magill would later live. ing after coming from conserva- in the various foundries in the Ella, Mike and Mary! C’mon Shortly after Michael tive Ireland. We can wonder section of town known as the home!” Mary was a good mother returned from the war he re- how much the Women’s Move- Flats. He took up molding, and, besides raising her family of ceived a letter from Ireland. The ment influenced our family. One which, at the time, was one of the eleven, she was a midwife. She envelope bore the simple inscrip- thing we know for sure is that we more challenging jobs to be delivered many children in tion, “To Michael Magill of come from a line of strong found. All the work was done by Seneca Falls in her day. People America.” The letter informed women on the Magill side of the hand and a good molder was a ran to her home at all hours of him that he was left some inherit- family. Mary Hand Magill, who clever artisan. The Magill men the day or night for her help. ance money. So he borrowed was married in Seneca Falls the were all molders. When the Civil War broke some money for the trip and year after the Women’s Rights Michael fell in love with a out in 1861-1865, Mary’s hus- sailed back to Ireland. After he Convention, had her own busi- woman named Mary Hand and band, Michael Magill, at the age picked up his inheritance ness as the midwife of Seneca they were married at St. Patrick’s of thirty-eight, went into the army money, they say he really lived it Falls. She was on call day and Church in Seneca Falls by Father as a member of Company up for a while, treating his night in addition to the responsi- William Carroll on September Batallion 360th New York Light buddies in the local pub. But he bility she had raising her own 22, 1849. The church, by the Brigade. He enlisted for the didn’t spend it all on himself. eleven children. While her way, wasn’t called St. Patrick’s in usual $100 and his clothes. It is One day in Ireland he passed an husband Michael was away those days. It was first established said that when he first enlisted, auction where a poor woman fighting in the Civil War, she as St. Jerome’s in 1831. Then it he was a cannon crammer but was bidding on a donkey. A man took on the entire financial was named St. Thomas Church then he graduated into the outbid her and sadly, she lost the responsibility of the family. Her in 1851. Then, in 1864, with the artillery. From there he was donkey that she wanted so badly. daughter Mary Anne, our ances- influx of Irish immigrants like placed in the Army of Occupa- Good-hearted Michael ap- tor, was a widow at twenty-five our family, and just two years tion and went as far south as proached the man, offered him and became a working mother, before the arrival in Seneca Falls Georgia. He was one of the last more than he had paid, and led raising her four children single- of our ancestor Bernard, it was to reach home when the war the donkey to the woman, who handedly. Then there was renamed St. Patrick’s Church. ended. dissolved in tears. Another time Sadie Callan, who had an alco- Mary Hand was the daugh- When he returned home, there was a family named

~ 28 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Matthews, friends of the family, children were Thomas (who died Bernard on October 10,1869 at Because of this, James was who lacked sufficient funds for as a three-year-old infant in St. Patrick’s Church by Father already in California when passage to America. Generous 1853), Michael, Mary Anne (the Lambert. Bernard came to America. In Michael paid their way so they one from whom the Callans Before continuing on with 1872 James was appointed could make the trip back with would come), Harry, Catherine, the family that Bernard and pastor in Mendocino City, then him, and they settled in Water- Ella, Thomas, Richard, William, Mary Ann (Magill) Callan back to Marysville again, where loo. Alice, and Margaret. produced, let’s quickly catch up he died and was buried in 1887. When Michael finally got Mary Anne, the third eldest with Bernard’s siblings. Mary Callan, an unmarried back to Seneca Falls, his legacy child of Michael and Mary Hand As you may recall, in the daughter, traveled out with her had dwindled to practically Magill. was born in Seneca Falls early 1800s Philip Callan and brother Fr. James to be his nothing. Needless to say, his on October 1, 1853. Everyone Rose Boylan Callan, our ances- housekeeper in California. After wife, Mary, was quite angry. She said that she was a lovely person tors, lived in Coolkill, Kilnaleck, he died, she returned to the east managed the family without her and very well liked. When she County Cavan, Ireland. They with quite a lot of money that Fr. husband all during the Civil War was a teenager she helped out in lived in the parish of James left her. The priest was and again during this long trip to the rectory of St. Patrick’s Crosserlough, Kilnore diocese. wealthy because he “grubstaked” Ireland—and he came home Church in Seneca Falls. They had eight children who gold miners. A grubstaker was nearly empty handed! Other One summer, very unex- were born there, one of whom someone who supplied the members of the family, espe- pectedly, a young man came to was Bernard, born in 1844. miners with money, food cially the McKeona and live there for a few weeks. His James Callan was a priest. (“grub”), equipment, etc. and got Carrahers, showed outright name was Bernard Callan. He was educated at All Hallows half the gold, if any was found. hostility toward him. But in time Bernard was a seminarian, not College in Dublin. He left Fr. James left Mary lots of the rift healed. far from the priesthood, who was Dublin in 1862 at the age of money with the understanding When Michael grew old, he studying at St. Mary’s Seminary twenty-six and sailed all the way that she would go back to Provi- spent part of his leisure time in Baltimore. He spent part of around Cape Horn in South dence, Rhode Island and share it sitting around the pot-bellied the summer in Providence, America and landed in San with the rest of the family. stove in the Magill grocery, Rhode Island with his Callan Francisco, California, where he However, according to family which was owned by his son relatives. His summer job was was ordained shortly after arriv- stories told by Fr. James Brady Thomas. The store was located selling magazine subscriptions. ing. He was loved by all, both Callan’s grandfather, Mary lived on the corner of Bayard and That summer he came to Seneca Catholic and non-Catholic, and high on the hog, in great style all Bridge Streets. As the Italians Falls to visit a priest who was a was a very zealous and kind her life, and no one in the family followed the Irish, this store later friend of the family from Ireland. priest, according to diocesan got a penny. “And when she died was Caruso’s grocery store and One day when Bernard was officials. They added “he was a there was none to be found!” today it is called Hobb’e Place, having lunch with the priests, his smoker but a non-drinker.” He One time when Mary which deals in antiques and used eyes kept shifting to the pretty served at the Cathedral in visited her niece Mary Callan furniture. The pot-bellied stove girl who was serving the meal. Marysville (All of Northern Clary {1879-1959) in Waterloo, in the grocery store had a circle He noticed that she was looking California was under the Vicar- she gave her a special gold belt of captain’s chairs, each with its at him the same way. Bernard ate of Marysville at the time). buckle. It was engraved with own spittoon. Michael and his and Mary Anne spent long hours Then he was sent to Forest Hill horses and fancy ladies with cronies gathered there to discuss together during the following where he built the first Catholic puffy sleeves on their dresses. It the problems and the people of weeks. His zeal for the priest- school. In 1669 Bishop was quite a work of art. It said the times, especially William hood began to evaporate as this O’Connell had to leave for “M. Callan” on the back. Mary Jennings Bryan. attractive teenager captured Rome to attend the First Vatican Callan Clary then gave this Mary Hand Magill died in more and more of his heart. Just Council, so he transferred Father golden buckle to her daughter 1896, followed by Michael a few a few days past her 16th birthday, Callan back to Marysville to take Mary. When this Mary got months later in 1897. Their Mary Anne was married to the bishop’s place as rector. married, she gave it to her

~ 29 ~ The Callans and McClarys daughter, Sister Mary Walls, married Henry Bailey, a young Egan ranch. At that time many of who lived in the Buffalo/Niagara rancher, in 1902. One of Alice Bernard’s siblings from Ireland Falls area. But since this nun and Henry’s four children was were still living and were visiting had no use for jewelry, she gave Minnie (born 1912), who eloped there. Their names were John it to her cousin Mary Callan with Joseph Egan because her (the baker in Woonsocket, Cheehak. And she passed it on parents didn’t want her to marry Rhode Island about whom little to Marian Callan Aman, who “just a cowpuneher with no is known); Philip, Luke and presently has it in her posses- future.” Rose, as well as those already sion. So all together, five women Despite the initial hard mentioned above. Now back to with the name “M. Callan” had feelings, Minnie and Joseph the story of Bernard Callan. this special belt buckle. Egan worked on Alice and Margaret Callan,Callan another Henry’s ranch and took it over one of the eight from Ireland, when Henry died. When Joseph married Patrick Hugh Lynch, Egan died in 1970, Minnie who was a cousin of Marcus moved up the road to the Lynch Daley, the Anaconda Copper ranch which she bought. The last King. Margaret and Patrick had anyone knew, Minnie’s son eight children before they Bailey J. Egan and his wife arrived in America in 1881. He Bather Colgan Egan were run- found a job with the Illinois ning the home ranch for Minnie. Central Railroad in Rantoul, That’s the story of the Illinois. But Patrick’s cousin, 50,000 acre ranch operated by Marcus Daley, kept urging the the Lynch/Bailey/Egan relatives. family to come out and discover The properties all adjoin, mile the golden opportunities of the after mile in all directions. Each Montana Territory. ranch is individually owned but In October, 1883, the they all work together on the whole family took the newly- raising and shipping of cattle. built Northern Pacific Railway There is a historical marker on and arrived at Rosebud, Mon- the ranch indicating that Lt. Col. tana. They built a home below George Custer and his 200 Lame Deer, where they became soldiers camped there in 1876, acquainted with many Cheyenne the night before Custer’s tragic Indians. Once in a while Father last stand at the Little Big Horn Frando, a Jesuit missionary, River. A combined group of would celebrate Mass in their Cheyenne Indians, who be- home before the first chapel was friended our relatives, and Sioux built, Margaret and Patrick’s Indians were led by chiefs Sitting children were: Mary Lynch Bull and Crazy Horse in that Mahoney, Catherine Lynch battle. Today Bailey Egan has at luohy, Margaret Lynch Clark, his own ranch a whole cabinet Rose Lynch Moore, Lina Lynch full of cavalry saddles and other Tucker, Annie Lynch Sullivan, artifacts from Custer’s army. Hugh Lynch, and Alice Lynch In the early 1930s Philip Bailey. The last one, Alice, Callan and his family visited the

~ 30 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 7: Bernard Callan and Mary Anne Magill

Bernard James Callan was Bernard and Mary Anne born in Coolkill, Kilnaleck, Magill were married in Seneca County Cavan, Ireland in 1844. Falls on Oct. 10, 1869, by He was the son of Philip and Father Lambert. Witness were Rose Callan and his siblings were Mary Anne’s brother, Michael mentioned above. Bernard Magill, and Delia Fitzimmons. arrived in America on Novem- Bernard became a machinist ber 1, 1865, the year the Ameri- and lived at 15 Center Street. can Civil War ended. It is They then moved to Utica, believed he came to America New York. Bernard worked as from County Cavan via a teacher there for a few years. Londonderry. Like his older He also ran a school in Little brother James, he wanted to be a Falls, NY. His seminary back- priest. He studied for the priest- ground prepared him well for hood at St. Bonaventure in this work. Bernard could play Olean (New York) from 1866- the flute well, too. While they 1867 and later in St. Mary’s were in Utica, two children Seminary in Baltimore from were born; Mary (1871-1959, 1868 to January, 1869. As who would marry James Clary mentioned earlier, one summer and live in Waterloo, and It was in Baltimore on July town, and lived at 15 Center he visited one of the priests in Philip (1873-1956). Then they 2, 1879, that the senior Ber- Street, just across from her Seneca Falls who was a friend of moved to Baltimore where two nard, husband of Mary Anne parents’ home. She had to be his family from Ireland. While more children were born, Magill, died of tuberculosis, very frugal and work hard. he was there he met a young Bernard (1875-1954) and leaving Mary Anne at the age of Against many odds, Mary Anne teenager named Mary Anne Michael (1878-1935). This twenty-five to be a widow with did a wonderful job of single- Magill, one of eleven children. Bernard was our great grandfa- four smail children. They only handedly raising a fine family. Her mother was the midwife in ther: He was the father of our had ten years of marriage. Her She got a job at Seneca Knitting Seneca Falls. Bernard fell in love Grandfather George Callan, heart was broken, but she was a Mill on the bank of the Seneca with Mary Anne, left the semi- and the grandfather of our strong woman. She moved back River near Center Street. The nary and married her. dad, John F. Callan. to Seneca Falls, her home mill is a three-story limestone

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After Bernard James Callan died of tuberculosis at age 44, his wife Mary Ann Magill Callan moved the family back to her home town of Seneca Falls, a widow at age 25. Working at Seneca Knitting Mill, she raised the children by herself in the house at 15 Center Street. She never remarried. Pictured above in front of the house is Father James Brady Callan, son of Mary Ann Magill’s son Philip.

building constructed in 1844 later when he attended Aquinas which still operates and turns Institute in Rochester in the out millions of wool socks late 1920s. (Our father, John F. annually. While she was at Callan, began high school at work, the oldest in the family, Aquinas in 1947.) Mary Callan, took care of her At first Bernard’s father, younger brothers Philip, Ber- Philip, would not let his nard, and Michael. grrandson Ed play it because of Bernard’s flute stayed on the fear of Ed catching tubercu- in the family. His grandson Ed losis, but Sadie prevailed and inherited it and played it years he was allowed to continue

The Seneca Falls 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Ward 3, page 21, shows the residents of 15 Center Street as Mary (Anne) Callan; her 22-year-old son Bernard, her 1-year-old grand-daughter Dorothy Callan; and her brother , Harry Magill, age 24. The baby Dorothy, daughter of Phil Callan, would later marry George Schropp. The Bernard Callan listed here is the father of George Callan, grandfather of John F. Callan, and consequently, the great-grandfather of Al Callan. Bernard was just a year from getting married to Elizabeth Carroll, Al’s Great Grandmother, when the census-taker made these entries.

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playing it. Ed eventually would barbering., since the work would who had a glorious Irish tenor, ary frontiersman, after whom the play in the Denver Symphony be soft on his hands. So Philip chills would run up people’s Buffalo Bills football team is Orchestra. was apprenticed to a barber at a spines and no one could keep named. Philip started singing in young age. It was not a profes- from crying. Philip Callan St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is sion be would have chosen for Philip was married in 1896 near the site of Eastman Kodak himself. Barbers were held in to Margaret Ferguson, daughter Philip Callan, the first son Company headquarters. It was in low esteem and it always hurt his of Michael and Margaret of Mary Anne Magill and Ber- the cathedral choir that he met pride to have to earn a living Mooney Ferguson. The nard Callan, was born on April Sarah Dwyer. They fell in love cutting hair. But he had no Fergusons lived near Union 21, 1873 in Utica, NY. His and got married in 1905. choice. As for the violin, al- Springs on Cayuga Lake. Philip family moved to Baltimore, The newlyweds had three though almost entirely self- and Margaret had one daughter where two more brothers were children in successive years taught, one would never have named Dorothy, who was bom born. When his father Bernard following their marriage. They known it. He learned how to on July 31, 1898. However the died, Mary brought the family later moved to Johnson Street in read music and play all the mother, Margaret, died three back to her home town of Seneca Falls where Rosella was stringed instruments, but the weeks later from peritonitis due Seneca Falls. They lived at 15 born on March 24, 1910. Then violin was his first love. He to childbirth. She received the Center Street and Philip at- they moved to Ridge Street. always regretted he could only sacraments before she died. tended St. Patrick’s School. For Little Edward (the flute player) “chord” on the piano. Dorothy was baptized by Father a short while Philip worked at a came along in 1912, thus com- Philip had a beautiful Dwyer at St. Patrick’s Church. machine shop at Goulds Pumps, pleting Phil and Sadie’s family: baritone voice. When his chil- Later in her life she moved to which was founded in Seneca Dorothy, Phil, Mary Agnes, dren were young, he would sing Rochester, where she eventually Fails in 1848. But it was sug- Rosella and Edward. in the Seneca Falls home town met George Schropp at the gested to him that he get out of Philip Callan’s two younger productions of Gilbert and Wonder Bakery. They had over that work so that his hands brothers, Bernard and Michael, Sullivan operettas such as “The sixty happy years together and wouldn’t be injured, since music were running a grocery store on Pirates of Penzance.” He sang in raised five children (George, was his first love and he needed East Fall Street near the Ovid choirs almost his whole life, and Mary or Sr. Dorothy Therese, his hands for playing the violin. Street Bridge at the time. They directed them as well. He taught SSJ, Robert, Jean Hogan and A friend suggested he take up offered Philip a chance to join all his children how to play Dorothy Gefell). them in the grocery business. musical instruments. For ex- Both Dorothy and George Both Bernard and Michael Philip Callan ample, his son, Phil Jr., learned died in the 1990s and are buried withdrew from the business after from him how to play mandolin, at St. Margaret Mary Church. a while and Philip tried to go it which he did for all his life at The child-birth death of alone. Philip soon discovered family parties on Winona Margaret Ferguson Callan was a that running a grocery store was Boulevard. stunning blow to Philip. His not his gift. He was not good in When they were in their father died when he was only six, math. Besides that he was too early years of grammar school, and suddenly his wife was gone. kindhearted. When customers the children learned from Philip Philip headed for Rochester. He fell on hard times and couldn’t how to sing in harmony the parts took up barbering again as he afford the groceries, he would of the Mass such as the Sanctus, had in Seneca Falls. He worked take an IOU and give them the Benedictus and Agnus Dei. at a barber shop on the Four food for free. Sometimes they When Philip would sing the Corners (Main and State) where would run up big bills and then “Veni Jesu” on special occasions a lot of classy and famous people be so embarrassed that they in church such as Christmas and came to have their hair cut. He is wouldn’t come back. Instead Easter with his best lifelong said to have once cut the hair of they would shop at some other friend, Dr. Thomas Mangan, “Buffalo” Bill Cody, the legend- store, Philip said. ~ 33 ~ The Callans and McClarys

“What really killed me was venture. herd duties. He taught them all Edward Dwyer of St. Ann’s not that they owed me so much Those farm days, however, how to sled, ice skate, roller Church in Palmyra, came to the money but that I lost their made many good memories for skate, swim, ride bikes, and play rescue and took Philip over to business. If they would only the children. baseball. He also helped them Clifton Springs Sanitarium. He come back and shop at my store Phil, Jr. used to tell of the with their math. The four kids paid for his care on a daily basis, again, I would gladly forgive what time he was on a horse. The would gather around the kitchen taking Philip back to the Palmyra they owed.” horse bent down to eat some hay table in the farmhouse and do rectory each night. Finally Philip sold the and Phil slid down his neck. Just their homework under the When Philip was dried out grocery business while he could at that moment, the horse jerked hanging kerosene lamp. Phil he took an exam that qualified still salvage something financially its head back quickly and sent would take the dishpan down him for the position of Lock and then did what he always Phil flying in the air, landing in a into the cellar, load it with Operator on the canal. He wanted to do—he bought a farm. way that broke his arm. apples, return upstairs and put it resumed his music and his choir That wasn’t the only broken in the middle of the table. By the activities, and he stayed sober for The Farm on Cayuga Lake bone. One time when the kids time everyone finished with the the next twenty-seven years. He were playing stump the leader, homework, the pan would be got transferred to the main It was a fifty-two acre farm Mary Agnes fell off the back end empty. branch of the canal between on Garden Street Extension of a wagon and broke her elbow. Another memory from the Newark and Lyons and the across from Farron Road. The After that she never could bend farm days was the night the Callan family moved to Lyons in trolley car used to go by the it out straight. The country family heard strange music 1924. That’s where they got their house on its way to Cayuga Lake doctor did a poor job of setting coming from the piano while first car. The children remember State Park, just down the dirt it. Phil always felt sad and guilty everyone was asleep. It turned how funny it was when their dad road. How did Philip do as a about that, since he was the out to be the cat slinking up and tried to teach Sadie how to drive. farmer? Terrible! He knew leader. Years later in 1927 when down on the ivory. Once she got the hang of it, nothing about farming, nothing he started working at Kodak, he But as for Sadie, the however, she became an excel- about animal husbandry, crops, saved up money and gave Mary mother, she was disgusted with lent driver. In 1927 he trans- etc., except what he read out of Agnes $3100 (a lot of money the financial disaster and all the ferred to Rochester and the magazines and bulletins from the then) to go to a specialist and see debts that they owed. It was she family moved again. Cornell School of Agriculture. if her elbow could be reset. The who made the decision to dump Philip and Sadie spent their He soon discovered that doctors advised against it, saying the farm for the back taxes and final years living with their fifty-two acres could hardly feed that if they broke it and reset it, it the mortgage and move back children, dividing their time a family, much less make a might well stiffen out straight and into the village of Seneca Falls. among the Schropps, Chechaks profit. One time they looked she would be worse off than She got herself a job at a dress and Callans.Fr. James Brady forward to a nice apple crop to before. She tried to give the factory. Philip got a job with the recalls them joining his family at make up for some other losses money back to Phil but he told New York Barge Canal System the dinner table when he was during the year. her to go and buy herself a fur at the local lock and cared for growing up in the early 1950s. Fr. James Brady Callan coat instead, which she did. Her the kerosene lanterns that hung “Grandpa would take us for recalls his father, Phil Jr., telling sister Rosella remembered under the bridges and marked walks in Seneca Park and teach the story of one sad night. They feeling envious! the channel of the canal. The us about nature. Till this day, were getting ready to harvest the Phil Jr. was in charge of powered boat that he used was when I aee little red berries on a apples and finally make some getting the younger kids to St. called the “Swamp Angel.” tree 1 can hear grandpa tell us, money, and the family woke up Patrick’s School and back to the But more bad luck came “Those are called ‘bird berries’; to the sound of frozen apples farm every day, in all kinds of for Philip. He was laid off that don’t ever eat them because dropping to the ground during weather. According to Rosella, winter and everything caught up they’re poisonous.” He would sit an unexpected frost. Each thud he never got mean to his younger with him. He started drinking in the back room of Winona was a painful reminder of the siblings or rebelled at his shep- again. Sadie’s brother, Rev. Boulevard and chew on his cigar miserable failure of the farming ~ 34 ~ The Callans and McClarys as he watched the early days of their honeymoon just a few miles his own father, Bernard, who was television. He watched wrestling away at the lake house of Philip’s wed in the little village of Seneca matches and his eyes would brother Bernard. That was in the Falls, New York in 1901. sparkle at the jokes of Milton waning days of summer, after Berle. He was an avid follower of their marriage on Aug. 8, 1953. boxing. He and John Chechak Bernard, Jack’s grandfather, would sit around talking about died a year later, in 1954. A few John Sullivan and Jack Dempsey months after Bernard’s death, and the rest.” Jack and Margery Callan named Philip spent his whole life their first born son after him, along the Erie Canal. When he Bernard James Callan. was little he lived in Utica and Of the three sons of our Little Falls; later in life he was a ancestor Bernard who came lock operator on the canal in from Ireland, Michael Callan Seneca Falls, Lyons and Roches- died in 1935, Bernard Jr. in ter. During his sober years, 1954, and Philip Callan died in Philip was a devoted husband, 1956. Little is known of Michael, wonderful father, deeply reli- who died right around the time gious, loving his church choirs, Al Callan’s father, John F. delighting in his wife and chil- Callan, was born (1933). dren. He was gentle and thought- Nor of Bernard’s sister ful. Mary, who died in 1959 and He was content with Sadie would Al Callan’s father’s great running the show ( a Callan trait, aunt. it appears.) Sadie had a winning However, it’s interesting to personality with a great sense of note that since 1844, there has humor. She was very kind and been a Bernard in every genera- very strong. She could make a tion of Callans. dollar stretch to the limit. She There was Bernard (1844- managed the family finances so 1879) who came from Ireland. that every debt was paid off back His son Bernard (1875-1954), in Seneca Falls many years after his son Bernard (brother of our they moved to Rochester. Philip Grandfather George Callan) and, died in 1956, and Philip’s wife finally, Al Callan’s oldest brother Sadie Dwyer Callan passed away Bernard (1954-1980). in 1958. Both are buried in Holy While visiting Al Callan’s Sepulcher Cemetery in Roches- grandfather George Callan in ter. Florida in the early 1980s, Al’s Perhaps the warmest brother John asked “Gramp memories of Cayuga Lake, for Callan” why he had not named our family at least, are not from one of his sons Bernard. He Philip or his farm at all. It replied, “There’s too many happens that our own parents, Bernards as it is.” John F. “Jack” Callan and Of course, he had to be Margery Helene Byrd, spent grateful for at least one of them:

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Chapter 8 Bernard Callan and Elizabeth (Lizzy) Carroll

Bernard Callan, far right, was the second son of Bernard and Mary Anne (Magill) Callan. He married Elisabeth Carroll, second from left, in 1902 in Seneca Falls. They raised five chil- dren: Albert, Bernard, Carrol (“Carl”), George (Al Callan’s grandfather, ) and Mary Callan, The little village of Seneca third from right. George married Gertrude McGivern, who is at far right. The woman in red Wedding is Pat Callan, Albert’s first daughter. The young girl second from right is Jerry Callan, Falls was filled with happiness on News Clipping Albert’s other daughter. the morning of Wednesday, June 4, 1902, as two of its more widow of some 23 years at this taking Sadie Dwyer as a bride. popular young people, Elizabeth time. In the few years previous to Phil and Sadie then raised Carroll and Bernard Callan, her son Bernard’s prepared to be married at St. wedding, both Patrick’s Church. Mary Anne and The wedding news clipping her son Bernard at right notes all the wonderful had been caring details. for the infant One tidbit omitted in the Dorothy, daugh- news story is that it was in the ter of Bernard’s rectory of this same St. Patrick’s brother Philip. church that, nearly 40 years Phil’s wife Marga- earlier, the groom’s father, a ret Ferguson had seminarian, had met his mother, died following the 16-year-old housekeeper childbirth in Mary Anne Magill. August 1898, and Though the groom in this he had moved story, Bernard, was age 27 in alone to Roches- 1902, he had been living with his ter to work as a mother at his boyhood home at barber, leaving 15 Center Street for most of his Dorothy to be adult life. He had recently taken cared for by her a job in and moved to Syracuse, grandmother, which is alluded to in the last line the recently crowded conditions Mary Anne. of the newspaper story. It’s hard at home. (In 1905, to know for sure, but one can Bernard’s mother, Mary Bernard’s brother guess it may have been due to Anne (Magill) Callan, was a Philip remarried,

