Edmund Hartley (1836-1915)
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Mary Malone (c. 1841- ) A Poignant Letter Home to Glenmore in 1877
Last week we featured the letter written by Edmund Hartley ( 1836-1915) published in the New Ross Standard regarding his trip to Ireland in the summer of 1913. Edmund Hartley was accompanied home to Ireland by two priests, his son, Monsgr. James J. Hartley and his nephew, Father James E. Hartley. Monsgr. Hartley was the President of St. Bernard’s Seminary, Rochester, New York. Hoping that Monsgr. Hartley may have had records or photos of the trip we were disappointed to find that St. Bernard’s Seminary closed in the 1980’s. However, when we checked with the Archives of the Diocese of Rochester New York, Sister Connie Derby, Director of the Archives, located and copied a notebook kept by Monsgr. Hartley of the 1913 trip. Also found in the archive was a transcription of a letter written by a cousin of Monsgr. Hartley, Miss Mary Malone. Sister Connie also graciously forwarded good quality photos of Monsgr. and Father Hartley.
It is not known how Mary Malone’s letter came into Monsgr. Hartley’s possession and ultimately ended up in the archive. It is surmised that it was kept, hopefully cherished by her brother who received it in Glenmore in 1877, and when Monsgr. Hartley brought his father home to Glenmore in 1913 he was given the letter written 26 years earlier. The transcription with spelling errors and little punctuation is copied below as it was provided to us by Sister Connie. For such a short letter it is very poignant.
Mary Malone, Fairport, New York, to her brother, Glenmore, Co. Waterford, 24 January 1877
24 January 1877 Fearport January the 24, 1877 My Dear Brother I take the opportunity of writing to you I hope you will forgive me for not writing to you be fore this but I was tost about I left my first place that I was in 2 years and a half I am now living near my aunt I have not but 1 Dolard aweek this winter this is a verry severe winter in america. I got a letter from home about two weeks after I got yours letter they told me it was better for him to go now than any other time but he is a grate loss to my Father and mother it is they feel his loss but they tells me that they are not bad off
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That you dont forget them may the Lord spare you your health I do not get to healp them much my wages is so little and I am not cap[a]ble of earning big wages like other girls who can cook and [do] the large washings and fine ironings I cannot do this you know I was not brought [up] to anny such thing I was sent away frum my Mother when young to the farmers to work out in the fields and I never got much in sight about house keeping or to be handy to sew but I don’t have is anny one to blame for that but my Sellf I never tried to lerren I must onely do the best I can now I am verry lonseom and down harted I wish my Sister Margaret was here if ever I can bring here out if times will get better I will try and do my best for her
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Dear brother I would wish verry much is you would send me your picture and I will send you mine I never had anny of my pictures taken since I came to america My aunt and cussins are all well and my cussin James Hartley is getting elong splended with his studies he expe[c]ts to be dordained in about 1 year and a half from now. You asked me could I reed your writting I could with out anny troble I hope you will write to me soon again I have no more to say at preasant from your affectionate Sister Mary Malone
Unfortunately the name of Mary Malone’s brother is not revealed in the letter. The only clues are that he lived in Glenmore, she lived in Freeport, New York, she had a sister named Margaret and cousin James Hartley who was to be ordained in 1878. It appears that Mary Malone may have emmigrated about 1875 as she was in her first place for 2 ½ years. Monsgr Hartley was not ordained until 1885, but the fact that the letter ended up in his possession suggests that Mary was related although the closeness of the kinship is not apparent.
Given the fact that Mary makes no reference to a husband or children it is assumed that Mary Malone was her maiden name. The 1880 Federal Census of Rochester, Monroe County, New York reveals that there was a Mary Maloney (sic) living in a boarding house on South St. Paul Street. She was born about 1842 and worked as a servant. It is not known whether Mary Malone remained in New York or returned to Ireland. No further obvious census records were found in New York state. In Monsgr. Hartley’s travel journal one evening while in the Glenmore area the men had “supper” with Mary Malone. It is not known if the 1913 referenced Mary Malone was the same woman that wrote the letter home to Glenmore in 1877.
The Glenmore Parish records reveal that there were a number of Mary Malones born in the early 1840’s from Rochestown to Weatherstown. There is no obvious match of a Malone married to a Hartley or Kennedy (maiden name of Edmund Hartley’s mother). Also, there were much fewer baptismal records for a Margaret Malone. The best fit so far is the Michael Malone family of Weatherstown, Glenmore. Michael Malone and his wife, Catherine née Burke had a daughter Mary who was baptized on the 10th of November 1841. Their daughter Ellen was baptized on the 27th of July 1839 and their daughter Catherine was baptized on the 1st of June 1849. However, no sons were discovered in the parish records for this union.
