Life patterns.

Does destiny control our lives or are we the designers? Mother was sixteen when she found her first job with the Snowden family in Brownsville, a caring, loving one and with this first job the future patterns of her life were set.  This was a wealthy family where the father had extensive [missing word] in mining and transporting coal but the family was a saving one, nothing was wasted. Mother's family saved from necessity but this one because of their innate values. On Monday, the remnants of the turkey served on Sunday became stock for soup and left overs were carefully (prepared), taken to the many needy families in the vicinity.  Another pattern in their life which influenced Mother was the method used in child development: firm but loving, carefully nurtured. Mother's job was helping with household choses and babysitting. Another incident, I never tired of its repetition, told about the Sunday night when the cook failed to appear and Mother had to prepare the light lunch in the evening. When Mrs. Snowden asked Mother to make corn pone for this lunch, Mother, inexperienced, was terrified but her boss gently insisted, telling her she could do it and placed the recipe before her. After serving it, Mother left the house walking in the fresh air, full of misgivings and fearful of criticism but when she returned, the loving lady of the house complimented her, saying it was the best they had ever eaten and asking her to take the job of cook with her assistance. She did but eventually left to find work closer to her mother in Granville.

Happy is the little stone
That rambles on the road alone
And doesn't care about careers
And exigencies near fear.
-Emily Dickinson

The California Normal School was situated within walking distance from Granville. Mother never wanted to enroll there and even thought the students were strange individuals as most of her friends thought also. From standpoint of intelligence and academic training she and many of her friends could have mastered the work. But she found a job in this school working with those friends - waiting on tables, washing dishes, and cleaning up after meals. These girls lived nearby and their nights were their own, full of fun and laughter, entertaining themselves going to Revival Meetings (many of the girls Roman Catholic), dances, picnics, and seeing live plays enacted on the show boats moored near the river bank advertised by the calliopes music, and of course, weddings were the greatest attraction.

One such wedding especially significant to both the McManus and the Murphy families was that of Sarah McManus and Thomas Wood. During the period preceding the 1900's, there was no Church near but there was one in Brownsville--St. Peters. It would necessitate traveling several miles, difficult in this time and this area and I assume that the Priest did the traveling to Elco Hollow where the marriage took place. Dad and Mother were the two attendants. Dad seemed to be always around during these times and did not want to marry Mother then. How difficult it would be to make the right decision, but Mother took the least traveled road, a woman ahead of her time, dubious about bringing children into the world whom she could not properly take care of and aware of my dad's roaming inclinations, would he ever settle down and be as dependable as Sarah's husband, Thomas Wood. Did this road she traveled bring her the happiness and security she wanted.

As I review her life, I marvel at her courage because I could never have done what she did.  She went by train to a strange city to find work. The Employment Agency found her first job where I again marvel at her strength. In her first job, the lady of the house appeared arrogant and snobbish to her but she worked there for a short time until the lady complained to her about the Irish who came here in steerage, prospering until in a few years they could hire help. Mother's words to her were "What is my nationality?" "German," lady said. "With a name like Murphy", Mother retorted, "I'm one of the Irish and I quit." Living in a city far from home can be a lonely and difficult life but she stayed and found a job which suited her. Many times I ponder over Mother's character and wonder why I could not leave home, seek a different life, and take the road overgrown with brambles. And I explain it, my life was always a cloistered one, always protected, happy in my own surroundings really living in a cocoon, never daring to emerge. My mother had had a different life with several tragic events and was a better and freer person because of it. She soon found work which she enjoyed doing in a wealthy family who were good to her.

In this environment, Mother worked for several years. Here her employer wanted to finance a pastry shop which she would manage and supervise the baking but her mother in Granville became ill which necessitated her going home. Before leaving Pittsburgh she married my dad in St. Patrick's with two attendants in 1901. My grandmother died soon after this. Mother often remarked that she walked to Mt. Calvary Cemetery to visit her mother's grave, trying to dim the ache and ease her tensions, a person so alone. Irish were mystical but had strong enough faith to let the dead go. The McManuses first home was in upper Roscoe where James was born on August 25, 1902 and was baptized soon after in St. Thomas Church, Coal Center (St. Joseph, Roscoe was in the planning stage at this time.)