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Dorothy, and had four other machine shops and during the became known as 1000 Univer- children of their own: Phil Jr, Civil War worked at Colt’s sity Avenue. It was there that Mary Agnes, Rosella and Ed- Armory in Hartford, Connecti- Bernard got steady work in the ward). cut. mid-teens, just in time as he had Mary Anne’s brother Harry Returning to Rochester in had six children. These were as was also living at 15 Center 1865, Gleason began his own follows: Street at about this time, accord- machine shop, which evolved George (1904-1987)(1904-1987), who ing to 1900 Census records. into The Gleason Works, a tool married Gertrude McGivern, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Carroll and gear foundary. both of whom are featured in the lived just a few doors down, at 23 The Gleason Works, a tool and gear manu- The original location of next chapter. Center Street. It is not known facture at 1000 University Avenue in Roch- The Gleason Works was on Edward (1905) who died at ester, where Bernard Callan and his son Edward (1905) how Lizzy and Bernard began George worked as machinists. Brown’s Race, overlooking the age five months. He is said to dating, but it is easy to guess that Genesee River, along whose have consumed some pills that blocks away, and that John had a they might have known each banks practically all of the local he got out of a medicine cabinet 17-year-old son named Andrew other as neighbors, and perhaps industrial activities of that time and died of poisoning. His living with him in 1900. for much of their lives. were placed. The area is now funeral announcement: About the same time Lizzy Elizabeth “Lizzy” Carroll, known as High Falls and has and Bernard were getting mar- Al Callan’s great grandmother, been developed as a historical ried, another Irishman, William was born Oct. 2, 188. She was district. Gleason, was making decisions the daughter of Andrew Carroll The present site of the that would greatly affect Lizzy and Anne Kennedy. Family oral Gleason Works on University and Bernard in the years to tradition says that Andrew, and Avenue was acquired in 1904 come. hence Lizzy, were descended and the first building erected in Born April 4, 1836, from the family of Charles 1905. By 1911 the activities of Mary (1908-1978)(1908-1978). Mary Gleason came to America from Mary (1908-1978) Carroll of Carrollton, the only the company had so exceeded never married, and worked at County Tipperary with his Catholic signer of the Declara- the space available on Brown’s Rochester Products, a compo- mother and brother when he was tion of Independence. Race that the decision was made nent manufacturer for General a lad of fifteen. He apprenticed There is currently no to transfer all of the plant to what Motors, for most of her life. as a mechanic in a Rochester known evidence of who Andrew After her father Bernard died, Carroll’s parents were, and Mary moved in with her mother Easy commute: Bernard Callan’s path from the farm in rural West Webster to work at The hence there is no known evi- Gleason Works tool and gear foundary. Lizzy, and the two lived togerher dence to support the claim that in Rochester, Orlando and he was descended from Charles finally St. Petersburg, where Carroll of Carollton. The Balti- Lizzy passed away. more Historical Society is Carroll (?-1963), named currently doing Carroll family after his mother’s maiden name, research that may shed light on this subject. Incidentally, the “Andrew Carroll” mentioned in the newspaper clipping is most likely not Lizzy’s father, but rather, her cousin. The census records show that her father Andrew had a brother, John, living just a few

~ 37 ~ The Callans and McClarys he was known as “Carl.” people were cured of their “I said, that’s enough of that, get daughter and Bernard’s grand- Albert (dates unknown), medical problems there, “ says on with life. He was a happy guy, daughter, was born in 1932 in whom Al Callan is named for, Jack. “You went there and and he would want you to get Rochester. She remembers married Margaret Cunningham walked up a large flight of stone back to being one. So now I spending summers on the farm. of Ponca City, Oklahoma. Albert stairs, on your knees, praying all laugh a lot.” As well, she recalls numerous died in the 1970s, but Margaret the time of course.” Jack’s sight Bernard and Lizzy Callan occasions over the years of her is alive and residing in St. Mary’s was not healed, however. appear to have left Syracuse childhood when her family Retirement Home (formerly St. A few months later, follow- sometime before the 1920s – would move in with Bernard and Mary’s Hospital) in Rochester. ing a Northeast snowstorm, they do not show up in the 1920 Lizzy because Betty’s own father, Bernard was found in the snow U.S. census for Onandaga George, was out of work. outside his car, having appar- Countuy. “It wasn’t cause he wouldn’t ently died of a heart attack or a At some point after 1920, go to work, mind you,” Betty stroke. He left behind a wife and they bought a farm in West says. “We had to move out there an infant child. The loss of a Webster, New York. Webster with them because everybody second son was devastating to the itself was a village much like was poor. It was the Depression. family, but especially to Bernard Seneca Falls. At the time it was When we lived out there it was Senior. small, quaint, and most impor- all country. They had a big barn Years later, when Bernard tantly, a growing bedroom and they grew a lot of food. And Senior’s grandchildren Jack and community for Rochester, we all had to work.” Betty Callan were looking at the conveniently located on the George’s children attended Ursula Cunningham and her sister, family picture on page 36, which eastern shores of Irondequoit Catholic school and Church at Margaret Callan, wife of Albert . Jack took with his own camera, Bay. It had been carved out of St. Ambrose. After Bernard and Betty remarked, “Oh my gosh, North Penfield in a voter refer- George left for work, George’s Bernard JrJr.,who married a you got him to smile. He never endum in 1905, and was still sister Mary, who was also living woman named Marcella, and used to smile in those days.” entirely rural. on the farm, would drive the later adopted a baby son, Mark. That photo was taken The farm on Maple Drive children, Betty and George, to Bernard and Marcella were very almost ten years after Bernard’s was just seven miles and a school in the city. “That went on happy people, much in love and son Bernard died. twenty-minute drive from a for quite a few years,” says much loved by everyone in the The end to this tale is that Gleason’s, down Gravel Road, Betty. “At least until I was six family, including his nephew, in 1980, Jack’s own son Bernard, Empire Boulevard and around years old or seven.” John F. “Jack Callan,” Al Al Callan’s brother, was killed in the south end of Irondequoit Lizzy never worked outside Callan’s father. an auto accident. This Bernard Bay, to the University Avenue the home, but never shrank from As we will see later, Jack too was newly married, very factory. hard work on the farm either. was blinded in his right eye in a happy and much in love, and left All of Bernard’s children “She was a mother and wife all play time accident when he was behind a young wife, Miriam would have been adults by the her life,” says Betty. “She did three years old. Jack went (Mimi), and a one-year old time he moved onto the everything. She would get out through many operations as a infant, his daughter Marissa. Webster farm. When Bernard and plow, and plant and grow. child to try to repair the eye, all Jack remembers not smiling bought the farm, it had a barn Which we all had to do then. I to no avail. Jack remembers that for about ten years after his own and an outdoor privy. Betty loved that house. To me it was in late 1944, Bernard and son Bernard died. One morning McGlynn says that at some huge, but it really isn’t when you Marcella took him to a Roman in 1990, while shaving, Jack says, point, Bernard converted the go back to visit there. Greatly Catholic shrine in Canada to he realized what he and his farm to “indoor plumbing” by improved, the house is still seek a miracle that would heal grandfather had in common. ”I building a shed over the out- standing, says Betty, who took her his sight. faced myself off in the mirror house. son Bill to see it in 1998. “It was reported that many and had a good talk,” Jack says. Betty McGlynn, George’s “We lived there for many,

~ 38 ~ The Callans and McClarys many years,” says Betty. “When we did finally have enough money to move away, I went and spent my summers there.” During the war years, Bernard’s son George rented a house about ¾ of a mile down Maple Drive from Bernard’s farm. During the same period, Bernard’s brother Albert bought a house directly across the street actually comes from the Carrolls, from Bernard. Patrica “Pat” and says Betty McGlynn. “Gramma Jerry Callan, the daughters of was a very comical lady. You could Albert and Margaret Callan, were sit her down and talk with her for raised there. hours and she would make you All six of George and laugh. Grampa was the quiet type. Albert’s children – Pat, Jerry, He used to sit in this great big old George, Betty, Jack and Jimmy — chair. He would hear everything, became best friends and played and he knew what everyone was like one big family as they all grew saying. He would read a lot instead up in the countryside of West of talk a lot. He was very sweet. I Webster. don’t think I ever heard him fight There is a funny story told by or yell with anyone. He never did. Margery Callan, who later married And anybody that lived in there George’s son John F. “Jack” house was not aloud to either.” Callan. When Margery and Jack Lizzy and Bernard lived at were dating, she became irked that the farm for about twenty years, he was always talking about a right up until Bernard died in early woman named “Pat.” In fact, Jack 1954, just a few months before stood Margery up on their first real Margery and Jack had their first “date,” when, due to some long son, Bernard James Callan, whom lost reason, he ended up going they named after him. down to Cayuga Lake and visiting After Bernard died, Lizzy Pat at Bernard’s lake cottage. sold the farm and bought a house A few weeks later, Jack talked in Rochester on Arnett Boulevard. 1974. She was 93. After her death, Bernard and Lizzy’s only endlessly one evening about how Her daughter Mary, who had been and according to her wishes, her daughter, Mary, who was 64 at the fun Pat had been that weekend, living on the farm at the time, remains were returned to Seneca time, sold the St. Petersburgh and how he couldn’t wait to see moved with her. Mary never Falls. house and moved back to Roches- her again. Margery finally told Jack married, and the two lived together At St. Patrick’s Church, ter following her mother’s death. that he was going to have to on Arnett Boulevard until they where she was baptized in 1881 She spent her last years in an choose between her and this Pat, moved to Orlando in 1971. and married in 1903, she was assisted living residence, and was whomever she was. Jack says they They later moved to St. buried, in Columkills cemetery, lovingly cared for by the family of couldn’t stop laughing when he Petersburgh, Florida. next to her husband Bernard, her nephew George, the eldest son told her it was just his cousin. Elizabeth died there of whom she survived by just over of her brother George Callan. That Callan sense of humor congestive heart failure on Oct. 16, twenty years. She died in March 1978.

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Chapter 9: James, Herb, Gert, Mary, and Teresa. The McGiverns Eugene, Jim and Herb were all World War II vets. During the War, Teresa worked in airplane manufac- turing. Gert moved to Rochester when she married George Callan. And it appears Mary stayed on in Newcastle and lived There is something uniquely cut from the same stock, steel with her parents Irish about a story that starts with a and coal workers by trade. They until at least late in six-cent shot of whiskey and leads plied their business in and the 1950s. Here are to a three-day family brawl. around Newcastle, Pennsylvania, the known details Frank McCourt, author of which is where Al Callan’s of these children: the Irish saga “Angela’s Ashes,” paternal grandmother, Gertrude James “Jim” once wrote of a raucus Christmas “Gert” McGivern, was born. McGivern was a party he and his three brothers James McGivern, the father U.S. Army infantry- attended in 1966. Just as the of “Gert,” as she was known to man. He fought singing Clancy Brothers arrived, all friends and family in later life, Rommel in Africa, at the height of their fame, there was a steel worker as well. Al’s and was in the James McGivern in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, ca. 1954, with 1- was some slight, some perfectly father, Jack Callan, remembers Battle of the Bulge year-old Billy McGlynn, son of Elizabeth “Betty” (Callan) chosen syllables of hurt exchanged visiting “Grandma and Grampa at Christmas 1944. McGlynn. James was the maternal great grandfather of Billy, between one McCourt brother McGivern” in Newcastle on After the war he and of Billy’s first cousin, Al Callan. and another. Whatever it was, it numerous occasions as a child. joined Martin sent all of the McCourts tumbling James McGivern, Jack says, Marietta. He down the steps into the snow in was a real “Gentlemen Jim. In eventually worked at NASA war, Herb married Dorothy, the front yard, in a flurry of fists fact that is what they called him.” Mission Control in Houston who is believed to still be alive. that seldom found their target. He was always well-dressed and during the Gemini and Apollo Herb McGivern was a McCourt says a passerby wore fresh-pressed suit. He program in the 1960s. Jim’s wife Chief Petty Office in the U.S. stopped to ask, “Ah the Irish. Is belonged to the Elk’s Club and was a woman named Mayjoy, Navy. He fought in the Pacific this a private fight, or can anyone golfed, and did 18-holes of Golf about whom we have no infor- Theater in World War II, and get in?” when he was 75 years old. By mation at this time. was on the battleship U.S.S. By all appearances, the the late 1940s, James and his Eugene McGivern was a Missouri in 1945 for the signing McGiverns were much like these wife had raised three boys, all of paratrooper in Europe. He was of the peace treaty in Tokyo McCourts: Loud, raucus, with a whom had fought in World air-dropped in to rescue the Harbor, when the Japanese wry humor, and tough as nails. War II and come back leaner American soldiers, including his surrendered to General Douglas And that was just the McGivern and more ornery than they left. brother Jim, who were pinned McArthur. women. All together, there were six down by the Nazis in the Battle Gertrude McGivern was The McGivern men were McGivern children. Eugene, of the Bulge in 1944. After the born on Sept. 24, 1911, and later

~ 40 ~ The Callans and McClarys became Al Callan’s grand- laughter from her eyes. and ironed all day yesterday and fo the alley and Jim had to pull mother. More about her in the As was said above, Jim was two hours this morning. Herb back, or he would have next chapter. one of the solders who chased Mom is doing real good but been hit. As they walked around Mary McGivern stayed in Rommell across the desert, and I am having an awful time with the corner, Jim tapped on the Newcastle,” says her nephew, his brother Eugene had para- her. She wants to do the washing fender and said, “Going kind of Jack Callan. “She married a trooped into war zones numerous and ironing. I am going to have fast there, weren’t you neigh- German guy who beat her up so times. Neither son was one to to hide parts of the washer and bor?” she divorced him,” Jack says. shrink from a fight, whether it get the ironing done in the The man got of out of the Teresa McGivern was enveloped the world, or simply morning. car and said, “What are you Gert’s younger sister. She was made him take a half-step out of Then she gets mad. I am going to do about it.” the spitting image of Gert, but his intended path across a bar going to have to talk to Shoaff As he finished the sentence, ten times as funny. During room. They had walked across (the family doctor) tonight and Jim gave him a right to the jaw World War II, she moved to Europe for four years, freezing have him lay the law down. and knocked him across the California to take a job building and fighting, and both had sur- All our troubles started a alley. As he bounced back, Herb B-29 bombers in the Long vived a fight with 600,000 Nazis at week ago tonight. You can read gave him the back of his hand on Beach airplane factories. After the Battle of the Bulge. That this out loud to Francis and Lil the nose. The guy started to run, the war, when the jobs were background gives some perspec- because I think they will enjoy it. and the five of us after him. We given back to returning male tive to the letter that follows. About eleven o’clock Monday got him out in the middle of Mill veterans, she stayed on in Cali- In Monday, February 20, night, before Gene took Jim to Street, and dragged him back, fornia, marrying a worker in the 1956, Jim, Eugene and Herb all the airport, the five of us decided and Jim dropped his watch and same factory. Al Callan and his happened to be visiting Newcastle, to go to Keefe’s for a last drink. picked it up. The fellow got away brother John Callan visited for reasons unknown at this time. Of course, Gene and I again and we caught him at Teresa in California in1989. She On that evening, the three boys, ordered a coke. At a quarter to Washington Street. With Herb was living in Orange County at the and their sisters Mary and Teresa, twelve, Gene left to pick up and Jim swearing like a couple of time. all decided to go out for a drink. Dorothy. sailors. We arrived for our visit at In the following letter, which Mary We waited until quarter to After he got to Washington about 3 pm on a Saturday after- wrote to her sister Gert (Al one and left. Gene was waiting Street he said he was going to get noon. While her husband hung Callan’s grandmother) a week outside for us. Gene, Teresa, a cop, so we showed him where out in the living room, watched the later, we see the McGiverns in all and I went a head, and Jim and there was one and waited until news and eventually went to bed their glory, nearly a half-dozen Herb were right behind us. he came back with one. without uttering a peep, Aunt drinking, brawling, smart-alecky I forgot, I must go back to As they crossed the street Teresa told McGivern stories brothers and sisters out for a night Monday morning. the guy said, “First of all officer I until well after midnight, regaling on the town. Jim and Herb were down- want you to know that they are Al and John with more and mores The envelope for this letter is town and crossing Mill Street at nothing but a bunch of drunken stories, much like the one that post-marked Newcastle, Penn. North, when a car came around bums.” follows, even as we walked out to the corner and almost hit Jim. Then Herb started all over our car, started up the engine and again. I had to hold him back. I Feb 27, 1956. While he was standing on the drove away. told him that Jim would never Dearest Gert, curb. He was scared. It hit his She had an infectious raucus, make his plane if they kept this topcoat, but he didn’t do any- laugh and a somewhat ribald sense I don’t know whether this up. So the cop wanted to know thing. of humor. She emphasized every will be a book or a letter. what it was all about, but punch line in her stories by I have so much to tell you Feb 28, 1956 couldn’t’ make heads nor tails of slapping her hand on the kitchen and so little time to do it in. I just it, because everybody was talking table, rocking back on her chair finished ironing and I am As we were walking down at once. and then slowly wiping the tears of bushed. I washed Friday night the street, a car came tearing out This man kept insisting that

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Herb show his driver license, The next day, this man drop, and on our side was the this is all I am going to write for and Herb wouldn’t do it. After went to Gene’s house and gave Ohio River, 200 feet straight sometime. I have to write to all, we were walking. He wanted him a hard time, so Gene told down. Herb and Bill now. Fred is 20 to have the cop press charges of him either to walk out on his two The car started to slide, and today. Saturday we had a tor- assault and battery, but wouldn’t feet or he would toss him out. we just missed the guard rail by nado, and our TV antenna is at sign any papers. Gene said And Tilly in the other room, inches. That’s when St. Chris a 45-degree angle. But we get something, and he said, “Shut up killing herself laughing. And took over. He wanted no part of better reception now then we you drunken fool.” mom watched everything from us. We got down all right after had before. So I am going to let It took the four of us to the living room window. that, but going up the other side it stay that way for a while. hold Gene back. So the cop told We find out that this man is was nothing but ice and snow him to shut up, that people a senior high teacher and was a and no guard rails. Write real soon. didn’t like to be called names. marine captain for three years We never went faster than All my love to everybody. The cop was very nice. We were and only 23 years old. Gene fifteen miles an hour. The back trying to settle things before a asked him at what age he started end was swaying back and forth. Mary. cruiser came along and took us in life, and he said that he was Half way up a car had stalled in all in. just smart. And all of this over a the middle of the road, and we Then Herb asked him how six cent glass of whiskey that tore past him on the right side. P.S. I forgot to tell you that much the charges would be for Herb had, that made him sick, And a state cop was standing it was the same fellow in the assault and battery. When he was and figured that a little air would there but didn’t say anything. morning that almost hit Jim. told 25 dollars, he took it out of do him good. After we got there, Herb said, And he admitted it to the cop, his billfold and offered it to the The next day this man that he was “thanking God that and said that he drove around to cop. And then started toward the called and wanted compensation he was getting in a plane, so that see what they were going to do alley to “take his money’s worth for a broken nose and broken he wouldn’t have to ride back about it. The cop asked him if out of the SOB,” as he called glasses which he never owned. with us.” He was in Chicago he was out looking for a fight. him. And he wanted Jim back. So we before we got home. He said that “his intellect went As it is, the fellow has a told him he could have him if he Then Thursday at the store, beyond fighting.” And the cop broken nose. So then we went would pay $3000 to extradite a he-man of an assistant broke told him then to stay in his car, home and as we got to the him. That he was in Georgia. He the handle off the safe, and we because the next time he would apartment, Jim realized his watch wouldn’t believe it. This was just didn’t have any money to open get more than a broken nose. was gone so he and Herb and I eight hours later. the store with, and the banks went to look for it. That was on Monday. Then were closed. So we took a little We couldn’t find it and on Wednesday night we took black bag, and went from store started back and met Teresa and Herb to the Pittsburgh airport to store, borrowing money until Dot. for him to get his plane home. each register had two dollars to Here, Jim had given Teresa We left here at 8:30. It had start with. the watch and forgot. Gene snowed a little bit before we left, We didn’t open until 10:30, missed us and took the car and but it wasn’t bad out. and everybody that came in the went to the police station and By the time we got to store with a big bill, we had to couldn’t find us. Then went Rochester it was terrible. It took send them to another store to get downtown and met the same cop us 45 minutes to go three blocks it changed, and then come back. and asked him if he had seen us. in Rochester. Then it wasn’t too Mom is doing real good He said, “Yes, and for god bad until we got into Sweckly. now. In fact she recuperated sake find them and take them We got up one side of one better than I did. Teresa left home before I have to run them mountain all right, but going Friday morning. in.” down the other side was a sheer So I am resting now. And

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Chapter 10 George Callan and Gertrude McGivern

Much has been said about George Callan and Gertrude (McGivern) Callan over the years. Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough information about their early life to write their story. These next two pages will be filled in soon, after the story is complete. For now, enjoy these photos of Jack’s parents and the family they raised in 29 different houses as the kids grew up. At immediate right is Gert, down at Bernard Callan’s cottage on Cayuga Lake. And at far right is George Callan, introducing his first grandson Bernard Callan (age 2 in 1957 ) into the family traditions. “Listen closely, little Bernie. In this family, we drink Schlitz beer by the quart.” For those who might be outraged by this photo, understand that there is only one logical and defensible explanation for such On the following page are years apart, in 1948 and 1998. away in March 2002. A joker treatment of a child: They must pictures of Gert and George’s Sadly, this is a photo that can no with a wry sense of Irish humor have already gone through all chlldren, George, Betty, Jack longer be taken, as the family’s and a glint of mischief always in the Genessee Creme Ale. and Jimmy, taken almost 50 youngest brother, Jimmy, passed his eye, he will be much missed. ~ 43 ~ The Callans and McClarys

At right, George, Jimmy, Jack and Betty Callan at Bernard Callan’s farm in Webster, 1948. Below, a Callan family reunion on Sept. 11, 1999 in Cocoa, Florida, to celebrate the wedding of Maureen Callan and William Brower. Jimmy, Betty, George and Jack pose next to stair upon which Maureen and Bill took their vows.

