Mystery Monday: Is this Lizzie Gaffney?

Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Gaffney
          (1884 - 1960)


Benita (McGinnis) McCormick
          (1889 - 1984)

"My cousin poses," Benita wrote under this photograph, taken in 
western Ireland in 1913.  Could this be Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" 
Gaffney? Compared with the photo below, there seems to be a 
strong  resemblance, but it is hard to say for sure.

There are a couple of  unidentified "mystery" photographs in my great-aunt Detty's (Benita) scrapbook from her 1913 trip to Europe.  The above picture of the young woman on the horse and cart is one of them.

Could she be Mary Elizabeth Gaffney, Aunt Detty's cousin once-removed? If so, this would  mean they were fellow travelers in Europe.

I never met Mary Elizabeth.  Still, I have a rather odd tie to and a soft spot for Cousin Lizzie, as the Gaffneys and McGinnises knew her, through one of those stories parents tell their children to get a point across.  In my case, my mother used to caution my sister and me not to pick up or carry our younger sisters around, lest we drop and injure them.  According to her, another child (a young neighbor or cousin) had  been playing with baby Lizzie Gaffney in their arms when they dropped her, injuring her hip. As a result, Lizzie never walked without a cane.  

Interestingly enough, a story from another side of the family attributes Lizzie's hip injury to a fall from a high chair. But I never knew of that theory, and my mother's admonition remained with me through the births of my three children.  I remember thinking about Lizzie's unfortunate accident and took great care to keep other children from picking them up for fear the same fate could happen to them.   

Lizzie was the second of four children born to James and Alice (Carlow) Gaffney of Erie, Pennsylvania.  In addition to her disability, she had a childhood that few would envy.  An older brother, James Jr., was stillborn. Her mother Alice, long ill with tuberculosis, died in April 1891, a mere three months after giving birth to her youngest child, May.  Baby May would die that summer.  

With Alice's death, James, an independent grocer and beer bottler with no relatives living nearby, was left alone to raise his two surviving children, Lizzie, then 7, and Alice, 3.  Wanting his daughters to have a mother, he remarried within the year, this time to a woman named Susanne Hurley.   

Sadly, tragedy struck again a mere four years later.  This time, James, who had been trying to cool off in his rocking chair one hot July night, drifted off to sleep and fell backwards off the porch, dying from a blow to the head.  

Whether Susanne could not afford to raise the children on her own after that or did not wish to raise another woman's children, we will never know. What we do know is that although the two sisters were split up and sent to live with various relatives for the remainder of their childhood, they remained close throughout their lives.

The 1910 United States Census found Lizzie living with her paternal Gaffney cousins in Chicago.  These were Mary Jane (Gaffney) and Thomas McGinnis and their four children:  Benita, Eugene, John, and Alice McGinnis.  Lizzie, then 24 years old, was listed as a "roomer" and was not employed. 

Although there seem to be no travel records for Lizzie, this does not mean they are nonexistent. Considering that in 1913 she was 27 years old, she would have been a suitable, mature travel companion for the younger Benita, who had graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and wanted to visit Europe.  It also would have been a wonderful opportunity for both cousins to meet their Gaffney relatives in Dublin and County Roscommon. Furthermore, her traveling there with Benita (along with Catherine Cronican, Benita's friend) would have given Mary Jane and Thomas peace of mind in knowing Benita would be safe and traveling in a group.  It would not surprise me at all if my great-grandparents helped buy Lizzie's passage to Europe.  

Unfortunately, I do not know much more about Lizzie.  As far as I know, she never had a job, maybe because of physical limitations.  My second cousin Jane (McCormick) Olson (Benita's daughter), remembered Lizzie as a lady with a ready laugh despite her disability and a frequent dinner guest in the McCormick household. 

Like her younger sister Alice, Lizzie never married. Alice became a secretary and later worked for the federal government in Washington, D.C. until her death there in April, 1959.  Lizzie must have missed her sister deeply.  She survived her by only 11 months, dying in Chicago on March 16, 1960.  She is buried at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Chicago.

Mary Elizabeth Gaffney in fur collar coat in the
foreground, with her first cousin,  Mary Jane
(Gaffney) McGinnis and two other unidentified
cousins.  Possibly taken in Chicago, Illinois,
the 1920s.   Photo courtesy of Ginny Eakin.
 

Of course, after all this speculation, it could well be that the cousin in the picture at top is not Lizzie Gaffney at all but someone with the same family features.  But who was she, then?

So, dear readers, now I ask your help.  Take out your magnifying glasses and judge for yourself.  Is Lizzie in both these photographs, or do you see a difference?  If Benita's cousin in the top picture is not Lizzie and you know this family, can you help identify her?

Don't you just love a mystery?

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Copyright ©  2014  Linda Huesca Tully

Did you know Benita (McGinnis) McCormick, Mary Elizabeth Gaffney, or are you a member of the McGinnis, McCormick, or Gaffney families? Share your memories and comments below.

Sibling Saturday: The Gaffney Brothers, Part One

Edward Gaffney  (1871 - 1871)
John Patrick "Jack" Gaffney (1866 - 1911)
Elizabeth (Kane) Gaffney (Btw.1874-78 - 1930-40)
Nancy (Gaffney) Zoldak (1902 - 1990)

John Patrick Gaffney

If you have been following this blog for the past several weeks, you have met the six Gaffney sisters of Conneaut, Ohio:  Janie, Maggie, Lyle, Di, Frank, and Agnes.  They were known for their Irish wit, humor, and stories.  They also were favorite subjects around our family table.

But they had brothers, too - three of them: John Patrick, Thomas Charles, and Edward.  And today we'll begin looking at them, starting with Edward and John.