Perhaps a reader who descends from Mary and/or Margaret Malone can point us in the right direction.
As soon as we can transcribe the travel notebook kept by Monsgr. Hartley we will publish excerpts particularly the notes from their time in Glenmore. Monsgr. Hartley throughout his journal refers to his elderly father affectionately as Pa.
Special thanks to Sister Connie for all her help this week copying and sending on information and photos. The featured image is entitled Irish Immigration from Queenstown (Cobh, Cork) (1874 from the Miram & Ira D. Wallach Collection, Digital Public Library of America
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Ireland is again in lock down due to COVID 19. We shall attempt to provide more posts as we did last lock down. If anyone has a subject or idea, or has an article for our guest author page please contact us at glenmore.history@gmail.com.
Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh
Edmund Hartley (1836-1915) Native of Flemingstown, Glenmore: Homecoming 1913
For over 6 decades Danny Dowling corresponded with hundreds of people across the globe who sought information about an ancestor who came from the Glenmore area. One of the queries recorded in Danny’s notebooks is the information he sent to Edmund Hartley Marvin, Sr. concerning his ancestor, Edmund Hartley, of Flemingstown, Glenmore.
Edmund Hartley was baptized on the 12th of April 1836, in Glenmore, he was the son of Edmund Hartley and Mary Hartley née Kennedy of Flemingstown. It is not known what happened to Edmund, Sr. but around 1850 Mary Hartley née Kennedy died and shortly thereafter Edmund and his brothers James (c. 1825-1910); William (1 Jan. 1833 – 7 Aug. 1905); and Philip (c. 1828-7 Dec. 1889) emigrated to the United States. James and William settled in Michigan while Philip and Edmund settled in New York State. According to the 1910 Census, Edmund Hartley married another immigrant Bridget Kelly (1839-1912) in 1858. The couple had eight children and five were living in 1910.
Recently a letter written by Edmund Hartley, regarding his homecoming in 1913 was discovered in the New Ross Standard. Edmund Hartley wrote that he left Ireland in 1852 and returned 61 years later when he spent 5 weeks touring Ireland. It must have been a bittersweet homecoming when he visited Glenmore and only encountered four people who remembered him. This remarkable letter provides an insight into the changes he noted in travel, agriculture and Ireland from his emigration at the end of the famine until his return sixty-one years later. The year following his wife’s death, Edmund Hartley travelled to Europe in 1913 with two priests, his son James J. Hartley and his nephew James E. Hartley.
New Ross Standard—Friday, 14 Nov. 1913–VISIT TO IRELAND.
“During the summer Mr. Edmund Hartley, of Monroe County, New York State, with his son, Very Rev. Dr. Hartley, President of St. Bernard’s College, Rochester, and his nephew, Rev. J. E. Hartley, P.P. Rochester, made a tour to Ireland. Mr. Hartley who is 77 years, and exceedingly brisk and agile for his years, was born in Flemingstown, in the parish of Glenmore. It was his first visit since he left Ireland in 1852. The two priests, who were born in America, enjoyed their stay in the land of their fathers and left full of hope that they would at some time come back again to Erin. Since his return Mr. Hartley has given his experience in the American Press, and his letter is so interesting we reproduce it with pleasure. Mr. Hartley is a near relative of Father Hartley, P.P. Cushinstown, and to all the Hartleys in Glenmore, Co. Kilkenny district.
EDMUND HARTLEY GIVES INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF HIS VISIT.
It was 61 years ago last May since I left Ireland for America. As I was young at the time, I had no notion of going to work, but Intended just to come over for some money; but my relatives got me a job the second day after landing, and I have been pretty busy since, yet I always wanted to pay a visit to the old home, if I got a chance, which happened this summer when my son and nephew were going to Europe. At the time I left Ireland it was the most desolate country in the world, for the famine and fever had carried off a million of the people and another million fled across the ocean from their unhappy land. Of course we took any boat that would carry us: mine was a sailing vessel of eighteen hundred tons that was blown about for fire weeks before we got sight of land, and some days we feared we would be blown to the bottom of the sea. Several died on the voyage and were thrown overboard. We all had to provide our own meals—that is we cooked our own potatoes in a large kettle in the kitchen and ate the bread we brought along with us.