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CHAPTER 11 The most noteworthy for Joseph’s siblings, but not all. The our lineage was a daughter original spelling was Machia, The Messier-Byrd Family named Josephine Elizabeth, pronounced meh-SHAY-a. born in 1889. She was known as While some, including Joseph, Josephine Elizabeth “Lambert his brothers Adlor and Fred, and said Greenwood.” as a child, but Joseph’s children Cecilia and as an adult, went by the name Francis (Uncle Fran), pro- “Libbie Greenwood.” She nounced it “MESS-ee-er. married Joseph Messier (1883- Joseph’s son Joe, and Joseph’s 1945).Together, the couple had brother Will (see below) always 10 children, including Cecilia, used the original spelling of who became the mother of Machia and the French Margery Byrd Callan, and who pronounciation of meh-SHAY. in turn was the mother of Albert Joseph Messier Senior was “Al” Callan. Her story is in the a quarry worker whose profes- Margery Helene Byrd, “Lambert said Greenwood.” next chapter. sion was cutting and grinding mother of Al Callan, is de- After his marriage, Lambert Joseph Messier was the son stone. He once was injured in an scended from French Canadian dropped his French name, of Mitchell Macia and Flora explosion at the quarry and had Indians. Her family line has calling himself just Greenwood Lange. The names of Mitchell a metal plate in his head as a been traced to the early 19th the rest of his days. He passed and Flora are known only by result. Century, with most ancestors the name to a son he had with their appearance on Joseph’s Henri Lambert and his and their descendants living in Josephine, whom they named marriage license. Joseph was Indian bride had the following and around Quebec. “Charles Greenwood.” This was married Feb.15, 1905, when he children: Family lore has it that a Margery’s Great Grandfather on was 22. The license shows the Elizabeth “Libbie” Green- Msr. Henri Lambert, Margery’s her mother’s side. They had two bride as “Libbie Greenwood, wood (Messier) (Brown), who Great, Great Grandfather, was a other sons. The first was Age 16, born in Sheldon, VT.” later became mother of Cecilia French trapper of Canada whose Chester, who became a copper The license, in the posses- Messier. first wife was a French Countess. miner in Beloit, Wisconsin. sion of Nancy (Byrd) Angie and MathildaMathilda, who He is said to have married her Chester has three daughters: Nunamaker, shows their resi- were put in a Boston orphanage during a trip to Europe. Upon Margaret, Cella (who died of dence as East Highgate, Ver- for reasons unknown at this time. returning to Canada, he married tuberculosis), and Louise. The mont, and says Joseph’s occupa- Mable, who married Ernest an Indian princess. A descen- other son was a boy named Ira. tion was “grinder.” The groom’s Monette. Mable had seven dant, Margery’s Aunt Irene He lived in Hartford, Connecti- father is listed as Mitchell children, 27 grand children and (Messier) LaPlante, recalls being cut, and farmed spruce gum. “Macia,” and his birthplace was 28 grandchildren. told as a child that the princess When Charles reached “Cananda.” It says the mother LenaLena, who had two chil- was either an Iroquois or a adulthood, he sometimes used was Flora Lange, birthplace, dren, Margaret and Laurie. Blackfoot Indian. Lambert’s the Greenwood family name, Highgate. The ceremony was Virginia, whose first hus- Indian father-in-law nicknamed sometimes Lambert, and some- officiated by J Porquette, Roman band was Walter Osborn, a U.S. him “Green Wood,” for reasons times, Lambert-Greenwood. Catholic Clergyman. The license Army officer. They had three that have been lost to history. Charles married a Canadian seal shows “Town: Highgate, children, including a daughter, For this reason, he was some- woman, Lucy Martel, who VT, “ and is signed, “CR Lyon, Arlene. Her second husband was times referred to in the family, sometimes went by “Lucy “Mar- town clerk.” Layman May. They lived in and now translated from the tin,” the anglicized version of What is known about the Miami, Florida in their later French, as “Lambert, who calls her name. Lucy and Charles had earlier Messiers is that the name years in the early 1970s. They himself Greenwood,” or just, several children. was Anglicized by some of lived in a trailer park at Tamiami

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Trail and Eighth Street. This was his bedroom a hospital bed and we drove up there. In the middle an avid debater of politics and the same period when Nancy a large mirror on the back wall of the night , there was two big anything in the news. When Al (Byrd) Nunamaker and her so that he could see his hind end clouds in the sky , shaped like Callan’s family moved away from husband George were living in when he gave himself insulin the letters I-S. Like I suffered. So Rochester on Jan 5, 1973, they George’s mother’s house in shots. “He was a model railroad Mom thought he was dead. She spent there last day and evening Miami. Virginia would often visit collector, wore a engineer’s hat, wanted to go to Vermont, which in New York at the home of them. Nancy recalls that Virginia and had a large room completely is where all the family was Grandma Brown. John Callan “loved to gamble and would go set up with train tracks.” buried. We couldn’t go because clearly remembers Grandma to Freeport (Louisiana) on a So, these were the children the allotment said Connecticut.” Brown watching television boat to gamble.” Nancy says she of Henry Lambert, and the Because of this, says coverage of the opening of the and George once went to the brothers and sisters of Libbie Margery, they went to their Watergate Hearings which dog races with Virginia, Layman, Lambert, who married Joseph grandparents’ home in Hartford convened that week. Virginia’s daughter Arlene and Messier.. instead, “Aunt Kay was there, Arlene’s husband. That day, says Joseph Messier, the grand- Billie and Dottie and all their Nancy, ”They all won and father of Margery (Byrd) Callan, kids. Because we chose Con- The Messier –Lamberts George and I lost.” died when Margery was only 11 necticut, and he was buried in As was said above, Virginia kept a large years old. Both Margery and her Vermont, my mother didn’t get Josephine Lambert married wooden rosary on a curtain rod sister Nancy recall vividly the trip there for the funeral. That would Joseph Messier. The couple had at her house. One day she took to Vermont they took when they have been about 1945. We were ten children, nine of which it down for Nancy to see. “It heard he had been diagnosed living on Garson Avenue. I know survived to adulthood. The ten seemed to quiver in my hands,” with lung cancer and did not rationing was still on, you had to children were: Roland, Francis, says Nancy. Virginia said Nancy have long to live. get coupons for sugar and all that Cecilia (Margery’s mother), Alta, was the only one who had “Grandpa died during kind of stuff. I can still see the Irene, Evelyn, Catherine (“Kay”), experienced this, and so prom- World War II,” says Margery. pictures. I can still describe the the inevitable “Joseph,” Wilfred, ised to give it to her when she ”He died at home. He looked a house they lived in Vermont.” and Bernadette. Of this genera- passed away. Peggy and George lot like Uncle Fran (Francis, see After Joseph died, tion, all have passed away except Gunkle, who are featured in the below) did in later years. He was Josephine spent about 20 years Catherine and Irene. Catherine following chapter, went up to see a jolly old guy, a drunk too. as a widow. When in her 70s, lives with her daughter Carol in Virginia a while later, and When he died we had to get gas sometime between 1961 and New York; Irene lives with her Virginia gave the rosary to Peggy. stamps to go up to the funeral. It 1967, she remarried, in a cer- daughter Mary in Ohio. Lorraine When Peggy moved to Spring- was up in Connecticut. Grandma emony held at Corpus Christi Messier, the widow of Francis, field, Mo., from Rochester, she and grandpa were living in Church in Rochester, New York. lives alone in Naples, New York. gave Nancy the rosary, and it Hartford, Connecticut, so there She married David Brown, a In order of birth, the ten chil- hangs on one of Nancy’s curtain was a “V” in the road. If you Presbyterian Scottish man. Since dren were as follows: rods today. took one road you go to Ver- he was not Catholic, the priest at Roland Messier was born HenryHenry, who married a mont and if you took the other, the ceremony supposedly asked on 18 May 1908 in New Hamp- woman named Wilma and lived you go to Connecticut.” him to confirm that they would shire. He died of cancer Oct. 9, in a French settlement in Nancy continues the story: raise any childen they had in the 2001 in Manchester, Connecti- Highgate Center, Vermont. “We were driving in a ‘41 Chevy. Catholic Church. David passed cut, after spending just a few days Arthur, who married a We had all kinds of troubles that away just a few years after their in a hospice there. woman named Lilliam, and lived night with the lights on the car. marriage. For the remainder of Francis Messier was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and The headlights kept going out. her life, our family referred to on 10 Mar 1912. His first wife died of diabetes. Nancy recalls We were having trouble with the Josephine as “Grandma Brown.” was named Midge, by whom he that when the family went to visit battery or something. Two truck Until her last months, had a daughter, who now lives in Arthur in the 1950s, he had in drivers fit us in between them as Grandma Brown was alert and Rutland, New York. Francis’s

~ 46 ~ The Callans and McClarys second wife was Lorraine. of cancer; and Thomas, who asylum, Brandon Training smaller house on the farm. He Francis and Lorraine lived in died at age 33 of cancer and had Center in Connecticut, (claim # then took a second wife, Mary, Italy Valley, near Naples, New a wife named Susan. James is 009-07-0991), and remained and sired three more children by York, for most of their lives. buried 60 miles outside of there untl the asylum closed on her. They had five children. The Orlando, Florida. Thomas lived Feb. 22, 1982. She was then Catherine and Armand had children, and their offspring, in a trailer park in Honeoye placed in a residential home four children, Shirley, Joe, Bill were: DianeDiane, who first married Falls and is buried in Honeoye, where she lived until her death and Carol (who later married Larry Reed. Diane later had two New York. about ten years later. “As she got Jerry Spinichia). Despondent daughters by a man other than James and Ruth LaPlante’s older she was very heavy,” Nancy shortly after the birth of Carol, Larry, and later had a third children were Brenda and (Byrd) Nunamaker recalls. “She Armand hung himself in the daughter, Nicki, by a man Jimmy, who both are married; was always very childlike men- barn of the family farm. His named Tom. Frank, whose first and Wayne, Jerry, Scott and tally. When Mom (Cecelia) and daughter Shirley found him. wife was Becky. Frank had a son, Stephen who all are single still. Aunt Irene would go to visit her Over the years, says Margery Frank Jr., by his second wife, Irene now lives with her in the sanatorium, she would see Callan, Catherine “went out with Tami. Debbie, whose husband daughter Mary in Gallapilos, Mom’s necklaces, and she would 20 different men, Then there was a man named Frank, and by Ohio. She has had six surgeries say, “I want that.” They would was a guy named Joe who was whom she had a son named in the past few years, all for always give it to her.” around all the time the kids were Jason.; Edna Mae, who was cancer, of the breast and other Catherine “Kay” Messier growing up. Then she met Bill married twice and had no chil- internal organs. They can be married her first cousin, and married him. He died a few dren; and Susan, who was reached at Mary’s email, Armand, who was the son of her years ago. She had one boy by married and who died in an auto [email protected] . Linda grandfather Mitchell Messier’s him named Billie.” Catherine is accident. She did not have any (Lowery) Callan, sister of Al brother Will. Uncle Will himself alive and living in Rochester with children. Callan, recalls that “Aunt Irene” is worth a family tree volume all her daughter Carol Spinichia. Cecilia Messier was born used to tease Linda when she by himself. Carol and Jerry had two chil- on 30 Aug 1913 in Province of was a small girl, saying that once Living on a farm in dren, Tina and Jerry Jr. Quebec, Canada, district of she turns 35, she would “balloon Highgate Center, Vermont, Will Joseph “Little Joe” Bedford. The story of Cecilia like a blimp.” That gene is Macia fathered 21 children, his Messier” married a woman and her husband, Eddie Byrd, is apparently unique to Irene’s last child when he was 75. He named Armeda. They had three told in the next chapter. Cecilia generation. had 18 children with his first boys. The first two were Joseph married Edward Byrd, son of Irene’s former daughter in wife, but only 11 lived to adult- and Gary. In the late 1960s, Joe Benjamin Bird and Bertha law, James’ widow Ruth Farnard, hood. These were his five sons married a henna-haird woman Starks, on 14 Oct 1933 in has done a great deal of Willy, Donald, Clarence, named Lola. Burlington, Vermont. Edward geneaological research on the Raymond, Armand (who mar- Wilfred Messier was was born on 21 Apr 1908 in Messier family. She has all of ried Catherine Messier); and his burned to death when he was Scotia, New York. He died on 9 Irene’s family records now. She six daughters, Dorothy, Doris, about five years old. He went to May 1951 in Rochester, New lives at 395 Brittany Road, Arphia, Victoria, Peggy, and the outhouse with a lantern and a York. Cecilia died on 30 Nov Ontario, New York and can be Margaret. Perhaps not surprising Sears catalog, a fire somehow 1987 in Orlando, Florida. reached via email at considering their lineage, many started and he was burned alive Alta Messier Leo Poirer. [email protected] or of the remaining children were inside. This happened when his They had three children: Earl, [email protected]. still born, and many died in mother was pregnant for Evelyn, Roland and Harold. Evelyn Messier was born childhood. After the 18th child the next child. In later years, Irene Messier married with “a wandering mind,” says was born, Will kicked his first Cecilia once told her daughter Tom LaPlante. Their children her niece, Nancy (Byrd) wife Margaret Machia out of the Nancy that “grandma’s mind were Mary; James, who married Nunamaker. She never married, main farm house they lived, wanders because she lost her Ruth Farnard and died at age 48 and was admitted to an insane allowing her to live in another son.”

~ 47 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Bernadette Messier mar- printed in the next chapter. these were Edward Benjamin Little Leo died of cancer, Patty is ried Frederick Shaia, a Syrian “Aunt Bernadette and Byrd, who was Margery (Byrd) living in Honeyoye Falls, and with a hot temper. The family Freddie would bring all the kids Callan’s father; Leo; Ella; Julie; Eddie lives in a resident home recipes for stuffed cabbage and and stay with Eddie and Ccecilia,” and Alex. Their eldest, Edward, for the mentally ill somewhere in tomatoes, and for pork and recalls Margery. “We left Vermont changed the spelling of the last Danville, New York. beans, came from Freddie, says in 1941, so it was before that. The name to Byrd, but he was the Ella Bird and Julie Bird. Nancy Nunamaker. kids were all about our ages. My only sibling to do so. The re- We have no information about Both Margery and Nancy dad had promised Aunt mainder of the children always either of these women. recall that Uncle Freddy was a Bernadette that he would become used the orginal spelling “Bird.” Alex Bird died as a teen- mean man, and that by an even a catholic. On his side of the The five children of ager following an auto accident. greater offense, he was not born a family, none of them were Catho- George Bird and Bertha Starks Nancy (Byrd )Nunamker recalls French Catholic. That was all lic. Bird were as follows: that the accident happened Grandma Byrd needed to know “After Aunt Bernadette died, Edward Benjamin Byrd, around an Army fort somewhere about him, says Margery. I remember her being laid out at the oldest, and the father of in northern New York State, “Back then people were very home. My dad had nightmares Margery (Byrd) Callan and around Plattsburg. Alex was bigoted against anything other than after that of a hand going through Nancy (Byrd) Nunamker. placed in the Army hospital French. My dad wouldn’t let me the wall taking the flowers off the Edward’s life will be detailed in there for treatment of a broken go out with an Italian. Bernadette casket. It sounds morbid. So my the next chapter. leg. The leg became infected, married Freddie by a minister dad went down to the Church, the Leo Bird, who married a Alex became ill and died of the instead of a priest. They had Billie, Catholic Church, and talked to the woman named Rose and had infection. Dottie, two boys and two girls, priest, asking why it was scaring five children himself, three of Following the abandonment They had four kids. him. He talked to the priest and whom have passed away. Rose of the family by George, Bertha For reasons unknown, no decided to take religious instruc- died in the 1980s, and Leo died lived on welfare most of her live, physician was available the night of tions. He came home and told my just three years ago, in 1999. Leo recalls her grand daughter, the birth, so a woman doctor the mother he was taking time off. worked in Rochester at Nancy (Byrd) Nunamaker. couple knew gave her pain pills to This was the Saturday before Palm Stromberg-Carlson, an electron- “She never worked as she have on hand just in case the birht Sunday. He said tomorrow we will ics components manufacturer got older. She could not read or all go to church together because I was difficult. Bernadette took too that created gold-plated circuit write, but she could count very am being baptized.” many of the pills, and the overdose boards for the military. After the well. It was said you could not killed the child before it was born. The Bird-Stark family commemorate Kennedy Half chat her out of a penny. She She herself contracted peritonitis Dollar was minted in 1968, Leo always had two change purses, and died nine days later. The earliest known genera- used his gold-plating equipment After Bernadette died, says tion on Margery (Byrd) Callan’s at work to gold plate eight Nancy, Freddie told the surviving father’s side commences with the Kennedy Half Dollars, and he children (Billy, Gary, Eddie and marriage of Bertha Starks and gave one to each of Margery’s Jean) that their mother had run George (Benjamin) Bird. We do and Nancy’s children. away, and put all the kids in an not know details of their early Leo and Rose had five orphanage. life, but it is known that the children themselves: The twins, Margery can remember couple had five children, and Alex and Bobbi (Roberta); Little going to the orphanage to visit that at some point in the early Leo, Patty and Eddie. Alex was them in Vermont, in Burlington. 1900s, George left Bertha and later murdered, no one is quite Freddie never became a Catholic, their children in Vermont and sure by whom; Bobbi who was and it was that fact which moved out west. born blind and attended a blind Grandma scorned in a letter to her As was said, George and school in Batavia, is now married John Callan still has the gold-plated half- daughter Cecilia, which is re- Bertha had five children, and and living in New York City. dollar given him by his Uncle Leo. ~ 48 ~ The Callans and McClarys one that she carried in her purse, be buried in “pauper’s field,” and one she kept tied to her leg common slang of the time under her dress.” referring to a cemetery for the Nancy recalls going to the impoverished. store once when her grand- The story goes that after mother Bertha had to tap the Bertha died, her daughter Ella second bank. went through her home and “She lifted up her skirt and found $500 cash that Bertha had dress and she had a zippered set aside for her own funeral. pocket in her petticoat.” When Ella took the money, and as a Bertha got older, she suffered result, Bertha’s grave went from hardening of the arteries. unmarked for many years. The malady affected her eye- Eventually, Ella had a nervous sight, but she blamed the condi- breakdown and died. After Ella’s tion on her German doctors who death, Julie, Ella’s daughter, had come to the United States supposedly found the cash after World War II. She was a untouched in her mother’s great believer in the supernatu- belongings. Julia, knowing the ral, as are many in this family. family story, used the money to “When she wanted to see buy Bertha a headstone. me, she would put it in her mind that she wanted to see me, and I would always show up at her house,” Nancy says. “If she had something to do with me or needed me, she would call me through her mind and I would go and see her.” In 1967, Bertha was hospi- talized for her arterial condition in Monroe County Hospital in Rochester. She died after a short stay. She lived to be 89 years old. A penny-watcher to the end, just prior to her death Bertha purchased a plot in Mount Hope Cemetery in the name of her daughter Cecilia. Cecilia once told Nancy this story, saying Bertha did this for fear her other daughters, whom Bertha did not trust, would make off with her savings if they knew she was dying. And she feared that if this happened, she would

~ 49 ~ The Callans and McClarys

CHAPTER 12 in Scotia, New York, he was one had a wonderful life with their of five children. His occupation two daughters, Margery, born Edward Byrd was a chef, and hers a seam- July 21, 1934, and Nancy, born and Cecelia Messier stress. She acquired the nick- Nov. 21, 1935. They often name of “Peggy” from him, dreamed of their future together named after a song, “Peg of My and how when the girls were Heart,” featured in a popular grown they would travel the 1933 Marian Davies motion United States, he working as a picture: waitress, he as a chef, when they ran low on money. Peg O’ my heart, I love you Her daughter Nancy says Don’t let us part, I love you she never heard the couple I always knew, it would be you, Since I heard your lilting laughter argue, “so if they did, they did it It’s your Irish heart I’m after when I wasn’t around. “ Peggy Peg O’ my heart, your glances kept to regular household Cecelia “Peggy” Messier on October Make my heart say, how’s Chances schedules her whole life, and this was born Aug 30, 1913 in 14, 1933, Come be my own, come make your home dates even to when the girls were Bedford, Province of Quebec, Peggy In my heart Peg O’ my heart, I love you young. Canada. She weighed 15 pounds Messier was We’ll never part, I love you “She would bake on Satur- at birth, and was born on the united in Dear little girl, sweet little girl days, and she would make kitchen table of the farm her marriage to Sweeter than the Rose of Erin donuts, and one gallon was put family lived on. Family stories Edward Are your winning smiles endearing away for dad. She did the ironing say the doctor literally stood on Byrd in Peg O’ my heart, your glances With Irish art, entrance us for the nun’s house across the the table and pushed down on Burlington, Come be my own, come make your home street. She had a flat top press the belly of her mother, Vermont. In my heart which was very innovative at the Josephine Lambert Messier, to Edward was the son of George time. She would wash on Satur- get the baby out, fearing that if Bird (Byrd) and Bertha Starks Later moving to Rochester, day and iron on Monday. She they did not, both mother and (Byrd). Born on April 21, 1908, New York, Eddie and “Peggy” had a set schedule. She always daughter would die there on the kept to that schedule, even for kitchen table. food. On Thursday she would At age 20, Cecelia met have leftovers. Liver and Onions Edward Byrd in Burlington, Sept. 26, 1933 on one night, and then spaghetti Vermont. She was a seamstress Dear Daughter, Your letter received was very much suprise of news. I would be on another. If you didn’t eat and Edward was a chef. In early very much pleased, one way. Because your Father and I, in fact, both of us think your liver and peas, you ate them September of that year, she he is O.K. Only one thing, be sure and think twice before you either get married. the next day. You didn’t throw wrote and asked for her parents For you know it endure a lot of patient, and trile a lot to think of, my dear. You probably think he is OK right now. But if you make your bed, my child, You out anything. blessing to marry him. The reply must lay in it. Not because we don’t like him, but it is to remind you what is “Dad worked every night as from her mother came in the before you, your trouble will not be mine and I would be so happy if you do get a chef. When he died he was form of a letter, which is now in married and settle down and remain that way. Only one thing, I will not con- working at a hot dog stand, at the possession of her daughter, sent is for you to get married by a minister at your own church. If he does not Shortie Junker’s Bar and Grill. Nancy (Byrd) Nunamaker. The want to join the church, he has not got to . You go over and see the priest, he will tell you all about, Do not give up your church, dear child, because you will never Some guy kicked him in the ribs letter, complete with some be happy or lucky. Remember a lesson from Bernadette. You can see by yourself. one time and he through a knife misspellings, is reproduced at at him. He was chef at right. Middlebury College in Vermont. With her parents blessing, He did all the cooking for the

~ 50 ~ The Callans and McClarys college. He worked at Otis Lumber yard. There somebody hit him with a piece of wood in the back. He had to wear a corset. During World War II he wanted to go in the Army. He went up to take his exam and he took the corset off. They made him bend down and he couldn’t bend back up. He told them he wore a corset, and they asked him why he hadn’t told them. He said, “It wasn’t for me to tell you about it, it was for you to find out.” Eddie would go every weekend to the market, and he would pick up six or seven bushels of something. Peggy never knew what she was going to be canning until he got home. Up on Winton Road they had a fruit cellar with a bout 500 jars of canned goods. He also had a refrigerator down there he Margie, Eddie, Peggy and Nancy Byrd, Easter 1949. would put a deer in. “He always had a big garden visiting Connecticut, Vermont Roland. They also stopped in years, 6 months and 26 days, on Grayson Avenue,” says and New York’s Thousand Plattsburg, New York, and there dreams and happiness Nancy. “They have torn down Islands. On the trip, they visited visisted Grandma Bird’s four ended suddenly. that house now. I always called every one of the couples’ broth- sisters. “They all had the most On the morning of May 09, him, the boss. I was only 15 ers and sisters living at the time. beautiful red hair,” says Nancy, 1951, Peggy went downstairs to when he died. I had him on a They started with a visit to who went on to recall the down- fix breakfast. When all was ready pedestal. He made all the deci- Aunt Ella and Uncle Ernest’s side of visiting so many relatives. she yelled upstairs, Eddie, come sions. If he wanted you to do farm in Sacket Harbor. They “When we went up to and eat. With no reply she went something, he could nod his saw Grandma Bird and all her Thousand Islands,” says Nancy, upstairs only to find him lying head toward a corner and you children living up there at the “(Margery)was young and very across the bed sideways with one picked yourself up and stood time. They then went down and pretty. She was flirting with sock off and the other sock on, there. saw Irene and Tom LaPlante. someone when Dad pulled up in motionless. The medical report Eddie had had a heart They lived with Tom’s parents, front of the house and parked showed he passed away at age 43 attack in 1942 and 1946, and who the family called “Grandma the car. He said “That’s your of a sudden heart attack, due to a may have figured he was due for Blood. “ They lived in a great big cousin.” It was her cousin, only blood clot. another by the time 1950 rolled yellow and brown farm house, she didn’t know it. He (the Margery recalls that her around, says Nancy. That year, Nancy recalls. They then drove cousin) was quite embarrassed Aunt Lorraine, wife of Peggy’s Eddie took Peggy and the girls down through Connecticut and about that” sister Francis, had come to stay on a grand tour of their relatives, saw their Aunt Ilene and Uncle After only being married 16 with them because she was

~ 51 ~ The Callans and McClarys

all the relatives came of course. “I can remember everybody sitting around. My mother was com- pletely out of it. They had given her some kind of medication. My grand- mother (Bertha Starks) Messier was there. She said, “Marge you need to call Jack.” “I was going with him then. I was a junior in high school at the time. My Thei girls leave home: Above, Margery (Byrd) Callan and Jack Callan, on their honeymoon in mother wanted me to quit Newcastle, Penn., August 1953. Below, Nancy Byrd and George Nunamaker, mid-1950s. to support the family. All the neighbors were bring- ing in food and the rela- tives were taking it out of the back door. My dad had this huge china cabinet. Rounded with lion-claw feet. When he Eddie Byrd Memorial card, 1951 was out of work in 1941 with a heart attack, he expecting her daughter Edna collected stuff from all over the Mae. world. He had antique stuff, and “Mr. DiGenaro next door, that cabinet filled, and when my best friends father, took me everyone left, there wasn’t a home. I walked up on the porch piece left. Except one little jade just in time to hear the coroner statue that disappeared when we and police talking about what moved to Florida. time “he” died. I had to go with “Dad’s uncle Carl brought the undertaker and help them to him over. He didn’t get a license pick out the clothes and all that until after we got married. The stuff. And walk by their side as only one that had a car was Rudy Ella said, “You would think they lived on Blossom Road, next to they carried him out. Napadano. Dad’s Uncle Carl would have more sense than to St. John’s Convent in Rochester. “I made all the funeral took us down to the only drug sit out necking in the car at a She did her best to raise their arrangements and took over the store in town. I hadn’t cried or time like this.” two daughters, but in many ways, family. We had him laid out at anything. We came back and I After Eddie’s death, Peggy never got over the loss of Eddie. home. Mom wanted him laid out just couldn’t face going into the started her life again. Peggy and Margery married just a few years at home. He was a member of house. I started crying. her two daughters moved in with later, leaving Nancy at home for the Knights of Columbus, they When I walked in the her sister Catherine the day after Peggy to raise alone. all came for the home services, house, my Aunt Julie and Aunt Eddie was buried. Catherine “When I was about 18,” ~ 52 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Nancy recalls, “she asked me saying, “Now George, you know “If the plant is given with After services in Florida, one day where I was going. I said better!” love, it will bloom forever. where she was living at the time I don’t have to tell you. My boss Married 17 years, 4 months If the plant is given with of her death, Peggy’s body was is dead. She slapped me across & 22 days, their marriage ended anger, it will never bloom a transported back to New York. the face and I ended up in the on Dec. 19, 1974, when George single flower. She is interred next to Eddie in living room with a bloody passed away at age 70, of pneu- Mount Hope Cemetery in mouth. I never back talked her monia and other complications. The week before her Rochester. Her daughter Nancy again. He died in Springfield, Missouri, passing, Peggy talked with her says she currently has plans to Peggy laundered and and is buried there. grand daughter Linda for a long have a neighbor, who does stone pressed the habits of nuns from Peggy had many many craft while on the telephone. She was carving, recreate for Peggy a the convent across the street. She specialitys. Her sewing, her hand living in Florida by then. tombstone in the same style as worked in restaurants and she made baby sweater sets, her Fry “She always had a “sixth the one Peggy made for Eddie a worked as a seamstress. At one cake doughnuts, oatmeal fduge sense” for knowing things,” says half-century ago. time she did some seamstress cookies, and of course her Linda. “This was another time, work for actress Kate Smith. special pie crust. There’s a as if she knew. She asked that In June of 1954, with the special story taught to her by a. when the time came, her last birth of Margery and Jack’s son elderly lady, when she was first wishes were to “Please let me Bernard James Calln, Peggy learning to bake. Peggy in turn rest for eternity with Eddie.”: became a grandmother for the taught it to Linda. It goes like “Please take care of my first time. this, Linda says. belongings left in Missouri and In 1957, she met George “There once a was King send everyone here something M. Gunkel, born January 23, looking for a wife. But he said he that was special to them, to 1904. He served in World War would marry the most conscien- remember me.” I in France, and was a tool and tious . The first lady had enough die maker, just like Jack’s father batter left to make another whole and grandfather. They were cake.. That won’t do, said the married on a Saturday, July 27, king. The second lady had 1957. As Peggy’s first husband, enough left to fill a cupcake. Edward, died when his daughters That won’t do said the King. were teenagers, George was the The third had barely enough to only grandfather Peggy’s grand- fill a teaspoon. The king replied, children ever knew. “That will be my bride.” Linda Marie Callan Linda says that every time (Lowery), sister of Al, remem- she bakes, this story “pops up” bers an old green car nan and into her head, and so she always gramp had. “When I’d ride scoops the bowl clean. home with them, I would love Peggy was an avid gardener, watching the dashboard, because and always had a large garden the speed increased, the color filled with flowers and vegetables. would change. I’d always say, Her favorite flower was a “glox- Make it Red, Gramp!” And inia.” She had a saying about Nana would be sitting there, giving flowers to others:

