This Letter Was Written by Bernard Leo Tonry Sr. of NY. Born in Drumfin, County, Sligo, Ireland at the 12 Mile House on the Old Boyle to Sligo Road, and Died in NY

This letter was written by Bernard Leo Tonry Sr. of NY. Born in Drumfin, County, Sligo, Ireland at the 12 mile house on the old Boyle to Sligo Road, and died in NY. (12/04/1908 - 05/28/1993)

Typed by his daughter Eileen Tonry in 1977. retyped by John James Tonry 02/2000 to this format Sent to me by Ruthann (Tonry) Roberts of Tulsa,Ok. A cousin.

Hand written above typing "This to you I dedicate in your quest-for history of your family. (?) May you find some information from (?) it. I don't think (2 more words not readable) Really old Ben." Note (?) means I guessed I have 50/50 chance of being right or wrong. JJT

Started this Columbus Day October 10,1997

To begin with,as a sort of introduction to what may follow, maybe a thousand times , I have through of leaving behind me a simple account of my life as I remember it. Someday some of my grandchildren may get enjoyment out of my Jottings. For me or anyone else to try and remember and put into detail all that has happened since early childhood to the present creates a challenge to a failing sense of memory. To my children and grandchildren I dedicate this crude but true account of all that I can possibly remember of this long distant account of years gone by. This story if you may call it of my past up to present is being told by the writer, Grandpa Tonry, better known as Ben, the second youngest of twin boys in a family of eleven, leaving a sister younger than I. As I start to narrate of the past, my age as of now reaches in to my sixty-ninth year, come December 4th, next 1978. My immediate family consists of six children, three boys and three girls. Three of which are married, leaving at the present time, ten grandchildren. My wife Mary (Greevy)called Maria is deceased for the past eight years. So far for my introduction.

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My Place of Birth

The house I was born in was build of stone and mortar. The walls were sturdy and about two feet thick. The roof was pointed and made of lumber rough hewn from some forest (trees ?) maybe over a hundred years old. Boughs and branches of trees were trimmed and laid over the lumber roof and tied down with twisted rods. Over all of this, huge sods of earth were stripped from the bog lands and placed in mat-like form on top of the timbers and branch roof foundation. These sods used for roofing were taken with heather attached to them and were cut to a depth of six inches. When all of the roof had been sod covered, a coat of thatch made of oat or wheat straw was carefully woven and tacked onto the fibered sod. This work was done by a man known in those days as a Thatcher. The straw was applied to the roof andfastened thereto by means of Scollops, or sally garden rods about fifteen inches long,pointed at both ends, then twisted and bent in the middle and inserted into the straw by means of a wooden hammer or mallet. The finished product of a carpet of gold had been draped over the top of the house. A good coat of thatch usually was from twelve to eighteen inches thick. When first applied it would be trimmed by means of a sharp knife so that the rain water ran down the straws like dew drops chasing one another. When finished with, the straw cut and trimmed, truely a work of art. The house structure was of three rooms, with two fireplaces. The center room was used as a kitchen and had a large open fireplace. The other room was a bedroom with no means of heat. There were two windows in the room with the fireplace, one on each side. There was a door outside and two windows in the middle middle room or kitchen. This door was the enterance to the house.

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There was a door outside and two windows in the middle middle room or kitchen. This door was the enterance to the house.There were also two connecting doors inside between the rooms on either side of the kitchen.. The floor in the room with the small fireplace was made of wood, the middle or kitchen was of cement and the floor in the bedroom for many, many years was made of damp bramble or earth, a substance that when subjected to constant drying became as hard cement but always dusty and unsightly.. It was in later years that a cement floor replaced the old. In the room with the fireplace a ceiling of wooden boards erected to shut out the rough structure of the inner appearance of the sod and bramble roof. The same sort of ceiling was erected in the other room but the middle room or kitchen had a half loft of half ceiling, leaving a rough sod roof exposed to view, which in those days went unnoticed as other houses sported the same construction effects. This loft was often used for storing potatoes for winter use, and all kinds of seldom used items found their way upstairs Lest I forget, this loft and open inner roof was used to smoke the bacon acquired through the killing and curing of a pig as there was an open fireplace burning in the kitchen, the smoke and heat from the fire dried and smoked cured the meat. The meat was left hanging in large strips from the roof rafters.

The inside walls of the house were covered with white wash and so were the ceilings. The outside walls were rough casted or covered with a mixture of mortor and lime. In the room with the small fireplace, which was seldom used except at Christmas, there was a press or folding bed which could be dropped to the floor at night and folded up again in the morning. This room was my Father's and Mother's room and no one else slept there. This room had a dining table, a side table, and a mirror.The kitchen or middle room had an open fireplace whereon all the cooking and baking and boiling was done. An iron crane was erected in and over the fireplace in such a manner as to be swung back and forth over the fire. The ingenious device was devised so as to be able to hang cooking pots over an peat fire without resting on the fire itself. The pots could be lowered or raised as need be and were heated and boiled by hanging over or close to the open fire. The

3 4 fire usually consisted of peat, or bog substance better known as turf cut in bog lands and dried and used as a substitute for coal. Wood was often used when available. There was a settle bed also in the kitchen, wherein two of us,my brother (Joseph) and I usually slept, Last to go to bed at night and first to arise in the morning. This bed was the forerunner of the Castro convertible. It was foldable and made seat or bench where four or five could seat themselves. There was a kitchen table and a parafin lamp over it. 'Twas the only light we had in the kitchen with the exception of candles when our parents could afford to buy them. There were a few plain wooden stools and a few chairs and one long bench at the end of the kitchen. There was a dresser or del--(unreadable inked over) cabinet whereon and wherein were kept and hung whatever table del-- were used daily.

There were some special table wares that were kept out of sight in the other room where my parents were but these were used only on special occasions, such as, at the stations, when Mass was said in the house or when company came, or at Christmas. There was also an old wooden Frame hanging on the wall, displaying many thin porringers used by us instead of cups and mugs. Glass and mugs were breakable. Porringers were not, The horse's harness was also hung at the end of the kitchen and a small alcove built into the wall was used to contain a large bag of flour. Flour in those days came in bags of 224 pounds( Irish weight - 16 stone). A bag of oatmeal and a large bag of salt was kept in a closet at the end of the kitchen also. There were usually three or four large pots of potatoes boiled and unboiled on the kitchen floor as we raised young pigs from time to time.. Now the other room had two large beds and one smaller one. With eleven in the family and my father and mother , one may wonder where all slept. Seven boys and four girls. Well, two slept in the kitchen settlebed, two boys also slept in the small bed, three boys slept in the large bed, and the four girls slept on the other large bed and sometimes they used a mattress on the floor. The mattresses were made of plain straw and the beds were solid hard boards.

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Such it was with large families in those days, no electric lights, darkness provided privacy to dress and undress. There was no bemoaning about what one had or had not, such was life and it was accepted as it "twas, what one never had one never missed.

(Hand written above where the Iron Crane was Erected in and over the fireplace.) 1). Peat a turf form a substance taken from the Bogs, When dried was used as coal. 2). Porringers such made up by the Tinkers or gyp- ---..