The search for a better life never ends for many. My father moved his family to Horning, Allegheny County, another mining town. The Union ideology was gaining strength at this time in the minds of many, especially Dad, an idealist who often sacrificed reality for his beliefs. Basic principles of Unionism helped the workers and gave them rights which had often been denied them - their union gave them strength with which they could fight for their demands but it also created conditions which were difficult, especially the use of strikes to force owners to meet their demands. LIke many organizations, the early Unions showed evidence of corruption. My Mother and my dad differed on this concept and I think she was more realistic than he who continued to lead men out on strike, losing weeks of wages and hurting his family financially. As the years passed, he became interested in working steadily, providing for his family and seeing that his children were educated - gone the radicalism of his early years. And as the grandchildren came, they were his joy, he loved them and they reciprocated.

Many incidents I remember about Horning which I will include in the story of my life. From notation in an old notebook in Mother's handwriting, the family moved back to Roscoe (Lucyville) on July 29, 1907. If that is correct, Bernard must have been born in Horning, January 8, 1907. (I was always under the impression that he had been born in Edward's house, opposite the McManus home.) Later, probably the following year, we moved in the house I live in today where Patsy was born August 20, 1909. Mother had three more children, all stillborn. Life goes on, we accept the joy and sorrow, happiness and sadness, light and dark.

(Many incidents I will include in stories of our lives for James, Bernard, Patsy and me.)

Mother and Dad bought our home for $850 from Aquila Underwood, Aunt Maria's father. They bought a piano. I was ten years old.  One sad event I will include here. Seized with the old wanderlust, Dad left his family on April 21, 1909, a complete surprise to Mother who was heart broken, as young as I was, I felt her pain. She must have been strong, left with three children, pregnant, how could she cope - we never went hungry and as one day passed and another came, life went on. Then one night I heard a loud knock on the door. Dad was back. I could not sleep but sensed Mother's feelings and I heard her walking the bedroom floor but he did come in. That was his last solo trip away from us. How hard it must have been to forgive but the reality of a woman trying to provide for four children must have been the reason for permitting him to come back. And each year Dad became more loving, helpful, and caring for all of us.

Conclusion of The History of the McManuses and Murphys.  Undated.

The Monongahela.

The Murphys' story continues...

Another son Patrick had a clerical job, married a girl who lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh, where they moved to, had several children and apparently lived a long life.  The second daughter, Mary, a Normal School graduate, taught in Roscoe School until her marriage to Thomas Timlin. They then moved to Brownsville to be close to his work in the mine. When Mary was a young girl, she took her two brothers (Eddie and William) James and me to the movie theatre every week.  It cost five cents a piece, nothing for me since I was only five. Thomas Timlin was a pit boss in Hillman Mine in Brownsville where they lived until they bought the Drum house in 1926 situated next to the Murphy home. She had two children, Marion Thomas and Edward. Mary was the church organist in St. Joseph Church, Roscoe and taught in St. Jerome Parochial School for several years. The last two boys of Maria and Patrick Murphy were Edward and William, one year younger than I. My brother James and Edward (Skinner) were inseparable, a relationship never lost. Edward became a Supervisor in the Railroad Yard which necessitated his crossing the Monongahela River to Roscoe from Newell every day. (I have a separate account about a tragic accident during one crossing).  Marrying later than James he had four children. Another one of the unfortunate, he died at age fifty of cancer. The youngest, William, one grade below me in school, a Business School graduate, found an excellent job with the Railroad, married a Roscoe girl and located his family in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. He also died young. We were close to this family visiting often and my mother’s family. We were almost one. Many descendants of this family are living and may have recorded many other pertinent facts.

“There is no such thing as security, only a caricature of it." James Thurber

Security is one reason why many people moved from one place to another. The Murphys who had remained in Scotland, my grandmother, Kathleen, Bernard, and Mother prepared for their move to America. What were their feelings and thoughts at going to some alien place, different from the city they had lived in for years. With what anticipation did they get ready to leave? John Murphy would be there to claim them. Mother rarely talked about the trip across the Atlantic but did say she was often sick and disliked the crowded conditions in steerage. Added to the physical discomfort was the insistent emotional one—going from friends to strangers. Also troubled by probable detention in Ellis Island and the possibility that their brother John would not be there to insure their landing.  But he was there and a happy reunion dispelled all misgivings.  Then the trip by train to Southwestern PA to John’s home in Newell on the Monongahela.

“The mind turns, seeks a new nativity, another place, simple, less weighted down by what has already been.”  Unsettling of America. Wendell Berry.

The new region naturally had a different effect upon each member of this group, depending upon their ages and hopes. Each member must have viewed their surroundings differently; with resignation, apprehension, fear or delight. Since each one had had a different life in a crowded city in Scotland. Such a different environment could have been frightening in Fayette County, Jefferson Township, their first home but time alone would tell.  Life goes on as it does everywhere with joy and sorrow, light and darkness, promise and heartache but what love does not know the ache of fear and what joy is not tinged with regret.

