In one or two other posts here I have mentioned this box of stuff I found in the basement that was full of treasures from my youth. I was down in the basement again today and took a look through that box again and found the letter my Grandpa & Grandma wrote to me and my brothers on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary. It was written on a typewriter (so very typically Grandpa) and I scanned it but I’ve also transcribed it here:

Anniversary

October 4

1922-1972

Dear Jerry Peter & Philip

In view of our approaching 50th wedding anniversary and since you are a member of our family, we are asking you to bear with us for a few minutes while we hold forth on the well-worn subject of “Time”. It intrigues us just now because we are especially aware that we have used up quite a bit of it, possibly not in all respects in the best way, but perhaps in just about the way our limited talents permitted us.

We wish that our past fifty years had been full of noble or notable accomplishment. But only a few people seem to have been that able or fortunate. We have tried with considerable success to enjoy our lives together and to do well in establishing a family. We are happy about the results.

The passing of Time has been celebrated, regretted, recorded, and otherwise treated with great and enduring interest since Time began. In fact, we would not have Time if it did not pass. It never stood still despite fairy tales to the contrary. Without Time, we do not exist. Imagine anything existing before Time began-or after it ended!

Man has always been concerned with Time, for example, the time taken by the Earth to rotate on its axis and its orbit, the time taken by the Earth to evolve from its probable beginning, the time taken by man to become what he is, and the time between events in history.

Time engages man continuously from his birth to his death, from the rising to the setting of the sun and the beginning to the end of his undertakings, Time has been a favorite of poets who have mentioned its wing and its habit of fleeting, its capacity for being wasted, it ravages, its corridors, it footprints, its value, it healing, and humorously, what the Walrus said about it in “Alice”.

Our concern with Time is all of this and more but our special concern just now is the fact that fifty years of it have been enjoyed in our happy marriage. We are celebrating this happiness by giving a token like the enclosed to each member of our family. Please use it and enjoy it.

We hope that none of you will send us any gift in return since we have more possessions that we can manage.

Thank you for scores of happy incidents in our lives!

And remember us with the same love we send you!

Grandma & Grandpa

I just have to smile at how Grandpa is talking about Physics and Time. Gee I guess the nut, this nut, didn’t fall from from that tree. Did it?

For as long as I can remember Grandma & Grandpa came up from their home in St. Petersburg, Florida every summer to spend the summer months with us at our home in Chappaqua starting from the summer of 1958 when Mom, Dad, and I moved from Baltimore to New York.

I can still fondly recall watching the second rocket in NASA’s Mercury Program, Liberty Bell 7, launch on TV with Grandma. I remembe it because as it took off I went running out the back door to see the rocket going up into the sky and she then had to explain to me why I couldn’t see it. I still smile when I think of that.

They would come right after the school year ended and then leave, drive back home shortly before it began again.

The summer of 1972 was different though. Grandma & Grandpa would stay until their anniversary in October so that they could celebrate it with thier daughter, her husband, and the Hayes grandchildren. Grandpa took us all to (the original) Emily Shaw’s Inn in Pound Ridge for the celebration. I even remember my dad asking the waiter or waitress if they had hearts of lettuce and I remember having steak.

Sometime either the next day, or maybe a few days later, Grandma & Grandpa would pack up the old Olds Delta 98 and head south for home.

October 11th they arrived in Naples Florida south of their home in St. Pete just to visit and see it. They went for a walk on the boardwalk or quayside that evening and met a young newlywed couple on their honeymoon and chatted with them telling them how they had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary only a few days ago.

That night my Grandpa, my dear loving Grandpa went to bed for the very last time. He would die in his sleep that night.

Grandpa’s “Time” with us had run its course.

John Cutler 1828 – 1850
Cornelius Cutler 1833 –
Amy Cutler 1834 –
Cyrus Cutler 1836 – 1918
George Washington Cutler 1836 –
Araminta Cutler 1838 – 1855
Julia Cutler 1842 –
Stephen Cutler 1842 – 1865
Nathaniel Cutler 1844 –

According to the recently discovered bio, I have learned that his father was John Cutler and comes from old Westchester County stock. The Cutlers apparently are of English origin.  Nathaniel is buried at the St Marks Episcopal Church Yard in Mount Kisco with his wife. I have been there many times.

The biography has been transcribed from a document entitled, “Biographical History of Westchester County”.  This illustrated document was published by the Lewis Publishing Company in 1899.