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The Little Farm and Surroundings (The Twelve Mile House) (Hand written above text) "The house where John Tonry your Great Grand Father was born"

Our house was the home of all of us built alongside a much travelled road from which connected Dublin all the way to Donegal, a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles. There was a milestone on the street which still stands there to this day. On it a marking says "Twelve miles" to Sligo and "Twelve miles to Boyle. two towns exactly equal distance from our home. The House is known as the "Twelve Mile House". Milestones were stone markers situated exactly a mile apart and denoting by the inscription thereon the distance to the next town in either direction. Our little holding of farm lands of about fifteen acres lay half in back of the house. Composed mostly of poor qualiyty wet boggy and rushy land. The other half was across the road from the house and was composed of bottom or meadow land which was used for producing hay and cattle feed. (hand written above fifteen acres). "Bottoms - low lands under water" "Meadow - was farm land" "Sally - The tree that the rods were cut to roof with". The other land back of the house was used for feeding or grasing cattle and some small crop planting. There were pigs and chickens at times which invaded both territores, if one might call them that. Across the street from the house was a garden place used as a haggard for storing hay and oats and turf. Also there was a "sally"garden,the rods of which was used for making scollops, used in the olden days for roof thatching. The land was divided into fields which were fenced off from one another so as different sections could be put to various uses. Like a section back of the house was a garden used to grow cabbage,potatoes,onoins,turnips,mangold for pig feeding, sometimes lettuce, rhurbarb and a few apple trees. There was a giant Sycamore tree growing in the center of this garden. Some other fields were used completely to grow potatoes and sometimes oats were sown.

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The others were used for cattle,donkey, and at one time, two goats There was a very small section of bog where turf was cut in my boyhood days and sometime as the operation of extractinf the turf sods meant digging down to a depth of three to thirty feet, unusual finds were encountered. For instance, as a boy, after digging down anywhere from ten to fifteen feet, a hugh tree root would be encountered, cut down maybe a few hundred years before and blended in the peat. Usually a sharp ax was used to unearth the well preserved seasoned root which made excellent fire fuel. Also at such depths whole sheaves of flax would be unearthed in well preserved condition. How long such things remained there is only guess work or who it was caused their hiding remains a secert of the hidden past. So much for the land.

There were a few out offices or farm houses accross the road from the house we lived in. A house for pigs, a hen house, a stable for a horse, a cow shed and a barn, used as a store room for threshing oats in the winter time. Once upon a time, this barn was a schoolhouse, and in the olden days of the great hunger or famine, history records that soup was served to the starving from great soup kettles.

Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish Patriot and champion of Catholic emancipation, was a speaker at a meeting held there. A little brook adjoined the meadow lands and contained a goodly stock of trout and pike and as a boy I was able to catch many good size fish by means of a snare made from cow hair or rabbit wire. The neighboring lands our lands were with the exception of the farm next to us on the Boyle side much better in quality than ours. There was one other family beyond the little bridge that crossed the river, which had but one little field or garden attached to their home. Our little abode and lands on all sides were surrounded by the kindest of neighbours, whose generosity I hope I do not forget to record later, although the family next door to us of the same name and a first cousin of my father's, (note no name entered/JJT) Had a bad and sad family squabble over an insignificant dispute.I am sad to say it caused a bad friendship rupture which lasted for years but that was all forgotten through time, the great healer.

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We had many Protestan neighbours in our immediate community. The kindest and finist people anyone could wish to be associated with ever. They were our kindest allies in our time of need. There was a one room school house not far away and a post Office, a blacksmith's shop, a few small grocery stores and a church about two miles away.

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My Parents and their struggle for us.

My Father's name was MICHAEL and my mother's name Kate (Maria). They had in all eleven children - seven boys and four girl in the following order Sadie,John,Mike,Jim,Stephen,Lizzie Kate,Mary Ellen, Charles, Joe and Bernard (Twins), and Primrose Josephine.

About my father and mother - although I regret to say from my observation in my young days and afterwards in my adult evaluation of their life together, their's was not the happiest union ever. There were many upheavels in their lives, maybe due to the harsh conditions of the times, A near proverty standard of existance, a deep concern for the welfare of those born to them and entrusted to their care, a trait which I am sure they tried hard to impress upon us and leave with us as a heritage, and maybe their temperments under all the then hardships of the times, raising large families under tremendous handicaps, caused a rupture to their short tempered patience. However , I witnessed many verbal hostile encounters and at times near physicle vioence, once actually a near, bad incident. Why should one write all of this? For one who reads this. I can envision them saying, why write this chapter to the story, were it not better be left unsaid. Well, I do not mean to hurt anyone's senses by this disclosure. For myself as a child,a boy, and an adult, such an atmosphere made a deep and sad impression on my life. I had many differences myself in my married life and painful my concern would be till such time as pleasant relations were restored. I would have rather live apart than carry on an unending family fued. My parents God Rest Their Souls, did not seem to be well matched for each other but in their later declining years their attitudes, I was told, changed and their understanding of each other was tolerable. As I expressed in the beginning, the pressures and responsibilities of their state in life could have been the difference between a well balanced family existance and a life of turmoil and family strife. Forgive me all who read this but it is the memory I have of the past. A happy ending to all this, due to the untiring sacrifice, the unselfishness, the deprivation of

9 10 themselves, their hardships, their sense of obligation to those entrusted to their care, their desire for our moral and physical welfare, and a deep obligation of their desire that we maintain the Faith of our fathers not one of us through their guidence were unhappy with our state in life. All of us became self-sustaining and lived gainful lives, mostly through the foundation in which we were taught by our parents to adhere to. Large families in the olden times added many discomforts to everyday pleasent social existance. Today, most partners in the marriage state of life prearrange to their satisfaction the number of children they think they can rear in comfort without suffering any undue hardships socially or otherwise.

While my mother, we called her Maria, was very close to all of us in a concerned kind child relationship, my father, whom we called Pa, was I am sure as kindly concerned about us but was very non-communicative in our every day life. My mother would talk with us as mothers should and scold us and punish us when needed. My father on the other hand always seemed to be engrossed in what he was doing and seldom engaged in conversation. Seldom was any history of the past living related to us by him. My mother had a fiery temper and my father a mild temper but sharp when provoked. I will inject here an incident which happened when I was five years of age.

(Note Hand written on left side line "Please note, there maybe an error in the relating of the forebears due to my calculating of their blood Relationship sign Ben, My father(Michael) and William Tonry may have been seconds cousins. To understand fully what happened I must start at the beginning. Our house which I think I forgot to explain heretofore adjoined another house whose occupants were of the same name as ours, and furthermore something else I should have explained when describing the house, our little farm and the farm ajoining ours, both about the same size in acreage, belonged to at one time to one owner, my father's Grandfather, who divided the then one farm between his two sons. They in turn left their possessions to their two sons, which meant that when my father inherited his lands, the next door neighbor was his first cousin.

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How ever, as a boy of five, I remember my father having a dispute with the next door neighbor over an encroachment in the building of a wall. A bad fist fight ensued in which six or seven were involved, woman and men. My brother Jim was only about thirteen years of age and he stuck my father's encumbrant on the back with a stone I remember I was crying and terrified. We had a Thatcher roofing the house the same day but he never interfered. The melee lasted about half an hour. Lots of body marks but no serious injuries. However, a court cast ensued which lasted through many hearings for about seven months. Nobody won the case except the lawyers. They got their expenses. The sad part of all of this was that neighter neighbor spoke to one another for several years, all over a trifle. But times heals, our generation forgot all about the past A lot of my mother's time was taken up with doing all of the baking and cooking, washing clothes, mending torn garments, knitting, at which she excelled, more than a full-time occupation. On the other side, my father was continually occupied mostly outside. Turf had to be cut and saved. Crops planted and harvested, Not that they very large but whatever was done in those days was all done manually. Only hand tools and backbreaking Labor. I have repeated some things in the last two pages, but a fuller explanation was necessary. Well I will explain simply what became of my brothers and sisters. Times being hard in Ireland in the olden days, it was the custom for the oldest of the family when able to go to work to help with the support of the household and so on down the line as each became of working age. Sadie (Sarah) the oldest migrated to America at the age of sixteen after working as a shop girl in Ireland for about a year (1913). She worked hard, got married and reared a good family. John stayed in Ireland, became a civil servent, owned his farm eventually, got married and has no family of his own.