So you can imagine my surprise at the improved conditions of travel when I boarded the steamer Baltic on June 12th. It is over seven hundred feet long, weight about twenty-four thousand tons, and can ride the wares smoothy even a rough sea, and makes nearly four hundred miles a day. The meals are like those served in the finest hotel and each morning there was a newspaper, the ‘Ocean News’ placed near our plate at breakfast, containing several pages of the latest news from all parts of the world. The menu for dinner and the list of steamers that were in communication with our boat that day. One can send a wireless message from any part of the voyage. Several greeted their friends, from mid ocean. When 1,200 miles from shore I sent a message that reached home within five hours the same day. The wireless system is not only a great aid in distress, but also a means of avoiding collision with other boats in a fog. Of course, icebergs have no wireless plant, and the captains now take a southerly route to avoid them. For three days after leaving New York, our boat seemed headed for Spain instead of Great Britain, the captain was so anxious to avoid icebergs.
There was practically no sea sickness on the outward and return trips, and the company did not save anything from passengers missing their meals. Our trip included Ireland, England, northern France and Belgium, all except Ireland, rich and prosperous countries; yes anyone who has visited Ireland will admit that it is one of the most beautiful countries of the world; and we spent five weeks journeying through mountains, valleys, and plains, viewing the ruins of its ancient schools, abbeys, and castles, the famous round towers and Celtic crosses, which it would take too long to describe. It might surprise some to be told that Ireland was once called the land of Saints and Scholars, and her schools in the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries were among the most, celebrated of Europe. Even today she has beautiful churches, well attended by the people and excellent schools and colleges, in spite of all the obstacles placed in the way of religion and education for centuries.
Ireland has few industries except in the province of Ulster and farming is the occupation of the greater part of the people; and the condition of the famers interested me chiefly. So far as I could judge from traveling through twenty of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, the farmers are now in a better condition than ever before. Formerly they had to pay an excessive rent, in some cases greater than the value of the entire crop, and if any improvements were made in land or buildings, the rent would he increased; but now they have to pay only a moderate rent, about one-third of the old rate, and with these moderate payments they can possess the farm as their own, under the conditions of the Land Purchase Acts. Many of the farmers are now free holders and no longer tenants and all the profits of the farm are theirs. The landlords have in many cases consented to sell at least the power parts of their immense estates, yet some are unwilling to sell any part. I saw one estate of fifty square miles and not an acre would the landlord sell. The recent Land Purchase Act has a clause compelling the landlord to sell some portion for the good of the community. The methods of farming have changed altogether in recent years. The potato is no longer the principal crop; for cattle raising and dairying are followed chiefly and only a small part of the farms is under tillage. Considerable oats are raised, but no wheat or barley, though flax is largely cultivated in the northern counties.
The best American implements are used on the larger farms. I attended several fairs and noticed that cattle and farm produce brought higher prices than here in Monroe county. As the Irish soil is rich and the sesame so mild that cattle can graze nearly all through the year the farmer there have an advantage over us, yet I prefer farming near Fairport. Many of the Irish prefer a change of work too, and emigrate to the States or Canada, and the wages in Ireland will hardly coax them back. Yet when Home Rule is granted them next year, there may be greater inducements to keep the young people from emigrating. It is a pity that so many homes have been cleared away to make grazing land, the cattle taking the place of the people.
In my own county of Kilkenny the population had not decreased so much as elsewhere, yet many houses I know have disappeared. The large round stones the strong men used to toss were in the same place near the churchyard where I saw them over 60 years ago; but I met only four person who knew me in boyhood, though several of the younger people proved to be my own relatives. Some were clergyman, others school teachers, or else rich farmers, and although they had become rich they were glad to see me.
I have been asked if I kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland. I climbed up the Blarney Castle, which is nearly five hundred years old, but as part of the floor is fallen away just near the famous stone, I just bent over and struck the stone with my blackthorn stick and kissed it, and if I did not get the full gift of blarney, still I may have enough to last the rest of my life.
I stood on the famous battlefield of Clontarf and the Boyne and near Waterloo, but I think more of having stood at the graves of O’Connell and Parnell in Glasnevin Cemetery and of Gladstone in Westminster Abbey.
The great cathedrals, museums, picture galleries and colleges are the first objects visited by the tourists, and we saw as many as would take day to describe. The most interesting were the cathedrals in Queenstown, Killarney, Thurles, Armagh, Condon, Brussels and Paris, the Tower of London, British Museum and National Gallery, the Louvre in Paris, the Palace of the French King at Versailles and their tombs at St. Denis. We visited the International Exposition at Ghent, the greatest exposition ever held in Europe. All kinds of manufacture were there, but the flying machines interested me most.
