l to r: Mary Ann Harte with Husband, Hugh and sister Alice Harte, NYC (c. 1907)
My maternal grandmother was born on October 4, 1880 in Kilcosey, Dromahaire, County Leitrim, Ireland, to Farmers John Harte and Alice McGolric. Mary married Hugh McCleary on a date unknown and had two sons, John in 1903 and Hugh in 1907 while living in County Leitrim. Husband Hugh emigrated to New York City two months before his namesake son was born. Mary, John, and infant Hugh later emigrated to join her husband in Manhattan, arriving there on October 11, 1907.
While America offered the promise of optimism and opportunity, these notions eluded my grandmother. Two months after arriving, John, four years old, died in Manhattan. What transpired in the next three years seems unfathomable in today’s world. Mary bore and lost three children:
Elizabeth, born 25 September (1908) and died nine days later
Agnes, born 27 November (1909) and died the same day
Joseph, born 25 December (1911) and succumbed two hours later
It is unclear why four-year-old John died shortly after his arrival. Did he contract an illness on the voyage to America, or die as a result of the flu and tuberculosis, which were the leading causes of death at that time? Giving birth was also a dangerous process during this period. Many women gave birth at home with midwives or practitioners who possessed little medical knowledge. Severe bacterial infections led to most of the deaths. More than 150 out of every 1,000 children under the age of one died each year in the United States. Broader health issues, unsafe drinking water, contaminated food, and poor nutrition accounted for the short lives of these children.
As if these deaths weren’t enough to bear, more tragedy followed. Her next son, whom she again named Joseph, born after my mother, Mary (born in 1913), was killed while crossing 8th Avenue in 1923. Born in 1919, he was a mere 4 years old. At this time, cars contributed to many deaths with inexperienced drivers who had to share the road with horses, trolleys, and pedestrians. In this case, it was a commercial truck that killed the youngster. The New Daily News on April 21, 1923, noted that “Because there was no park near his home at Twenty-fourth Street and Eighth Avenue, Joseph McCleary, four, sought adventure in the street.”
After arriving in Manhattan, Mary had lost five of her seven children before they reached the age of five. More tragic is the fact that after the 1920 census, there is no mention of Hugh. There are two family narratives regarding his absence. The first is that he died in a train accident at work; the second is that he abandoned his family. In either case, Mary was left with two children and no apparent income.
In 1924, Mary Harte (44) married a much younger man, Daniel Emerick (19). After marrying in Manhattan, she moved next door to her sister Alice and Patrick Quinlan in Dover, Dutchess County, with her daughter, Mary. The marriage was short-lived and Mary soon returned alone to the farm in County Leitrim. At this time, son Hugh was 23 and living in New York City. Daughter Mary became a resident student at the Ursuline Academy in Middletown, New York, most likely living with her aunt Alice during the summers.
With her parents passing, John Harte (76) and Alice Harte (85), Mary Sr. returned to Dover in 1936. She lived in a small cottage, which she called the bungalow, prefabricated and purchased from the Sears Roebuck Catalog. She remained there until her death in 1963.
Much of my grandmother’s life is a mystery to me. I always thought that my mother had two brothers, the older Hugh and the younger Joseph. I never knew of the second marriage and was always puzzled as to why my grandmother would leave her two living children in America and return to Ireland.
My memories of my grandmother are sketchy, as well. She had a thick Irish brogue, drank strong tea, and smoked. She appeared cantankerous to me and did not have much to say. As a child, she was difficult to warm up to. Now with the wisdom that comes with age and the knowledge of her life’s context, I have a different take. Mary Harte endured and endured. She did not talk about the past. I am not sure what kept her going. Perhaps her faith. Her motto, if she had one, might be “better left unsaid.”
The benefits of ancestry research today unveiled a tragic story for me, a story about my grandmother, Mary Ann Harte McCleary, that changed my perspective to a most empathetic point of view.
What can we learn from this petite 5-foot-3 woman, barely 100 lbs. who mentally and physically experienced some of life’s most crushing events? Perhaps this: “When walking through Hell, keep walking.”
The baby in the picture is me, held by my godmother. We’re standing in front of Mary Sr.’s “bungalow” in Union Vale, Dutchess County, N.Y., September 1947. The house was built from a mail order kit, circa 1937. Sears sold about 70,000 homes from 1908-1940 and offered 370 house designs in their catalog. Many other companies sold these kit houses on a national level during this time. The name “Sears Kit Home” became a generic label for these kit homes.