Notes:

"ARTICLE: THE ORION TIMES NEWSPAPER
THURSDAY, 14 APRIL 1938, Vol. Sixty, No. 9
SAVED BY: Bessie Blair at 1822 - 18th Street, Moline, Illinois 61265
Cost: $1.50 for the entire newspaper saved
MRS. MARY GERRITY, OF ORION, TO REACH 100TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY ONSATURDAY --------- A Native of Ireland; Last of a Family of TenChildren Still Active About Her Home. ------- As far as is known, wehave never before had a centenarian in Orion, but on Saturday, April16, Mrs. Mary Gerrity will celebrate her one hundredth birthdayanniversary. This unusual event will be observed quietly in the homeof her niece, Mrs. Emily Hanna where she has lived for the past twelveyears. It is expected that friends will call on her during theafternoon. Mrs. Gerrity continues to be in good health. She goes upand down the stairs a good many times a day and spends considerabletime out in the yard when the weather is nice. While a good deal hasbeen given on other birthday anniversaries about the life of thisestimable lady a retelling of part of the story of her one hundredyears may be of interest. Her memory is very good. It is rather hardto realize that she was thirty eight years old at the time of theCentennial Exposition in Philadelphia. She describes happenings oflong before the Civil War as if they were recent occurrences. Whenasked the name of the sailing vessel that brought her, with her fatherand mother, her three brothers and three of her sisters, from Belfast,Ireland, to New York, she could not think of it at first, but a littlelater said: ?I can tell you the name of the boat now. It was TheWyomia. A man stood at a wheel at the end of the boat. Sometimes thewater went over the boat, and they nailed down the hatches to keep itfrom coming down on our beds. One night, when it was storming,Matilda said, ?Mother, I?ve lost my night cap. Will it be any harm todrown without my night cap?? ?The trip across took seven weeks andthree days, and it was considered a pretty good trip.? She was elevenyears old when the family came to America. She was born atKnockahollet, County Antrim. This is a little village in the ?Northof Ireland,? not far from the sea. Their market place was Ballymena.Her father, John Love, had a blacksmith shop- ?hooped? wheelbarrowsand carts and shod horses. There as lots of shoeing to do, for theroads were hard. Her father was of English parentage. He had marriedMary Ann Duncan in 1825. She was the daughter of a Scotch farmer, whohad come from Scotland to Ireland on account of religious persecution. He was a Presbyterian. John Love and his family belonged to the?Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.? The ten childrenof John and Mary Love were all born in Ireland. Ann was the oldest,then came Eliza (Elizabeth), Jane and Nancy. Mary was the sixthchild. After came William, Maria, James and Alex. Alex was tenmonths old when the family made the voyage. John Love was reluctantto give up his business and start over again, but the chances ofgetting along looked better across the sea. Ann had gone to Americawith an uncle, Andrew Duncan, and then sent for Eliza and Jane, sothey could be, ?where it was worth while (continued on page 8) towork.? her mother wanted to go where they could all be together. Sheremembers ?Uncle Andrew? as a man who belonged to lodges and woreblack velvet pants that buttoned just below the knee. Her fatherturned the blacksmith business over to a nephew (no name), and theyset out. They hauled their goods on carts to Belfast. The nightbefore they left Jimmie Ferris and Andy Blue came in with theirfiddles, and other neighbors came, and they all danced. On the dock inNew York she and Maria watched a wagon start off with a trunk on itthat contained their dolls. They ran up the street after it until apoliceman caught them and put them up on the sidewalk. They made thetrip to Bucks County, Pennsylvania by train. Ann had rented a housein Fallsington for them from Lovett Brown, a Quaker. He met them atthe train with two wagons to haul their goods to the new home. Shetells how frightened she was one day when her mother sent her on anerrand to a house which was down a long lane. She had gone part waywhen she came to a corner where some colored children were playingunder a chestnut tree. They yelled ?Irish! Irish!? at her, and sheran for her life. After only two months in the new land her fatherdied. Ship fever, they called the disease which caused his death.