George Gunkle and Peggy (Messier Byrd) Gunkle, with two of their grandchildren, Linda Callan, left, and Stephen Jeffery “Jeff” Callan, May 1961. ~ 53 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 13 lamps for her bed- room. John F. Callan and “They were like Margery Byrd hurricane lamps with red globes,” says Margery. “In those days if you had a red light in the window, it meant something else. One night her parent’s friends gave them “the business” about the red light shining in their daughter’s window. I didn’t In Rochester in the 1950s, War II.” understand until years most Catholic children went to all- Margery continues: “We got later why they took my girl or all-boy Catholic schools. out in Webster and that area, waiting lamps away.” Margery Helene Byrd and John F. for a bus, and just then Jack’s uncle The two dated for “ Jack” Callan, Al Callan’s parents, Carl was driving by. Jack said, “Well, just a year before Jack were no different. Carl can drive us home. Well, I A photo booth picture from one of the first dates of Margery enlisted in the U.S. Air Margery, born July 21, 1934, wasn’t allowed in cars, so I had to go Byrd, 16, and John F. (Jack) Callan, 17. ca. 1950. Force at age 18, in July attended Mercy High School, and find a phone and call and ask my 1951. He was immedi- Jack, born April 23, 1933, went to dad. He said, Yes.” Stardust Arena. ately shipped off to the 5th Air Aquinas Institute. Jack was 17 and That night Jack asked “We always went on the bus, Force in South Korea as a radio Margery 16 when they met at a Margery out for a date two weeks and my dad said I had to be in by specialist in the Korean War, surprise party thrown in 1950. later, but for some reason, he went twelve o’clock and sometimes we leaving Margery behind to spend “I had just broken up with to Cayuga Lake with his cousin Pat would just barely make it. He her formerly wild weekends the guy I was going with,” says instead. He never called Margery worked late as a chef, so some Margery. “Mary Ann and Johnny back either. nights he would be sitting there in DiGenaro, my next door neigh- “About a month later, in the chair, watching the door when bors, said that they wanted me to July,” Margery says, “Aunt Kay I came in. And God help me if I go. They said the guy throwing the and all of us went to a street dance, was late.” party, named Bernie, wanted me and Jack was there. He came over That first Christmas after to go. So they convinced me. So and asked me to dance. I said Margery met Jack, her dad invited we got there, and unbeknownst to ‘What happened?’ and he said ‘It Jack and his parents George and me, Bernie had invited another was just a mixup,’ so we danced, Gert over for Christmas eve. That girl as his date. I met Jack and we and started going out from that day is when she met them for the first danced. He asked to take me forward. time. At that time the Byrds were home.” Neither had a car, which “We’d go dancing three living in a house on a corner meant they had to take a series of nights a week. Wednesdays in lots across from St. John’s Convent. city buses. of places, then Friday night we That Christmas Eddie and “Every one in the city then would go to the collegiate club at Cecilia had given Margery a set of walked or rode buses,” Jack says. the auditorium at Corpus Christi, “Nobody had cars after World and Saturday we would go to the Jack’s nickname in Korea was “The knife thrower.” ~ 54 ~ The Callans and McClarys

playing Canasta with her future Jack had a month furlough can make it mother-in-law Gert. before he had to report to Mitchell home, we will “My dad had died when I Air Force Base on Long Island, give you money was a junior in high school, and we where he would complete the last to get back,” lived up stairs at Aunt Kay’s,“ two years of military service. Margery says. Margery says. “Nancy and mom Margery got a medical “It was a would go out every Friday night. checkup in September due to terrible drive,” So I would pack my little suitcase, pains she was having in her stom- Jack recalls. and ride the bus over to dad’s ach. The military doctor who “Just outside of mom’s and stay there until examined her diagnosed her with New York City, Sunday night. kidney stones, and also recom- the heater mended she immediately have a broke. We Newlyweds complete hysterectomy because stopped next to her womb couldn’t bear the a service station Margery and Jack got passage of a child. She says she ran on a busy street married on August 8, 1953. Jack home crying. A neighbor woman and asked for had completed his tour of duty in heard her sobs, asked what was some help, and South Korea a week before, and wrong, then recommended the attendant proceeded by air transport to Margery to a second gynecologist. said, ‘You get Alaska, ship to Seattle and bus The second doctor said she didn’t your wife out of across the country to Rochester, need a hysterectomy, that her that car be- arriving the night before their womb was just “tipped.” She didn’t cause there is a wedding. Having just hit town, and have the operation, obviously. 90 percent not having seen his bride in two “For somebody who wasn’t chance that a years, he asked his mother what to supposed to have any kids, I guess disabled car will get Margery for a wedding present. I did okay,” Margery says. get hit in the According to Margery, Gert said, Jack’s favorite picture of “Margie,” ca. 1952 Margery and Jack thus settled next ten “Why not get her a nice cigarette in to married Catholic life in minutes.’ That really struck me, to drive down East Avenue case and lighter?” September. The following month, and I have listened to that advice following the blizzard. “There The problem, Margery says, Marge was expecting her first ever since.” were no tracks on the street at all. is “Jack didn’t know I had been child, Bernard James Callan. Margery continues, “We Everything was quiet and beauti- smoking. I figured as long as he The couple picked up a used took off for Rochester with about ful.” smoked, why not? When I saw car, a 1943 Black Packard, which 15 dollars all together. I had Jack’s They got the Packard back to him, he said, “Do you have had an engine that didn’t idle well. big blue Air Force jacket, and I Long Island after Christmas, but something to tell me?” I was guilty, To this day, Margery drives with had my legs stuck in the arms. I didn’t dare make the trip in it but I didn’t know of what. Of course, back in those days, every- two feet, one on the break and one was all curled up in the corner with again. A few months later, when body did it. It is like sex today. to keep the engine revved up. everything I could get over me. I Jack’s grandfather Bernard died, Back then people smoked before They drove the Packard up to was having terrible stomach Jack’s brother George, an Air they got married. But no one Rochester for Christmas and got cramps. We tried to find a doctor Force man stationed in Boston, talked about it.” caught in a snowstorm along the in Syracuse and there was nothing drove down to Long Island, The two honeymooned at way. Jack was getting paid only $30 open.” picked them up and drove them to Jack’s grandfather’s cottage on a month in the Air Force, and so They pushed on through the Rochester. Margery recalls that her Cayuga Lake, and took a drive they had tightly budgeted how snow to Rochester, and had about doctor said she could make the down to Newcastle to visit his much they could afford in gas for ten cents worth of gas left when, trip as long as she was allowed to maternal grandparents. the trip. “Everybody said if you Jack says, they were the first ones stop to go to the bathroom when- ~ 55 ~ The Callans and McClarys ever she needed to. She says she Bernie would become best friends. home, I would load the kids in the When he grew up, baby hardly knew George at that time, Jack and Margery lived in car so he could sleep,” Margery Stephen Jeffery Callan was never and was too embarrassed to tell that small apartment just a few says. “With a bunch of rambunc- fond of this story. At age 14 he him she had to go, so held it the months, while they waited for an tious kids he couldn’t get any rest. started insisiting everyone him whole trip. When she got there, opening at Fernwood Park, an “I was pregnant for Steve Steve. Everyone consented except the family wouldn’t let her go to apartment complex that had when we were having the house Linda, who still calls all her the funeral, because they thought it discounted rent for veterans to $76 built in Gates. There was a big younger siblingsby their childhood would be too stressful for her. Like a month. They moved in some- ditch around the house while they names: Renie, Jeff, Johnny and the trip hadn’t been stressful time in late 1955. The apartment were putting up the foundation. I Albie. enough. had two bedrooms and a small used to climb the planks. Gert The couple moved to Gates A few months after they living room and kichen. Despite swore I was going to have Steve in 1959, and John Edward (Jan 5, returned to Long Island, their first the cramped space, the couple had downtown, because I was going 1961) and Albert Francis (April son Bernard (“Bernie”) James many parties there over the downtown all the time to get the 26, 1965) were born there. “So Callan, was born, on June 20, following year. Jack’s cousins Bob house paperwork settled. then all the kids were all born,” 1954. Because he was born at the and Barb Shroppe, and some “When I was pregnant for says Margery, “and all we had to base hospital, Bernie’s birth cost friends of Betty’s named Joyce and Steve, and the kids found out, we do was raise them. the couple only $12. Jack’s John McGrath, all lived at had just bought a new car. I don’t brother George visited them on Fernwood Park as well. know what it was, we had junkers Life in Gates Long Island and wise cracked that Their daughter Maureen most of the time. One day I found In the early 1960s, Margery “at this rate, they can afford to Elizabeth was born there on Jan 4, Bernie and Maureen in the and Jack, then in their early 30s, have a few more.” Their daughter 1957. During 1957 and 1958, Jack bedroom crying. I asked what was were in one of the happiest times Linda Marie came 10 months attended Rochester Business a matter. I thought they had gotten of their lives. Jack has good work, after that. She cost only $7. Institute, a two-year college, from 8 hurt. They wanted to know which and also had time to join the “It was higher for Bernie a.m. to noon every morning. He one of them we were going to volunteer fire department in because they charged five bucks would come home from school, trade in on the new baby. Since we Gates, giving them a whole new for circumcision,” says Margery. have lunch, take a nap, and go to traded the old car in on a new car, crowd of friends. They would hire “Like the military doctor said, work from 3 pm to midnight. they thought we were going to a babysitter just about every “The pay isn’t great but the tips are “When he would come trade one of the old babies in on Saturday evening and go out good.” the new baby. Kids get funny dancing with friends and relatives, In June 1955, Jack was ideas.” including Jack’s sister Betty and discharged, and the couple moved Of course, sometimes those her boyfriend at the time, Andy, back to Rochester, where Jack got funny ideas have lasting effects. who later became the father of work as an engineer at Stromberg- Consider how Stephen Jeffrey got Betty’s twins, Beth and Joe. Carlson, a military contractor that his name. Despite Jack having a good made electronic components for “My next door neighbor at job, feeding six kids was always a Titan missiles. They took an Fernwood park and I were preg- challenge. “I used to say when dad apartment around the corner from nant together. Her baby was born makes a hundred dollars a week an apartmet that Jack’s sister about a month before Steve. She we will be on easy street,” Marge Betty, and Betty’s husband Bill named her baby Jeff, and my kids says. Until then, she made ends McGlynn, had at that time. Betty started calling the new baby Jeff. meet by buying fruit and veg- and Bill were divorced a few years So when the baby was born, Jack etables in bulk in the summer and later, but at that time had had their said what should we call him. And fall and canning for the coming first child, a son, Billy. who was I said you might as well call him winters. about one year old. Later in life, Jeff, because that is what the kids “I never spent more than $20 Billy and Al’s oldest brother Betty and Bill McGlynn, 1953 are going to call him. a week on groceries,” she says. “I ~ 56 ~ The Callans and McClarys

had some left gether before the other kids came accountant. For the first several over mashed home. “I always felt left out as a months of his job, they could not potatoes and child, so I always tried to make afford to buy a car, so he rode to started lobbing special time for each one of the work with his boss, Don Belmont, their mashed kids,” she says. who lived nearby in Irondequoit. potatoes at the On this day, Bernie said, “if “We rented the house at ceiling. I went to you had gone to work, we could first,” Margery says. “Mrs. clean the have had a lot more things.” Reynolds, the woman who owned kitchen later and Margery told him, “Your father it, was going to live with her globs of potatoes and I talked it over, and we daughter, but didn’t know if it were falling down decided it was more important to would work out. So she rented it on my head. It be here when you went to school to us, with the understanding she Margery on her honeymoon, August 1953. was wild with six and got home might want to move back in at any kids, let me tell “Years later when Bernie and time. Her family told her not to used to can every thing. We you.” his wife Mimi had their daughter rent to a family with six kids bought potatoes by the fifty pound When Bernie was about 16 or Marissa, they came to visit for because the house would be bag, and I would go through 25 17, and Margery was in the Junior Easter. It was right after she was destroyed. pounds of flour a week. Uncle Chamber of Commerce, he ap- born. I asked him when Mimi was “We were just recovering Fran was a butcher, so Sunday he proached her one day and said, going back to work, and he said, financially from when we lived out would bring the meat and I would “Mom I really have to give you a pat “She can’t go back to work, she in Hilton, We had to get our furnish the rest. on the back for what you have done has to take care of the baby. “ credit all straightened out, and we “I would do all my baking on with yourself. Staying involved while How times change. started saving money for a down- Fridays, and you kids were always raising the family.” payment. We rented about six Irondequoit in the 1960s in the kitchen. When it came time Margery says she replied, Irondequoit in the 1960s months. Mrs. Reynolds would stop in now and then. I had wall to make Christmas cookies, I “Bernie, I have always been this way, During those years, Jack papered the rooms, and we had would bring in extra tables and all it’s just that you are finally growing worked out of a home office painted the outside of the house. the neighbor kids would come up and seeing me as something other selling State Farm Insurance and One day she said, “Marge, if I over and help too. than a piece of furniture.” later, sorted mail at the U.S. Post furnish the lunch, can I invite my “These were certain things I Money was always tight, but they made ends meet. Margery was Office. They moved to an 18- sisters for over, I just want to say, I thought were important. Even with room antebellum mansion in told you so.” A short while later the boys, I wanted them to learn so proud of the kids for understand- ing as they got older. One time Mary Hilton in the fall of 1966. That she said she would sell it to us.” how to do stuff, like wash dishes Pat Callan, the daughter of Jack’s winter, Jack lost his job, his car For one of Margery’s birth- on Sunday, so they would be brother and sister-in-law George and broke down, and the oil heating days in Irondequoit, Bernie, then better equipped to go out in the Joanne, came to visit. She told bills for the mansion were $500 a about 17, bought her a dining world. And I wanted them to Maureen that she wouldn’t be caught month. room chandelier. As he was know how to eat when they went dead in the shoes Maureen was “Jack hitchhiked through working at Don and Bob’s, a out someplace, so we would wearing. blizzards into Rochester to look hamburger stand at the time, it was always give them a little bit of wine Maureen said “When my for work, but to make ends meet, obvious he had been saving a long if we had a little bit of wine. Maybe mother and dad can get them they they closed off most of the house, time for the special gift. Margery just a teaspoon full. will. I am getting them on Friday huddled in two bedrooms under and Jack have moved the chande- “Everybody always said the because I don’t need them until blankets, and the following spring lier from house to house their kids were so well behaved. They then.” moved back to the city, taking a whole live since. They hope to one didn’t know what went on at Bernie always came home rental house at 3430 Culver Road day pass it on to their granddaugh- home. from school early. He and in Rochester. Jack got work at ter, Marissa, Bernie’s daughter. “One time Bernie and Steve Margery would spend time to- R.T. French Company as a junior During this time, Jack was

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Bernie, who was 19 by University in then and had been out of Springfield. the house for a year, stayed Maureen behind in Rochester. became a respira- Linda, who would be tory therapist and 18 that coming May, had joined the Air graduated from Eastidge Force reserves. High in Rochester a year She traveled all earlier. She moved with the over the world, family to Springfield, but and eventually moved back and forth to settled down in Rochester three or four times Cocoa Beach, before settling down and Florida, where The Callan kids in 1964 marrying Steven Lowery in she married Bill The Callan kids in 1968 Springfield, in 1974. Brower on Sept. working at French’s and Margery During the next few years, 11, 1999, and where they both ism at the University of Missouri. was working at Loblaw’s grocery the four youngest children, now live. After stints at People magazine store. One day the wife of Don Maureen, Steven, John and Al, all Stephen went on to graduate and at newspapers in California, Belmont, Jack’s boss, came into made new friends and happy new from SMSU with a bachelors in and Budapest, Hungary, he the store, and asked her, “So what lives in Springfield. The day after chemistry, and got two masters moved to Seattle, found his love of do you think about moving to Al graduated from 8th grade, the degrees, one in business and the a lifetime, the former Julie Kay Missouri.” Margery responded, Callans moved to Eldon, Missouri, other in chemistry from the Fadenrecht, and got married in “What ever will be will be.” where Jack had taken a job as the University of Missouri Rolla. 1996. John and Julie have two That night, Jack came home comproller of Fasco Industries. Al While attending Rolla, he met wonderful children, Brendan Riley and confirmed that French’s was attended high school there, and Jayne Gaydos, they married and and Hannah Nicole, and now live moving the factory to Springfield, went to college just up the road in had two children, Nicole “Nikki,” in Woodinville, Washington. Missouri. A few months later, in Columbia, at Columbia College. It and Tyler. Steve started his own And then there is Al, who is October 1972, they flew to Mis- was in Columbia, while managing company as a polymer chemist, featured in the next chapter. souri, French’s gave them a Brugger’s Bagel Bakery, that Al which continues in to this day. He cashier’s check for a down- met Nancy McClary, his future and Jayne divorced in 1999. He payment, and they bought a brand bride. got engaged to Ellen new house on Sherwood Road. Linda got married to Steven Kastner in the year “That was the easiest house we Lowery in 1974, and had two 2001, and they plan ever bought,” Margery says. “We children in the following few years, a late 2002 wedding. filled out the papers and it was ours. Steven Lowery Junior and Lisa John wrote We picked out all the carpets and Lowery. this book, with skills the counters, and then we moved in Bernie was married in the he attained while three months later. All I had to do summer of 1978 to the former earning a masters when we moved in was some Miriam Rushton. They had a degree in journal- painting, and put a banister on the daughter, Marissa, who was a week Al Callan, the last of the stairs to the basement.” shy of a year old when Bernie died Callan kids to leave home, On January 5, 1973, Jack in a car accident in March of 1980. pictured with parents, and Margery loaded into their blue Meanwhile, Maureen, Steve Marge and Jack Callan, on Pontiac station wagon and moved and John all started college at the his graduation from Eldon High School, May to Sprinfield, Missouri. local Southwest Missouri State 1984. ~ 58 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 14 candy for the kids. One day he said Letter from Mom: “How long can this Margery Callan’s memories go on,” because we of Al Callan’s childhood didn’t have enough space. He turned to Jack and said, “Saturday I am renting a U-haul and I am taking you down to the hard- ware store and we are going to buy everything you need to build out the Albert Francis Callan was with each one of the kids as he rooms in the attic.” born at Genesee Hospital in was with the one before. I would Jack said, ‘We Rochester, New York, on April be thinking, Oh God, how are haven’t got the 26, 1965. He was the sixth child we going to support another one. money.” Uncle Al and fourth son of John F. “Jack” He said, “It’s your job to just said, “I didn’t Callan and Margery “Marge” have them and my job to support ask you that. Can Helene (Byrd) Callan. them. So I thought, well we will you do the work?” When Al was born, the have one more, to even it out. After Al was born,” Marge So we put two big bed- family was living at 106 Three boys and three girls. Al goes on, “Jack and I talked it rooms in there, one for the boys Coldwater Road in Gates, a was supposed to be called Laurie over and we decided to name and one for the girls. And one suburb outside of Rochester with Anne. But I wouldn’t trade him him after Uncle Al. Uncle Al was was pink and white and was blue a very small-town feel. As was for anything.” like a fairy godmother to us. and white. We moved the kids said above, Al was the sixth child “When I woke Dad up and When we moved into the house up stairs. Then we used the born to the family. Al’s five older told him it was time to go,” on Coldwater Road, it was the downstairs room for dad’s office. siblings were Bernard James Marge says, “we loaded all the first house that we owned. It only He was selling State Farm (Bernie); Linda Marie, Maureen kids in the car and took them up had two bedrooms, but that was Insurance at the time. Elizabeth; Stephen Jeffery; and to Aunt Margaret’s and Uncle all we could afford with a V-A Uncle Al had just two John Edward Callan.. Albert’s. The kids stayed there loan. (Jack was a Korean War daughters, Pat and Jerry, and no A few weeks before Al’s and dad took me to the hospi- vet.) sons to carry on his name. wedding on April 20, 2002, Al’s tal.” It had an unfinished “ex- When we decided to name Al mother, Margery “Marge” (Uncle Albert was the pansion” attic. I used to put the after Uncle Al, all Dad’s relatives Callan, recalled many stories of brother of George Callan, little rest of you kids to sleep in the said it was too old a name for a his birth and childhood. They Albert’s paternal grandfather. He one bedroom. Bernie would baby. are recorded in this chapter. She was married to the former sleep in our bedroom till we After Al was born, Dad starts the story a year before Al Margaret Cunningham, of Ponca went to bed, then I would carry (Jack) left the hospital and went was conceived. City, Oklahoma. Margaret’s Bernie out to the couch where I up to Uncle Al’s to pick up the “I thought I was pregnant sister Ursula, who still lived in made a bed for him. kids. And he told Uncle Al we two months before (I got preg- Ponca City at the time, used to Uncle Al would come out had named the baby after him. nant with Al),” Marge says. visit the family when they moved every couple of weeks. He would The next day Uncle Al “Dad was just as excited to Springfield, Mo.) always bring out bananas, and showed up at the hospital with

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of the car bed and he had made wasn’t there. He was arrangements back at the house in with George and the crib. Millie to watch Needless to say, Al before I got we took off running home from to go back home. He work. I used to was fine, sleeping work at Loblaw’s sound away, no (grocery store). I problem. I brought would go in at 10 Margery and little Albie on “The Hill,” in front yard of Nancy him down to the and get off at 2, and George Nunamaker’s home in Naples, New Yor. ca. June party and carried on and Al would get 1968. from there. home from kindergarten at When he got outside it was Next, we moved noon. There was a bus stop right raining, and we went out of both arms loaded. He had to Hilton, and that’s where John in front of our house. He used to Loblaw’s, hanging on to me like stuffed animals, candy and started school. We stayed there go to Millie and George’s next he was never going to let me go. everything else, and he was one winter, then we moved to door until I got home from I walked to work, so smiling ear to ear. The woman at Irondequoit, and all of the kids work, for that two hours. George said, I will give you a ride the hospital thought he was the were in school except for Al, so Well it was a holy day, and home, and Al didn’t want to get husband. I said, no it’s my uncle. he was my constant companion. mom and dad were there, so in the car, he was afraid I was He was just so proud to have Actually it is a miracle he George and Millie figured my going to drop him off someplace. someone to carry on his name. turned out as well as he did. He mom and dad would be there for It took Al a week before he Then we brought Al home was like an only child the first Al. So they went to church. Al would go to school without to Coldwater Road. We had him five years of his life, and when we went off to school in the morn- crying. in the downstairs bedroom, so it moved up to Eldon, it was the ing. And I went to work at ten. Al might not have been so would be closer to us. That was same thing. And yet he didn’t When Al got home, there alone if his father had had his in the days when were running turn out to be spoiled at all. was nobody at George and way, Marge jokes. around with our friends the When we first moved to Millie’s, and there was nobody at “Dad wanted twelve. He Gagnons, the Eisenhowers, and Rochester, there were no kids our house. And it was raining. I wanted a dozen. I spent 54 Betty and Andy, Jack’s sister and around, because they were all in had sent him to school with a months being pregnant. But after her boyfriend at the time. Andy school. So one day Al goes little pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Al, they told me I couldn’t have was the father of Beth and Joey, knocking on doors in the neigh- So he went down the street any more. In those years, if you the twins. But that was later. borhood, and asking who ever knocking on doors. And there were Catholic you couldn’t use A few months after Al was answers if they have any kids for was another George, another birth control. Finally my doctor born, we were going down to the him to play with. That’s how he elderly man. So he takes Al and went to the priest. The doctor Gagnon’s, to a big Fourth of July met the retired couple next door, brings him up to the store where picnic. I had Al in the crib, but Millie and George Endress. He I was working. by the time I got the other five used to spend all his time over Poor little Al was sitting up kids ready, the first had to be there. in front of the store when I changed again, so I told dad to I started working when he found him, crying constantly, start getting the kids in the car, started kindergarten. Mum and because he was scared to death. and put Al in the car bed. dad (Peggy and George Gunkel, He felt like he was abandoned. It So we get down to Marge’s mother and stepfather) took him a couple of weeks Gagnon’s about a half block used to come down for the before he would trust me again down the road, I go to get Al out weekend. This one weekday I that I was not going to leave him.