Edward, born January 22, 1871, died the same year he was born.  He may have died either right after he was born or in the months afterward.  He is buried at Conneaut City Cemetery with his mother, Bridget (Quinn) Gaffney, the gravestone reading simply "Edward." 

John Patrick Gaffney, as the eldest son, inherited the Gaffney House (1) from his late father, John Francis Gaffney.   The Biographical History of Northeastern Ohio published  this biography about him in 1893:

John Gaffney, proprietor of the Conneaut House, Conneaut, Ohio, was born in Ashtabula county, this State, July 11, 1866, son of John F. and Bridget Gaffney. 

His parents came from the old country to America previous to their marriage.  The father was a traveling man for many years - traveling until the Conneaut House was built, after which he was its proprietor until the time of his death, February 28, 1892, at the age of sixty-six years.  He had been a resident of Conneaut since before the war.   

Mr. Gaffney was a devout Catholic, as is also his wife.  The names of their children are as follows:  Janie, Margaret, Elizabeth, Delia, John, Frankie, Agnes and Thomas.  All are at home and unmarried except Janie, who is the wife of Thomas E. McGinnis, a railroad engineer and a resident of Conneaut.  Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis have two children:  Benita and Eugene.  

Of John F. Gaffney's brothers and sisters we record that one brother, James, resides in Erie, Pennsylvania; that Elizabeth is the wife of Patrick Cozens, of Conneaut; that Patrick, another brother, is deceased; and that Mary is the wife of Peter McGordy, Chicago.  Mrs. Gaffney had a brother and sister who came to Conneaut, Terrence Quinn, who died here; and Mrs. Edward Tinney, still of this place.  She has two brothers, Thomas and John, farmers in Iowa. and one brother, Henry, in St. Louis. 

John Gaffney's first employment was that of yard clerk at the Nickel Plate, where he remained for two years.  After this he clerked in his uncle's store in Erie some time.  Then he went on the road as a traveling salesman, being in the employ of S. Peterson & Co., a wholesale grocery and flour house of Chicago, and continued on the road until after the death of his father, since which time he has conducted the hotel. 

The Conneaut House is situated on the west side of Mill street, south of the New York, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad, being conveniently located for railroad men, who are its chief patrons.  Mr. Gaffney, having spent some years on the road, is acquainted with the wants of the traveling public, and he knows how to cater them in a courteous and pleasing manner.  Indeed, he is eminently fitted for the position he occupies. 

He affiliates with the Democratic party, and is a member of the Catholic Church.  (1)

Sometime between 1893 and 1900, John Patrick Gaffney, also known as "Jack" Gaffney, left Conneaut for Chicago.  Whether or not he sold the family hotel, known variously as the "Gaffney House" and the "Conneaut House," we do not know.

The United States 1900 Census in Chicago, Illinois, shows him living with his sister, Mary Jane, her husband, Thomas McGinnis, and their four children at 215 Monroe Avenue, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.  By now, he was employed as a clerk for the Chicago City Hall and was known for his precision and his "most legible hand." (2)

How Jack met Elizabeth Kane, a young schoolteacher from Cleveland, Ohio, I do not know, but I wonder whether his sisters had anything to do with it.  Agnes and Maggie Gaffney lived in Cleveland at the turn of the century, where they taught elementary school.  He might have met Elizabeth during his visits with his sisters there.

John Patrick Gaffney and daughter Nancy.
Chicago, Illinois, about 1903.

Jack and Elizabeth were married on September 9, 1902, in Chicago.  Their only daughter, Nancy, was born three years later, on November 2, 1905.   By 1910, they were renting a nice three bedroom, three story brick flat at at 747 East 65th Street, in Chicago's seventh ward.   The young family seemed to enjoy a blissful life, and Jack must have felt blessed to have a beautiful young wife, a bright, cherubic daughter, and a good civil service job.

Sadly, the one thing Jack was not blessed with was good health.  For several years he was afflicted with heart disease, a condition that plagued his father and his siblings.

His premature death at age 43 on March 4, 1911, was reported the next day in the Chicago Daily Tribune:

JOHN B. GAFFNEY, for many years a clerk in the employ of the city, died at his residence, 747 East Sixty-fifth Street, of heart disease yesterday.  Gaffney was a clerk in the city collector's office for over eight years.  He is survived by the widow and one daughter, 5 years old.

Elizabeth (Kane) Gaffney

Elizabeth and little Nancy buried Jack at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Chicago and moved to Cleveland, where they presumably could live near their extended family.  Elizabeth, who had not worked since she married Jack, resumed her previous job as a school teacher so she could support herself and her daughter. 

Nancy went on to become a teacher like her mother, graduating at age 21 from Ohio State University in 1927.  The two, who were very close, lived together and taught at various Cleveland public schools.  It is easy to imagine them comparing notes over dinner every evening, as they shared the stories of their days as teachers in the Cleveland public schools. 

The last time we find any historic mention of Elizabeth Gaffney is in the 1930 Census.  Either she remarried, or perhaps she died sometime during the next decade, because Nancy surfaces as a lodger with a family on Taylor Street, without her mother.  

And whatever happened to Nancy?  Well, she did live happily ever after, but her story will have to wait for another day.

Notes:

(1)  The Gaffney House was also referred to as the Conneaut House or the Conneaut Hotel.

(2)  Transcribed from Biographical History of Northeastern Ohio; published in Chicago: Lewis Publ. Co., 1893.

(e)  Benita McCormick, personal scrapbook, San Mateo, California, about 1982.

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Copyright ©  2013  Linda Huesca Tully

Are you a member of the Gaffney, Kane, McGinnis, or Zoldak families? Share your memories and comments below.