Her mother heard that Josiah Comfort?s wanted a little girl to livewith them, so she went there, helping with the housework and going toschool in the wintertime. It was the Orthodox Quaker school inFallsington. William, James and Maria went to the same school. Latershe lived at the Satithwaite and the Burgess homes. She says, ?TheQuakers will do anything for you. They are the nicest people thereare, religion and all.? She always wanted to learn sewing. When shewas fourteen, she heard of a woman in Trenton who taught girls how tosew. She got a ride on a wagon with a man who was going to Trentonand made arrangements to learn dressmaking from a Mrs. Reed, whotaught with charts. The next day she told her mother what she haddone, and her mother seemed to be pleased. She said they would haveto find a place for her to board. They walked to Trenton, wearingtheir hoop skirts. They crossed the Delaware river on the tollbridge. The toll was ten cents for wagons and two cents for those onfoot. After receiving instructions and working at dressmaking at amillinery store in Trenton for six months, she went out among thefarmers to sew, making dresses, coats, pants, shirts, vests,--everything they wore. All by hand; there were no machines then. Inanswer to a question about whether the young people had good timesthen, she said, ?I was very busy. Everything was strange and strangethings to do. I was only interested in doing things right.? Elizawas at that time in Philadelphia and lived with a family named Brown,at 12th and Chestnut. She was planning to marry and told Mrs. Brownabout her sister, Mary. Mrs. Brown did not want ?such a wonderfulseamstress as Eliza made me out to be,? but got her a place with thefamily of General Thomas Cadwalader, across the street. TheCadwaladers were ?awful nice people--nobody like them that I know.?When asked what she did with the money she made by sewing, she said,?Oh, I gave it to Mother. I often think what a wonderful woman Motherwas--to take care of her family, the way things were.? At that timeher mother had bought a house and ten acres near Fallsington (BucksCounty, Pennsylvania). Through the Cadwaladers she got to sewing forother wealthy families in Philadelphia and Washington, and later hadher own place in Philadelphia, with seven girls working for her.Before the Civil War she made many articles to be sold at the fairsheld by the Abolitionists to raise money to free the slaves. For onefair she dressed a large doll which sold for fifty dollars. Therewere several suits for it, as if it were a lady. While in Washington,she saw President Lincoln several times. He came to the JohnCadwalader home when they had parties there. Sometimes they hadprivate theatricals. John Cadwalader was later secretary to PresidentGrant, and she knew Nellie Grant, who often talked with her. ?She wasalways nice and sociable.? She lived on Massachusettes avenue, nearPennsylvania avenue, and saw many big parades. ?Were you ever inWashington??, she asked. ?My, it?s strange you were never inWashington. People there are so nice. You couldn?t believe there aresuch nice people in the world as there are in Washington.? Shemarried Hugh Gerrity in Philadelphia in 1875, and they continued tolive in the city. In 1881 her husband took her and their boy on atrip to Ireland. While there she went to Balbriggan to buy stockingsfor her customers. She says they made the best stockings there. TheQueen (of England-possibly Victoria) wore Balbriggan stockings. Shehad orders for dresses to be bought in Paris, and they expected to gothere, but on account of cholera in France they had to give up thatpart of the trip. She was very much disappointed. She said, ?Then Iwould have seen Worth?s (a very famous clothier).? while crossing theocean, her son John, who was five years old at the time, ran around onthe ship and did a good deal of rope climbing. The captain asked herhow many children she had, and when she answered, ?Just the one,? hesaid, ?That?s enough of the kind.? In 1890, they moved to Chicago,and her husband died there in 1902. Her sister, Jane, lived with herin Chicago. Eliza had married John Blair. She died in Pennsylvania.The other members of her family had all come west and lived in or nearOrion. William came shortly before the war (Civil War - 1861).Matlida, who had married William Finlay, came in 1869. Two yearslater James came, soon followed by her mother, Maria, Alex and Ann.Nancy had married James McLeese, and he died in the east. Later shemarried Joseph Watson, and they came west in 1883. In 1919, Mrs.Gerrity moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she lived with her son,John, until she came to Orion in 1926. Of the large family, she isthe only survivor. Her son died in 1931. She has two grandchildren.Mary Jane, age fifteen, and John, age thirteen, who live with an unclein Albuquerque, New Mexico. There are many years that could be toldof -- eleven years in Ireland, forty-one years in Pennsylvania, sevenyears in New Mexico, and forty one years in Illinois, thus far.?[Transcribed 06 March 2006, SLJuhl, compiler]
"Orion Resident Honored as She Passes 100th Birth Anniversary
MARY GERRITY HAS VISITORS FROM MANY TOWNS; PROGRAM IS GIVEN.