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put me on the pill anyway. I called Uncle George, and We were talking, when all of a He told the priest, Look, he took us back to the doctors. sudden, we realized Al had just you want to raise the kids? She The doctor said that it was a taken off. He was half way to St. can’t have any more, she’s worn diaper rash. I had been watching Salome’s Church, many blocks out. The priest wouldn’t give me him like a hawk since he got to away, by the time we found him. a dispensation, but he told me I go home. I knew it was no diaper He just decided to take a ride. had to confess it. That was when rash. They finally decided it was Another time, he went for a I started going to confession only a penicillin reaction. They were ride with Timmy Sykes next once a year. pumping him full of penicillin door on a real bike. He wasn’t When I went to register the every four hours to get him supposed to leaving the yard, kids at school, I used to keep a through the ear infection. He has and the neighbors came running list of all the kids and the been allergic to penicillin ever and told us he had cut his whole birthdates in my purse. When I since. chin open. He had gone over the registered the kids in Gates, I handlev bars and landed on the knew the gal in the office. We Al first road trip street down on Garford Avenue. went down the forms and she He cut his whole chin open. take.” When Al was about three, saw the piece of paper.” She We didn’t have a car then – he had a little turquoise scooter, said, “Marge, what happened Special times with dad was riding to work with his like a big wheel. He was outside between John and Al?, meaning Al and Mom boss Don Metzger to a new job the house in Irondequoit playing the four-year gap. I said, “No at R.T. French Company. I one day. Gramma and Grampa, parties.” I said before he was my called dad at work and said you Jack’s parents, had come over. constant companion. When he get your mother or somebody Al’s ear infection and get over here, we are taking him to the emergency room. When Al was about a year We got him to an emer- and a half old. and just talking a gency room and the young little, he got up in the morning doctors had never seen a mas- and he was pulling on his ear. toid infection. Finally an old He kept saying, “Hurts. Hurts.” doctor came through and said, I called the doctor across “My god.” It was a mastoid. the street, I said I think he has an Al was in the hospital for ear infection, and the nurse said ten days, and it was touch and I could make an appointment go. With a mastoid, you can for the next morning. have brain damage or die. We So I put him in for his nap, got him through that, we got him and when he got up, his whole home, and he was home about head was distorted. By this time, two days. I went in to change his ear was pointing straight out him after his nap and his skin from his head. I said can I bring was all black on his bottom, in him right over, and the nurse the whole diaper area, like he said “You have an appointment was burnt. tomorrow.” I said he could have brain damage by tomorrow, and she said “that’s the chance you Johnny and Albie Callan at Walt Disney World, Christmas 1972. ~ 61 ~ The Callans and McClarys was about four, we used to get Fiddle lessons with Shirley Paul Hees, and after a year he couldn’t read everything done in the morning ca. 1982 music. Al learned on the Suzuki and then go to the bus stop right had some crazy band in the method. They teach you to hear in front of the house, get on the basement, but none of them the music. They don’t even teach city bus and we would go down- could play anything either. you to read music for the first town. He loved the big clock at Along came Al and when two years. He hears the music, the mall down there, and he we went to Missouri, he said he and can make his fingers play used to love to throw pennies in wanted to play violin. Dad said, anything he wants. the wishing well. Sometimes we here we go again. Dad called He took lessons, played at would go to Grandma Callan’s down to school, and found out school, played at Christmas for lunch. Once a week we about the classes. We went to a concerts, and he played in the would take a little fun ride. I yard sale the following Saturday, Springfield Youth String Orches- would take him around to see and bought his first violin. It tra. different things, so he wouldn’t belonged to a kid who had won Then when we moved up to feel like he was alone all the all kinds of fiddling contests, that Eldon, Missouri, they didn’t have time. played at the Baldknobbers ( a any strings. He started playing He liked to eat peanut hillbilly revue in Branson, the sousaphone. He had played butter and jelly sandwiches, but Missouri). It was his first fiddle. for his teacher on the violin. And he had to have you make it with having a ball.” They didn’t have But it was all beat up. Dad they wanted him to play a theme peanut butter on one side and any grandkids because their son bought it for 20 bucks or some- for the Christmas concert. He jelly on the other, then put it became a priest and their daugh- thing, so dad worked on it like a said, “Mom, I can’t do it, my together. You couldn’t just ter was a nun. Trojan. He completely restored bow needs to be restrung. I said spread the jelly on the peanut I said, “What do you it and refinished it by hand, to him, “Where am I going to butter. mean? He said she had been rubbed the varnish in with his get it fixed up here?” He used to go to the play- making dinner for Al at four own fingers. That was Al’s first There was a little music ground at Whipple Lane School o’clock every day for the past violin. store, Vernon Music, and Al had in the summer. They had a pet week. So naturally he didn’t want Al started taking lessons, gone out with the owner’s daugh- day. So you had to have cos- to eat at six. Up until the time we tumes for the pet. His pet was a left Springfield, every year they turtle. We had a cat and the sent him a birthday card with a turtle. So I made a clown cos- dollar in it. tume for the turtle. Al would cry because I made the hat with a Al’s first violin little snap, and every time the Al’s older brother Bernie turtle pulled the head in, the hat came home from school one day would come off. and wanted to play the clarinet. One time I called the We went through the whole doctor because Al wouldn’t eat business of buying the clarinet on anything. He was always a good time. And after two years, he eater, so I figured there must be couldn’t play Twinkle Twinkle something wrong with him. Next Little Star. It was terrible. Bernie day I was out in the yard working in the garden, and Millie and George were out there. And Al’s biggest fans are his parents, Marge and Jack Callan, who posed wth him backstage George says, “Oh, Millie is after one of Al’s gigs in Oregon. ~ 62 ~ The Callans and McClarys ter. They said there was a guy words at first. I said, Al if you are on one of the nearby side streets, going to make it, you have to Shirley Paul Hees, who did make every woman in the room restringing in the area. I went think you are singing to her, you over and knocked on his door. can’t just sing words. He sure did He said, “I will call you that. when it is ready. When you When Al started playing come to pick it up, bring the out in bars, he was only 14. We youngster with ya.” had to go up to Jeff City, the I picked up dad at work, state capitol, to make sure it was picked Al up at school and we okay. He was mainly playing in went over to Shirley Paul’s for beer gardens. They said as long the first time. He took us down as he had a guardian with him it in the basement music room, he was okay, but if he ever touched got out one of his fiddles and a drink he was out. had Al play a tune. He played I used to take him to all the some classical number.” fiddle contests in the area. I Shirley said, “That crap remember when we were in won’t make it around here. He Springfield, we went to a contest said, you gotta play the real stuff, and all the girls were throwing not sissy music.” their keys at him, he was around Shirley played this real 16. His brothers were home complicated hoe down, played it from college and they were through once. He hands Al the wondering how come Al was fiddle, and says let’s see what you getting all the action. can do. Al played it through Al called me when Nancy perfect. Shirley said, “Okay, first came up to Seattle. He Wednesday night you come over called me and told me he was here for practice.” going out with a new girl. He told So Al started going over me the story of them going out in every Wednesday night for college. He says, Mom, I think practice. Of course he didn’t sing this is it. So then he was hanging in those days, just played the around and hanging around and fiddle. Then Shirley Paul got not getting around to asking her. him going on the guitar. And I said “Al, get busy kid.” then the drummer quit. So he “He said, I can’t ask her put Al back on the drums. Al until I have a ring. turned out to be the best “I said, she doesn’t care doggone drummer in twenty about a ring, she cares about counties. You can tell a good you.” drummer by the number of people that get up and dance. Shirley put a mike back by the drums and finally got him singing. He would just sing the

~ 63 ~ Nancy

Sixth birthday Three months old

Seventh birthday

Kindergarten 3rd Grade Christmas Program Kevin, Nancy and cousin Robbie College, Univ ersity of Missouri, Columbia

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6

Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 ~ 64 ~ Al

Age 8 Age 9

First Place, Pie Eating Contest 1973 Making Rope at Silver Dollar City, 1973

First train set, Christmas 1974

Age 16 Age 18 Age 21 Age 28

Age 10

Al, the sensitive city man, with dog Barney at Al, the Rowdy mountain man, in San Gabriel Mountains Citrus Restaurant in Hollywood Age TK First tuxedo, Fall 1976 ~ 65 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 15 Introduction: The McClary FamilY of Cooper County

It is common to trace ancestry While the Davis name by the paternal line, for it is the goes back only to 1735, the father’s last name that is usually Davis family has roots going carried forward in the family. In back to the 1500s, and has a Nancy McClary’s family, pictured family tree that sprawled on this page, much is known across Alabama and Georgia about the ancestry of both her in the 18th century. By the mother’s and father’s line. mid 19th century, ancestors of On the McClary side, the both the Davis and McClary lineage has been traced back to the families were fighting in The mid 1800s, beyond which evidence of Civil War, apparently on oppo- the family dims. Still, it is known that the site sides. After the war, the Davis McClarys today come from humble, hard family moved from Alabama to Kansas, working roots. During the late 1800s and early came to central Missouri in the early 1900s, 1900s the McClarys, Brownfields and Gerhardts in and has been rooted in Boonville, seat of central Missouri were primarily farmers, either owning their Cooper County, ever since. own land, renting it, or working as farm laborers. Some operated As for the McClarys, they settled around Boonville about 1850, businesses such as grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants, some and in the early 1900s lived in the vicinity of the small town of Black- were school teachers, and one owned an automobile and farm imple- water, about 15 miles up the road from Boonville. It’s in this small ment dealership. The three families today still include some farmers, town (population: 100), reconstructed to reflect that bygone era, that many blue collar workers, and a number of successful business and Al Callan and Nancy McClary chose to be wed, on April 20, 2002. professional persons. Oral family history indicated that the most The information in the following narrative was researched and distant known ancestor, John Robert McClary (?-1862), was born in written down in the 1970s and 1980s by Nancy McClary’s parents, Ireland and came to Cooper County, Missouri around 1850. Mary Elizabeth Davis and Hubert Clinton “Bert” McClary. The The Davis family record goes back more than a hundred years lineages of James Robert McClary (?-1862) and Cynthia Ann Marrs further, to a Thomas Davis born in 1735. Nancy’s cousin, John (1814-c. 1874) were not discovered at that time, and additional re- Murray Davis, notes that the Davis clan has always been known as a search has not been done. family of avid story tellers. Perhaps that is how they were able to keep The descendants of John Brownfield (1791-1851) are docu- their history alive. From the tales included here in, it appears that they mented in an 800 page manuscript compiled in the late 1980s, with had wonderful material to work with. much of the on-site cemetery research being done by Clinton

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McClary. Additional oral history afraid that if I got pregnant right born. from family members was away, Bert would have to quit She was a beautiful and obtained by Bert McClary on the school and he would never wonderful baby and we were so subjects included here. amount to anything with out an excited. When I took her home The descendants of Martin education. it was a little freighting and it Gerhard (c. 1633-1688) include I promised her I would not caused me to miss my mother Joseph Gerhardt (1857-1922), get pregnant until at least De- even more. Nancy was such a whose descendants are docu- cember so that I could work to good baby and hardly ever cried. mented in a 60-page manuscript make ends meet until gradua- She didn’t sleep as much as most which is continuously updated. tion. She told me I couldn’t be babies seemed to but she would Just before Christmas, sure of something like that. In just lie in her bed and look 1988, Beth assembled a beautiful those days birth control was not around and be content. She was album of family photos and something ex-nuns partook of. and is the best daughter any one memories, from which most of Anyway I was right, I got could ask for and I hope and this section is excerpted. She pregnant in December and was pray everyday for her happiness gave one of the albums to each never sick a day and felt really and that she will find the love of her children, and one to each good. I had an opportunity to Nancy McClary, age 3 months and support from a man that I of her nieces and nephews. have a promotion at my job, but have found with her father and In her dedication, she I told them no because I was after Bert got out of school. But that someday she will know the offered the following: expecting, and I didn’t want to with a new baby we decided that joy of motherhood and the “I have put together this make any long term commit- maybe Boonville would be a profound emotions that come book…so that you can remember ments to anything but the child I better and safer and more secure with it.” your grandfather Davis and was carrying. place to raise a child. It would be Beth closed the letter with a know a little about the family he The worst thing about the closer to family and a built- in special wish for her daughter. and your grandmother came pregnancy was the fact that my support system. I am so glad that from. mom was very ill and dying of we did. Even though we spent a “I love you more than “I want you to share in the cancer during this time. We few years in Columbia, because I words can ever express,” Beth history of this family and make it would drive home from Kansas was close to home I was able to wrote. your own. Someday when you City every weekend to be with take care of my father and “I love you as only a have children of your own, you her and it was a very trying time. reestablish a love for him and the mother can love her first-born can get his album out and show My mom so wanted to live to see home place. child. You have made me so them the pictures. This is your Nancy born and she lived by “I don’t remember much proud over the years and I family, be proud of it and work sheer will for a good three about Nancy’s birth other than it know that you will continue to hard to make it proud of you.” months trying to wait. As it was took close to 24 hours for it to be a delightful and loving Just a few weeks before she died on July 23, 1966 and be over. I was sitting in the car daughter and friend. Nancy’s marriage to Al Callan, Nancy was born on Sept. 7 of on the top of a hydraulic lift “May you always be as Beth wrote a letter recalling the that year. It had been a trying while Bert was changing the oil happy as you are today.” events leading up to the Sept. 7, time for me and after Nancy was in the car when my contractions Love, 1966 birth of Nancy. born I weighed less than I had started. We went home and got “I became pregnant with when I became pregnant. ready for bed but as the evening Mom Nancy at the only time I could, “Because we had Nancy went on it was pretty apparent so that I could work and Bert when we did it probably affected that I was going to have a baby could finish school. My mom the outcome of our lives as well whether I was ready or not. We had not wanted us to get married as hers. We had talked about went to the hospital and 18 when we did because she was living and working in Kansas City hours after I got there Nancy was ~ 67 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 16 James Robert McClary and Cynthia Ann Marrs

James Robert McClary is he was gone, except for one old When the bushwhackers western Virginia. Oral history the most distant known McClary mare, which no one but James or took property from citizens they from Marrs descendants in ancestor of Nancy McClary. The Cynthia could catch. He went to sometimes provided Confeder- Tazewell County states that some location and date of his birth are get them back. He probably went ate notes in payment, but were indentured servants when not known, although oral family with his gun and unfortunately was Cynthia burned the notes, they came to the United States, history indicates he was born in killed. An article in the Boonville believing they were worthless. and some “ran off to the moun- Ireland or Virginia, and came to Weekly Monitor on March 19, Cynthia Ann Marrs tains and married with the Cooper County from Virginia. 1864 states: McClary was born in Virginia Indians.” Those who remain in He and his family lived southeast and had a son Joshua Stone who the town of Tazewell do not of Pilot Grove in the 1850s. He Mr. J. Hildebridal, of was born in Virginia. She could associate with those who live in married Cynthia Ann Marrs and Pilot Grove township, who not read or write, but did own the mountains. A detailed they had three children: John has been confined in the about $800 worth of property in genealogy of the Marrs family in Robert, James Brooklyn (Jim) and Cooper county jail about 18 1870. She was alive in 1874 Tazewell County was destroyed George Washington. Cynthia also months, charged with “mur- when John was married, but by by a family member who was a had an older son Joshua M. Stone. der in the first degree,” of 1880 Joshua, George and Jim fundamentlist preacher and was James was a farmer and was one McCleary, of the same had moved to Grundy County in embarrassed that such a history, characterized as a short, fiery neighborhood, had a trial a northwest Missouri near other including interracial marriage, tempered Irishman. During the the present term of our Cir- members of the Marrs family, had been recorded. Civil War the “bushwhackers” cuit Court, and the jury, and Cynthia is no longer listed in were very active in west central soon after retiring from the the census records. Missouri and several murders of court room, returned a ver- Oral family history indi- Cooper County citizens are dict of “not guilty.The kill- cates Cynthia was “half Indian,” attributed to them. James was ing of McCleary by Hilde- and history of the Marrs family opposed to their activities, and bridal, from the evidence, in Grundy County also indicates occasionally had to hide from appears to have been an act that “some were dark-skinned them, and his son John would take of self-defence on his own with dark hair and some were him clothes and food. premises. light-skinned with blond hair.” On one occasion in about The Marrs family moved to September 1862, the bushwhack- Grundy County from Tazewell ers took his horses and cattle while County in the mountains of

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Chapter 17 John Robert McClary and Mary Nancy Brownfield

John Robert McClary was potatoes. Even though they born on 31 Oct. 1852 in Jackson always had chickens around, they John Robert McClary, ca. 1930. County, Mo. He died on 23 never had fried chicken. June 1943 in Cooper County, One time John and a hired ing and could not read and write Chapel and received a free plot. Mo. He married Mary Nancy hand, while employed by a at age 16, but he learned later After Nannie died the older boys Brownfield on 10 Feb. 1874. neighbor, sprinkled chicken food from his employers. He stayed were old enough to work out on She was born on 27 Feb. 1856 in front of the barn door and with his mother and brothers their own, but still came home near Pilot Grove, Mo. She died scared the mules out, and two or and worked as a farm laborer, sometimes. on 23 June 1893 near Pilot three chickens were trampled to returning his pay to his mother. John would take Ray and Grove, Mo. death. Instead of eating the He married Mary Nancy Shorty, who were about six and Mary Nancy “Nannie” was chickens, their employer dressed Brownfield (Nannie) in 1874. four years old, to the field with one of five children born near the chickens and took them to He asked his mother for money him, then come home, clean Pilot Grove to Jonas Brownfield town to sell. The same employer to buy a new suit and “she them up, cook supper, and fix and Jael K. Collins. Nannie was would feed them breakfast when kicked him out.” lunch for the next day. Some- never well, as she had “rheuma- they stayed overnight instead of John and Nannie had seven times his sister-in-law would help tism” and “heart trouble.” Her going home, but his wife would children: William Edward him take care of the younger mother Jael stayed with her after put out butter only for her (Will), Charles Franklin, Everett boys. John could not trust Will Jonas died. Nannie died at age husband. Robert, a daughter who was a to help take care of the boys; 36. One morning John said twin to Everett who died at age 5 Will had quite a temper and was John Robert McClary was “I’m going to have some butter, days, John Raymond (“Ray,” mean to the boys. At that time the eldest son of James and I’ll take half and you take half.” who was Bert’s grandfather), they lived west of Peninsula, near Cynthia McClary. The family The employer said to his wife “I George Curtis (Shorty), and Chimney Rock. moved around quite a bit when guess you better get out a little Pearl May, who died at age 6 After the boys left home he was younger, at one time more butter.” In the fall before months. John moved to Kansas City and living just past the Prairie Lick they started wearing shoes the Nannie died about one worked at Mt. Washington store. After John Robert’s father boys would scare up the geese in month after giving birth to Pearl Cemetery. He helped Will build James died, the family did not the morning and stand where May. After Nannie died Pearl a house in Independence, using have much money, and not they had been nesting, to warm May was kept by a relative until a large carpenter’s hammer with much variety in meals, living their feet. she died. John had helped to lay a long hand-made hickory mostly on fat meat and fried John had very little school- out the cemetery at Wesley handle, which has been passed

~ 69 ~ The Callans and McClarys through the generations to his great-great-great grandson Steven McClary. Then he moved back to Cooper County to live with Ray and Ray’s family for 14 years. John’s daughter-in-law Stella and his grandson Clinton both speak very highly of him, generally describing him as a “fine old man” who was friendly, kind, considerate and helpful. He was good to Stella and helped her with chores around the house. He taught Clinton to “clean off that hoe and shovel and put them away. When you want to use them again they will be ready.” John, Ray and the boys didn’t go to church much, but John Robert McClary (second from left) and his sons Everett, Charley, Will, George, Ray John was baptized when he was 78 years old. When Ray left the brothers. Jael was his midwife. John Brownfield served in documented in an 800-page- family Stella could not afford to Abraham “Abe” Brownfield, the War of 1812. He married manuscript compiled in the late keep John, so John stayed with Jonas’s half brother, was the twice and had 16 children. 1980s, with much of the on-site Everett and Will, dying at Will’s father of Stella Ida Brownfield, His first wife, Susannah cemetery research being done by home in 1943. Bert’s paternal grandmother. As Fauber was born in 1793 in Clinton McClary. As of this The father of Mary Nancy Jonas was the grandfather of Ray Augusta County, Va. She died in writing, Bert McClary is in Brownfield, Jonas Brownfield, McClary and Abe was the father Mar 1828 in Augusta County, Va. possesion of a bound copy of was born 12 Nov. 1820 in of Ray’s wife, Stella Brownfield The children by his wife this volume. Augusta County, Virginia. He McClary, Nancy McClary’s Susannah Fauber were: Eliza- married Jael K. Collins on 11 great-great-great-great grandfather beth, John J., Thomas, Chris- July 1845 in Cooper County. John Brownfield and her great- tian, Jonas (see above), Susan, She was born in 1819 and died great-great grandfather John Daniel, Catherine and Joel. in Oct. 1887. Jonas migrated Brownfield were the same The children by his second with his parents, John person. There is more informa- wife Catherine Shover were: Brownfiled and Susan Fauber tion about Abe on page 72. Jonathan, Rebecca, David, Brownfield to Tazewell and John Brownfield was born Martin, Abraham (Abe), Woodford Counties in Illinois, in 1791 in Augusta County, Va. Gideon, and Samuel. In 1832 he then into Pettis County, Missouri He died on 8 Sep 1851 in Pettis moved with 14 children, his two in 1838. Jonas and Jael had five County, Mo. He married brothers and their families from children: Susan Francis Catherine Shover on 22 Oct Virginia to Illinois, and in 1838 (“Fannie”); Mary Nancy 1829 in Augusta County, Va. She to Pettis County in west central (Nannie); James Fanklin, Gideon was born in 1801 in Augusta Missouri. A. and Augustus. Jonas may have County, Va. She died on 3 Mar The descendants of John served in the Civil War with his 1859 in Pettis County, Mo. Brownfield (1791-1851) are ~ 70 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 18 John Raymond McClary and Stella Brownfield

John Raymond “Ray” After Ray left in 1937, Stella McClary, the fifth of seven and her son Clinton moved to children of JohnRobert and Boonville where she worked at Mary Nancy Brownfield the Hamilton-Brown shoe McClary, was born on 3 May factory for 13 years. In 1950 she 1888 in Cooper County, Mo. married a long-time friend Albert Ray died on 26 Sep 1967 H. Alley, who was a widower. in Kansas City, Mo. He married They made their home southeast Stella Ida Brownfield on 19 Jan of Peninsula for several years. 1910 in Cooper County Mo. She Bert, Nancy McClary’s was born on 28 Apr 1887 in father, enjoyed visiting them Cooper County Mo. She died on because they had an old plow 15 Mar 1983 in Boonville, Mo. horse he would let Bert ride, and Stella was the youngest of Grandpa Alley would also let six children of Abraham Bert drive his tractor all over the Brownfield and Surilda Gourley. farm and up and down the road. Stella did not have much of a Once he ran out of gas and had social life as her parents were to walk home. old, and they did not go out Later they moved to much. Her father was crippled Boonville near Clinton’s home. John Raymond “Ray” McClary and Stella Ida (Brownfield) McClary.. from a childhood illness and Albert died in 1970. Stella lived since they were children. Stella’s because Will, Everett and John died when Stella was 18. There for a number of years with Uncle Isaac lived near the John were there. Ray worked in a were some friends and family in Clinton and his family, suffered a McClary household, so when grocery store, but he did not like the neighborhood that she visited broken hip at age 88, and died they went to visit they played inside work. Stella had a goiter with. Her school was about 2 ½ just before her 96th birthday. with the neighbor children. Ray and was nervous and sick. She miles away. She went to school Ray McClary was the and Stella married in 1910 and had thought she wouldn’t have to until she was about 16. After she second to the youngest of the lived primarily in the Peninsula, do so much work if they lived in quit school, she stayed at home surviving children of John and Pilot Grove and Blackwater town. Since they did not like the and worked until she married Nannie. He had known Stella neighborhoods. They moved to city, they moved back to Cooper Ray in 1910. Ida Brownfield, his future wife, Independence for a short while County. They had two sons,

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Everett Roscoe (Buster) and lived in the same house at 324 Clinton Wilbur. S. Lawndale until he died in Ray worked mostly as a 1967, the day after his first farm laborer, rented land, share grandson, John Kevin McClary, cropped, was a blacksmith in was born. Blackwater, and delivered mail. Stella Brownfield’s father, He also worked as a construction Abraham “Abe” Brownfield, laborer when U.S. Highway 40 was born on 18 Jan 1838 in was built through central Mis- Pettis County, Mo. He married souri, and provided a team of Surilda Margaret GourleyGourley. She horses and a wagon to haul dirt. was born on 10 Jul 1844 in They purchased a 300 acre farm Trigg County, Kentucky. in 1928, but lost everything when Abe had one child, the holder of the note commit- Frances (Fannie), from his first ted suicide. marriage to Frances Edwards, In 1932 Ray left the family and six children from his for about three months, and then marriage to Surilda M. Gourley: left permanently in 1937. He These were Eva Lenora (Ev), moved to Boonville and worked Henry Ernest, Margaret Ardella in construction. Ray and Stella (Del), John Waldo, Daniel were divorced in about 1943. Arthur and Stella Ida. Ray then moved to Kansas Abe walked with a notice- City to work for Montgomery able limp and used a cane Ward as a security guard. He throughout most of his life. married Millie Cartner Carey Stella said he had “rheumatic who was also from Boonville. fever” when he was 12 and one Ray was a big, robust man who of his legs never fully develope. smoked and had a gruff voice, It is possible the disease was but he was cheerful, smiled a lot polio. and had wavy gray hair. He As he was unable to do visited Clinton and his family in hard farm work, his older Boonville periodically, but the brother Thomas encouraged Abraham Brownfield relationship was strained for him, and he became a school- many years. When Bert was teacher. He bought a farm to the school. In later years he younger he thought “Grandpa northwest of Pilot Grove and traveled mostly by buggy, fre- McClary” was rich, though he built a new house on it in 1887, quently visiting his children and wasn’t. He did have a new car, which was completed just before 11 grandchildren. and during one of these visits Stella was born. Abe taught for Ray left his wallet in the bath- 27 years, mostly at the Clear room, and Bert was tempted to Creek school. Surilda would get look through it. Bert discovered his old mare and bring it to the Ray had a one-hundred dollar house in the morning for him, bill tucked in the wallen’s hidden and he would ride the 2½ miles compartment. Bert had never from his home across the woods seen one before. Ray and Millie and fields (much further by road)

