Thankful Thursday: "The One"

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 - 1984)
Phillip C. McCormick (1892 - 1981)

93 years ago this week, my great-Aunt Detty - Benita McGinnis - mailed a rather flirtatious, if not somewhat mysterious, penny postcard to a certain Mr. P.C. McCormick:

(Postmarked May 14, 1921)

Mr. P.C. McCormick 

#112 W. Adams St.

Chicago, Ill.

 
Dear Egg,
Just here for the night - walking up and down this yere ole alley, thinking of you.  When I'm in Chicago for a right while I'll look you up.  If you're ever in our town give me a "ring." $1.00 down bal. on delivery.                                                                                     - B. 

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The meaning of this postcard remains a secret between the sender and the recipient. Based on the postmark, though, Benita clearly was in Chicago, her hometown, when she wrote this.    

"Egg" was Phillip Columbus McCormick. He had, in fact already given Benita a "ring," all right.  A wedding ring.

If you've been reading this blog regularly, you already know my great-aunt Detty, or Benita McGinnis, fairly well. You've learned she was an outgoing, larger-than-life Ohio native who moved with her family to Chicago, Illinois, at the turn of the 19th/20th century, studied art there and in Paris, had her first serious relationship in Ireland that later left her with a broken heart, and was chief of the motion picture Censor Board in Chicago.

Army Sgt. Phillip Columbus McCormick
Circa 1918.  From Benita (McGinnis)
McCormick's scrapbook.

While Phillip Columbus McCormick was certainly Benita's opposite in temperament and ambition, he proved able to hold his own and then some.  Born on October 24, 1892, in Camden Township, Minnesota, he was one of eight children born to Patrick McCormick and the former Margaret Craven.   When he was about four years old, the family moved about miles away to the town of Hopkins, where Patrick McCormick was appointed postmaster.  

On June 5, 1917, two months after the United States entered World War I in Europe, Phil registered for the newly created Selective Service. At age 24, he was one of many young American men ages 21 - 31 years who did so on that very same day. He was working as a freight service agent in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, also known as the B & O. 

He was called up a year later and served in the United States Army for about nine months.  He never went overseas, serving most of his term in Washington State, where he worked his way up the ranks to the title of sergeant.

Upon his discharge at Christmastime in 1918, Phil returned to work for the B & O, this time as an assistant general freight manager in Chicago.  While living there, Phillip and Benita were introduced by a mutual friend named George Butcher.

"George came to see me one day," Aunt Detty told me in May 1981, just two months after Uncle Phil's death.  "He told me he'd learned there was a saint named Philip Benitius.  George thought it was a sign that his two friends - Phil and Benita - should meet."

She was skeptical at the time, not just about George's story but also about his friend.   But it turned out there really was such a saint.  "George was very anxious about this," she recalled.  "He said Phil was 'just my type,' so of course I was wary.  I remember when I finally met this fellow, he had brown eyes. I thought, 'I couldn't trust brown eyes!'"  

She decided her sister (my grandmother) Alice would like him, and arranged for them to meet.  

It turned out the entire boisterous McGinnis clan liked him, especially Tom and Janie McGinnis, Benita and Alice's parents.  Whenever he visited the McGinnis home, he was well-mannered, responsible, and respectful of both their daughters. Though from a large family himself, he was quiet and modest, the perfect complement to a family of unique and sometimes competitive individuals who were used to lively conversations around the dinner table. Tom was pleased that Phil was a fellow railroad man and a hard worker. As he had worked on the Nickel Plate Railroad in Conneaut, Ohio, some years before, he and Phil probably got along famously, comparing notes about railroad service and the changing industry. 

Benita's younger brothers Eugene and John enjoyed Phil's easygoing personality and dry sense of humor.  John especially enjoyed talking to Phil about history and his own experiences in the Great War as a cavalryman.  He became a regular visitor to the McGinnis household.

While Phil was kind to Alice, she was not particularly interested in him. On the other hand, he was especially drawn to Benita. Benita, for her part, began to pay more attention to the "man with the brown eyes," and their friendship blossomed into romance. The entire family rejoiced the day she ran into the house one evening and announced breathlessly that Phillip Columbus McCormick was "the one."

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Copyright ©  2014  Linda Huesca Tully

Wishful Wednesday: A Father and Daughter's Hopes and Dreams

Thomas Eugene McGinnis

          (1855 - 1927)

Benita Elizabeth (McGinnis) McCormick

          (1889 - 1984)

Sisters, Alice and Benita McGinnis,
Chicago, Illinois, about 1905.          

I love this portrait of the young McGinnis sisters, which I found in my grand aunt Benita (McGinnis) McCormick's scrapbook.  The picture shows Aunt "Detty," as we called her, on the right and my grandmother Alice on the left. 