One of the leading agriculturists of North Castle township, Westchester county, and an honored veteran of the civil war, is Nathaniel Cutler, who was born December 21, 1844, in that township, being a representative of one of the county’s old and highly respected families of English origin. His grandfather, John Cutler, was likewise a native of the county, and here both he and his wife died and were buried.

Nathaniel Cutler, Sr., father of our subject, spent his entire life in Westchester county, as a farmer, and in early manhood he married Sarah Ann Weeks, who was born in the town of Somers, and who was likewise a representative of one of the old families of the county, being a daughter of William and Rachel Weeks. Nine children were born of this union: John, who died at the age of twenty-one years; Cornelius and Mrs. Ama Ferguson, both residents of Mount Kisco; Cyrus, of Golden Bridge, this county; George Washington, of Dutchess county. New York; Stephen and Julia, both deceased; Nathaniel, our subject; and Araminta, who died at the age of nineteen years. Three of the sons were among the boys in blue during the civil war and valiantly fought for the preservation of the Union on many a southern battle-field. They were Cyrus, George W. and Nathaniel, — all members of the Fifth New York Heavy Artillery, — and the second was sergeant of his company, while our subject served as corporal. The mother of these children died at the age of seventy and the father at the age of eighty years. Both were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were highly esteemed by all who knew them, and he was identified with the Democratic party.

Nathaniel Cutler, whose name introduces this sketch, grew to manhood on the home farm, aiding in its work and attending the local schools. He was still in his ‘teens when he entered the military service of his country, and was stationed most of the time in Virginia, being honorably discharged at Harper’s Ferry and paid off at Albany, New York, after which he returned home.

On the 28th of December, 1870, he was united in marriage with Miss Martha Ida Sutton, who was born, reared and educated at Claverack, New York, and also belongs to one of the old and well known families of the county. At an early day two brothers, Joseph and John Sutton, left their home at Sutton Court, England, and came to the New World, and from the former, who settled in Westchester county, Mrs. Cutler is descended. In religious faith they were Friends. James Sutton, Sr. , the son of Joseph, was born in a log cabin on the old homestead in this county, and was the father of Walter Sutton, Mrs. Cutler’s grandfather, who also was born on the old homestead and was twice married, —first to Martha Tatten and secondly to Phoebe Dickinson. James T. Sutton, Mrs. Cutler’s father, first opened his eyes to the light on the Sutton homestead, and on reaching man’s estate he married his second cousin, Phoebe Sutton, a daughter of William Sutton, who was a brother of James Sutton, Sr., and a son of Joseph Sutton, the pioneer. William Sutton married Charlotte Hunt, a daughter of Josiah and Lydia (Palmer) Hunt, relatives of Lord Effingham, of England. To James T. and Phoebe Sutton were born two children. Mrs. Martha Ida Cutler being the older. The son, William Edward Sutton, now. a resident of Seattle, Washington, was reared and educated in Westchester county, and was a successful teacher here for a time, but has made his home in the west for several years. He married Eva Acker, a daughter of Benjamin Acker. James T. Sutton, who was a farmer by occupation and a Democrat in politics, died at the age of seventy-nine years, honored and respected by all who knew him. His estimable wife, who was a member of the Society of Friends, departed this life at the age of seventy-two.

To Mr. and Mrs. Cutler have been born two sons: Walter Sutton, a surveyor and engineer residing at home, and William Edward, a carpenter, also at home. The fine farm belonging to this worthy couple comprises seventy-two acres of valuable land, most of which is under a high state of cultivation and well improved with good buildings, and there is also an excellent orchard of six acres upon the place. This pleasant home is conveniently located in New Castle township, about two miles from Mount Kisco. Politically, Mr. Cutler is identified with the Republican party, and socially affiliates with Stuart Hart Post, G. A. R. , of Mount Kisco, of which he is a charter member. With his wife and son,William E., he holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, and the family occupy a position of prominence in the social life of the community. Public-spirited and enterprising, they give their support to all worthy objects calculated to advance the moral, intellectual or material welfare of their town and county, and they are held in high regard by all who know them.

Here is a link to a full PDF version of “Biographical History of Westchester County”.

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This postcard is only one of several postcards that Ada wrote to Harry over the years.  Ada is the daughter of Jane Lewis and William Henry Hunter.  Jane Lewis is the brother of Henry Lewis who stowed away on a ship at age 13 and came to America on his own. The other postcards are safe and sound at my cousins home in Pennsylvania.  I hope to get down there soon so I can pick them up and get them scanned.  This way we will have a permanent digital record that can be shared by everybody.