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Chapter 19 Clinton McClary and KAthryn Gerhardt

Clinton Wilbur McClary, “hard-headed little character,” Clinton said Nancy McClary’s grandfather, saying “you could talk to him ‘til Buster wrecked was born on 22 Dec 1913 in you were green in the face, and it the old ’26 coupe Cooper County, Mo. He died on was the same as pouring water they had because 15 Mar 1993 in Boonville, Mo. on a goose’s back.” She said Ray he only knew one He was buried in Billingsville, used to give him awful whip- way to drive: Mo., in St. Johns Cemetery. He pings. Clinton got too close to “open it up.” married Helen Kathryn Buster once when Buster was Buster did not go Gerhardt on 21 Jul 1938 in chopping corn, and as a result to high school, Billingsville, Mo. had a scar above his eye the rest married when he Clinton was the youngest of of his life. He also lost a thumb was 30, operated Clinton McClary’s Blackwater High School two children of Ray and Stella nail once when he and Buster his own trucking graduation portrait., ca. 1934. McClary. He was named after were operating a cider press. business, and died the minister who married Ray of hepatitis when he was 41. with the sprout all the way. and Stella. He was born in a Stella described Clinton as The family moved around a three room log house near the a “good boy” who was more lot when Clinton was growing up, Lamine River just east of the interested in school than Buster. living in twelve locations by the Blackwater junction on Highway She remembers giving him only time Clinton graduated from 40 (now Interstate 70). Clinton “one good whipping.” Buster high school. Clinton was a good remembered from visiting the had broken an arm and could student and attended school in site when he was a little older not go to school, so he could not each neighborhood where they that there was a very large oak make sure Clinton got home lived. It wasn’t always close to tree in the yard. after school. Clinton stopped to school and he usually had to In the early 1980s, Clinton play at the neighbors, so Stella walk. When Buster was big and Bert visited the site again. got a maple sprout and went enough to drive they had an old The house was gone, but there after him. She and Clinton both car. In the winter they had no was a very large oak log lying on remember her following him all antifreeze, so they would drain the site. the way home, whipping his legs the radiator when they got to Clinton’s brother Everett school, carry the bucket inside, (Buster) was three years older. then put it back in when it was Stella described Buster as a Elmer Gerhardt, ca. 1916. time to go home. When Clinton ~ 73 ~ The Callans and McClarys was old enough to drive to never have no finger no more.” Buster, going to social events and operating a day-care center school himself, he went to sleep The doctor tried to reattach such as dances at Choteau (the first licensed day-care center once driving and ran off the the finger, but was not successful. Springs, or going to Boonville. in Boonville). road. It was treated all winter with The family moved to the Clinton usually worked a Clinton started high school various remedies including Ger- Billingsville area in 1935. There second job part-time and he also in Blackwater but when the man green soap and burned he met Helen Gerhardt, who mowed lawns in the summer. depression hit he had to drop powdered alum. Stella said it stunk lived just down the road. Helen’s The children all had jobs out. He went another year at and drained all the time. They brother Hubert, Bert’s name- through high school to provide Pilot Grove by staying in town changed the dressings twice a day, sake, was killed in a hunting their own spending money. with his aunt Eva, and he eventu- and sometimes he came home accident in 1936. Stella and Income was limited for this ally graduated from Blackwater from school at noon to change the Clinton took food to the family. family of seven but Clinton and High School in 1934 at age 20, dressings. Bert recalls always being From that night on he and Helen Helen managed to support four the oldest student in the class. aware that the finger was partly dated until they were married in children through college. Two He wanted to go on to college missing, because when Clinton 1938. are nurses, two are pharmacists and his mother wanted him to be drove a car or used a hammer, the Stella and Clinton moved to and one is a medical transcrip- a minister, but there was no stump of his finger stuck out Boonville in the fall of 1936 and tionist. In the families of the money for college. Representa- without grasping. It was especially Clinton started to work at the children there are an additional tives from Bolivar Baptist Col- noticeable when he wore gloves, Hamilton-Brown shoe factory. four nurses, a family practice lege came to discuss options, and because the whole finger of the When there was another open- physician, a podiatrist, an anes- offered scholarship assistance. glove would stick out. ing he “hounded his boss” until thesiologist, and two pharmaceu- But even if he had been able to When Clinton’s grandfather they hired Stella also. During the tical company representatives. find work also, there still would (John) McClary was in his early next several years he drove a Clinton and Helen lived at not have been enough money for 60s, he came to live with them. freight delivery truck and worked 607 (later changed by the post expenses and support of his He was “a great old man” and in a laundry. office to 513) LeRoy Street from mother at home. He and Buster Clinton learned much from him, Helen and Clinton had five 1942 to 1963, renting at an had worked as farm laborers and probably respected him children, born from 1941 unbelievably low cost. They from the time they were old more than his own father. through 1955: Judith Kathryn purchased the house in the late enough, and cut wood when they Clinton said “There were many (Judy); Hubert Clinton (Bert, 1950s. They purchased a larger did not have other employment. happy occasions during this Nancy McClary’s father); Mary house about one-half block away But Buster did not go to high time—birthdays, church and Linda (Linda); Kathy Merlene, in 1963. school and had left home. school picnics, and also 4th of and Jane Elizabeth (Janie). Clinton always maintained a When Clinton was six he July celebrations at Choteau Clinton continued to work very large garden during the got to go to the State Fair at Springs, and family reunions.” various blue collar jobs such as years the children were at home Sedalia, which was a very special During the two years freight delivery, clerk, and because home-grown produce occasion: Highway 40 was being built duplicating machine serviceman was less expensive, but he contin- “My Aunt Eva and I went through their neighborhood, (in Columbia). In 1960 he was ued gardening throughout his life on the train from Pilot Grove,” Clinton would take water from employed by the City of because he enjoyed it. His he once told Bert McClary. “She the spring in a barrel to the Boonville as meter foreman for garden gave him much pleasure bought me a ten-cent ring and horses and workers. He would the water department, and and was almost a work of art in soon after I returned home, I also put watermelons in the retired after about 20 more years the way he maintained it. The jumped out of the loft of the log spring to cool, and sell them to in this job. Helen did not work children also got to help; they barn, caught the ring on a nail the workers. outside the home, but did remember many hours of pulling and off came the little finger of Clinton dated various girls supplement the income with in- weeds, “suckering” tomatoes, my right hand at the first joint.” while he was in high school, home work, specializing in and picking worms off the Stella said he cried and said “I’ll sometimes with his brother laundering and ironing curtains vegetables. He had many flowers

~ 74 ~ The Callans and McClarys in his yard, which was also kept blue-collar workers that Left , Helen Kathryn Gerhardt in very neat. provides fellowship for its high school graduation portrait. Sometimes when Bert is at members and support for his mother’s house he still has persons in need. Their ebrated their 50th wedding visions of his dad on his hands motto is “Friendship, anniversary in 1988 at the church and knees pulling weeds in the Love and Truth,” and in Billingsville where they were garden or out of the cracks in the these are words that he married, with the same minister sidewalk. He mowed the lawn lived throughout his life. who married them and the same himself with a “push” mower, He had many friends soloist and attendant from their and it was Bert’s job to mow from church, lodge, and wedding. grandmother Gerhardt’s lawn. work. When he died at 79 Clinton was very active in Clinton didn’t have a “power” years of age there were the church and with other mower until in the late 60s, when almost 400 persons at the volunteer groups both before he started mowing lawns for visitation. Although he and after he retired. He some- other people. He still had two didn’t express love ver- times took the hammer that children at home to support. bally or emotionally, it belonged to his grandfather with Clinton was kind, friendly, was apparent from his him when he did voluntary and outgoing. He was a loving actions that he loved his repair work with a church group. person, although he did not friends, family and all He was a long-time Red Cross frequently express this verbally persons. He was always on volunteer and a certified ad- or emotionally, except to Helen. the go, helping friends vanced first aid and CPR instruc- He was a faithful and loving and strangers alike, including his about anyone or anything. tor. He never missed a Red husband, and you could see the mother-in-law and other elderly One chapter in Clinton’s Cross blood drive and donated love he had for Helen in the women who had no spouse or life that was very difficult for him 104 pints of blood over about 30 manner in which he spoke to her family close by. He learned to was the leaving of the family by years. After he could no longer and treated her. He rarely know a number of elderly his father. Clinton was resentful donate because of his health, he showed anger or used harsh women through his job with the of this and would not visit Ray assisted with the work. After his words about anyone or anything. City, and was requested to serve and his new wife in their home retirement he was a bus driver He was a faithful and active as pallbearer for some of them in Kansas City for many years. for a local school for handi- member of his church, teaching upon their death. However, Ray was welcome to capped children, and when he Sunday school for many years It is probably an unusual come to Boonville and the lost sight in one eye and was no and serving on the church distinction that he served as children always loved to see him. longer allowed to drive the bus, council and committees, and pallbearer for more than 100 Millie never came with him to he rode as an attendant. While living and raising his family in the friends and acquaintances, but it Clinton’s home. Clinton never assisting a child on the bus he principles of the Christian faith. emphasizes the personal respect made negative remarks about his sustained an injury that ulti- He was an active member of the and friendship that so many father or Millie, but the resent- mately required very extensive IOOF lodge for almost 40 years, persons had for him, and it was ment was there. However, in the back surgery, from which he serving as local Grand Master one last request he could honor mid 1950s Clinton overcame his never fully recovered. He died at several times and secretary for for them. Truth was also a resentment, and the family began home on March 15, 1993 with many years, and served as master characteristic that was part of his regular visits to Ray and Millie’s his wife, Helen Kathryn of ceremonies for the 150th life, he always cautioned his home in Kansas City. Millie was Gerhardt McClary, and several anniversary celebration of the children not to lie, and it would a very nice person and the children, at his side. local chapter. probably be difficult to find that children always enjoyed the trips Helen Kathryn Gerhardt The IOOF is a Christian- he ever intentionally made to Kansas City. herself was born on 1 Jan 1918 based fraternal organization for untrue or misleading comments Clinton and Helen cel- in Speed, Mo., a small rural

~ 75 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Helen had no sisters caring person. She sincerely and pride in her cooking ability, and to play with but consistently inquires about the rightly so, as do most of the enjoyed playing with health and well-being of every- Gerhardt women. One of the her brothers. The one she knows at every opportu- most anticipated meals of the children had few nity. If you call or visit she will year has always been the Joseph toys, though she did ask about, at the least, your Gerhardt family reunion. Helen have a doll. spouse, children and grandchil- really misses being physically Helen’s father, dren. Since her physical activities able to stand and cook for hours August Gerhardt, are limited and she does not get as she used to do. Even though died of burns when out much, she talks with her she cannot cook for you she will she was nine years friends by telephone. She enjoys still inquire whether you have old in 1927. Her having friends and family stop by eaten, and apologize if she has older brother Elmer, the house, but it is difficult to nothing to offer you to eat. age 11, assumed the stay for just a few minutes. Helen’s life as a housewife role of head of the The Gerhardt family in the 1940s and 50s was de- household with his members are known as “talkers.” scribed in 1989 in an article mother. Then in They talk constantly, for hours written by her son-in-law John 1936 her younger on end, the women mostly about Sears. brother Hubert, age what is going on in the family, When reading the following 16, was killed in a church or other social situations, excerpt from that article, note hunting accident. He and the men about farming and that the present tense of the had been hunting politics. When you stop by for a article applies to the period when Clinton and Helen Kathryn (Gerhardt) McClary, Nancy rabbits alone on the visit with Helen you will literally it was written, 1989.) McClary’s paternal grandparnts. ca. 1987. way home from a get “talked out the door.” That Helen was born in rural community in Cooper County, relative’s house. His body was is, when you leave, she will Cooper county, Missouri in 1918 to August and Flora Stegner found where he had fallen continue to talk and ask ques- to Flora and August Gerhardt. Gerhardt. backward in a brush pile. There tions as you go out the door and From this inauspicious begin- They lived on a farm east of was snow on the ground and it down the walk. ning, she has raised her social Speed, attended school in Speed was evident that he had died She has an excellent position from that of a poor farm and attended church in instantly. memory, which is valuable in girl to a proud, urban grandpar- Billingsville, a few miles up the By 1932 the family had keeping the births and marriages, ent. She has shown clearly that road. These were German moved closer to Billingsville. job status, and other family she believes in her ability to immigrant communities, and Helen was able to attend high parameters straight for the many improve her status and has German was still the primary school in Boonville. Elmer drove relatives. It is also remarkable worked hard to do so. Along the language spoken in church and them to school in Boonville until that she remembers such details way she was able to make a few in many homes. When Helen he graduated and left home. She as dates, times, and places of choices concerning what and to started school, she could speak then walked about two miles most events of her own life and some extent how much work she very little English. When she was across the fields and down the her children’s, such as births, would do. a child she was thrown from a road to Billingsville, and rode to schooling, illnesses, etc. It was Given a choice, she consis- horse and broke her arm at the school with a neighbor who was a always helpful in taking her to tently chose to work in her home elbow. A hired hand picked up teacher. After she graduated the doctor that she could re- once her family was started, Helen and her brother Elmer from high school she lived in member such details of her separating labor according to the one day from school on a horse, Boonville with an aunt and medical history, including all notion of separate spheres; along the horse was scared by a passing worked until she was married. twelve surgeries. gender lines. To enable her train, reared, and threw her off. Helen is a considerate and Helen has always taken family’s standard of living to

~ 76 ~ The Callans and McClarys remain comparable to that of her “When Helen was 18 she the farm where she grew up.) creased specialization of the friends and relatives, she took on graduated from high school. She also had a coal oil cook rooms. She sorted the clothes more work. Helen did not rebel Most country girls worked at stove and wood heat. Three since all the clothes were washed against the traditional gender home in those days, however, years later she got a natural gas in the same water. The white roles, on the contrary, she was according to Helen, town girls cook stove and in 1948 she got a clothes were washed first, then happy working in her home, often held jobs outside of their Frigidaire refrigerator. Her first prints, then the dark clothes. sharing her mutuality with homes until marriage. The piece of “furniture” was a treadle The wash cycle lasted fifteen Clinton, even if the work was following fall Helen took a job in sewing machine. With this she minutes. hard and seemingly never— the Agricultural Soil Conserva- made all of her family’s clothes At the end of the washing, ending. tion office in Boonville. Starting and she states, “. . .even hemmed she would pick each item up Helen considers herself at two dollars per day in 1936, the diapers.” with a stick (because the water lucky to have graduated from her hours were eight to five Helen’s life at home was was scalding hot) and put it high school because her father o’clock, Monday through Satur- anything but restful. Following is through the wringer into the first died when she was nine years old day. She married Clinton a description of one day of rinse. She used blueing in the and in those times many living McClary in 1938 and planned to Helen’s work from the early second rinse. About half of the on farms had to help with the quit her job with the arrival of years of her married life. clothes then needed to be farming rather than attend high their first child. Helen was often Wash day was Monday, so starched. Then they were hung school. At age 15 her main chore sick while carrying Judy and quit on Sunday night Helen would up to dry. Due to the rush of was milking the cows, however, her job early when she was four get Clinton to bring her wash getting the washing cycle and the she also did most of the baking months pregnant. Though she boiler in out of the shed. He rinsing done, there was usually and helped with the canning, hated to give up her earnings, would set it on the gas stove and no time to hang the wash to dry sewing, gardening, livestock she remarks, “I didn’t like to then she would fill it with cold until all of the washing was feeding, and carrying in fire- work outside of my home.” water. Next she would shave a finished. The wash needed to be wood. Helen takes pride in de- bar of soap that she had made hung outside in dry weather, To attend school she scribing her home and family previously. The shavings went even if it was quite cold; a very walked two miles across fields to and how her home has changed into a bucket of water to soak unpleasant task in the winter! catch a ride to school with a through years of her and overnight. Before bedtime The tubs were emptied by schoolteacher. She studied hard Clinton’s hard work and frugal- Clinton would bring the washing dipping and pouring the water and made good grades. Home ity. Helen’s pride in her family machine in off the back porch so into the kitchen sink. The economics class required her to and social position is shown by it would be warm the next washer had a hose-type drain. make garments at home as her weekend routine. On Satur- morning. Monday morning she She tried to get to this stage homework so she made all of day nights she always ironed the would start heating the water before Clinton came home for her own clothes as well as some girls’ dresses that they would over two of the stove’s burners, lunch. Then at lunchtime for her mother. At that time wear to church since the closets leaving one burner exposed for Clinton would move the washer factory— produced clothing was of the little house were filled so cooking breakfast. After the out for her. She would prepare readily available in the stores in tightly that clothing would arrival of children, the washing the noon meal, feed and change town, however, garment making wrinkle while hanging. Then she usually didn’t start until the time the baby, and take care of the was taught intensively and this polished their little white shoes. school started. In her 11- by 11- toddler(s). After lunch she would skill was highly regarded by those On Sunday mornings she foot kitchen she would have to get the kids down for a nap and who needed to be frugal. Her washed the girls’ hair. It was do some rearranging to have hang up the clothes. Then she home economics special project important to her that they looked space for the washer and two would prepare the evening meal, was to do something social with pretty for church. rinse tubs. The house was small, take the clothes down if they her little brothers every Friday In 1938 she started house- as were the rooms, requiring were dry, and fold them. In the evening. Usually this consisted of keeping in Boonville with an multifunctionality. Their second evening she would then dampen reading books to them. icebox. (There was no icebox on house is larger, allowing in- the clothes to be ironed and roll

~ 77 ~ The Callans and McClarys them up to wait for the next day. two pharmacists, and a medical Rudolph Feodor (Rudy), and near Speed, and moved to a They were stored overnight in transcriptionist. When asked Hillard Frederick. farm closer to Billingsville owned wicker baskets with oilcloth how she feels about her four August and Flora first by August’s brother Albert. The liners. On Clinton’s arrival home daughters all working at some- rented land south of Speed to house was on a bluff with a long, at the end of his day’s work at thing other than housework, she farm, and later purchased 120 steep, rutted, rocky drive from the Boonville laundry they would says, “It’s a different world.” She acres east of Speed. The last four the main road, which was all but share the evening meal before remembers that it only cost her children were born there. impossible for a motor vehicle to Clinton left for his second job at fifty dollars to have a baby, On a Sunday morning in climb. The “improved” drive the bakery. Then Helen would including prenatal care and 1927 August was starting a fire in that exists today is still a chal- wash the dishes and afterwards delivery. Rent was ten dollars per the kitchen range using corn lenge without 4-wheel drive. she would often help the chil- month. She always tried to buy at cobs soaked in kerosene. There Transportation for the dren with their homework sale prices and explains, “We was an explosion that burned children was difficult to arrange, lessons. didn’t make much, but we made him over most of his body. He but she managed to get all of the Over the years she has it do.” died early that afternoon at the children through grade school acquired many modern appli- hospital in Boonville. His wife, and high school. She suffered ances which have taken over The Gerhardt and Flora, would live more than sixty the additional misfortune of some of the muscle work of StegnerFamilies years longer. losing her second oldest son housework. Nevertheless, Helen Flora Elizabeth Stegner Hubert after Elmer had left chose to do additional work to August Gerhardt was born Gerhardt (1893-1988) was born home. Helen would soon move bring in more money and im- on 27 Feb 1894. He died on 2 in the Billingsville community to to Boonville, the next oldest was prove her family’s status. Feb 1927 in Cooper County, Feodor and Louisa Back Edgar, at 14 years, Rudy was 12 In 1947 Helen started Mo. He married Flora Elizabeth Stegner. The Stegner family had and Hillard was only 10. In 1944 performing services for other Stegner on 11 Jul 1915. Flora lived in the same home in Flora and the three boys moved families. She would take in Elizabeth Stegner was born on 9 Billingsville since Feodor’s to a more accessible and more curtains to wash, which included Nov 1893 in Cooper County, father, John Peter Stegner, pleasant home near Prairie Lick, the washing, starching, stretching, Mo. She died on 30 May 1988 in arrived in the United States in northwest of Billingsville. Rudy and ironing of the curtains. In Boonville, Mo. 1853. She married August in and Hillard were in the military those days they were made of August was the father of 1910 and their first two children service, and Edgar began a dairy cotton and subject to shrinkage, Bert’s mother. He was born near were born at their first home farm operation. so the stretching was important Pilot Grove, one of nine children south of Speed. When August Flora was a quiet, taciturn and exacting work. This work of Joseph and Catherine Krumm died in 1927 she was left to raise woman, but was very much loved was done mostly in the spring Gerhardt. He lived with his six children, with Elmer, the by her grandchildren. It was a and fall when people did their family in the Pilot Grove, Pisgah, oldest, being 11 years and the real treat for Bert at five or six major housecleanings. When and Billingsville-Speed areas of youngest being less than six years old to go to the country Jane, her youngest, was five years Cooper County, attending school months old. and stay with Grandma and old, Helen started taking in and church there. He lived at Flora was a strong woman, Uncle Edgar. He got to “help” ironing to do for others while she home and farmed with his father and with the help of her children with milking the cows and got to was babysitting. Three years later until he was married in 1915 to and her extended families she “drive” the tractor, a huge old she opened a day nursery in her Flora Elizabeth Stegner. August’s continued to operate the farm rusty yellow Minneapolis- home. It was the first licensed brother Albert had married and send all of the children to Moline. Bert offered to work for daycare facility in Boonville. Flora’s sister Bertha in 1910. school. The fire in 1927 had not Uncle Edgar when he got to be Helen (and Clinton) chose They had six children: Elmer destroyed the house but had old enough and “drive the tractor to work hard. She advanced August, Helen Kathryn (Bert’s damaged it. for a dollar a day”. from being a farm girl to being mother), Daniel Hubert By 1932 the family had Even the out-house, unpleas- the proud mother of two nurses, (Hubert), Edgar Herman, become unable to keep the farm ant as it was, did not bother Bert.

