John
Patrick "Jeff" Gaffney
(1826 - 1892)
Bridget
"Bridey" (Quinn) Gaffney
(1843 - 1914)
Thomas
Eugene McGinnis
(1855 - 1927)
Mary
Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis
(1858 - 1940)
Benita
Elizabeth (McGinnis) McCormick
(1889 - 1984)
When my great-aunt, Benita
"Detty" McCormick reached the "young" age of
92, she created a scrapbook of her life. She devoted the first pages of
her scrapbook to her parents and grandparents, Thomas Eugene and Mary McGinnis;
and John Patrick and Bridget Gaffney.
One of those pages
contained a photograph (below) of the Gaffney House in Conneaut, Ashtabula
County, Ohio. Located at 58 Mill Street, it was also known to some as the
"Conneaut House." The house belonged to Mary Jane's own parents, John
Francis "Jeff" and Bridget (Quinn) Gaffney.
John and Bridget were
Irish potato famine immigrants to America. Both were from County Roscommon- he from Drumbrick and she from Boyle. Did they know each other before
crossing the Atlantic? It's hard to say, but the towns are about five miles
apart, so it is possible. It appears, though, that they married in
America.
John and Bridget lived
for a time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Mary Jane, their eldest child, was
born and baptized in 1858. They arrived in Conneaut sometime between 1858
and the spring of 1860, when their second daughter, Margaret, was born.
The United States 1860
Census indicates that John was a "peddler" who owned property in Conneaut valued
at $300. The equivalent today would be over $8,000, an impressive amount of
money for that era. Aunt Detty believed he had been a traveling linen
salesman, but it seems plausible that he would have sold other
textiles as well, such as cotton. The demand for cotton was far greater than for
linen at this time, due to shortages of flax (needed to make linen) and the
rising popularity of cotton as a less expensive and more versatile material.
The demand increased dramatically with the advent of the Civil War and
the need for cotton to make soldier's uniforms and medical supplies.
These factors must have contributed a decent income to the Gaffney family
and made it possible for John and Bridget to afford such a large home as the
Gaffney House.
The house apparently
was big enough to house John and Bridget's growing family - they would have 10
children in all - plus additional rooms to rent to the young men who worked on
the nearby Nickel Plate Railroad.
  |
| Page from Benita (McGinnis) McCormick's scrapbook |
The entry in my Aunt Detty's scrapbook (shown
above), describes the Gaffney House:
The Gaffney House, famous Conneaut, Ohio landmark patronized especially by Nickle (sic) Plate railroad men. About 1880 the hotel was the home of more than 30 unmarried young men under the age of 27 years. + The cross on the addition indicates the window to the "Priest's Room" built by my grandfather John Francis Gaffney to accommodate the circuit priest who came when he could to minister to the growing Irish-American population.
John and Bridget had no idea that one of those
young men would become more than just a "renter" to them in the years
to come.
**********
Copyright © 2013
Linda Huesca Tully
Are you a member of the Gaffney, McGinnis, or
McCormick families? Share your memories and comments below.
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Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet 
That is a lot of people under one roof - even a big roof! What a great picture of the house.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right about it being a lot of people, Kathy. One of my sons wondered if Bridget Gaffney had to cook for all of them. That was a daunting thought!
ReplyDelete