The post card reads:

From Ada, To Harry.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This street is a few minutes walk from us and is very steep.  Much steeper than it looks.

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The first time I went through Virginia’s photos, I had dismissed the man in the photo below as being a member of her mother’s family from down south. On the back, the inscription reads “A corner in the parlor.” Virginia’s collection has lots of unlabeled photographs that clearly depict a southern family. So this one just got grouped in with the others.

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Last night, when I was scanning some photos for one of Virginia’s newfound cousins, I came across this photo again. This time I took a closer look. Specifically, I looked at the stamp that identifies the photography studio at which the photo was processed.

It read:

Hirsch & Kaiser
Opticians
7 Kearney St
San Francisco

There was only one Tierney relative that I know of that lived in San Francisco back in the late 1890s – early 1900s. His name was John Lawrence Tierney (b. 20 Apr 1865, d. 21 Dec 1907). John was the brother of James (my great grandfather), Thomas William Tierney, Frank A Tierney (the decorated NYC Police Officer) and Joseph Tierney. He left New York for California sometime around 1890 and married Isabella Ethel Danglada. He was a merchant in the hat business.

John was very close with his nephew Frank Tierney, son of brother James F Tierney. In fact he had wrote dozens of letters to Frank that survive to this day in an archived notebook in my possession. Using those letters, I did a handwriting comparison. I am convinced that the handwriting on the back of the photo is that of John L Tierney. It would make perfect sense that Frank Tierney would have a photo of John since they were so close.

John died in 1907 of stomach cancer. He was 42. He left behind his loving wife Isabelle, but had no children of his own.

One more Tierney photograph identified!

RELATED ARTICLES

• John L. Tierney and Wife Isabella Survived The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire
• The Brothers Tierney
• The Eight Children Of James Tierney and Mary Sproul

The party was attended by numerous relatives and friends….

Mr and Mrs Reginald Parrett.
Mrs Reginald Parrett is also known as Irene Tierney Parrett . Irene was 21 years old. She was Reginald’s third wife and sister of Reginald’s second wife… got that? Yea it took me a while too. Irene’s sister Mary, was Reginald’s second wife. She died unexpectedly in 1909. Reginalds first wife died in 1908. Talking about a string of bad luck…. wow!

Mr and Mrs F. J. Parrett
F.J. Parrett is presumably Reginalds brother or son from his first marriage. I’m not really sure yet.

Margrite Parrett
I’m not sure who Margrite is. She could be his daughter from Reginalds first marriage.

Mr and Mrs James Sproul Tierney (James is about 28 years old)
James is a brother of Irene and the son of Mary Jane Kinneary and Thomas W Tierney. He was a NY Police Officer . He was married to a Sarah Gray. I don’t know if they had any children.

Mr and Mrs Simeon LJ Tierney (Simeon is about 25 years old)
Simeon is a brother of Irene and the son of Mary Jane Kinneary and Thomas Tierney. He may have been a Police Officer and possibly a private detective later in life. Simeon was married to Anna Smith. They had just married at the time of this party and had their first of four kids the following year. I don’t know if there are any living decendants of this branch of the family tree.

Mr James Tierney (about age 18)
James is a first cousin of Irene and is the son of Sarah Beattie and James Tierney. He married Adelle Lehr in 1927, but died in 1931 when the car he was driving went out of control on Edgecombe Avenue, 25 feet south of the Middle Bridge Viaduct. The car plunged 100 feet into Colonial Park, landing upright, but killing him.

Miss Grace Elinor Tierney (about age 19)
Grace is a first cousin of Irene and is the daughter of Sarah Beattie and James Tierney. She sang a vocal solo for the event. Grace later became Grace Dunn. They had no children.

Miss Isabelle Tierney (about age 14)
Isabelle is a first cousin of Irene and is the daughter of Sarah Beattie and James Tierney. She later became Isabelle Lewis. She is my Grandmother.

Mr Charles Beattie (about 43 years old)
Charles is the brother of Sarah Beattie Tierney.