Orion, April 18. (1938) -- Nearly 100 relatives and friends calledSaturday afternoon at Mrs. Emily Hanna's home and extendedcongratulations to her aunt, Mrs. Mary Gerrity, who celebrated her100th birthday anniversary. A short program was given, as follows:
Flute selections, Perfect Day and Old Refrain -- Miss Anna HarrietChase, accompanied by Miss Mayme Peterson and Miss May Culton. Vocalselections, I Passed by Your Window; Sunshine in Your Smile; The Starand Four Leaf Clover -- Miss Edna Pearce, accompanied by Miss JessieB. Fries. Refreshments were served throughout the afternoon with aniece, Mrs. A.F. Chase, in charge, assisted by other nieces of Mrs.Gerrity, as follows: Mrs. Asher Love, Mrs. Edgar Love, and Mrs. Hannaof Orion, Mrs. Lloyd Love of Altona, Mrs. Arnold Ohrn of Osco, Mrs.Amanda Lore and Betty Love of East Moline and Mrs. Hans Fiosne ofMoline. Mrs. Joe Kinsey of Sherrard and Mrs. Ray Pearce of RockIsland poured. The table was centered by a bowl of orchid sweet peas,a gift from Mrs. Chase and Mrs. Asher Love, and at either side weretall lighted orchid tapers. Napkins and refreshments were in thecolor scheme of orchid and green. Each cupcake was decorated with thenumeral of the anniversary. Mrs. Gerrity received many cards ofcongratulations, baskets of flowers and a cake. The 3-tier cake,decorated in yellow, bore 100 yellow candles and was topped by aminiature candy basket with candy roses. It was made by her niece,Mrs. Lloyd Love. Guests who called were from Chicago, Ottawa, IowaCity, Ia., Gary, Ind., Altona, Rock Island, Moline, Sherrard, Osco andOrion. Visitors Sunday in the home of Mrs. Emily Hanna and Mrs. MaryGerrity were Mr. and Mrs. James Begg and daughter, Florence and Mr.and Mrs. James Beff Jr. of Chicago." Probably Moline DispatchNewspaper, Rock Island County, Illinois. [Transcribed 20 May 2006,SLJuhl, compiler]

"MARY GERRITY OF ORION DIES; SAW LINCOLN
HER 103rd BIRTHDAY OCCURRED APRIL 16; FUNERAL ON WEDNESDAY.
ORION, May 12 (1941). -- Mrs. Mary Gerrity, who celebrated her 103dbirthday anniversary on April 16, died at 8 last night in the home ofMr. and Mrs. Edgar Love of Orion, where she had lived much of the timein recent years. Funeral services will be held at 2 Wednesdayafternoon in the Love home, the Rev. C.S. Boyd officiating. Burialwill be in Western cemetery. The body was taken to the Anderson -Swanson funeral home here. Mrs. Gerrity was born in Ireland April 16,1838, coming to the United States with her parents in 1849. Herfather died just after landing in New York, and her mother reared thefamily in Philadelphia where she taught her daughter, Mary, to doexpert sewing. Mrs. Gerrity became a professional seamstress inPhiladelphia during the days before the Civil war. She worked formany of the most famous families in the city and was even a guest atthe great Assembly balls in order that she might see the latestfashions. Mrs. Gerrity saw President Abraham Lincoln on several ofher visits to Washington--visits which were generally made to dosewing for some Philadelphia woman whose family had gone to Washingtonon government business. She met and did a favor for Nellie Grant,daughter of the Union general, and Miss Grant gave her a $5 tip forthe kindness. Mrs. Gerrity at one time had seven seamstresses workingwith her in her place of business. She married Hugh Gerrity in 1875,and they lived in Philadelphia until 1890 when they came to Chicago.Mrs. Gerrity lived forty-two of the last forty-eight years inIllinois, either in Orion or Rock Island. She spent the other sixyears in Santa Fe, N.M., where her only son lived. Mrs. Gerrity issurvived by two grandchildren and many nieces and nephews, several ofwhom live in Henry and Rock Island Counties. Until her brief illness,Mrs. Gerrity displayed a most remarkable memory and sense of humor.Her 103d birthday anniversary party held less than a month ago was ahappy occasion and one which she enjoyed tremendously. She radiatedher happiness to such an extent that seldon a day passed that she didnot have one or many callers."
"Mrs. Mary Gerrity
Orion, May 14. -- Funeral services for Mrs. Mary Gerrity, 103, wereheld this afternoon in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Love. The Rev.Charles B. Boyd of the Orion Methodist church officiated. EstherSamuelson sang. Pallbearers were Asher Love, Edgar Love, GeorgeBlair, Lester McLeese, Lloyd Love and Edwin Love, all relatives.Burial was in the Western Cemetery."
Probably Orion Times Newspaper, Henry County, Illinois. [Transcribed20 May 2006, SLJuhl, compiler]

Mary married Hugh Gerrity in Oct 1875 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hugh died in Jun 1902 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Living Stella. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Living Hanna. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]