~ 78 ~ The Callans and McClarys

It was a comforting environment at on 19 Mar 1952 in Cooper their home, but Flora was afraid of County, Mo. He married Louise storms. One night during a bad Phillipine Barbara Back on 11 storm, Bert, sleeping on a day-bed Jul 1915 in Billingsville, Mo. in the living room, heard the Louise was born on 3 Jul 1866 in sound of breaking glass. He called Cooper County, Mo. She died to tell Flora, but she told him it on 6 June 1905 in Cooper was nothing and to go back to County, Mo. sleep. Sure enough, the next Johann Peter Stegner, morning it was discovered that the .Feodor’s father, married front storm door had blown open Margaretha Barbara Hertte. and broken. Edgar married in 1950 and The known Gerhardt Flora moved to an apartment in lineage is much more extensive. Boonville. It was the same Joseph Gerhardt, the father apartment that Clinton’s mother of August Gerhardt, was born on Stella had lived in for the past 12 9 Jan 1857 in Tutschfelden, years. Stella remarried in 1950. Germany. He died on 21 Feb She stayed there for several 1922 in Cooper County, Mo. He years, then lived in a small house married Katrina Krumm on 7 on LeRoy Street, just two doors Mar 1882 in Circleville, Ohio. down from Helen and Clinton, She was born on 16 Feb 1858 in for about 30 years. Bahlingin, Baden, Germany. She Bert would visit her at her died on 21 Feb 1943 in house and play checkers and Billingsville, Mo. dominoes. She was very kind Joseph Gerhardt was one and pleasant to be around. of five children of Christian Flora was very afraid of Friedrich (Chris) and Magdalena snakes. She became very agitated (Lena) Schlenker Gerhardt, and when she found them around was born in Tutschfelden, the chicken house or the out- Germany. In 1881 his father sent house when she was still in the him to the United States to country. Once Bert had to tell escape being drafted into the her about a large blacksnake on August Gerhardt and Flora Elizabeth (Stegner) Gerhardt. German army. Others from his the back porch, which she family and the family of his shooed out with a broom. After future wife Katrina Krumm she moved to town, Bert would school and college, he lived with and Clinton, then was in a (Catherine Groom) soon fol- stop by her apartment some- Flora for about four years, nursing home for about two lowed. Joseph made his way to times on the way home, and because it was crowded at years prior to her death in 1988. Circleville, Pickaway County, once had bought a small green home—a four room house with The Stegner family has Ohio “with little of this world’s toy snake. It would be fun, he four sisters. Then Helen and been tracked only to Flora’s goods.” He married Catherine, thought, to lay it in the corner of Clinton, Bert’s parents, pur- grandparents in the mid 1800s. who was born in Germany in her porch and then point it out chased a larger home. For a Feodor Stegner, Flora’s 1858. They had nine children: to her. It was not fun. short time Flora lived in a father, was born on 26 Feb 1855 Henry, Chris Frederic, When Bert was in high basement apartment with Helen in Cooper County, Mo. He died Katherina Barbara, Albert, ~ 79 ~ The Callans and McClarys

William, August, Louise Pauline, Heinrich and Maria Salome. Christian Friedrich, Johan Emil and Herman Frank Joseph. Three children died young. George, Michael, Johann Jakob, They lived in Ohio almost Three came to the United Mathias, George Friedrich and five years. Two sons were born States: Josef, Christina and Johannes. there. Joseph filed to become a Heinrich. Simon and Maria citizen of the United States in Salomea remained in Germany. 1886. They moved from Ohio to Chris and Lena both died in the Dakota Territory, and nearly Germany. froze and starved during a severe Martin Gerhard (c. 1633- winter while living in a sod 1688) was born in Dinlingen, house. They arrived in Cooper Lahr, Baden-W. Germany. He County, Missouri at the Pilot married Anna Maria Rottenbach Grove railroad station in 1887. and had six children: Gerhard Joseph worked as a farm (his given name), Andreas, laborer for a year and then George,. Anna Maria, Hans rented land for seven years near Jacob and Henricus. Pilot Grove. They bought a farm George Gerhard (1657- near St. Martin’s church, but then 1699) was born in Dinglingen lost it. They moved to Pisgah and and married Anna Muller rented a 400 acre farm, and then (Miller), who was the daughter of in 1904 purchased 192 acres near Jacob Muller. They six children: Speed, later adding 185 acres. Johann Martin, Anna Maria, This farm is presently owned by Johann Jacob, Susanna, Georg, Herman Gerhardt’s daughter and Anna Barbara. Roberta (Birdie) Kueckelhan. Georg Gerhard (1696- Joseph and Catherine retired to a 1727) married Magdalena Reck home in Speed in 1919 where and they had four children: Joseph died. Catherine moved Mathias, Catharina, Anna Maria, back to the farm with Herman’s and Johan Georg. family, and lived there until she Johan Georg Gerhard died in 1943. (1725-1777) married Anna Christian Friedrick Maria Marggraf and they had six Gerhardt was born on 18 Dec children born in Tutschfelden: 1818. He died on 12 Sep 1893. Johan Georg, Johann Jakob, He married Magdalena Maria Catharina, Anna Maria, Schlenker. Unknown, and Michael. Christian Friedrich (Chris) Johann Jakob Gerhard Gerhardt was born in (1757-1801) Jakob married Tutschfelden and married Regina Oesterle and they had Magdalena Schlenker (Lena) one child: Johann Georg. who was also born in Johann Georg Gerhard Tutschfelden. They had eight (1792-1866) Georg married children: Christian Friedrich, Maria Magdalina Mukdiler Simon, Josef, George Friedrich, (Mutschler) and they had eight Maria Magdelena, Christina, children: a son who died at birth,

~ 80 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 20 Dolphin Davis and Ophelia Chaffee

John Murray Davis, Nancy gave one of the albums to each McClary’s cousin, says that the of her children, and one to each Davis clan has always been of her nieces and nephews. known as a family of avid story In her dedication, she tellers. From the tales included offered the following: here in, it appears that they had “I have put together this wonderful material to work with. book…so that you can remember Springing from deep in the your grandfather Davis and South, the Davis family has roots know a little about the family he going back to the 1500s, and has and your grandmother came a family tree that had sprawled from. from Alabama to Kansas by the “I want you to share in the mid 19th century. After the Civil history of this family and make it War, the family moved on to your own. Someday when you Kansas. Mathew Cary Davis and have children of your own, you his wife Bertha Elizabeth Murray can get his album out and show came to Boonville in the early them the pictures. This is your 1900s, and his family has been family, be proud of it and work rooted in Boonville ever since. hard to make it proud of you.” It was there that Mathew and Bertha’s daughter Beth The most distant known Davis was living when she met Davis ancestor for which a Ophelia Chafee Davis and married Nancy McClary’s photograph is known is father, Hubert (Bert) Clinton Ophelia Chaffee Davis. Pic- after the Civil War. The Davis, the great, great grandfa- McClary. tured on this page, she is the family’s recorded history dates ther of Ophelia Chaffee Davis. For Christmas 1988, Beth great, great grandmother of back to even before the Revo- The birthdate of Thomas Davis (Davis) McClary assembled a Nancy McClary. The Davis lutionary War. is not known, but it is known beautiful album of family photos family has its roots in the deep The most distant known he married Hortense Hodge in and memories, from which most and rural South, having come Davis ancestor of Nancy 1735. Thomas and Hortense of this section is excerpted. She up from Alabama to Missouri McClary’s was a Thomas are known because they were

~ 81 ~ The Callans and McClarys parents of Dolphin Davis, the Amos Chaffee and Sara She was buried in Town Creek as first Davis for whom a birth Munroe are the most distant well. year is known. He was born in ancestors known in the family Dolphin Chaffee Davis, born 1759, and had one known of Beth Davis, Nancy in 1862, was the great grandfather brother, Archibald. The name McClary’s mother. Amos of Nancy McClary. Dolphin Dolphin has passed through parents were Thomas Chaffee Chaffee Davis was Ophelia’s only several generations of the Davis , Jr (1712-1792) and Rebecca son. She lived in Town Creek, family, but Thomas and Hunt (1717-?) They were Ala. and was married to Dr. Hortense may have been the married in 1739. The father Dolphin Davis. She and her first to use it on their children. of Sara Munroe were Nathan husband were cousins. The name Dolphin is so Munroe, born on Sept. 29, Dr. Dolphin Davis of 1834 common in the Davis family 1730 in Bristol Rhode Island. was in the Civil War as a doctor that it may be useful to refer to HE married Hannah and of course served the Confed- them by the year they were Humphrey Allen on Nov. 21, erate Army. The story goes that born when discussing the Davis 1751. Nathan passed away on while he was home on furlough he lineage. This first Dolpin March 6, 1806 in Rehoboth, went Coon hunting with some Davis, son of Thomas Davis, Massachussetts. friends and that he or someone was the Dolphin Davis of 1759. Two years after they were shot at a coon, hit a tree branch This Dolphin n married Ann married, Orindatus and Hannah that broke off and hit the good Stevenson, birth date unknown, Mary Chaffee had a daughter, Doctor in the head and killed him. in 1787. The couple had a son, Ophelia Chaffee Davis, in 1841. Ophelia was pregnant with Orindatus Davis, in 1795. At this point, the family tree their child, Dolphin Chaffee Davis Dolphin Davis of 1759 died in doubles back on itself. (of 1862), at the time. According 1819 and his wife Ann in 1820. Recall that Thomas Davis to papers found by Nancy In 1839, Orindatus Davis, and Hortense (Hodge) had a son McClary’s mother Mary Elizabeth then about 43, married the 17- named Dolphin (of 1759), and (Davis) McClary, Ophelia “fled to year-old Hannah Mary another son, named Archibald. the mountains with a nigger nurse Chaffee. Hannah was decended Their son Archibald married to avoid Sherman’s Army and from a long line of Chaffees. Elizabeth Hibbard, and together, Dolphin was born there.” Her parents were Otis Chaffee they had a son, also named “She would never remarry (1777-1864) and Amy Thomas Davis. In 1832, Thomas because she did not want any Underwood (1782-1854). All married Mary Slade. They had a other man to lay a hand on her four of her grandparents are son they named Dolphin in 1834. precious little boy.” known. Otis’s parents were This Dolphin Davis of 1834 This may be part of the Amos Chaffee (1750-1793) and married Ophelia ChaffeeDavis on reason that Nancy McClary’s great Sara Munroe (1754-1800). Dec. 5, 1860, on the eve of the grandmother didn’t get along with Amy Underwood’s parents Civil War. Because of this lineage, her. If no man was good enough were Nicholas Underwood it is clear that both Ophelia and to be a father to the boy, one can and Phoebe Brownell. Nicho- her husband were cousins, having only imagine how she felt about las was born May 5, 1759 in had the same grandparents, the woman he married. Rhode Island, and died Aug . Thomas and Hortense Davis. 22, 1800 in Westport, Dolphin Davis of 1834 died Massachussetts. Phoebe was in 1862. Ophelia Chaffee Davis born in 1757, and died on lived 62 years longer, dying in July 8, 1797. The parents of 1934 in Town Creek, Alabama.

~ 82 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 21 Birmingham, Alabama, on 22 Arkansas City. He was a conduc- April 1895. A newspaper clipping, tor. One night he was checking Dolphin Chaffee Davis the text of which is reproduced at cars, it was cold and icy and and right, told the story of their wed- somehow he fell off the train. MAttie Gough Bustin ding day. They didn’t find him for two days Aunt Cary continued: and he laid out in the cold for the “When they moved from Bir- two days unable to move. After mingham, Jerushi wanted to go that he was never well, he lost part with them but Mama told her “no, of his hearing and was not able to those Nothern Niggers will kill work for the railroad any more. you.” The Doctor told Mama that he “Grandma Davis was mar- needed lots of fresh air and such. I ried before she married Dolphin think that is why they moved to the Davis. Her first husband was Julius farm. Stonewall Sweeney. He died “Papa was a peace loving Dolphin Chaffee Davis was had a Negro woman named before their first child, Nanelou man and also a well read and born on 12 Dec 1862 in Town Jerushi that did all the cooking and was born. educated man. He read a lot. Creek, Alabama. He died on 29 took care of the family.” “Grandpa Davis worked for Mama always said he wasn’t really Jan 1928 in Arkansas City, Ks. He The couple was married in the railroad after they moved to reading, he was just holding the married Mattie Gough Bustin on 22 Apr 1895 in Birmingham, Alabama. Mattie Gough Bustin was born on 22 Jun 1868 near Birmingham, Alabama. She died on 19 Apr 1936 in Arkansas City, Kansas. The following are some of Aunt Cary’s stories about her mother and father. (Mama is Mattie Gough) “Mama’s Mother ran a boarding house in Birmingham and people would stay there and come in and eat meals and such. Papa worked for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and he would come into the boarding house for his meals when he was in Birmingham. Mama always said that the only reason he married her was because he thought she was the cook. She wasn’t. They

Dolphin Chaffe Davis and Mattie Gough Davis. ~ 83 ~ The Callans and McClarys book in his lap so nobody would about just about anything. People became a music teacher in her bother him. of all walks of life came to her for adult life.” D.C. Davis, Mama would go to town and advise. Everyone from local Dolphin preceded her in a former rail give music lessons, as a way to politicians to old Negro freemen. death by eight years, dying on 29 conductor, Dies supplement their income. Papa “There are many stories of Jan 1928.l The text of the D. C. Davis, 62 of 326 was supposed to stay home and “Mama’s’ failed attempts at newspaper report of his death is north 3rd St. died at 10 take care of the kids and such, but farming. She tried her hand at reproduced at right. o’clock this morning after a since he couldn’t hear and (he) wine making and chicken and pig The lineage of Mattie lingering illness. He had read all the time they probably got raising and strawberry and corn Gough Bustin can be traced well been in poor health since last spring and was in criti- into a lot of mischief. growing etc. I don’t think I have back into the 1500s. She was the cal condition for two Following are some stories ever heard a success story. Prob- daughter of William Buestin, months. that Mattie Gough’s daughter Cary ably because they don’t make as was born in 1805. He died in Mr. Davis had been a recalled to Nancy McClary’s good of stories. 1878. He married Gough Ann resident of Arkansas City mother, Mary Elizabeth (Davis) “Grandma Davis was the Whitaker in 1827. Gough Ann since 1900. He was formerly a Santa Fe conductor, with McClary. Again, the “Mama” in ruling force in the family and what Whitaker was born in 1806. She a run out of this city. He was the story is Mattie Gough. I have gathered didn’t ask died in 1875. She was the a member of the local Order “Mama didn’t know much Grandpa Davis opinion. daughter of Matthew Cary of Railway Conductors, the about farming but she read the “Cary said that after she Whitaker, who was born on 21 Masonic Lodge and the 1st Kansas Farmer faithfully and moved way and married, Mama Feb 1762 in Halifax Nova Presbyterian Church. Mr. Davis was a native of Ala- followed what it said to do reli- would send one or the other of the Scotia. He died in Jun 1814 in bama and came to this city giously. If the Kansas Farmer said boys to visit her. If they got to be Halifax. He married Elizabeth from Birmingham. to do something Mama would do too much for her off they would Ann Coffield1768-1819) they The widow and four it. Or at least try. She decided to go to New MExico. From what I were married on 13 Mar 1787. children survive. The chil- plant strawberries ‘one time. She gathered it seemed to be Dad that Mathew Cary Whitaker dren are Miss Nanelou Sweeney, Arkansas City, planted not by the patch but by the got shipped off the most. He was a was the son of Gough Whitaker Mrs. Gary Blair, Albuquer- acre; well maybe not acres, but a lot less studious than Pug and Gough married Martha Cary. que, N.M., Gough and Bubs BIG BIG BIG patch. probably a lot harder to handle. Gough Whitaker was the Davis, Arkansas City. “The strawberries were They had another brother, son of John Whitaker and Sarah Funeral services are to coming along fine in April and Johnnie. He ran of and joined the Gough. Martha Cary was the be held at 10:30 o’clock to- morrow in the 1st Presbyte- May. I had the measles, I remem- Army during World War I. He daughter of Miles Cary (1655- rian Church. Dr. Frederick ber. The strawberries were just got sick while in the Army and 1724) and Elizabeth Cocke. Maier will officiate. Officials beginning to ripen when Jack Frost never really recovered. He died at John Whitaker was the son of the Masonic Lodge also came along. Those strawberries an early age from complications of of Richard Whitaker, dates will have a part in the ser- were frozen solid the next morn- his illness. There was another unknown. Miles Cary was the vices. Burial will be made in Riverview Cemetery. The ing. Mama was so mad, she was brother, Robert, but he only lived son of Miles Cary (1620-1667) Powell mortuary is in charge. standing at the foot of my bed and to be about eighteen months of and Anne Taylor. was giving Dad the devil because age. Richard Whitaker’s father John Cary was the son of those strawberries froze. ““Mama was educated also. was William Whitaker, who William Cary (1550-1633) and “Poor old Dad, it was a good She had been brought up a proper died 1662. Miles Cary of 1620 Alice Gaudall. thing that he couldn’t hear very Southern woman and knew music was the son of John Cary, born Jabez Whitaker was the son well, he just stood there and took and sewing and the finer things. 10 April 1583, and Alice of William Whitaker, 1548-1595 it. Mama put great store in educa- Hubson. and Mrs. Dudley Fenner. And “Mama was always ahead of tion. She tried to teach all of her William Whitaker was the this William Whitaker, born in her time. She always had good children music but it only took on son of Jabez Whitaker (1595-? 1548, is the most distant known ideas and could talk to anyone her eldest daughter, Nanelou. She And Mary Bourcheir. ancestor of Nancy McClary. ~ 84 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 22 to a little girl at school who did piano lessons as a young girl. I not have a coat. Grandma being found an old picture with her Robert JAmes Murray the kind of person she was sitting at a piano. I kind of doubt and appreciated the gesture but that she really gave it her all Bertha Ida Litschgi wondered why Mom couldn’t because it would have required have given her Uncle Bob’s old that she be in the house to coat; which is what Mom had to practice. wear the rest of the winter. I “Grandpa Murray had a imagine that Mom didn’t care if grocery store in Evansville and in she had to wear the old coat and Arkansas City. He lost everything a boy’s at that. more than once but always “From what I gathered seemed to be able to start over Mom was a real Tom Boy when again. I’m sure that there were she was younger. She wasn’t some hard times when Mom was afraid of much and would try little. All I know is that Grandma Robert James Murray was and Bertha Elizabeth, who was anything at least once. Bob says Murray would have always made born on 9 Apr 1885 in Evans- Nancy McClary’s maternal that she broke her arm several a comfortable home for her ville, Ind. He died on 1 March grandmother. times riding horses. I don’t dougt family and would have always 1957 in Ocala, Fla. He married “I don’t really know much that, I know that she vrok it once provided love and care no matter Bertha Ida Litschgi in Jun 1907 about Mom’s childhood,” recalls doing high jumps in the back what the financial situation might in Evansville, Ind. He resided in Beth (Davis) McClary. yard. be.” Boonville, Mo. He was em- “The only story I can “I think that Mom took The parents of Robert ployed as in Salesman Politician. remember Bertha Ida Litschgi was born on my Grandma Bertha Litschgi and Robert James Murray. 17 Feb 1885 in Evansville, Ind. telling about She died on 1 Nov 1979 in Mom is Columbia, Mo. . about the Robert and Bertha were time she gave married twice, once in. a civil her coat ceremony on June 29, 1907 in away. It Henderson, Kentucky. and again seems that in a church ceremony on Sept. Mom had 21, 1907 in Evansville, Ind. gotten a new “Grandpa was anti-Catholic coat for for some unknown reason,” Beth Christmas or (Davis) McClary recalls. “He something. always took Grandma to church One day she no matter what but he would not came home allow the children to go. Dad and did not always said he thought Mom only have her new joined the Church to spite her coat. When Father.” asked where Robert and Bertha had it was she three children, Robert James, Jr., said that she Oliver Francis, who died at birth, had given it

~ 85 ~ The Callans and McClarys

James Murray were Thomas W. Murray (1839-1912) and Rose Bob Murray lost an arm in a 1930 auto accident in Wamsley. Together they had five sons, Aruba; Boonville papers followed the story closely. Thomas W.Jr, Ellsworth, Ralph, and Lloyd, and Robert James, who was Nancy McClary’s great grand- father. Robert James was the second young- est of the Murray boys. As for Rose Wamsley, she was the daughter of Eli Wamsley and Mary C. (last name unknown). Eli served in Company E of the 65th Indiana Regiment during the Civil War. He was a prisoner of war from Dec. 16, 1863 to Dec. Robert James Murray Jr., the eldest son of 10, 1864. Robert James and Bertha (Litschgi) Murray, The following are worked in Aruba, Dutch West Indies, for Pan- notes from the civil war American Petroleum during the diary of Eli J Wamsley, Great Depression. which is in the Murray Following an auto accident there in August 1930, he had to have his right arm amputated. family’s possesion. The story was widely reported in local Boonville newspapers as word of Bob’s sat. april 1 1865 condition trickled in to the area via letters Camp Chase from Bob’s colleagues in Aruba. Bob and his Columbus Ohio wife Goldie had no children. They lived in Otterville when Nancy McClary’s mother, Beth Leave tonight at (Davis) McClary., was little. midnight for Cincin- “They had a lumber yard and hardware nati. Weather cool store,” Beth recalls. “Bob and I used to go and and clear.Soldiers visit during the summers” when we were little. have no time that t I don’t think John (Beth’s brother) ever went much. He was always kind of a home body.Uncle hey can call their Bob got along real well with only one arm. He own. But are entirely could do just about anything. I have discovered subject to orders.So that he probably never really got over losing it goes the war this first and it is probably the reason that he drank.” day of my tremer anda??

~ 86 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Sunday April 2, 1865 Remain at Cinnati until noon took breakfast at the Soldiers Home and thentook passage on boar d the General Laztte for Louis- ville Ky arrive there Hun>>>> at midnight andremain on deck until day light.

Mon April 3, 1865 Took breakfast this morn- ing at the soldiers home in Louisville, Ky. andleave at one oclock fo r Nashville Tenn via Louisville&Nashville RR

Tuesday April 4 1865 Arrive at Nashville before daylight and stop at the Zalicoffer House andtake break- fast. Ha d a food run through the city and took a good lookthrough the Capitol Building people wild wi ht Jay. Richmond taken the flag flying in every direction.

Wednesday April 5, 1865 Leave for Louisville Ky via L and N RR arrive at Louisville daylight takebreakfast at the Sol diers Home Raining like fury. We are turned over herd to the Grandma Bertha (Listchgi) Murray Authoraties fortransprotation to “Grandma Murray moved into the big house with us a while after Grandpa died,” says Beth (Davis) McClary. “She had a room our regime nts leave in the for herself where the library is now and her kitchen was where my bathroom is. She would only come into the other side of the house when you forced her to. She loved to have us visit her but I think she didn’t want to be in the way. As if that gentle women could be in evening for Indanapolis. anybodies’ way.” Grandma Murray had three brothers, Herman, Charles and Oliver, and one sister Tressa. Herman Litschgi is the only one to have children. He had one son, Herman and he lives in Evansville and has two daughters, Mindy age 24 and Edie age 21. Grandma Murray’s father, Conrad Litschgi, was born in 1841 in Germany. He died in Evansville, Ind. Her mother was the former Bertha Bilger. Bertha Bilger was born in 1854 in Germany. She died in 1923 in Evnasville, Ind. Conrad was married once before he married Bertha and had four children by his first wife. Bertha had at least two sisters, Ida and Lena, and one brother, Charles. Charles Bilger was a priest. He was in the seminary in Germany in 1870 and entered the seminary in America when his family moved to America. He served most of his years in the priest- hood in Indiana.

~ 87 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Chapter 23 MAthew Cary Davis and Bertha Elizabeth Murray

Mathew Cary Davis, the ber we kept chickens , cows, maternal grandfather of Nancy sometimes pigs and once even McClary, was born on 1 May sheep. We had large gardens 1908 in Arkansas City, Kansas. also.” He died on 11 Feb 1988 in Mathew and Bertha met in Columbia, Mo. He was buried Arkansas City, Kansas. They on 14 Feb 1988 in Ss Peter & dated in high school and were Paul Cemetary, Boonville. He married in Kansas City, Mo., married Bertha Elizabeth where they were working at the Murray on 20 Sep 1930 in time of their marriage. They Kansas City, Mo. They resided moved ot Lyons, Kansas, where in Boonville, Mo. He was em- there son Bob was born. They ployed as a salesman and dealer. left Lyons in 1939 to go “they The family moved to a knew not where,” but Mathew house on llth Street when Beth said he would know it when they (Davis) McClary, Nancy got there, according to their McClary’s mother, was about a daughter Beth (Davis) McClary. year old. “He told me later that they “I don’t remember living almost stopped in Sedalia, Mo., anywhere else,” Beth says. “My but something didn’t feel right to early memories of the house him when he got there, so they were the wood cook stove in the came further east. When they Beth wrote down many guess Dad had the better of the kitchen and the big gas heater in came over the hill and saw the memories of her father in a two nicknames. They called the dining room, and that my town below along the river, and family album she assembled in Mom Bibs when she was in potty chair sat in the pantry discovered the fact that there was Boonville the late 1980s. Of her school. Probably because her under the shelf. There were a lot a pool hall in town for sale, they father, she wrote, “Everyone name was Bertha. She hated the more trees around when I was decided to stay. called him Bubs.” name Bertha and when they little. We had lote of fruit trees “Mom was expecting John “I don’t know why but it moved to Boonville she told also; Peach and Plum and Apple at the time and he was born in was the name he had as a child. Dad not to call her Bibs any- and Pear and Cherry. I remem- Boonville.” His brother was called Pug so I more. I can remember him

~ 88 ~ The Callans and McClarys calling her that once in awhile Bibs pulling him. but not often. It was when they The picture on the right is moved here that she started to of Dad taken probably around use her middle name, Elizabeth. his Junior year in high school, I don’t suppose many people in which is the year he dropped Boonville knew what her real out, 1 think. He certainly was a name was. Dad tried to remem- handsome young man. ber to call her Elizabeth of Liz “The story has always been but she on the other hand called that Dad and his brother didn’t him Bubs till the day she died. like each other. There are “Dad quit school for a little several theories about why. One while but Grandma Davis put was that Pug was smarter and great store in an education and Mama always said how wonder- Mom worked on him also. Gary ful he was and how smart. That says that Mama used to say that may be why Dad didn’t like Pug. the only way Bubs finished The other side is that Pug didn’t school was by her pushing and like Dad because he was better looking and taller and more successful with the women than Davis-Murray Pug. I quess we will never know are Wed the real reasons. All I know is that even in adult life they had very little to do with each other and when they did see each Dad in the front yard around 1958-59. “Dad really loved this place.,” sasy his daughter, Beth. “I think he was as proud of owning this 23 acres as of any other of his many accomplish- other the fought. ments. He enjoyed sitting outside even when he got sicker. I can remember him in later years “Since I was so much getting on the tractor and just riding around in the pasture, looking at the cows or just look- younger that the boys (Bob and ing at the grass grow.” John) I don’t know how they got along with each other as little powder looked like he thought anything she was yelling at them. boys. I can imagine that Bob was they should open it and see. There is a story about Bob not real thrilled to have a little They were in a little fruit cellar out playing one cool Autumn brother around to take up his room and Bob got a hammer to morning. He found some tar parent’s attention. tap the shell to loosen it up. He they were using to tar the roof “There are a few stories tapped it once and tried to get it with. He played in it for awhile, it about Bob taking care of his little apart but it wouldn’t come apart. was stiff and made nice shapes brother. I never have gotten He tried it again and it still and balls, etc. He soon tired of straight if the curtains catching wouldn’t come apart. So he gave that and went off to do some- on fire near John’s bed was an it a pretty good whack.... He still thing else. After lunch he de- accident or a purposeful act. You didn’t know what gun powder cided to go play In the tar again. may have to get that story from looked like, but when Mom Instead of just playing with it he Bob. came running she found them decides to stand on it. Well, “Another story is how one both sitting back on their heels quess what, it didn’t hold him up day Bob and John were playing against the wall of the fruit cellar, anymore. I’m not sure but I and found a gun shell and since their eyes as big as their fists, and think he didn’t have to be Bob didn’t know what gun very likely not able to hear spanked because the gasoline ~ 89 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Mother and Daughter These pictures were taken of Grandma Davis around 1961-62, soon before Beth, Nancy McClary’s mother, en- tered the convent.

“When I was looking at negatives 1 didn’t realize that the one picture was of me,” says Beth Davis. “ I thought it was another of Mom. People who knew Mom well have always said I looked like her but 1 guess 1 never realized how much.