“The river looked at him with a thousand eyes green, white, crystal and sky blue. Water continually flowed and flowed but it was continually there it was always the same but every minute new. The river enchanted him.”  Siddharta.  Herman Hesse.

The Monongahela River always had a special attraction for Mother, 12 years old, a focal point in her life. The shore was her playground where she soon met other children, McGuinnesses, Darrachs, Clendaniels, (all of Irish descent), who continued as friends for many years. As time passed Mother learned how to propel a boat, small, adventuring out on the river, her lack of fear was ignorance because the river was dangerous. I always, although attracted to it, feared it.  Often her mother came to the river bank to watch, fearful always. Many years later, married, she would take us out in such a small boat for a ride. To me it was always an entirely fearful occasion.  Soon the family moved to Granville, farther away from the river.

Deeds in my possession have names and dates of property deals.  One stated that on May 3, 1886 Duncan McGivern to Mary Murphy – Jefferson Township, Fayette County for six hundred dollars – all that land or lot of ground situated in Granville, East Pike Run Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, lying on the west side of of Harrison Street in Granville being fifty feet in front and running back maintaining the same width one hundred feet.  A home was built on this lot. During the summer Mother, about 14, explored the area, free from restrictions of a city.  She climbed the hill near her home, marveled at the lush fields, amazed at the rich products – apples, pears, peaches, berries, grapes, often wandering near the farms and became acquainted with the farmers. This summer after spending many months in the fields she became strong and healthy.  In her words, “brown as a berry”.

Under the winter moon

The river wind

Sharpens the rocks.  Chora

Although winter can be a beautiful season, its coming often brings anxiety. It meant an end to many outside activities, makes many people captive indoors, and often brings sickness. This was more true of people living 1886 than it is today.  And it did bring a sickness to Bernard Murphy, three years older than mother. Physicians in 19^th century knew little compared to those today but no physicians can understand how difficult it is for those watching a loved one get weaker day by day.  Irish were stoics, strong willed but would be broken hearted when a young boy (17) was slowly dying.  He was buried in a cemetery near St. Peter Church Brownsville (no Mt Calvary then).

When James bought his first car, he took mother and me to Brownsville where we found his grave. It was James’ first car and I felt we might not reach Brownsville with our bodies whole. 

Tragic events rarely singly come. The next one left a void in mother which was never filled.  Her sister Catherine (Kate) could never adapt to this new life in Granville, isolated, far from her Scotch friends, the city life, her work in a factory.  At twenty-one she became depressed, pining for what had been, glamorizing her life in Scotland.  Respecting her uniqueness, the family finally agreed that she should go back to her previous home sensing within themselves that they would never see her again.  News traveled slowly. Many months later they received news of her death.  Mother was inconsolable, the wound smarted for a long time, felt something die in her heart, depressed, and it never did completely heal.  She went tramping into the hills, fleeing from reality but never able to get away from her grief, she had to accept the inevitable.  Life sometimes can be cruel but these tragedies made the Murphy family more understanding, more compassionate, and more loving.

From The History of the McManuses and Murphys.  Undated. 

The Murphys

"Truth is a hidden feeling which teaches us to rejoice in our days and wish to all mankind that rejoicing." Gibran

During Mother's stories what was fiction and what part was truth?  In those days when a family member went far away to another country there would be little rejoicing. Around 1880 the two oldest Murphys, John and Patrick, set off to the land of opportunity...America.  We were sad at parting but happy because their lives would be better and they promised to send for us when they had saved enough money. At that time our family must have known the McManus family -- two oldest McManus men, John and Bartley went with them. News from America did not come quickly. One special day a young boy came to the Murphy home with good news. It had been a safe journey for the young men. It was the first my mother saw Patrick McManus, remembering him standing at their door with his cap in his hand, her future husband. (Both very young).

This America has been a beacon of light luring people of many ethnic backgrounds to the land of security, opportunity and freedom- the Biblical land of milk and honey. Here in this land four young men began a new life.

John Murphy located in an area adjacent to California (PA) situated on the Monongahela River. Information upon which this is based can be verified in deeds in Grandma Murphy's name. John Murphy did not marry for many years and played a definite role in the family in Scotland, always my loving Uncle. Patrick Murphy settled in Lucyville (now Roscoe). Later he boarded with Aquilo Underwood in the home where I now live. From deeds in my possession I will reconstruct the building of this.  Aquilo Underwood bought lot on June 8, 1881 from Louis S. Miller and wife Mary situated in the Latta plan in the town of Lucyville, Allen Township, Washington County surveyed by Allen White on February 7, 1887 known as Lot 9, laid out by the Alpha coal company fronting 48 feet and running 174 feet to Morrison Avenue.  It cost $115. The building of the lot began immediately. A strong houses with a foundation of stone, mud and cement. It had four large rooms on two levels heated by three coal burning fire places. One entered the parlor from an outside stoop and entered the kitchen, which extended from the parlor, from a large partly enclosed porch. An outside entrance led to the basement. Water for cleaning and washing was available from a cistern near the house. But drinking water came from a drilled well in the Morrisson house next door. (Later a much deeper well was drilled on the property across the street from which one carried it.  Paid a fixed price). Lumber came from a saw mill in lower Roscoe, strong wood. When the outside walls were covered with siding, the carpenter said they were in good shape. (1957). It is in good condition weathering a century, a marvel in this age of impermanence and transience, today's throw away society.  Here in this home Patrick Murphy fell in love with Aquilo's daughter, a dark haired beauty.

"In friendship, in love, two side-by-side raise hands to find what they cannot do alone."

Such was the love between Maria Underwood and Patrick Murphy. The marriage was not without problems. The Underwoods were Protestants and Patrick a Roman Catholic. In an age living in a town where prejudice was rampant they were married Catholic rites. She became one many years later. This marriage was destined to be a happy, prosperous and prolific one. This family was blessed with seven children, six sons and two daughters (one died in childbirth) who lived in a home built at the base of a hill in the central part of Roscoe. This home is in good condition today and can be seen from route 88. Today one could walk up the pavement to its end and there stands the home. Aunt Maria lived in it until she died. This home with the attached store had happy memories for me. The names of the children listed chronologically follow (I do not know their birth dates) Annie (Collins), John (1889 - born year of the Johnstown flood) others were Arthur, Thomas, Mary, Patrick, Edward and William (1904 or 05) born posthumously. Their father Patrick intelligent, ambitious and outgoing was working at a whiskey refinery as an inspector in the distillery. The family prospered. It was not destined for him to live. He developed an illness which Mother although vague about said it was in his kidneys. He was a total abstainer from any alcoholic beverages. Aunt Maria with the help of Aquila who lived with her was able to cope with the loss of finances after Pat's death. She opened a store in a room attached to her house, bought a cow, had chickens, and a large garden. She was able to send the two girls to California Normal School to become teachers and the boys to Business College in Charleroi which enabled them to do clerical work. Annie graduated from Normal School, taught school in Stockdale first, later for many years in Roscoe and told her pupils she had eyes in the back of her head, could see everything. She also played piano and organ. She was St. Joseph's organist. Taught one year of music in Roscoe Public School. John helped his mother with the garden, livestock, and the store and delayed marriage until 38 years old, no children. Thomas, graduate of Business School, married a non-Catholic without Catholic rites, a victory for his wife, a beautiful girl but bitter hater of Catholicism. (My Dad said if he ever entered St. Joseph let the ceiling fall on him.) Both sides had the same the prejudice about religions. But it did not seem to affect my mother. Tom visited Mother regularly for many years. He went steadily upward in his job until he became vice president in a railroad company in Philadelphia. In my hearing he said "in my wildest dreams, I never thought I would have such a prestigious and prosperous job." His wife's name was Jean Thomas, they had no children but raised her dead sister's son who was an excellent scholar.

Next came Arthur, Mother’s godson whom she always loved.  Also a Business School graduate who became paymaster for Alice Coal Mine, the office was attached to Company Store in Roscoe.  On the same street was a Jewish family with several girls.  It was rumored that he fell in love with one of the girls.  The marriage of a Gentile to a Jewish girl meant to the Jew loss of family, expulsion from home.  No marriage took place.  Later he married Mamie Roberts and had two children (Mildred and James). After his marriage he began to show evidence of alcoholism and the condition worsened until it had an effect on his job in Brownsville where he worked  as paymaster at the Hillman Coal and Coke company. This illness was responsible for the loss of his home in Brownsville and the collapse of his marriage. Although he tried, he was never able to control it.  Finally while working in Cleveland, he was found dead in the street, isolated far away from who loved him.  Gone at fifty-six.

As long as I live, I’ll never forget the day when we received news of his death. Mother and I were cleaning the living room as this tragedy reached us.  Visibly hurt she said to me keep on with the work, the stoicism of the Irish.  It was a blow from which she never recovered. 

From a draft "History of McManus and Murphy Families" Undated. circa 1980?