(Hand written note "John whom you met".) on the right side Mike (Michael) became a Policeman and afterwards owned a farm and raised a family. James was also a policeman in Ireland and came to America after being disbanded due to Ireland getting a Free State. He married and was a successful business man.

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Stephen died at an early age. He became a policeman or as was known as a Civil Guard under the new Government. He contracted Tonsillitis and his whole system was poisoned by the substance from his tonsils entering his system when he was sleeping. In those days there was no such thing as penicillin or any modern day capsules that are so prevalent in today’s fight against disease. Lizzie Kate whom we called Doty became a school teacher and taught school for forty-five years, got married and had a decent family of four. Mary Ellen or Pettie as we called her died at the age of forty-three. She and I came to America on the same ship on the same day. The name of the ship was the S.S.Athenia of the then Anchor Donaldson line.(1928). It was afterwards sunk coming to this country on the first day of the Second World War. Mary Ellen worked for the James Butler Grocery Company at Nelson Avenue and School Street, Long Island City,NY.

The supply warehouse for the chain of food stores. She was a comptometer operator there and afterwards when Jim (James) went in business she was his bookkeeper till such time as she fell into ill health and died of cancer. Charles Martin, next in line, became a policeman or Civil Guard. He served in that capacity for upwards of thirty-nine years married and had a family of four. Joe (Joseph) and myself being twins persued different ways of life, I leaving for America when I was nineteen years and three months. Joe became a very successful Cattle dealer, married a schoolteacher and had two in family. For myself I can only say like the proverb, a rolling stone gathers no moss. I had many jobs in my time up to this present moment. My success I cannot boast about but the past is past and nothing can be salvage from my already used existence. I got Married and as best I knew how with the help of my dear wife,to Mary (Maria) Greevy now deceased, we reared six, three girls and three boys. As most people will agree the existence of most of the good in life has its birth in the home through family guidance. Some times there are weak spots in our approach to the methods we use in bringing up children which afterwards leaves a weakness in their future approach to the making of well balanced view of what they should expect life to be all about.

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Life itself is the most valuable possession, we have and its outcome as we pass from one eternity to the other, our journey as ir were in between the two eternities, its success or its failures, its sorrow’s or its joys, depend mostly on the way in which, we prepare ourselves to face all eventualities and to meet them with a God-given sense of reconciled understanding. To take lessons from the mistakes of yesterday, to accept what we have and not always be bemoaning the things we cannot except to have and most times things that can be done without.

To count our every day God-given blessings which we never miss till we lose some of them, to live with the knowledge that we are not all supreme, not to set ourselves up higher than the Gods. Some of my own I am sorry to say have never cultivated a thankful attitude towards the many blessings they have but cannot see. They put all their endeavor into accumulating worldly possessions to satisfy a wish for selfish existence of a living all concentrated in themselves. If this little notation hurts anyone’s feelings, I am Sorry it should be seen but on the other hand if one is not guilty of conscience then there is no hurt. AS Shakespeare said once, let the stricken deer go weep - the hart ungalled play - for some must work, and some must weep thus runs the world awry. I regret always the many times that a stricter code of ethics of life and its unexpected way of presenting us with our existence was not more fully impressed upon those entrusted to our care. Maybe they could view the furture with a sense of tranquil not rebellious acceptance. To hear people today curse God, use the Foulest of language, speak of nothing but self gratification, longing for things that descent people abhor is a sad, sad through - for many a descent father and mother - to be awarethat youth has a tendency to give up the Faith they cherished at their mother's knee is indeed heart breaking. Show me a life void of some decent belief in something learned from their mother and I will show you an empty life indeed. Despite all this maybe harsh evaluation - our immediate families cannot be classified as hopelessly worthless - no - no - time has helped some of them to a maturity of worthwhile values.

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I hope and pray that those who tramp the road of discontent and selfish permissiveness will awake to life's new call to decency. That’s all about my mixed up feelings. Primrose or Josephine, the last in line and the youngest in our family, married a farmer, a fine man, although much older than she. They had a family of four and were very happy. Of my family and their occupations - daughter Dorothy became a nurse, James a City fireman (NYC), Mary married a fine Greek-American, a college professor, Eileen, an accountant is a Civil Servant. Henry is still trying to find himself, a Bartender and has many fine traits of character, (hand written on right side " A Grand Fellow"). Bernard is a bus operator, very disgruntled with all things not to his desire. Age will mature him hopefully, (Hand written on right side " A Grand Fellow").

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My School Boy Days

To begin with I will try as best I can remember to describe the school and all I can about it. The schoolhouse was situated on the main road that ran past our house. It was stone built and slated. There four windows on it, two in front, one either side of the entrance door and two on the opposite side across from the front ones. The front door was built into a structure called a porch. Really it was a shelter built out from the main side of the walls of the school so as to be a windbreaker in cold windy weather. As we entered the school through the porch a box like receptacle built inside the porch was where turf or fuel was kept for the fire which supplied heat to the one large room which was all there was in the building. Each family whose children attended school were obliged to supply their quotas of fuel for the heating at their own expense be it in the form of a cart full of turf or money - God help the children of the families who could not contribute. Those children often felt the Venom of a wrathful teacher's ill disposition. The fireplace was situated at the south gable end of the building. A great fire was lighted each morning in cold damp days and always was maintained throughout the long wintry months. There were a Master and a Mistress, Teachers. The Master a man named JOHN HUNT. Usually sat at a table adjacent to the fire. There were about ten desks, which could seat about six pupils each. Those desks were arranged like pews in a church, except that when one sat down a flat wooden top with ink well inserted in the wood, which contained an inkbottle for use by each student,was his workbench. There were no ballpoint pens then. A metal nib inserted into a rude pencil like holder and dipped in the ink was the only way to ink write other than by pencil. The schoolmistress, a Miss Kerins, usually stationed herself at the opposite end of the school from the master who was the Boss or Principal. The mistress usually took care of the younger classes in teaching them, and as they advanced in knowledge they went to further education at the instruction of the master, Mr. Hunt. Although the school could accommodate about sixty pupils.

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I don't remember more than forty in attendance. One real stormy day I remember due to inclemency of the weather, only three showed up for school and the teacher kept us for half a day. There was a blackboard in the school which rested on a three - legged stand. Many maps were hung on the walls. Our school day began at nine A.M. with roll call entered in a large book which always remained on the Master's table. At the stroke of nine, roll call, each pupil’s name was called. If present, each answered in GAELIC, I am here, if not present, entered on the roll book was the word, absent, when absent members came to school again, they better have a good reason. A "Teacher's" anger in those days was nothing to be trifled with. Sessions were usually doled out in half-hour sessions. Starting after roll call, reading, writing, arithmetic, catechism, drawing and geography were subjects up to recess or playtime which began at 12: 30. The afternoon usually History lessons and sometime sewing for the girls, lessons in needle work given by the mistress.

The boys during that session were assigned to some other subject and so on till three P.M. Before going home each pupil was assigned a goodly compliment of homework on such subjects as he had been introduced to on the day before. Maybe one had to memorize five or six questions on religion, several words in spelling, getting to memory tables in arithmetic, like adding and times tables or multiplication, woe betide coming to school next day with unfinished home work, the rod was applied to the hand with gusto. These schools were known as national schools or country school houses. Vacation time three times a year, a short vacation at Christmas, another at Easter and an extended Summer recess. Going to school in my time was a cruel experience for any one slow to learn or rebellious against a teacher impatient to teacher, school days were intolerable. Many dull students, dull as it were at book learning, turned out in after years to excel in fields of endeavors in which school never Prepared them for.

But this does not say or advocate that a certain amount of schooling is not necessary, however acquired, as is often said, learning is no load.