Also in Attendance….
Mr and Mrs J F Dobbs (Capt. Dobbs made some humorous speeches)
Mr and Mrs R L Robins of Northport, Long Island
Maria Flood
Mr and Mrs Daragh – Police Officer
Mr and Mrs J Adams
Mr Lawrence McCaughery (played a musical instrument for the event)
Miss Precella Dobbs
Mr and Mrs John N Perkins of Boston
Mr and Mrs F.A. Kuell (Mrs Kuell played a musical instrument for the event)

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]]> http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2010/07/23/a-chip-off-the-old-block-raymond-a-tierney-jr/feed/ 0 http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2010/05/18/jane-lewis-hunter-portrait/ http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2010/05/18/jane-lewis-hunter-portrait/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 20:36:06 +0000 Philip Hayes http://hayesfamily.us/?p=1026 I was recently contacted by Peter Aubrey-Smith.  He is my third cousin, once removed on the Lewis branch of my family tree.  He had seen my research on ancestry.com and decided to contact me.  We have since been sharing information back and forth, but the grand prize came the other day when he shared with me a portrait picture of a woman that his family firmly believes is Jane Lewis.

Circa 1880

Jane Lewis is the sister of Henry William Lewis who is my great, great grandfather. Jane (b. circa 1844 in Llanmdock, Wales) married William Henry Hunter (b. circa 1844 in Barstaple, England) on October 16, 1865.  Together they had at least 5 children.  Peter is the descendant of their fourth child, Margaret Grace Hunter.

My cousin in Pennsylvania has letters from Jane to the Lewis family in New York  I have not seen them yet, but now I am excited to get my hand on them now.

We had a wonderful conversation, exchanging stories of what we knew of the Tierney’s.  Then she dropped the bomb. She has a picture of her great grandfather… AND HIS FATHER!  “His Father” is James Tierney (b. 1835 in Ireland, d. Feb 1888 in Manhattan) and is our shared relative.

Today I received color copies of the photo’s. In my humble opinion, no further relationship validation is needed.   Just look at the photo’s (especially the nose’s).

	Father James Tierney b. 1835 in Ireland d Feb 1888 in New York City
James F Tierney b abt 1860 in New York d. 4 Nov 1896	Thomas W Tierney B. Nov 1856 in New York	Frank A Tierney b. 24 Sep 1864 in New York d. 12 June 1936  in New York
James F Tierney Younger years

She also sent me several other pictures and a different newspaper article about the death of Police Captain Frank A. Tierney.  Below is a picture of Mary Tierney, wife of Thomas W. Tierney.

Mary Jane Tierney (nee Kinneary )

Take a look in the upper left had corner of the newspaper. Look for the article entitled “HER SON, THOUGHT DEAD, IS ALIVE IN A FRENCH HOSPITAL”.  The newspaper does incorrectly identify Williams mother as Mrs. James Yerks.  It should have read Mrs George Yerks.

• The Putnam County Courier (Friday, July 18, 1919)

So I decided to ask her about some jewelry I remembered belonging to my Grandmother, Isabelle Lewis.  I was thrilled to find that there were many pieces of family jewelry in my Moms possession that I had never seen or heard of.  So I asked her for permission to have some of the items appraised.  The story behind all the items will remain for another post on another day.

So while I was at the Jewelers, we had an in-depth conversation about the engraving script used to display the initials on the many of the pieces.

The assistant told me that in those days, the letter that represents the last name is usually found in the middle of the initials.  That explains the reason I was having such difficulty reading some of the initials. But on this particular one, it did not make much sense.

Now I hadn’t taken a close look at any of these items before brining them to the jeweler, so imagine my surprise when the one piece that confused me the most, a locket, contained the pristine pictures of two people.  One male and one female.  Now I really strained to read the script initials to no avail.  The locket did have one clue though.  On the back it read, December 25, 1917.

As I was leaving the store, I remembered that there was a 3×5 card with some notes on it in one of the jewelry bags that I had left in the car.  So I rushed outside.

To my delight, there were actually two index cards, full of details of my Grandmother’s jewelry collection.  The card named whom each piece belonged to in the family and provided a general description of the item.  I quickly scanned the cards.  On the second card, I found:

Harry’s gold charm from Harry’s Mother and Dad – 1917

WOW!  I’m looking at parents of my Grandfather, Harry Lewis. Thomas F. Lewis (1857-1924) and his wife Catherine Hanley Lewis (1862-1952) gave this locket to Harry when he was 25 years old (in 1917) as a Christmas gift.    This is the first picture I have ever seen of Thomas.  And I have only one other picture of Catherine, which was in her later years.

So the moral of this story…  You just never know when you are suddenly going to find something you never expected to see.  Check those lockets out!

Thomas F. Lewis and Catherine Hanley Lewis

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