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

1 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. 1 2 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. 2 3 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. 4 5 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.

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