Quite the Character

I have some follow-up to last week's post about Grampie's siblings.  The colorful Uncle Art has gotten a little more colorful for us this week upon my discovery of a couple of very interesting newspaper articles.

The first article I found was called "Five Fugitives Are Freed in New York to Face Trial in Taunton in Hi-Jacking Case" from the Boston Daily Globe in 1927 when Arthur would have been about 34 years old.  This Arthur Ryan gave a New York City address.  This incident stemmed from "transportation a month ago of two motorvan loads of liquor from Taunton to New York".  Rum running.  Actually there are other hints in the newspaper that the Ryan boys were heavily involved in rum running back in the day.  Anyhow, I wasn't sure this was "our" Arthur but I wasn't sure it wasn't either so I kept looking til I came across the articles above.

It seems this Arthur Ryan of Gloucester (of the right age for "our" Arthur) used an assumed identity as Ernest T. Leach and was arrested on grand larceny charges in connection with the theft of almost $100,000 (yes--that's the right number of zeroes) in GOVERNMENT securities from a New York City bank.  The article states that Leach admitted obtaining these bonds through an underworld acquaintance. Bazinga--this matches what Sharen's mother thought she remembered.  It's enough to make me believe this is indeed our Arthur.  An official black sheep.

Jim says, "And there's your sign!"

Time will tell

I've recently been back in touch with a distant cousin, Sharen Ryan Elliott.  She is a twin granddaughter of Grampie's oldest brother Richard.  See, twins on the Ryan side of the family!  In the couple of times I've been in touch with her, she's given some interesting Ryan tidbits that I think help round out the story of Grampie and his siblings. 

Sharen sent me this picture of Grampie's parents William H. Ryan and Catherine Bentley Ryan.  I do not have a date for this picture but he died in 1934 and their last child was born in 1910 so we can assume sometime between those dates.  Catherine's long dress makes me think it's in the 1910s, but this needs further research.   This is the Catherine (Katherine) found dead in her bed by Grampie in 1945.  I feel very fortunate to have this picture.  He certainly appears to be an "old salt", doesn't he?

To briefly review their family, lives seemingly full of misfortune, tragedy and dysfunction:

Richard Sr.  and his wife Ida had 4 children including Richard Jr --Sharen's father.  She says Richard Sr. died in 1948 at the age of 57 of heart trouble and complications of alcoholism.  Ida was the runaway wife I've posted about in an earlier post. 

Richard Sr. is sitting on the dock here int his picture also from Sharen.

Arthur B. was second in line.  He married Gertrude Gordon and they had at least one daughter, Elinor.  There are a number of Eleanors in this family!  Sharen says he left Gloucester at the age of 16 to live with his aunt and uncle Bentley in a nearby town.  She also notes that Uncle Art was "quite the character....seems he had problems with the Mob and ended up down in Mexico for a while hiding!"  I don't have it confirmed but it appears from the local funeral home records that he may have died in 1955 perhaps in Florida.

William H. Ryan Jr. died as a young father in New York City of acute chronic alcoholism.  He worked at Ellis Island Immigration station and had two daughters.  I haven't yet been able to track that family but he was only 38 when he died in June 1933.

Everett B. Ryan died about a year later of a broken neck while attempting to hang himself.  Everett was clearly troubled and was being treated at the State Hospital for some time prior to this.  He also had a wife and children (6).  It was only a month before this incident that his father William Sr. died also at the Danvers State Hospital.  It was a very difficult year or so for the family.

Chester was "mentally deficient" according to his draft registration and Dad's stories.  It appears to me he lived with his family until he couldn't any more.  I don't have his death confirmed either (yet).

Grampie was next in line, the 6th boy in a row in that family.

Aunt Bud, Viola (or Violet) was the 7th child and the first girl!  She never married and was Dad's favorite aunt (the only Ryan aunt!).  She was a dance instructor and beautician before she moved back with her brother Grampie ill with cancer.

Here's Dad with Aunt Bud and his mother.  I think this young man is Peter, probably at Dad's college graduation at St. Bonaventure--so Aunt Bud thought enough of Dad to take that trip.  I love her purse!


John "Jack" Ryan was the youngest boy, shot accidentally by a friend and died of complications several weeks later.  I am working to locate those two children as well.  It's especially sad to note he died only a week or so before Christmas with two young children at home. 

In 1910, an infant girl was born and died on the same day.  She is listed as Dala but I don't know if that's some kind of abbreviation or her name.  Isn't THAT sad?

Overall, it seems a pretty sad tale to me.  But perhaps it only seems so from the distance time creates.  Time will tell our tale as well.

We celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary yesterday with the (now traditional) hot dog and beer at the stadium.  This tradition started out feeling like a sad state of affairs but has now woven its way into our own little culture.  It helps that another couple from Jim's section of season ticket holders shares the very same anniversary with us.  Ed and Patty enjoy having this quirky coincidence in common so we make an effort to share the bounty of the stadium meal with them each year.

Last night, we were able to go to one of the skyboxes to watch the game and stay out of the rain.  This provided us with a better opportunity for real conversation--the kind you can't have in the open air stadium seating shared with others.  Hang on to your hats because this is where we learn that Patty is called Patty Anne -- and only by her family members.  Like me, she doesn't really like to hear it come from a non-blood's mouth.  And the quirky conicidence doesn't stop there--she also has 4 sisters and 1 brother!!!  By the time this information spilled out, the men were getting a little nervous.  As well they should. 

I admit that I do not always look excitedly forward to spending our anniversary at the stadium one more time, but yesterday was a night to remember despite the rain and cancelled fireworks.  Here are some photographic reminders of that day in 1985:

I like this one for the reminder of the blue kitchen, empties on the washing machine, July calendar on the door, Nanny and Mom helping out.  Who's that girl with the glasses next to Nanny? :)

Seeing the fire truck outside the church and realizing he really did get a fire truck!

Dad and his camera!  Happy Birthday Dad.

I think this is before we defiled the Elks Club Elk

Don't we all look young!

We spent our honeymoon in Gloucester.  Jim reminded Emmy this week that he has been in her life for 29 years now!  An anniversary well remembered.

Flynn vs. Alfred 1927

I don't know about you, but I never tire of reading these articles.  This is from an Alfred area newspaper following their 57-0 drubbing at the hands of St. Bonaventure led by Weenie.  He gained 310 yards and scored 4 touchdowns in this game.  Another article about this game referred to him as "brilliant".  Who wouldn't love to read that about their beloved grandfather?

Maybe this cool (almost fall-like) morning brought this to mind today.  Seriously it is so much fun to Google Weenie. (Well, be careful to include the Flynn part maybe with Olean so you don't get any nasty surprises in the results).  If  you haven't done so while you are wasting time on the internet, I strongly recommend it. 

Paula mentioned the porch of the kitchen at 206 Tompkins street from the last post.  Yes, I remember that porch too.  I think Nanny had flowers out there we were sometimes allowed to water with one of those watering cans that had a very long skinny curved neck.  I always loved to do that.  And the bubbles, of course!  Nice, comforting memories.  Ahhhhh........

A House is Not a Home...is it?

Recently we went to Erie and stopped in Olean on our way.   Jim drove by Nanny and Weenie's house for me at 206 Tompkins Street.  This is what it looks like today:

Looks pretty much the same.  The fence wasn't there in those days but otherwise nearly the same as I remember.  I expect I'm not the only one of us that has fond memories of this place, but the very first thing that comes to my mind when I think of it is the stale smoke smell.  And even though the words "stale smoke smell" generally do not make me smile, somehow that olfactory memory is a fond one.  The other general impression I remember is one of darkness or muted light.  I don't remember lots of sunlight streaming in and the furniture was dark wood with that richly colored Oriental carpet softening the patter of little feet. 

A little bit of research indicates that house was built around 1930 which means it was fairly new in house years while we were visitors.  It didn't have a "new" feel to me.  It is still rental property today.  I can't help but wonder why Nanny and Weenie rented all those years. 

Nanny and Grampie's house on Haskell Street in Gloucester looked like this in recent years:

It has changed hands several times since Nanny and Grampie lived there.  It also changed its number:  from 34 to 24.  My memories of this place are hazier--we didn't visit often but it seemed relatively big to me and more open that the Olean house.  Records seem to indicate it was built around 1900 so it had lived a pretty significant life before we descended upon it.  Nanny and Grampie did not live on Haskell Street in the 1930 census but did so in the 1940 census.  At that time, they reported they lived in the same house 5 years earlier.  These records also state they owned the house, worth $3500 in 1940.  Anyhow, every time we go to Gloucester we drive by it and I smile at the memories.

Judy shared the news of her impending move after many years on Alice Street.  Since it is the home the boys grew up in, I'm sure there will be many memories encased within those walls.  That house will hold those memories always just as the Olean and Gloucester houses did for our parents and for us.  In that regard, I'm not sure the song lyrics have it quite right.  "A house is not a home" is 100% true but can you deny the faint smiles you generate when you see these pictures?  If the walls could speak........

Good luck to Judy, Patrick and the boys.  Empty nest feelings might be somewhat softened by your new surroundings.  I hope so.