“I should have realized that the picture couldn’t have been Mom because she would never have posed for a picture wearing shorts. She would wear shorts around the house but would never go in public with then. I remember one year when she and 1 were going up to see Bob in Wisconsin or Chicago she wore shorts because it was hot driving but when ever she got out of the car she would put on a skirt she kept in the back seat. I never understood because she really did have good looking legs. John always used to tell her she wasn’t bad looking for an old lady. That really endeared him to her.” that was used to get the tar off “When I was born, Septem- mestic animal on the farm in slender but not skinny. As a girl left him raw. ber 4, 1934, my mother was just Missouri. However, my first she had apparently been very Ask both Bob and John over 25, and my memories of coherent memories of her come active— in fact, her left arm was about putting things in gas tanks, her go back to the time I was 2 from the period after we had shorter than her right because like rocks and water. You might or 3. I can remember, when we moved to Boonville some time she had broken it 3 times (her find those stories interesting. were living in Arkansas City, before the summer of 1939. By right only once), and she could Kansas, in an apartment on the that time, she was pregnant with not straighten it. She was report- Bertha Elizabeth Murray second floor over a store, asking John, something I failed to edly an excellent horsewoman, was born on 10 July 1909 in her to come from the other notice. except when she was breaking Evansville, Ind. She died on 23 room and see something I was “What I remember from her arm, and she claims to have Jul 1966 in Boonville, Mo. She doing/ and she replied that she this period, and summarizing ridden horses that her brother was buried on 25 July 1966 in could see. I wondered how she from my childhood, until the Bob (older by a year and a Boonville, Mo. She resided in could see through walls. Another time I went to college, follows. week, July 3, 1908 to July 10, Boonville Mo. She was em- memory: her running me down “Bertha Elizabeth Murray 1909) would not attempt. She ployed as in Bookkeeper. Her in Coffeyville, Kansas, while I Davis (she tried to forget the first was also a good dancer and tried son Robert Murray Davis had was looking in a store window. I name, which was also her to teach high school kids the many warm memories of her, don’t remember wandering off, mother’s, and never forgot the Charleston in the late 40 ‘s and which he recorded in a letter to but I must have. And of her third, which was her father’s) was early 50 ‘s. When she was in her the family, which is excerpted in trying to find me when I was a very active woman, probably late 40 ‘s or even older, she the following paragraphs. playing with some kind of do- about 5 ‘6" .or 7" , dark hair, could stand flat on one foot and ~ 90 ~ The Callans and McClarys kick the top of the door from the furniture back from Wichita, she equivalent of many college other kids kitchen to the dining room of the seemed totally ignorant of how to degrees today: she still remem- to chaperone hayrides and big house at 1000 llth street, back it up to the dock), but when bered some of the Latin she had other parties, drive teams to ball which is over six feet high, with told that she obviously couldn’t learned, and in other ways the games before we were important the other. For her time and do it because she was a woman, rigor was greater than my high enough to rate bus transporta- place, a good swimmer . she raised such hell that every- school education, which ended tion/ and in later high school I always thought she was one caved in and, accompanied in 1951. years provide the house for prettier than the mothers of my by R. D. “s wife, she made the Her hands were very active, parties. contemporaries, and certainly trip/ stopping at a cotton field to whether she was talking or She was, I think, good with she acted younger. The idea pull a stalk to bring me. smoking a cigarette or (as usual) her own children, in the first about her looks might not have The most frustrated she both. Like her father, she place, she had the sense to let us been purely subjective. Once, ever got was on an occasion seemed to lean forward into a pretty much alone. • Occasion- driving back from a visit to when she was going to drive from conversation, and she tried to ally she would give me mild Wichita, in a little town in Schlotzhauer ‘s Buick-Interna- satisfy her curiosity about almost remonstrances about my worst Kansas, some teenagers pulled tional dealership, where she was everything by listening and habits—losing my temper, being up slightly behind the driver’s bookkeeper, in a pickup truck asking questions or reading. She unkind to or about others (she side of the car and whistled at headed in to the side of the love to see new things. When we had a pretty sharp tongue her- her. I leaned back and shouted, building. She kept putting the first moved to Boonville, Mis- self), not suffering fools gladly. “That’s my old lady” (which in stick shift where reverse ought to souri, in 1939, she was fasci- She didn’t push me to perform those days meant mother , not be, and the truck would inch nated by the MKT railroad in any particular area. She may spouse or spouse -equivalent), forward, she finally found out— bridge over the which raised its have seen me play basketball and and she tried to shush me. perhaps she had to ask, which middle section to let riverboats baseball, but I can’t remember She was an excellent driver, would have irritated her even pass. When she heard the an occasion (when she carpooled not only for a woman but by any further—that the transmission whistle, she would grab me and teams, I was still a standard. Probably — she cer- had 4 forward speeds and the head for the riverbank to watch benchwarmer), but she did tainly thought so— she was a reverse was not top left but it. attend performances of plays and better driver than my father. somewhere else. It is a good thing that she recitals in which I appeared. Certainly she was more consis- She was a terrible backseat could find the river, because in .And I think that she was pleased tently sober behind the wheel, driver, at least with me. Once I the 27 years she lived in with my grades and with my and at all times more attentive to was driving west on 6th street Boonville she knew which way status as one of the most compe- the road, since he tended to get towards Locust and she was was north only by looking for tent altar boys and leader of distracted by something he might warning me about cars 2 blocks the bridge that carried U.S. 40 prayers at the daily mass which buy or sell or, like a good herd ahead. So I stopped the car in (Main Street) over the Missouri. most parochial school children of cattle, could just admire. the middle of the street, opened And like everyone else in attended {we certainly did; Dad, Once, during the second world the door, got out, and told her to Boonville, she walked length- an unchurched Protestant, saw to war, when a local man (R. D. drive. After that, she was a little ways on a downtown sidewalk that). The Christmases she Patrick, an auctioneer, I think) more reticent with her-advice, only under protest. arranged (at least I gave her needed a bull (perhaps several) but not much. Otherwise, she seemed rather than Dad the credit) have transported to Texas and could She must not have led a younger and far more energetic made all subsequent ones seem not find a driver for his semi, sheltered girlhood—she said that than the mothers of my contem- disappointing. I had toys and Mom offered to make the run she was 25 years old before she poraries, who did not smoke, at other playthings which none of though I do not know that she knew that you could drink Dr. least in public, and were prob- my friends seemed to have (she had ever driven that large a truck Pepper straight. Her high school ably far better cooks and house- let Dad’s half-sister, Nanelou before (and later, when we towed education in Arkansas City, keepers {not a difficult feat). She Sweeney, a school-teacher and a trailer full of Dad’s family Kansas was apparently the was in great demand from the musician, take care of the

~ 91 ~ The Callans and McClarys

Grandma Davis and sweet saxophone I wanted), though all or, after an abortive tempt ot get Little Mary Beth (Nancy’s three of us have good voices— me to read David Copperfield, mother) in late 1944 or early 1945. better than she, I think. She was guide it. Once, after I had read apparently a very good bridge Edmund Wilson’s Memoirs of player, but my brother John Hecate County, I tried to dis- type some term would be a better judge of this suade her from reading what papers for me, and because that was this was the seemsed to me a pornographic at every new line only family vice I never acquired. book. It was certainly explicit for would slap my little She was practically an its time and place. portable halfway omnivorous and certainly a “She would have loved across the table. She voracious reader, like her father further education, and I suspect was an excellent and eldest child. She belonged to that one of the sources of strain speller, claiming to the Book of the Month Club, or between her and Barbara have been marked one of the smaller ones, and Hillyer, whom I married in wrong only once in bought a number of historical 1958, was that Barbara got the her schooling, and other novels with soft-core education which time and unjustly, for putting sex scenes which as an adoles- circumstance denied her. In 4 loops on an “m.” cent I hunted up (I remember addition, she probably thought She was also The Stumpet Wind/ The that Barbara reinforced what to good, if somewhat Queen’s Physician, and some- her were the less attractive sides dogmatic, at gram- thing about a pirate who rescues of my character. Besides, I came mar, insisting that I hTs” lover from a harem) and to rely on Barbara and not on could not begin a read surreptitiously. She also her. In any case, they never got books). On the other hand, her sentence with a conjunction. She frequented the library, at first on well, though from my point of taste in clothes was embarrassing. could also write clearly and housed in the northeast corner view I thought Barbara behaved Her favorite color was yellow, correctly, and once, when I was of the Cooper County Court more civilly. and I can still remember a in default on an essay on the House, across from the men’s “Mom did not seem to be horrible pullover shirt she Jesuits in North American (I room with the floor-length afraid of much except, occasion- bought me at a time when no think) for a high school contest, urinals big enough, when I first ally and unpredictably, public white boy wore yellow. As a (she)theoretically edited but in went there, for me to fall into. opinion, and then largely on my teenager, I picked up a shiny fact pretty much wrote it for me. There was an elderly woman— account. She was certainly not, gold bowling shirt with the name She loved music and played Mrs. Fredericks? That was the though a communicant at Saints of the team still visible in an the piano vigorously, though I name of the hotel across High Peter and Paul Church, awed by attempt to parody her taste. could not judge and cannot Street—in charge, and a much priests or by the nuns who ran Either that was impossible or she remember how well. We did not younger woman—she must have the parochial grade and high has a sense of humor, for she have a piano until someone been quite young then, Jessie school. I don’t know whether she professed to think it perfectly loaned it to us rather than store it Dedrick, who never got a college was indifferent to vocations or lovely. some time late in or just after education or a husband but who whether she knew me too well, She was the fastest typist I World War II. She wanted her inherited the library and ran it but she never encouraged me to have ever seen and preferred a children to learn but did not until her death. Mom was obvi- become a priest as mothers were large manual which she could insist, and as far as I know, I was ously one of their major patrons, supposed to do. But then her batter without its moving. Once the only one to take formal and between the two of us we father was a fairly militant atheist, she came to Lawrence, where I music lessons (on the trombone, must have increased their circu- and my sister Beth has a theory was a graduate student at the on which Dad had got a good lation figures considerably. She that Mom remained a Catholic University of Kansas, to visit and deal, rather than the tenor never tried to censor my reading (the only respect in which she

~ 92 ~ The Callans and McClarys followed the example of her night). I can only remember, too mother, a very devout first- vaguely to specify, one or two generation German-American occasions on which they demon- Catholic who believed in kirche, strated any of the signs of love or kinder, and kuche and was good affection which the movies had at all three. taught me. “Mom hated housework “I do know that, after I was and was a very indifferent cook in graduate school, she in effect in both senses of the adjective, asked my permission to divorce initially to annoy her father, Dad and take a job in Kansas whom she resembled in a strik- City. Doing so might have ing number of ways. She married prolonged her life. Frustration as a non-Catholic—and a Democrat well as nicotine probably caused at that, she remained a yellow- the stomach cancer which killed dog Republican all her life, and her. I also know, though this is once, after I reached 21 (then about Dad rather than Mom, the voting age) she threatened to that when the cancer was diag- refuse to get me an absentee nosed, Dad sold a lucrative ballot because I threatened not business to devote something to vote a straight ticket and her like full-time attention to her and cohorts at the Cooper County that when, after a long and Court House would know that I painful illness during which she hadn’t voted right. refused intravenous feeding, she Dad asserted himself—he died, he was more stunned than rarely did so, but always to great I ever saw him before or since.” effect—and said that he would get me the ballot. “Like most children, I suspect, I’m not sure why my parents married each other. There may not have been many Catholics in Ark City, and Dad was not only handsome but wild in interesting and not very indictable ways. Their marriage puzzled me when it didn’t frighten me (on the occasions when Dad would be gone for several days on a drinking bout and Mom would be frantic with worry or when Mom’s voice would get more and more vehement as Dad would mutter something unsatisfactory three rooms away in the middle of the

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Chapter 24 Hubert “Bert” McClARY AND Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Davis

Hubert (“Bert”) Clinton told her that I could do anything McClary, Nancy’s father, was reasonable anyone told me to born on 19 Aug 1943 in do. She then asked me about the Boonville, Mo. He married vow of Chastity. That was the Mary Elizabeth (“Beth”) Davis one I had a problem with. I told on 31 Jul 1965 in Boonville, Mo. her that I wanted to get married Betg was born on 27 Jul 1944 in and have a family. She told me Boonville, Mo. The couple met that was only natural. Believe it while Beth was still studying in a or not I didn’t come back with a Catholic high school to become smart answer like, “then why are Nancy, Kevin, Bert and Beth McClary, ca. 1980. a nun. you here?” “I went to High School at “I left the Novitiate at the can preserver our virtue for our months after I left but he was the Apostolic School at the end of July 1964, just two weeks heavenly boyfriend.” Several patient and waited for me to Mother-house in Concordia, before profession. I got married boys from class had gone to realize that I really did love him Kansas. for all four years,” Mary on July 31, 1965, had my first Preparatory Seminary that year. and wanted to marry him.” Beth recalls “I entered the child (Nancy Anne) on Sept. 7, So I raised my hand and asked if “If she had followed rule #6 Convent on Sept. 7, 1962 and 1966 and my second child (John we could date seminarians and of the Handbook, she says, “I took the habit on Aug. 15,1963. Kevin) on Sept. 25, 1967. So no preserve our virtue together. might still be in the convent.” I have always been glad that I did one can say I wasted anytime Needless to say that didn’t go Bert McClary was named it and would not trade those doing what I said I wanted to do. over to well. As a matter of fact after his uncle Hubert Gerhardt, years for anything. “When I was in the Apos- they were not sure they were who was killed in a hunting “When I told the Mother tolic School we had a little blue going to let me come back my accident when he was 16. He was Superior that I did not want to rule book. It had rules for all Sophomore year. mostly known as “Hubie” by make Profession, she asked me occasions. I remember when I “Part of the reason that I family and friends, except that if I had any problem with the was a Freshman we were going left the convent was because of his Grandmother Gerhardt vow of Poverty. I said, what over the rules for vacation Bert. I can admit that now. would only call him Hubert, as poverty, I had clothes to wear, a behavior before Thanksgiving When I thought of getting she had her own son. He ac- place to live, and the best food I vacation. married it was always Bert that I quired the nickname Bert from had ever had. She then asked “Rule #6 read: We will not saw myself as being married to. I his new best friend the first week about the vow of Obedience. I date while on vacation so that we tried to deny that for several of college (no Hubie at college,

~ 94 ~ The Callans and McClarys and Hubert was too formal). over 5 feet tall, and the stock boy Dangerous Drugs. He accepted Bert grew up in a lower he replaced was a handsome six an early retirement offer in middle class neighborhood in feet four inch senior, John Davis, 2000, and he continues to work Boonville about ½ block from Beth’s brother. He met Beth later about half-time. Bert’s current where his mother still lives. He at the store, but their relationship job is much the same as before had a happy childhood, many did not begin for several years. It (except no management respon- friends in the neighborhood, and may well not have happened had sibility): evaluating drug control has many fun memories of it not been for this casual acquain- in licensed health-care facilities, growing up. The family lived tance. writing and interpreting drug close to the edge of town so he The first real trauma in his control regulations, and investi- had woods & pastures to play in life was when his best friend was gating and disciplining licensed as well as quiet neighborhood killed in a car accident when he health-care professionals for streets. He had occasional was 16. violations of controlled sub- physical limitations due to Bert attended the School of stance laws. His “retirement” chronic asthma, but most of the Pharmacy at the University of came shortly after the birth of time could participate in every- Missouri at Kansas City. Math their first (and so far only) John Kevin McClary, age 2, and Nancy Anne thing. He also began to wear and chemistry weren’t his stron- grandchild, Steven Coltrane McClary, age 3. glasses for nearsightedness in the gest classes, and he did much McClary-Day, who lives next third grade. better in biological sciences, but door to Bert and Beth. He graphic than this. After leaving Bert was a very good, but no academic honors. He was very manage to spend a day or two a the convent in 1964 she attended not excellent, student through active in student professional week as babysitter. one year at St. Mary’s Hospital high school, graduating in the top activities and was president of his Beth McClary went to high School of Nursing in Kansas 10% of his class of 100. The only graduating class. He did not school at the apostolic school of City. Bert and Beth were mar- “unsatisfactory” grade he got was consider graduate school at the the Sisters of St. Joseph in ried on July 31, 1965. in the second grade for chewing time, and years later the program Concordia, Kansas. She was Beth worked occasional gum in class. he would liked to have done home only during holidays and part-time jobs with her father and Bert went to work at Long’s required driving to St. Louis (150 vacations. She served as life- drove a school bus while the Drug Shop at age 13 in order to miles) two nights a week after guard and taught swimming children were young. She went to have spending money, and for work. lessons at the local pool in the work full time in 1974 after the several years he also contributed Beth’s mother was terminally summer. After high school she family moved to Columbia. Her some towards the family fi- ill when Bert graduated in 1966, continued as a novitiate at the employer was then known as nances. He worked about 30 so Bert and Beth came to convent. She made first profes- Philips & Company, a privately hours per week during school, Boonville and he started work at sion of her vows in August, owned electrical supply distribu- and about 55 hours per week in the University of Missouri-Colum- 1963, taking the name Sister St. tor with seven stores in Missouri. the summer. His father, Clinton bia Hospital and Clinics. He Matthew, in honor of her father It has been sold to several McClary, unknowingly set up the continued there as Assistant Mathew Davis. Her father corporate entities, and currently two major focuses of the rest of Director of Pharmacy Services for attended this ceremony with her is owned by Consolidated his life. He had told a neighbor 22 years. Deciding he needed a family. Beth says she remem- Electrical Distributors (CED) about an opening for a clerk at change, in 1988 he accepted a job bers little of the activities out- which operates about 500 stores the store, and later when the with the Missouri Department of side the ceremony, but does in the United States and Europe. owner needed a “stock boy” the Health in Jefferson City and remember laughing with her Beth started in this blue neighbor told Bert about the job. worked for 13 years as pharmacy best friend about how to go to collar environment selling This of course started his profes- consultant for the Department, the bathroom wearing their new lighting fixtures in the show- sional career. He was a skinny and as Assistant Administrator of habits. Her description of the room. She quickly advanced to little eighth grader not much the Bureau of Narcotics and process was somewhat more purchasing agent for the Colum-

~ 95 ~ The Callans and McClarys bia store, corporate Director of six feet tall, but still skinny. Beth door and said “What are you message from her friend that Purchasing for the seven stores, was an excellent swimmer, and doing here?” Stunned, he said “I “Beth is home, but she is going assistant manager of the Colum- Bert particularly remembers her thought we were going out to Chicago.” Nothing else. He bia store, and eventually as diving off a high wall at the front tonight.” She said, “No, I mean was both excited and nervous for manager of the Columbia, of the pool into water about 2 ½ nobody ever comes to our front the next couple of weeks until Jefferson City and Osage Beach feet deep, thinking he wouldn’t door.” Bert doesn’t remember Bert and Beth were both back stores. This is a male-dominated do that on a bet. much about the movie. He home and he got to see her industry and Beth was the only On the last day the pool thinks it was “North to Alaska,” again. He was surprised to find female manager of a full line was open that year, he had but is sure it was a pleasant and she had short hair. She bought a CED location in the country. called another friend’s house in memorable evening. red wig to wear until her hair Beth has excelled at her job and the evening, but he was not Bert and Beth didn’t see grew out, and the first time they won praise from everyone from home. He asked his sister if she each other until Christmas, dropped in to see some friends her lowest paid employee to the wanted to go out and she said although she had a friend they thought “who is that harlot president of the 500 store com- she wanted to stay home, but smuggle a short letter to him. he’s bringing here?” Beth then pany. Tiring of the long hours at that he should go by the pool They continued to date when convinced her mother to let her the stores and frustrations of and see Mary Beth “because I she was home and write when go to school in Kansas City. personnel management, about think she wants to go out with she was away for two years, Bert and Beth dated the middle of the year 2000 she you.” although it was strongly discour- through the year, and, after a accepted an opportunity to install This really floored Bert, he aged by the Sisters, and some- couple of bumpy months during CED’s new inventory control and says, because he had no idea what by her mother. Bert says he the winter, began talking about customer accounts system, and Mary Beth would consider going doesn’t know if Beth’s father marriage. Bert says Beth actually train staff in the use of it. She out with someone as “geeky” as approved or disapproved. mentioned it first, one evening as currently travels throughout him. But not to pass up an “He impressed me as a they were sitting in a park on a CED’s Midwestern division opportunity, he dropped by the gruff person, but was always bluff just west of downtown (primarily in six states) serving as pool and casually asked if she cordial to me, though not neces- Kansas City, overlooking the trainer and management consult- needed a ride home. She and sarily friendly,” Bert says. “One Missouri River. Bert was ready, ant. one of her friends did, so he evening after we were home and with just one more year of After Bert had worked at took the friend home and Bert “talking” in the back yard, he school, so they told their parents Long’s for a while, he learned and Beth drove around a while. turned on the light and yelled and made plans. Bert proposed John had a younger sister, and a Bert asked her if she “Mary Beth, do you know what to her under the pine trees year or so later Beth came to the wanted to go to a movie before time it is? Get in here!” I was out across from the residence hall store with her best friend, whose she went back to school in two of there like a bullet. Beth later where he lived on the UMKC sister was a clerk there. Bert days. She said she would have to said he had woken up and campus. recalls that he and Beth talked let him know, as she may al- thought the clock said 5:00, but it Of course, not being Catho- briefly, but it was not love at first ready have a date. The next day was only 12:25.” lic, he had to take lessons from a sight, although, he says, “I do seemed to go by very slowly, Bert says it was very trau- monsignor, and had to “sign his recall that she was pretty.” Bert says, but when he called matic for him the summer that children away,” should they ever During the summer after his she said she could go. He went she left. He only had an occa- have any, to be baptized Catho- junior year in high school he to her house later and went to sional “hello” from her via lic. They had a beautiful wedding hung out at the swimming pool the front door like a gentleman friends during the next year. in the beautiful old church, occasionally with a best friend and knocked. During the summer of 1964 he which has since been torn down who had also been lifeguard at Bert says he he heard her attended a national pharmacy to provide room for a new the pool. Beth had grown up grandmother say “Mary Beth, meeting in New York (at the colonial style building and its considerably and was very attrac- someone’s at the front door.” time of the World’s Fair). parking lot. They spent a one- tive in her swimsuit. Bert was now She pulled open the heavy front During a call home he received a day honeymoon in Kansas City

~ 96 ~ The Callans and McClarys and came back to a well deco- herself,). She and Uncle Buster grown up and gone, though rated apartment. only knew one way to drive: Kevin has temporarily returned before (several times). Beth worked the next year “Open it up.” She still goes next door. Now Bert and Beth Bert said “Like this one?” at Macy’s, Bert finished school, through grocery store parking have time to spend together, and immediately slipped a and they moved back home to lots like a rally car on a closed think about their lives together, diamond ring on her finger. He Boonville. The kids came along European road course. and the life Nancy and Al are had been holding it in his hand. like clockwork — one, two — “The teen years had some beginning. “Beth has been a wonderful thanks to playing what Bert memorable moments, such as Inside Bert’s wedding ring mother,” says Bert. “She has called “Roman Roulette,” techni- the standard “I’m going to stay at is the inscription “Your love is been a wonderful wife, she has cally known as the rhythm Jane’s house tonight” (and of my life,” and inside Beth’s ring given me a beautiful family and a method of birth control. course Jane was staying at our is “One love, forever.” Through beautiful home, and I cannot ask Bert and Beth have many house). We had an outside fire the hard times the love they for more.” warm memories of their children escape bolted to the wall from have for each other has pre- growing up in Boonville, which the second floor, directly under vailed, Bert says. he wrote down in a letter the her window. I’m sure she never Bert and Beth celebrated week before the April 20, 2002, used it. During her junior year their 25th wedding anniversary in wedding of their daughter Nancy she spoke to us two or three 1990 by taking a motorcycle trip, to Al Callan. times, but by the time she gradu- as they usually do on their ated she had become a wonder- summer vacation. That year they “Nancy and Kevin have ful, loving daughter again. She ended up in a nice old hotel on certainly been the joy of our even consented to go on a the Plaza in Kansas City. The lives,” Bert says. “Since they Caribbean cruise, our last family hotel where they spent their were born just over 12 months vacation. honeymoon has been torn down apart, it almost seems that we “Nancy really went to town and the site now contains office have always had them both, when she went to college. Any- buildings, but they still occasion- though I do remember times thing less than an A was a huge ally go to the IHOP where they alone with just Nancy. I remem- disappointment, and there were had breakfast the next day. ber holding her on my lap and only a few as she progressed Beth surprised Bert with a combing her baby hair, and then through two undergraduate wonderful written reminiscence when she was seven or eight, degrees and a master’s. She of many of the wonderful times sitting behind her and combing continued to work during college of their life together, accompa- her long, thick blond hair after a (so she would have money to buy nied by a tape of popular songs shower. She knew how I hated a car when she graduated), and I of the period that remind them for her to have it cut, and I still was quite surprised when she of those moments. have the long braided lock she earned $17,000 one summer It was a beautiful, warm July gave to me after. selling books. She was always evening, and as they sat side by “She was an excellent outgoing like her mother and side on the grass under the pine student through high school, adventurous (like her mother trees where Bert had proposed, though she didn’t always apply probably would have enjoyed), they discussed their life and their her ability as she could have. studying in Mexico and Peru, anniversary. With just a note of Teaching her to drive was more and spending a couple of sum- disappointment and chastise- a learning experience for me mers tramping around Europe ment, Beth said she wished she (she only needed to learn the with a backpack. could have had a diamond technique of clutching and Many wonderful years have anniversary ring like she had shifting, she could do the rest gone by, Kevin and Nancy have mentioned to him some time

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The Next Chapter Al Callan and Nancy McClary get Engaged Mt. Si, Issaquah, Washington ~ December 8, 2001

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