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My twin brother Joe (Joseph) who never seemed to adopt himself to studious behavior and suffered humiliating and severe punishment at the hands of a teacher who despised his presence. He became a very successful cattle trader, an occupation having no bearing on his schooling. All of our family, my brothers and sisters. Got whatever little learning at national school level, reached the eighth grade or sometime called the height class..There was no such thing as I remember as a graduation day celebration in those times. After leaving the eight grade most pupils just went to school a little longer and then one day, one by one, they dropped out to go their way. Some to England, some to America, others to help on the farm if 'twas large enough for a big family, till such times as they got employment as shop assistants or whatever work was available. For myself, I must have finished going to school around the year 1924 or 1925. These were times in which most people just existed. Only a select number of large farmers had than the means to be more than comfortable. These were harsh times and many leaving school were like chaff thrown to the wind in deciding what occupation they should follow. They had no choice, just take whatever you could find, till you might find better - Emigration gathered up goodly lot. My teacher, John Hunt, was from my evaluation of him, a man of great intelligence; he seemed to be well versed in all subjects. till such times as they left school. Was he a good teacher? for some yes, and for others, no. If he took a personal dislike to a pupil he never gave any consideration, cruel he could be, and would punish severely any whom he was down on. On the other hand, his favorites got most of his kindly attention and his considerate assistance with their Studies. For instance, he disliked and must have hated my twin brother Joe (Joseph). I saw him beat him savagely on many occasions. Once or twice bring blood to his face and hands. A pointer or ruler and more often a rod was used to punish. The rod was a stick cut from a sally tree and seasoned or dried by the fire, then used on the hand when the teacher desired to chastise, Our Christmas vacation was a great occasion for me and all of us. We usually had two weeks of freedom from the worries of doing out studies or homework.

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At Christmas time in Ireland, the whole country takes on an air of preparation for the great occasion of the celebration of the Birthday of the Christ child. Most homes were decorated in some manner or other to enchant, as it was the atmosphere of the occasion. Houses were white washed outside and inside. Also some rooms were gaily papered. Holly and Ivy was used decorating. Being draped about the doors and windows. On the Thursday before Christmas, the town of Ballymote, near where I lived, became a market place where in all kinds of forms. Farmers and housewives all came to town on that day known as Big Market Day to sell their products, such as , hens, geese,ducks, and turkeys, and in turn buy from the store keepers their Holiday supply of goodies for the twelve days of Christmas. The storekeepers usually gave a gift to his steady customers at this season of the year in appreciation of their steady patronage. Usually a bottle of wine or whiskey. A Christmas order for a large family in a country place at this season would comprise of a bag of flour either 8 stones or 112 pounds or a 16 stone or 224 pound bag which ever suited the family needs. A bag of oatmeal, usually one hundred pounds, a bar of rock salt, around ten pounds, butter,treacle raisins, current, sugar,bacon and maybe candy. Shoes and clothes for the children, if possible, a lot depended on the means to buy. Most often an otherwise bleak Christmas was blanketed by the timely arrival of a goodly check or money order from America. A deep religious feeling seemed to prevail throughout the whole or the twelve days of Christmas. Christmas eve, what a time to be remembered. A saintly belief in Santa Claus. Children were constantly reminded for weeks before the Holy Season, that Santa would not visit the house should they misbehave.

In my time the rosary was said in most family households before retiring for the night, especially at Christmas, no matter what disagreements existed before, united in prayer they were then. On Christmas Eve, the children all hung up their stockings from the mantelpiece by the fire place and great rejoicement greeted the Christmas morning when Santa's surprises were unfolded.

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Up before dawn and hearts full of joy for sample gifts, but treasured. Christmas day, always Mass and Communion, a visit to the crib in back of the church. Neighbors came and went to visit. To drink a toast, to exchange some chatter, to wish each other well. Christmas Day I remember as a boy seeing our family all together around the dinner table in the lower room, a big fire burning. Only at Christmas did we eat in this room. There were eleven of us and my father and mother, God Rest the seven who are gone as I write this and God bless the remaining. The dinner always at this time was a large goose about maybe 20 pounds, potatoes, gravy stuffing, turnips, carrots and wine for elders, besides breads made of currants and raisins. Nothing remains of the old house now but a shell, and scattered are they all.

The day after Christmas is known as Saint Stephens’s day and also as the Wren Boys day. A day in which bands of boys and girls dress up in disguise and go from house to house just like they do here in America at Halloween. They sing and dance and play on musical instruments and collect money to bury the Wren, hence the name. They chant the following: "The wren, the wren The king of all birds He was caught in the Furze * on Saint Stephens day Although, he is small his family is Great Step in old landlady and give us a treat". ( Hand written on the side -* " a whin bush").

The custom dates to pagan days. Candles were placed in the windows at this time and kept burning for twelve days. The departure of this most beautiful time of celebration usually left a little gloom in its wake. Back to school again, back to regular routine with a wish and a prayer for the return of the next. Our next holiday would be Easter and a shorter recess from school. Eggs were colored and if plentiful were eaten in abundance. Families got together, but not on such a scale as the Christmas season. Summer vacation was a treat away from school for five or six weeks.

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I took great pleasure as a boy in travailing through the bogs and fields in summer time. Everywhere everything was full of life. Hawthorne hedges in full bloom; daisies and primroses dotted the fields and ditches. The heather in the bogs, the whin bush, the potato fields with the potato stalks in blossom all proudly displaying their individual marks of nature's beauty. I took great pleasure in searching out the different wild birds nests and observing their progress from time of their being built till the eggs were laid and hatched and the young ones arrived and then to watch their progress till such time as they flew the nest and were on their own. I often in the course of a summer had up to ten wild ducks nests under observation in the bogs. Sometimes a few pheasant nests in the meadows or the cornfields or in the bogs. Wild ducks eggs were as big as pullet eggs and blue in color. A pullet was a baby hen laying its first eggs. Pheasant eggs were about the same size, light pink in color with brown spots. Water hen’s nest were along the riverbanks, small eggs with blue dots. The wren, the smallest of all birds built her nest in the eves or under thatch of the house, very tiny eggs and usually a big family. The swallows came back each year to the same nest as the preceding year and fixed or mended the mud nest inside the barn or cow shed. The nest was tached to the roof rafters. I took great delight in visiting all the hedgerows and observing the many difference species of birds nesting therein, like the robin, the linnet, the gold finch and the blackbird. Some nests were so well hidden from view that it took days of watching to detect their location.

I on a few occasions I found corn crakes nest.A corn crake's young and the young of a pheasant looked alike, just like newborn baby turkey. Another of my favorite pastimes was to hunt with dogs after rabbits and wild hares, which were a great source of meat for the family table in bad times. I myself looked after the skinning of the rabbits and the hares and the cleaning of them. The skins were dried and sold for a few pennies which was alot in those days. As I got a bit older, I took up hunting with a gun and any spare time I had I was missing in pursuit of wild game.

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Some mornings I would arise before sun up and travel the countryside in search of game mostly rabbits and hares and I seldom came home empty - handed. The meat part of the hare or rabbit after the hare or rabbit was cleaned was placed in a vessel and soaked in salt and water for about six hours and afterwards put on the fire and brought to a boil and then taken out and roasted in the oven. A delightful meal with potatoes, turnips or parsnips or a separate dish of cabbage.