The weather was cool all through the trip of nine weeks, and we were surprised to read accounts of the warm weather in the United States. Edmund Hartley”
The Travellers
Edmund Hartley (1836-1915) Native of Flemingstown, Glenmore
Two years after his homecoming Edmund Hartley was tragically killed on his farm in New York State. The Syracuse Herald (New York) of the 14th of April 1915) published an article, “Aged Father of Prelate Killed by R., S.& E. Car,” detailing the tragic demise of Edmund as follows:
Fairport, April 14—Edmund Hartley was struck and instantly killed by a local car on the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern Trolley road at Hartley’s private crossing a few feet north of Stop 15 shortly before 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon. The car was the local one here at 1:50 p.m. and was in charge of Motorman Frank Emmes of Syracuse. Mr. Hartley, who is 79 years old leaves three sons, the Rev. Monsignor J.J. Hartley, head of St. Bernard’s seminary; William who lives on the farm just south of Fairport, and Philip of this village; two daughters, Mrs. M Marvin of Adrian, Michigan and Margaret, who lives on the farm. To view Edmund’s grave marker see, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103632748/edmund-hartley .
Rev. Monsignor James J. Hartley (1860-1943)
James J. Hartley was ordained in 1885 by Bishop Bernard J. McQuaid the first Bishop of Rochester, New York. Bishop McQuaid sent the young priest to Europe, instructing him to visit the great university, reap the benefits of travel and increase his knowledge of the subjects he would teach. Much of his time abroad was spent in Louvain and Rome. In 1894, McQuaid founded St. Bernard’s Seminary and James J. Hartley was appointed Proctor. In 1907, Pope Pius X conferred a degree of Doctor of Divinity on James J. Hartley. (Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, New York, Sunday, 24 March 1907)
Although his father in his 1913 letter did not provide the name of the relative that found him a job within days of his arrival in the US, the Democrat & Chronicle 1907 article states that “Dr. Hartley is a cousin of Bishop James J. Hartley” (1858-1944) of Columbus, Ohio who was bishop of Columbus from 1904-1944.
The Right Reverend Monsignor James J. Hartley, D.D. prothonotary apostolic and rector-emeritus of St. Bernard’s Seminary died on 11 December 1943 at the age of 83. (The Ithaca Journal (New York) 13 Dec. 1943).
Rev. James E. Hartley (1852-1920)
James E. Hartley was born the 14th of October 1852 in Fairport, Monroe County, New York the son of Philip Hartley (c. 1828-1889) a native of Flemingstown, Glenmore. James E. Hartley was ordained a priest the 21st of December 1878. After ordination he severed as an administrator of St. Mary’s of Ithaca and Our Lady of Victory, Rochester. He was appointed rector of the parish of Palmyra in August 1893 where he remained until he suffered a stroke on the 18th of March 1920 and died in the rectory of St. Anne’s on the 29th. He was survived by two sisters: Mrs. Hanna Curran and Mrs. Mary A. Coffey.
The Cousin—Bishop James J. Hartley (1858-1944)
Bishop James J. Hartley of Columbus, Ohio (June 26, 1858 – January 12, 1944) fourth bishop of Columbus served from his consecration in 1904 until his death in 1944. According to the Diocese of Columbus website Bishop Hartley was born at Davenport, Iowa the eldest child of Edward Hartley and Catherine McManus. His parents were married at St. Patrick’s in Columbus, Ohio in 1858, moved to Davenport and returned to Columbus. After his return to Columbus, Ohio, Edward Hartley (1828-1910) kept a saloon on West Maple St. and the family lived upstairs. He was also a Columbus policeman for several years. See, http://www.colsdioc.org/AboutUs/TheBishopsofColumbus/tabid/276/Default.aspx .
Bishop Hartley’s father, Edward (1828-1910), according to the 1900 census came to the US in 1838. It is believed that Edward Hartley was a native of Weatherstown, Glenmore. It was reported in the 1900 census that he was born in Ireland in March 1828. Because of his son’s position in the church, Edward’s death in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio was widely reported in newspapers in November 1910.
Special thanks to Jane Marvin Dempsey for graciously allowing us to use her photo of her great-grandfather Edmund Hartley (1836-1915) which is the featured photo above.
Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh