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Nakaille
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2001 - 11:47 am: |     |
For those who enjoy stories with a local flair I thought I would post this. I sent the Seth Boyden photo URL to an uncle who promptly sent back an oral family history that includes a lot of info about Maplewood. This part of the story is told by my great-aunt Regina who is a semi-retired nun now living in Maryland. She will turn 90 in two weeks. I think the farmhouse that is mentioned is one that my partner and I seriously (and unknowingly) thought about buying when we were first looking in Maplewood. What a trip that would have been. Anyway, here is the part about the Maplewood branch (with detours to Panama and Canada):
Mother and Dad lived in Newark, NJ until around 1905 at which time they bought a farmhouse with three (3) acres of land in Hilton, New Jersey. Dad always wanted to be a farmer but Mother wouldn't marry him if he were because she didn't want to be a farmer's wife. Dad was a banker and founded the first bank in Newark, NJ where he remained president until around 1906. He and his partner had a disagreement over the fact that Dad couldn't foreclose on persons who were struggling to pay on their mortgages but had to skip times. His partner bought him out.
Dad then founded a bank in Panama where Uncle Gene was the manager. Unfortunately, the bank loaned money to the Government and after that governing body was out of office the next ones in refused to pay the debt, saying that it wasn't their responsibility. The bank failed (around 1915/16). It hit the papers big time in Newark and caused a great deal of embarrassment to the family. Also, Dad lost a lot of his money. Uncle Gene bought a service station in Maine where some time later he lost four of his fingers He and Dad were always in close touch. Also, they both sent money to people in Panama who lost money when the bank closed. (There was an article about them in a Panama Paper some years ago praising them for their work there).
After leaving the bank, Dad was working as an agent for a railroad and shipping firm. One of his jobs was to bring in people from Europe on the shipping line and railroad he worked for. One of the persons from Ireland was a young Irish girl whom he hired to work for us, Maggie. Maggie came to milk the cows. In time she also helped to take care of us. This was a period of difficulty for all of us, as Mother had a tenth child that was a tube baby and so she had to have a difficult operation and went into a rather long period of depression. (When I was an adult she told me that none of us meant anything to her at that time. I was about 3 years old, which probably accounted for my independence of her and my constant doing pretty much as I pleased during my childhood). There was also a woman, Mrs. Farley, who lived on Stanley Terrace who helped in caring for us especially when we were sick.
I'm not sure what work Dad was doing after the crash of the bank in Panama, but I know the boys had to help him · probably something connected with the railroads and shipping lines. Then he received a job from the Canadian government to bring in refugees from countries being taken over by the Communists. This was in the 20's. I was fifteen when he rented a house in Mount Royal, outside of Montreal. Mary went up first, then I went, followed by Mother and Eugene. While I was there, I attended the school run by the Madames du Sacre Coeur. It was a great year. The summer of that year we went up to live on a lake in the midst of forests in the northern part of Quebec about eight miles outside of a town called Amos. There was also an experimental farm about two miles from us run by the Fortier family where we got our milk. Joe, Ed and Frank had spent the previous winter there helping to build the places necessary for the incoming families.
Some of the families had already been settled in the Quebec territory. Unfortunately for Dad and for us, the Canadian government passed a law that summer to allow only people from the British Islands to come into the country. So there we were in northern Canada waiting for Dad to get some money together to get us out of there. We finally drove out in October along the only road out of the north. It was a great experience.
Back in Maplewood (Hilton became a part of Maplewood around 1924), 225 Burnett Ave. was a welcome sight. Mary and Ed and Joe went to work. Gene and I went to Columbia High School. Because my subjects were so different in Montreal (except for English) I had to do two years in one in order to graduate in 1930. But among the many fine things I learned in Montreal was the ability to study well. Frank went to St. Benedict's in Newark. (Mom had dedicated him to God when he was baptized in the hope that he would become a priest. But he finally decided he didn't have that vocation.)
I should mention here that at the time Hilton became Maplewood, we could no longer keep our cows. It was a time that Granddad was in need of a home and an income. Dad had the barn moved down to the road. He made it into a two family house (a duplex), which gave Granddad an income after he had moved in. During this time Dad was working at various jobs. He eventually worked on Wall Street in a brokerage firm, where he invested what money he had in stocks. Then came the crash of 1929. In 1931 he and mom lost the house because he couldn't pay the taxes. With
the boys' help they rented another house in Maplewood where they stayed until the war. Then they took an apartment in South Orange. Eugene's military salary and some money Dad made as a board member of some firms plus mother's salary from St. Joseph's church as organist helped to keep them going.
I think that one of the things I most admired in my dad was that no matter what happened he kept going. I told you that he had wanted, as a young man, to be a farmer. Well he always was. There were the cows which in our early years gave us milk. They had one meadow to use. Other parts of the yard went to vegetables, fruit trees and flower gardens. Dad used all of us in raising his vegetables ö I guess we young ones were about the right size for weeding and picking! And mother used to jar and can them for the winter. So we were well fed from our own land. Oh yes, there were also chickens. (I remember one time when Eugene got lost in the corn field.) There were melons, too ö and pumpkins. Even when dad lived with Gert, Lee and Jean he had a corn field. At the same time , Dad kept busy at jobs which helped to keep us going. And Mother ö she was a strong woman, not given to much show of affection, but we always knew she loved us.
However, I'm afraid at three years old, when she was not paying any attention to us at all, it must have had an effect on me. I was never able to grow close to her, and my independence of movement ö wandering off to be by myself, either in the woods that spread out across the street into the farm lands beyond or off to the park in back of our grade school (Seth Boyden) had become a habit by the time Mom took charge again. Many a spanking I received for not saying where I was going, but it never changed. As a teenager I really rebelled, and Mom enlisted Ed in giving me his full attention ö which he did. I was flattered because he'd even tell girlfriends on the phone that he'd call them back if I came into the room ready to go out on a date. Then he'd look me over and give me some brotherly advice. Of course, Mom didn't give up entirely. One day she and dad were having a discussion. I heard her telling him that I really needed clothes. He said: "but she always looks well dressed." Mom: "Of course she does ö she wears Mary's, Gert's or my clothes ö takes them out of the closet when she gets up in the morning." Also, when I was out on a date ö there she was on the porch waiting for me to come up the walk. (About Seth Boyden ö I started going there when I was three. They had started up a kindergarten class and needed more pupils. So I who followed my brothers to school was enrolled. I'm sure I missed a lot of days because they kept me there until I was seven when I entered first grade and evidently knew the school and its surroundings very well.)
Up to 1914 our parish was St. Leo's in Irvington. But in 1914 Dad and some other men of the neighborhood went to the Bishop to ask to start a parish in Hilton. The bishop didn't have any priests to spare and suggested that they approach the Benedictines in Morristown for help. So St. Joseph's came into being. The first priest there was Father Peter Petz.
Mother was organist from that time till she was living some time with Gert. Must have been in her seventy's. We kids dusted the church and the boys mowed the lawns. It was our church and we had a great time in it. Also often choir ractice took place in our parlor. Mary and I learned to dance to that music. |
Joancrystal
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2001 - 12:31 pm: | |
Bacata:
A wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing! |
Aero8
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2001 - 3:05 pm: | |
Nakaille- Great story. I've been following the thread about how long families have been in Maplewood and need to check when exactly mine was here. Your story makes me want to know more detail. If I do find out I'll post it as you did.
But until I find the dates and some stories this is what I know. The Brick Building that Ric. Paints is in is where my grandmother grew up. She also went to Seth Boyden and eventually when Tuscan School was built her sisters went there. |
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