Bon Fire Night, June the 23rd, was another great day in our young lives. This custom dates back to Pagan days in Ireland when the Druids lit their fire on the Hills of Tara. Throughout the whole of Ireland, great fires are burning in each community ever since. In commiseration, singing, dancing, music, storytelling, around a blazing cross - roads fire, till late into the night. The Turf supplied the neighbors and sometimes stolen from the bogs. God be the happy days, when daily needs barely supplied still held happiness for a people whose wants were many but their needs were few. I remember when I was about ten years of age. The 11th of September 1918. The day the First World War was declared over. I was standing outside the old house at the milestone on the street. My brother John was the mailman in our district and as he arrived at the house my mother God Rest her, came out on the street, maybe expecting a letter from America, When he exclaimed, Mama the war is over! There was great jubilation throughout the land for weeks afterwards. Although conscription in Ireland was never and could never be inforced at this time. There were Thousands and thousands of Irish men and women fighting on the side of England. Irish volunteers from America, England, Ireland and elsewhere. The reason conscription was rebelled against in Ireland was that Ireland was engaged in a state guerilla warfare with England. Starting in nineteen hundred and sixteen with the uprising in Dublin Easter week. This warfare lasted till around Nineteen hundred and twenty three - bitter and bloody. It started with an attack on the four courts in Dublin but it seems that sertian orders on the part of the Irish were confused prior to this all out effort and their endeavor was doomed to failure. However a dirty guerilla war continued for approximately seven years.

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I remember during those years a terrible state of unrest existed all over the country.

There were hundreds or near thousands of native born Irishman on the police force in Ireland. At that time, the Irish police were known as the R.I.C., or the Royal Irish Constabulary and those police who were on the force in Dublin were known as the D.M.P., or Dublin Metropolitan Police. Both divisions were under the jurisdiction of the British Crown of the King of England. Ireland then was represented in the House of Commons in London, England and was subject to English law under sort of Home Rule agreement. When the trouble came of the Irish Rebellion, all law enforcement under Irish laws were abolished and England imposed her lawless will on Ireland. Most of the Irish serving under the British Crown as policeman was there because it was a way of life, and they were highly respected, even through many were shot during the guerilla war that ensued. My brother Jim (James) was an R.I.C., Man and Michael was a D.M.P., Man both on the force till they were disbanded when a peace treaty was made. During the troubled days in Ireland in which Irish took to the hills to confront the British, many times brother fought against brother and father against son.

Members of the R.I.C.and D.M.P., sometimes had brothers and sisters on the side of the Irish fighters. The same situation repeated itself later on when Ireland became a Free State and thus ensued the bloodiest and most bitter fight of all. Irishman against Irishman. Our house harbored men who were on the run and marked for imprisonment during both the British occupation and later the Irish Civil War. My two brothers Jim and Mike while serving under English rule were marked for execution if they should come home on vacation. However, our house hid and sheltered many who were on the opposition. Through one of them this information was relayed to our family. However, our clandestine friend, Jimmy Doody (who died here in America), and others, welcomed my brothers home and set up, as it were, an armed camp in our house during their vacation stay. However through the kindness of our I.R.A.,friends nothing occurred.

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I remember bags of clay and sand being packed behind the windows and doors at night and all us youngsters sleeping on mattress’s on the loft. Should an attack occur there would be bloodshed. I remember on a day of a fair in Ballymote when the streets were crowded with cattle, sheep and pigs,ect. A Sargent Fallon of the R.I.C. police was shot dead at close range from the rear. He was a kindly man and should never been killed. Incidentally, his killer who was well known went insane years later. 'Twas said that he never got over the guilt. He was found dead hanged by his own hand and when found dogs had eaten off his two legs. On a Sunday morning outside Ballymote, a man, the name of Breheny, was shot dead because he recognized a masked man who came to his to shoot his brother an R.I.C.policeman. He mentioned the killer's name in pleading for his brother’s life. Reprisals were the order of the day. When Black and Tan or Policeman were shot, The Crown Forces went on a rampage burning houses, shooting livestock, terrorizing men,woman and children, looting shops, arresting and beating anyone suspected of being in sympathy with the I.R.A.. However,when the British pulled out of Ireland as a truce was declared, the bloodiest fighting of all ensued, till such time as Ireland was declared a free State and peace was restored to a trouble land. Owing to all the turmoil, the unrest and all that goes with it, times in Ireland were such as to leave not much hope to the youth but to migrate. Thousands left for America and elsewhere. One day during this period, I stopped going to school to serve my time in a creamery in Riverstown, about two miles away from home, whish I walked each way. I have no doubt had I applied myself in studious earnestness I could qualify as a manager but sad to say and like many youth of today I did not appreciate the opportunity and instead of applying myself to the opportunity placed at my disposal, I rebelled against it. In those days, an apprentice to any trade or an occupation usually served from two to five years with out pay whatsoever and did the same work as a trained apprentice in order to qualify as being fully trained inorder to earn a weekly wage. I worked at the Creamery for about a year and hated every moment of it. Sad to say, like many, I did not know what I wanted to do.

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I do remember one time before I went to the creamery I wanted to serve as a shop assistant but my brother Joe who did not want to go was sent instead of me. He only stayed about aweek and that was the end of that. Well, Jim and Addie at this time were in America, and so were many leaving daily from all around the different townlands. Hundreds my own age.

I wrote to Jim begging my passage money but he kept putting me off. He figured I was too young at the time. However, I was determined to go. So one Sunday morning, I cycled about ten miles to where my sister Doty was teaching school and borrowed a down payment on my passage to America. I remember the morning distinctly, 'twas raining at intervals and at the time, I did not possess an overcoat, nor did I have a hat. I was about eighteen years and six months then. After booking my passage with a Peter James McDermontt of Bunninadden near where my sister taught school, I cycled home drenched to the skin. I don't think I told my parents that I had booked passage till some time afterwards. Well I wrote to my brother Jim in America and informed him that I had arranged to go there.

After a few weeks, He reluctantly sent me the passage money. About nine months later my sister Mary and I set sail from the land of our birth. I remember the sad parting with my parents, brothers and sisters. I remember the last words I spoke to my Father outside the old milestone on the street. Maybe I should not say what they were but I can never forget them. Pa, don't be fighting with Mama. Now don't judge our forebears or our upbringing harshly by such a last utterance. I loved my parents and they loved us and their hearts must have ached at departures such as these repeating themselves. Such was the life and times of those days. Pat Sheeran, who is still alive and close to ninety years of age, and my brother John and, I am not sure Mike, took us in a car to the station in Collooney where we entrained to Derry. We were met by a neighbor, James Morrison, who was a successful businessman in the drapery business there. He brought us to his house and afterwards that evening took us to the tender for passenger conveyance that ferried us to the steamer that was anchored in deep waters outside the harbor.

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He had an elegant house, a bath tub and toilet, something I had never seen in its entirety up till then.

Maybe you will wonder at this but needless to say to this present day such conditions then existing when I left home. The tender or ferry boat if you may call it that, took us out to meet and board the giant liner anchored in deep water miles from shore. The water being too shallow would not permit docking. The name of the ship was the twin Screwed S.S Athenia of the Anchor Donaldson line and as a matter of record this same ship was sunk on the first day of the Second World War. I think 'twas Dec. 8, 1942 or there abouts. Getting back to the ocean trip we came by Halifax, Nova Scotia and we traveled steerage, that means, at the cheapest rate. The crossing was viciously stormy and when we arrived in New York, Jim and Sadie met us. Coming from a farm community of sparse population, I needn't tell you that being propelled as it were into sudden dense populated space, We were children catapulted into another kind of world. I remember Jim taking me to see the Saint Patrick's day parade a few days after my arrival. I was more concerned with dodging traffic when crossing the street than in the parade. My heart was uplifted to my mouth. If I can try and explain it rightly. The year was March 1928. The year Alfred Smith ran for the Presidency of the United States. The population of the country was at that time , If I can correctly say, one hundred and twenty million. However, Al Smith was defeated and it is always said that the stigma of Catholicism painted upon him by the opposition was the cause of his defeat. He was defeated by Herbert Hoover, They called him Al Smith the Happy warrior. I did not know alot about politics then and I don't know too much about them now. However, this was the year 1928. The year I came to America, the year Al Smith ran for election, the year the Ku Klux Clan (Klan) defeated him. His people came, I believe from the old country, I think Cavern. There were celebrations all over Ireland in anticipation of his being elected President but Destiny ruled otherwise. Thus,this is my remembrance of the political situation in America on the arrival of my sister and myself.

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I have an old friend of mine, James Cooney, an acquaintance of mine who in course of conversation told me that there was a book waiting to be unfolded in the lives of all of us. To leave a farmland in Ireland and be by ones own choice transplanted within a giant metropolitan array of the different groups of nationalities that I so suddenly encounted was to describe as bewildering. For a long time I was to remain shy in person and behavior within myself and towards personal contacts. I to begin with was only a few days here when through the contacts of my brother Jim who was a superintendent or supervisor of the then James Butler Grocery Company. A chain of stores numbering then close to seven hundred individual one man operated service grocery stores. Well in detail I will try and describe as clearly as I can remember the early days of my introduction to a life far removed from the digging of potatoes and the come a day go a day existence of land of earthly every day existence. I was only in this country two or three days when Jim my brother placed me in my first job here in America.

The address James Butler Grocery Store, 105-02 37 Avenue Corona. The Warehouse or Supply Company was located at Nelson and School Streets. Long Island City, close to a then famous biscuit company, the Thousand- Window Bakery or the Sunshine Bakery Company. James Butler was an Irish immigrant and many of our acquaintances would express their delight at saying he would meet Irish immigrant at the boat and right away put them to work. However, from my evaluation when I began to creep out of my shell of shyness to society, I would say that he gave many an Irishman a footing or starting foundation in this his adopted land. If all this sounds boring, consume it to the fireplace but if you think you can bear with me, I will describe in detail as clearly as I can recall the early days of my existence and the intimate moments of my life. Come next March 1978 I will be fifty years a resident of this United States. I remember and I think I am correct that the population then was one hundred and twenty million. At this time there was a universal depression all over the world. In Ireland when I left there was no such thing as getting a job. Well, How did I get along here? I remember distinctly my first day at work in America.

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Paddy Prendergast who was my brother - in - law's brother ( his brother Martin was married to my sister Sadie). He was my first boss. Well I will never forget his first salutation to me. He said at least you know how to sweep a floor. He was a loveable fellow. I never heard him express a foul word. During all the years that I worked for the James Butler Grocery, My brother was my boss. To say that he was a boss does not mean that he was an easy taskmaster. He was strict. I could fill five books or more if I were to recall episodes and his demonstrations of his anger towards me. Well now I will try and describe a Butler Store. The year was 1928. A newly arrived immigrant to the United States, the people numbered one hundred and twenty million. Now it is close to double. There were no where abouts at This period in our lives or history at this time such thing as a supermarket. A grocery store was something like the usual day delicatessen with exception that there were no cold cuts, salads or cole slaw or personal dishes that are now a days prevalent in showcase of an up-to-date deli. However, in the old store that I worked for in Butler's 105-02 37th avenue, Corona, or known as Shell Road 'twas a one-man operation. If I had the proper intelligence, I could write a best seller in describing the operation of a chain store during the depression days. That's the time practically when I came to this country. John Quinn, who is at present the headman who directs the New York State Lottery, was a little boy who came into my store. He came from a stock of real descent people, also I remember John Walsh, who was a Deputy Chief in the Police Department, who was a customer of mine and lived in Corona. Peter Donaghue, who became a Judge, worked for ( inked "out the Mr Gibbins at"), ("hand written in Mr S.B.Bones.") (Added hand written words on the right side of page are unreadable JJT) at the one hundred and fourth Street corona. His daughter Mary married Peter. They were Grand people. They came from Mayo. James Butler had at one time about seven hundred stores in the New York area, also a RaceTrack, the Impire, also farmlands called the East View. I never met or saw him but Jim did meet him and I was told afterwards that he commented on meeting my brother, how did such a youngster as this get to be a superintendent in his outfit.

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Jim, my brother, looked so young. He was eventually head superintendent for the Butler Chain and Supervised the operation of all the stores from Patchoque to Brooklyn, till such time as Butler went out of business through mismanagement. In my tracing back my memory, let me try and describe a grocery store. My first job was a delivery boy with the Butler store. Why that choice? Well in those days no one had a choice, especially an immigrants. One took what was at hand. One took what was at hand and what was available.

I deliver orders with a three-wheel pushcart all over the vicinity of Corona for Peter Gibbons, who was then the manager of the Store at 104th Street and Northern Boulevard in Corona. Then, as now, It was ninety-nine percent black.

Then when a manager had control of a store he had to return dollar for dollar and account for every penny he received from the warehouse. Stock was taken each month and should the store stock become wanting or short as they say, the manager was fired, out of a job. Sad to say that this was of holding a job caused many managers to become cheaters or one could not hold a job. Many a time I had to tell Father Nolan in the confessional my sad doings. Human nature being what it is you will now understand, I hope and may God forgive all of us for our transgressions. In 1928 there were no supermarkets as we know them today, There were a number of chain stores and why these were called chain stores must be because they were linked together and spread out woven into as it were a chain. In those days, James Butler owned seven hundred stores in the Greater New York area. Danial Reeves owned five hundred, Thomas Roulston owned a few hundred, Bohacks, Sheffield Farms, Tierneys and many others were in operation. It was not until the great depression that the advent of the supermarket store was introduced about 1935 or 1936. Mike Cullen, a manager for the Great Atlantic and Pacific chain, came to New York in the height of the depression and opened a store at Jericho Turnpike. People came from near and far to shop there. The depression was upon us and to save a penny was most important. Lest I forget there was a great friend of mine, a Dennis Butler. He was a superintendent for the James Butler Grocery Store and under the supervision of my brother Jim.

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His son is now presently one of the district leaders in Astoria. If ever God put anyone on this earth, I can only say that Denny Butler was meant to be a decent example. He and I used to meet in Rockaway. He lived to be about eighty-five. God was very kind to him. To describe a store of that era of 1928 entails alot of details. (Handwritten on left side "Repeating Myself"). One thing I will never forget - the first day I was put to work for Paddy Prendergast. That man God Bless him, never uttered a foul word. If God didn't give him an exalted place in Heaven, well then, I feel sorry for myself. In the operation of a grocery store in those days it was all person-to-person services. A customer went into a store and informed the storekeeper of his needs individually one by one and when his completed list was arranged on the counter whatever they were comprised of they were added together on the paper in which they were parceled. No adding machines then. No add up cash registers and few stores had any kind of register at all. Butler stores had cash registers which totaled all sales but did not give individual sum total amounts.

At the end of each day's business, a reading was taken on the register and the previous days reading was taken on the register and the previous days reading was subtracted from the preceding total. The Daniel Reeves Stores had no registers then, they had a drawer like box behind the counter wherein the money was kept and exchanged with the customers. One may wonder then if managers cheated. Well a stock was taken each month and strictly tabulated and if a shortage showed,a second stock accounting was carried out and if a manager were found to be short in his money management, he would be instantly dismissed. There were no such things as large shopping bags to parcel grocery supplies then, all goods were paper and twine wrapped about. The only paper bag tobe found in a store in those days was a small one or two or five pound paper bag. A grocery man was judged by the skill in which he wrapped a large order of varied items,neatly tied and a wooden wire handle inserted into the string to make carrying convenient. When I first engaged in the grocery business the complete stock of a grocery store comprised of no ore than seven hundred items. There were few soap powders then.

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I remember we had one particular brand of package soap powder called Seventeen Seventy Six - 1776 - I'll never forget it. It remained on the shelf for years and hardly ever sold. Soap was sold in unwrapped packages. All commodities were weighed and packaged in bags. Coffee was ground in a Hobert grinding machine. Sugar came loose in one hundred pound burlap bags, potatoes came in barrels of one hundred and sixty - five pounds, Tea came in chest of sixty-five pounds, forty pounds or ten pound bags.

Among the other grocery stores, there was no real competition, only prices. Of the merchandise that they sold, A & P kept away ahead of us in underselling our product with the result that Butler was eventually forced out of business. I want to inject something here this day, December 5,1977, Monday night. I am engaged as a bartender in Jimmy Shalveys, an occupation that I have endured for several years as a part time job, never connected with my steady means of livelihood but money given to me privately. To begin with this was a real never to be forgotten wet day. I came to work in Shalveys, tending bar. My Son James (added An N.Y.C. Firefighter) came in and 'twas the first night ever I saw him in his Departmental array. Some of his buddies came too and I treated them exceptionally kindly as I should. Now to go back to my description of the store. In those days, the floor spaces usually were about twenty- five foot frontage to a depth of forty to sixty feet with a back room space for stock. The store that I came to first in Corona was across from Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church and School. Across the full width of the store building above the door was a sign James Butler Grocery Store. There was a double or two- part wooden glass door. A view from outside, directly inside the door to the right as one entered there was a counter just like an fashioned bar. Directly behind the counter and on the walls opposite a whole array of shelves were arranged where on al sorts of general grocery merchandise of that era were conveniently arranged, Filled with merchandise such as were in stock and manufactured in those days.

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A well-stocked store in those days contained never in excess of twenty-five hundred to three thousand items and at such a stock the store had to do a tremendous business to be allowed by supervision to operate at this style. In my old store, I doubt if I had anymore than seven hundred items or a fifteen hundred item stock at most. Back of the counter there was a cash register that just totaled the days receipts, the preceding days receipts were always subtracted from the last total of the following day and such was the record kept. Now directly opposite the door usually there was an ice box, which contained butter, lard, cheese, yeast and certain other items that were perishable. There was no electric refrigeration. A display icebox in a grocery store was looked upon as a piece of furniture. It usually stood in a normal store about nine feet wide by about three feet or more deep and maybe eight feet tall, With a compartment on the upper end of its structure where in large cakes of ice were inserted, and the whole of the box was insulated, so that the giant sized ice cakes would provide refrigeration. There were many ice trucks operating, delivering ice to private homes, apartments,bars and restaurants etc. There was not any electric means of cooling refrigeration. The ice box usually had two or three windows in the top upper part where we displayed yeast, margarine ( which then in a compound with liquid capsule which was blended into the margarine to make it resemble butter). The reason for all this being the syndicates in Wisconsin and the Land of Lakes Butter barons lobbying in congress to keep margarine off the market. Now the margarine far outsells the butter and is far more nutritious. In the ice box there were three sliding that opened for convenience. Upwards in these compartments were displayed usually a full tub of butter, fifty-six pounds in one, a tub of pure lard, fifty-six pounds in another and in another section a roll of old fashioned store cheese, about thirty pounds. When a tub of butter in those days was received before being put on display for sale the tub was inserted on the counter, which was also in front of every ice box, topside towards the counter, the lid was pried off and a wire was drawn through the exposed contents of the tub after the tub or casing was removed.

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In this manner a shop assistant was able to cut was able to cut from the tub, a pound of butter with careful ease. Otherwise, it would be like trying to scoop it out in ungraceful hunks. The same with the cheese. 'twas cut by hand neatly and woe betide the manager or shop assistance who was slovenly or careless in his handling of the hand touched items.

Milk also came in ten gallon cans delivered from a horse drawn vehicle. A sort of sheltered covered wagon and rough occupation in wintertime. I'll never forget one cold winter morning, the milkman was making his rounds, the streets were treacherous with ice. His horse fell outside the store and was endangering himself and his equipment. Well I was not long in the country and the driver always remembered for many years to thank me. I ran out and put my full weight on the horse’s head till his harness was unhooked. Otherwise he would have smashed everything. We sold milk then in quarts or pints out of the ten gallon can which was kept in the large cooler, surrounded by ice.

I had one old lady, a Mrs. Foley, her uncle then was a Captain Ahern and a fine gentleman, and she used to go to Mass in Our Lady of Sorrows Church and each morning she would buy a quart of milk. The container she used was a double paper bag. The wrapping paper then was made by the Kraft Paper Company and was most durable. The worst part of describing one's past is that a person leaves off for a period and then goes back and repeats himself. Peas, beans, marrow beans, lima beans, lentil, black-eyed pears, barley, sugar, rice, rice, tea, coffee, potatoes, all vegetables and many, many other varieties of every day needed food item were packed by hand, and weight by hand. The most confusing aspect of a youth of my time coming from a farm was the trouble one found with getting acquainted with the many items in a store which were foreign and unheard of in our plain every day heretofore farm land existence. For instance, I never saw a roll of toilet paper, a can of sardines. Tomatoes, I saw once in Ireland. canned fruits or vegetables, I never saw till coming to America.

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To try and become familiar with all the then different new names and products was indeed like being born into another world. Most of my time in the beginning I spent in a back room weighing potatoes and sugar, which were the two fastest sellers, then tea which came in forty-pound wooden chests and other loose packed bulk items. Come Christmas time, mixed fruits, Citroen, pitted dates, currants, raisins, apricots, prunes, orange peels, lemon peels, glazed, came in twenty-five pound wooden boxes, and had to be weighed in small brown paper bags, 8 oz. or 16 ozs. To suit the purchaser, and what a sticky job. Not like today when practically everything for sale in any commodity comes into a store handily wrapped. When the manager might get extra busy, He would call the assistance boy from whatever he was doing to assist him or keep some impatient customer occupied.

Having to wait or assist someone in this manner gradually through the embarrassment of error or not knowing what they were asking for because of unfamiliar names made the green ignorant new grocery boy remember the names of products and prices. In the early days of my time in Butler's Store, the advent of stamping prices on cans or merchandise was not as yet introduced till later on with the result a grocery clerk or manager had to be family with the selling price of all items in his store. later in my time, price cards were introduced and placed in front of the item displayed on the shelves, just a price tag of cardboard tacked to the wooden shelf by two thumbtacks. Today, (added circa 1977), all items practically bear a stamp inserted by a rubberized stamping machine.. I don't know who invented it but they must have made a fortune and then maybe they were robbed of their contribution to modern advancement in the grocery world. These stores mostly in those days had what we then named the service - call up and delivery. A manager or clerk took the order down over the phone, pencil and paper, name and address, listed the cost of each item as it was listed . When the order was completed it was added up and filled and checked by the manager or the clerk if he was deemed capable. Then delivered by a pushcart or maybe a bicycle carrier, depending on the amount of the order and its bulk. There was a close friendly relationship in those days betweenthe family grocery man and the households in the community.

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During the great depression I had the experience of having worked in the Butler store in Corona, not then but afterwards when I purchased it from the Butler company as they went bankrupt and dissolved or sold out to their managers. maybe I am critical of too much but A change of necessity of living, a forced change in my way of life, came in 1934. It was the year in which I was concentrating on being married. Mom (Mary Greevy) and I, God rest her, were then engaged. If God has a kindness in store for me I wish He makes my anticipation of a pleasant hereafter life in His Kingdom a realization of the dreams of the imagination of the hereafter wherein all of us may meet one day not bowed down with worldly cares and worries, turmoil and strife.

Our concern for children gone astray from the well- intentioned guidance of caring parents and all a descent society called for. Maybe I am critical of too much but in my earthly dreams of the hereafter, I try to visualize meeting especially my sadly missed dear departed Mom for whom I mourn everyday. The memory of her leaving my company, I offer as a penance for my transgressions to my God and Creator. I don't think a day passes that the sting of the sadness of Mom's passing away has not a remembrance for me. My greatest loss my saddest memory. If I could only undo the hurts that I recall that I may have caused her in her earthly life, I would sacrifice whatever little earthly pleasures I now have but such is beyond recall. So listen to me now - a word from one who knows - be kind to those dear to you, be not too hasty in judgement, weigh both your evaluations of your estimated faults generated in your respective minds toward one another and then in a sense of God Loving living forgive each other, help each other and begin again tomorrow. Sad to way I did not always adhere to this advice but to hate anyone I cannot say, God will judge me to carry a nonsensical grudge I am sorry to say, guilty but at this stage I have aborted that part of my living. My family life I will try to recall without any desire to hurt anyone in the following recollections. I remember first meeting Mom in a dance hall in the great depression, The Innisfael, 59th Street and second Avenue.

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An elevated railway structure then connects with the Queen's Plaza Railway line across the 59th Street Bridge. There were few cars owned by the common people in those days. If I had a date with Mom I took the train or subway as it is now called and the fare then was a nickel. The most time I could ever afford away from my job was a Sunday night because in those days a fellow working in a grocery store had just a Sunday free to his way of life and for many, Sunday was a day in which a grocery man helped the superintendent take stock in a store to ease the work load - no extra pay - but in decency thankful appreciation. Such was life and times then and the acceptance of them with which we did not rebel. The dance hall most frequented by us in our young day was The Innisfael A door admission of one dollar was the fee to the night of dancing. I never drank in those days and neither did seventy five per cent of the people who attended such gatherings. The dollar entrance fee was for admission to pay for the operation. Usually there were two bands playing, Irish and American music. There were two floors. The lower floor usually had an Irish band playing continuous Irish dance music. The upper floor had another band playing American dance music.

We danced our hearts out on that one day in the weekend in which we were free from the worries of work and existence. Oh God be with those happy days. Oh God be with my youth. Well Mom and I spent many a Sunday night there. There were many acquaintances of mine who frequented these scenes. Such as , Bob Barry, Mike Talbot, Margaret - - his sister, Pat Marron and his now wife Susan. Fine people, Paddy Prendergast, Dan Flanagan, a big man now, and the proprietor of the "The Blarney Stone" in which he inherited the name from me. Getting down to the Blarney Stone name which became famous in New York. Let me explain its origin. My brother Jim during the Second World War, then in the grocery business and speculating in operating bars and restaurants, purchased a bar in Jackson Heights from a Greek named Michael Morialos. John Sheehan who was a dear friend of mine, and knew of its transaction, said a good name for the bar is The Blarney Stone. The first Blarney Stone was the store or bar owned under my name by my brother Jim. Dan Flanigan was then a manager for an A & P next door to it.

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He was before that a manager for the A & P at Junction Boulevard in Corona or Junction Heights - the dividing line. Mike Connolly owes his prosperity to his acquaintance with this outfit. I got disassociated from this source of wealthful existence, maybe I will never know whose interference it was, but I have a feeling it was my brother Jim,R.I.P., who may have told Dan Flanagan to lay me off and let me go back to him as I was his employee when I went with Dan. However, I could write a whole book on the transactions of my existence in the bar business. I was a partner with the Dan Flanagan Blarney Stone operation. The honest truth I will tell about all I know of the Origin and the operation.

Getting back to my keeping company days before I was married. Mom (Mary) as I always called my dear departed wife after getting married and I will refer to her here after as such - Mom - God Rest her beautiful living soul. I was about twenty-five and she six months younger when we met. We carried on a courtship for about four years with an interruption of about six months But destiny ruled that we should contact each other again and off and on we dated and enjoyed each other company understanding and respecting one another to the fullest degree morally and physically, which I doubt cannot be said about too many of today’s boy , girl company keeping. We were married and became man and wife on the twenty-fifth day of September (added 1937), a bright sunshiny day just like as it were Indian Summer. We were married at St. Vincent de Ferres Church, 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, Which was not her parish when she lived as a living-out girl in the time of John J. Jackson of the law firm of Jackson and Brophy in the great depression when her salary as a domestic which all Irish girls in those days with few exceptions, was sixty dollars a month, seven days a week living in doing all kinds of menial services with Sunday night off after having completed all work obligations. the reason we could not be married in the St Jean the Baptist Church was that to be married there, although she was a regular attendant was 'twas her parish, one had to own a pew or be of French decent.

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There is a beautiful shrine in this church of Saint Ann and her relic is presented for adoration daily after some of the services. Thomas Fortune Ryan, a wealthy financier, left a sum of money to the church wherein flowers are kept perpetually on the altars. Those days were the deep depression days. Getting an apartment was not hard as few people could afford to move. There was an abundance of vacant apartments in those days. Some landlords would give anywhere from three to six months free rent to a reliable tenant so as to be assured that their premises would not be vacant. We first got a three-room apartment at 99th Street in corona near where I had the store. The rent was thirty-nine dollars a month I think.

When we got married I had saved enough money to furnish completely the full apartment.. I remember the whole cost came to about seven hundred dollars which in those days was a lot of money. WE had a radio. a full bedroom suite, a furnished kitchen but for a while an ice box, no refrigerator, no washing machine, no television, dry the clothes on a line, iron by hand, etc. We were living at this apartment for six months when one day Mom was to the city to help one of her former girl friends, Winnie Flynn, who was a living out girl also, to cook and serve a dinner party. Well when I came home that evening the door was partly opened and the apartment in darkness. Mom had not arrived home till later. Well the apartment had been turned upside down,bureau drawers, emptied out on the floor. nothing left untouched. We had been broken into and robbed of many things. I had fine clothes then as I expected not to be. spending too much after being married. Everything was taken in my clothes, suits, overcoats, my gold watch a gift from Mom from Tiffany's, her engagement ring and a piggy bank containing at least fifty dollars and many, many other items. when she arrived home we felt bad about it and never felt comfortable in that apartment afterwards. We stayed there for about three months afterwards and moved to an apartment at 35-17 109th Street, Corona in a two-family house on the second floor owned by Mr. & Mrs. John Bowe.

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We had four rooms there and what concerned us most was would that be too many rooms for us and could we afford the rent, forty-three dollars a month. The Bowes became our life-long friends and though the older ones have passed away, their children still remain in touch with us as Mrs. Bowe was like a mother to Mom and me. I had the store in Corona then and just to exist in decency was all we wished for, no frills, no high living. Individuals then were kind and friendly towards one another and did not live beyond their humble means and were happy and contented with what they had and were just as unconcerned about the things they wished for and knew they could not afford. We were very happy in this house for the time we lived there was about six or seven years till such time we bought this present house in Bayside. I think it was the year nineteen hundred and forty-four. This house was then owned by an estate of Mr. Peter and I bought it through a real estate broker. A Mr. Leisch, for the sum of eight thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars. There were no sewers in the streets then but later they were connected. I did a lot of work around the house this house, afterwards as I was young then and never knew what it was to be idle. . Mom and I thought this old house was a lovely place......

(hand written below "There is a lot more I could have written to this, but is not-this is enough nonsense. Signed Ben TonRy"). This Letter has been corrected by the computer. Correcting the spellings and punctuations as of this date 05-14-2002. Some were left in the way written by Ben.

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PER 1911 IRISH CENSUS, THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE WERE LIVING IN “DRUMFIN, CO. SLIGO. IRELAND”. THERE IS NO HOUSE NUMBER LISTED.

Name, Townland, County, Age, Related,

Tonry, Kate A. Sligo 42 Wife. “ John, “ 14 Son. “ Michael. “ 12 Son. “ James P. “ 10 Son. “ Stephen “ 9 Son. “ Lizzie K. “ 8 Dau. “ Mary Ellen “ 6 Dau. “ Charles M. “ 4 Son. “ Patk, Joseph “ 2 Son. Twin “ Bernard, Leo 2 Son. Twin