Have you ever thought about how the weekend concept came to be?  I hadn't so I was intrigued by the following written by Marie Wells of the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

It’s a steamy summer weekend, so what do you do?  You toss the kids (and/or the grandkids) into the car and head for the shore.  Time to get some respite from the heat with those cooling ocean breezes, and to commune with nature for a few hours.  Ah, but when you get there, you find that several thousand of your closest friends and neighbors had the same idea.  With perhaps three square feet of sand to call your own and the water as crowded as the sole working elevator in a high rise office building, you make the best of a fine tradition that goes back many, many decades.

Or does it?

For the first couple of centuries after the Pilgrims first anchored the Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor, work was life, and life was work.  No thought was given toward leisure time; in fact, in Puritan Massachusetts, the one day that work was forbidden was to be spent at the meeting house for the Sabbath services – which lasted all day.  Only after the Civil War when manufacturing and huge factories became the way of life for hundreds of thousands of people, many of them immigrants, was there something – though still paltry - called “leisure time.”  The well-to-do had enjoyed leisure time for years, and built large, ornate “cottages” in resort areas such as Newport, Rhode Island, to get away during the hot summers in style.  But little thought was given to whether the working class even deserved time off and/or access to recreational amenities.  

One man changed all that, a man still held up as a symbol of overwhelming capitalism, but a man who knew a good thing when it swam up and bit him in the posterior.

In 1909, Edsel Ford publicly announced, "Every man needs more than one day a week for rest and recreation....The Ford Company always has sought to promote [an] ideal home life for its employees. We believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family." And in 1926, Henry Ford made his son’s words reality:  he shut down all his factories for all of Saturday and Sunday, thus creating The Weekend.  No one had done it before, but Ford had cars to sell and knew that people would by them only if they had leisure time in which to enjoy them.  What a concept!

How interesting the tie between your family's beloved Fords and leisure weekend time!  We are looking forward to upcoming weekend festivities on Long Island when our nephew Brad  will get married.  This event points to the changing nature of the concept of weekends and leisure time.  This wedding will be held on a Sunday.  When we were growing up, this just wasn't done--the phrase "non-traditional" didn't even cover such an idea.  Catholics weren't allowed Sunday marriages so as not to interfere with church services.  Sundays were held as sacrosanct.  Businesses were ALL closed.  You went to church and spent time with your families on Sundays.  Period.  

 

As we all have seen, Sundays are no longer off limits for working, shopping, alcohol or weddings!  It seems the weekend pendulum is swinging back to the earlier days when it made no difference what day of the week it was for workers, shopkeepers, liquor stores or young couples seeking to be married. 

As a child, I really did not enjoy Sundays.  I was supremely bored, so I still enjoy the freedom that Sundays now bring.  It's still a weekend day, but with the added benefit of open shops and family weddings!!!  As you may know, Amy plans to be married on a Sunday next summer so we are also becoming part of the pendulum swing.  WooHoo!

BAM! Walter Brown 1849-1908

A few posts ago, I mentioned that Walter Brown was bedeviling me in terms of "closing the door" on his life.  Walter was Grampie Brown's younger brother.  Unlike Grampie (William S. Brown), Walter was born in the United States.  Though an early census record indicates he was born in Albany County, a later census indicates he was born in Michigan (where his sisters settled).  I am more inclined to believe he was born in New York State since that earlier census record was recorded much closer to the actual event.  I have the family pretty well documented and I don't believe they were in Michigan in 1849, but I could be proven mistaken one day in the future.

Walter apparently worked with metal--his occupation was listed as tinsmith and metal laborer over the years.  He came from a long history of blacksmithing and tinsmithing seems not too far removed from that.  He married Sarah Armstrong and lived in the Buffalo NY area.  Sarah and Walter had two children William and Maria.  Again, not easy to locate yet another William Brown in Buffalo but the search will continue.

This case was cracked when I found Grampie Brown living with Sarah after Walter died.  I'd had this death notice but wasn't sure it was the right Walter until I found that little tidbit.

Further evidence was located in a gravestone picture located somewhat by accident while following Ancestry.com leads:

This picture wouldn't have made sense without knowing a little about Walter's wife Sarah.  It's in Holy Cross Cemetery (presumably Buffalo though I'm not sure--ready for another road trip to Buffalo, Paula?)

This is a case where several small clues lead me to conclude that our Walter Brown died in 1908:  the gravestone combined with the newspaper obituary combined with the census record.  None of these, standing alone, would lead to such a conclusion but TOGETHER they paint another picture of one of our family members.  It brings me great satisfaction to hunt these clues down and try to match them up.  I'm embarrassed to admit how many of these clues have been right in my files all along but that's a different story for another day.