My grandmother looks to be about nine or ten in this picture, and my grand aunt was about 15 or 16, dating the year of this photograph to about 1905. It was taken at the Garvin Studio, a few miles from their home and only a couple of blocks away from Lake Michigan.  The photograph shows a tender moment between two sisters who were at once very much alike yet very different.  

Though both girls and their brothers, Francis Eugene and John, were born in Conneaut, Ohio, their parents, Thomas and Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis, moved the family to Chicago, Illinois just before the close of the 19th century.

The McGinnis Family is listed here in the 1900 United States
Federal Census, living at 215 Monroe Street, in the Hyde Park
Neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.

My grandmother Alice and Aunt Detty each had different explanations for this. According to my grandmother, a fatal railroad accident in Conneaut in the late 1800s impacted Thomas so much that he decided to quit his job on the Nickel Plate Railroad.  Aunt Detty believed that the family left Conneaut after Thomas was injured while working on the Nickel Plate.  

Thomas Eugene McGinnis, circa 1920,
Chicago, Illinois. "To know him was to
love him," Aunt Detty wrote in her
scrapbook.

I have been unable to prove either claim but surmise that the reason the family moved may be somewhere in the middle. Although there do not seem to be any records of a major railroad accident during the 1890s, there were numerous mentions in the Conneaut and Ashtabula newspapers  of the time detailing the dangers of railroad work, as well as frequent accounts and obituaries of young railroad workers.  It seems only natural that my great-grandfather and many of his fellow railroad men might think it was a matter of time before their own names appeared in the rolls of the fallen.


One thing both sisters agreed on was that their father wanted a safer, more predictable ooccupation.  He moved the family to Chicago, Illinois, and found work as a sidewalk cement inspector for the city, a job that certainly fit the bill.  

The family rented a home at 215 Monroe street for several years before building another home at 8336 South Drexel Avenue.  The 1900 United States Federal Census showed that John Patrick Gaffney, Mary Jane's brother, also had moved to the big city and was living with the McGinnises.

Madison Street between Clark and LaSalle Streets, Chicago, 1900
Courtesy Flickr, Creative Commons

Chicago was an exciting place to live for four youngsters from a small town in Ohio.  It must have reawakened Thomas' memories of his youth, when he spent several years as a sailor traveling the world.  He often regaled his children, whom he called his "small craft," with colorful stories of his days at sea.

Even as a teenager, Benita was enamored of her father's adventures. Caught up in the Windy City's unstoppable energy, she began to see the possibilities of making her own mark in the world, meeting  new people, and discovering far-away places.  Her father would become her inspiration and her muse, helping her turn those dreams into reality.

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Copyright ©  2013  Linda Huesca Tully

Are you a member of the Gaffney, McGinnis, or McCormick,  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.

Wisdom Wednesday: Wise and Loving Matriarch

Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis:  (1858 - 1940)

Friends and sometimes complete strangers often dropped by Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis' home during the 1920s and 30s, hungry for a meal or even advice.  "Janie" gave both quietly and generously, never asking for anything in return.  She was a fervent follower of the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis, at Bluebird Cottage in Wisconsin, late
1930s.   I think this may have been in the town of Berlin, where she often
 visited her maternal cousins, Patrick and Mary McGoorty.  The blue silk
 dress with white polka-dots was her favorite.  She sewed it herself, as
 she had all her clothes. 

Janie was not only the center of her immediate family but also was the darling of her sisters and brothers, who visited her often.  Other than she, the only other siblings who had married were Frances ("Frank"), who married James Cherry; and John Patrick, who married Elizabeth Cain. The others - Lyle, Maggie, Agnes, Delia "Di," and Thomas "Tommy," bought a home together at 17813 Woodbury Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.   Lyle went to live with Janie in Chicago after Tom McGinnis died, where she remained  until her own death in 1934.

My mother, Joan Schiavon, went to live with her grandmother Mary Jane McGinnis and Aunt Lyle as a young child, when the challenges of the Great Depression made it difficult for her parents to feed and clothe their two children.  Sleeping with her grandmother every night and following her around like a puppy dog by day, my mother felt immensely loved and protected.  Years later, she would call this the best time of her childhood.

Janie McGinnis lived a long and happy life, living with her daughters Benita and Alice as the years passed and she began to feel the strains of old age.  When she turned  79, she was diagnosed with kidney disease and pernicious anemia, and she died quietly on July 13, 1940, at Benita's home, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.  She was 81 years old.

Though her death left a huge void in the McGinnis family, her children and grandchildren carried memories of Janie's gentle love, selflessness, and wisdom with them through their own lives.  I would venture to say that many of her qualities have trickled down through them to their own grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who may have been born too late to know her but who to this day continue to benefit from her legacy of love and good works. 

Copyright ©  2012  Linda Huesca Tully