Happy New Year 2023

 Happy New Year 2023 from the Farley cousins!!

A Story About Joe

 Email from Mary Farley - April 3, 2022

Joe (Martinez) loved to feed people.  He wanted to make a business of catering, but more importantly, he wanted to have people share good food and each other's company.  He worked hard to make things fun.  

Growing his own food was a source of pride. His beans were abundant and delicious.  His Roma tomatoes tasted better than any that you could buy at the store, and they were HUGE.  He and I shared their seeds until he got his greenhouse where his early starts grew into enormous vines.  He and Jean shared the tomatoes and burpless cucumbers with the senior center and food banks.  His grass always looked better than anyone else's in the neighborhood.  He caught some incredible fish in Alaska and grilled it to perfection.

I have never seen Begonias like the ones he grew.  Jean brought a basket of the blooms to a performance at the Paramount theater when she and I and (?) Kay were seeing a performance.  I don't remember what the show was but I remember having her put the blooms on the railing of the balcony where we were sitting so we could see how big and beautiful they were.  Our seats were in the first row of the balcony and every person that came by after intermission marveled at their size and color and variety.  Walking to Joe and Jean's front door was a sensual pleasure of sight and fragrance, even in the wintertime.

We had an annual trip to the tulip fields with Joe and Jean.  The color of the blooms, the wonder of the mountains, and the fields felt like praying.  He chased a wide brimmed hat that I was wearing after a gust of wind blew it into a field.  It was not easy for him to retrieve it because he was having trouble with his back.  Ever a knight in shining armor, he bowed as he handed it back to me.

I watched him singing as a clown in The Pirates of Penzance.  He came bouncing up to my Dad and MaryAnn with the biggest grin on his face after the performance.   He had a lovely baritone voice and enjoyed singing with friends or to Jean.

Hearing his adventures as a Boeing employee were like listening to the history of Boeing.  He was a great guide at the Museum of Flight.  He was a loyal fan of the Mariners and of the Seahawks.  In fact, he was loyal to his friends, his religion, and his community

He is so proud of his children.  He told me about their triumphs, their jobs, and their children.  His trips to Denver were so important to him.  He saw his mother and cousins and told me about his boyhood memories.   

That's how I know Joe: family, friends, food and memories.

A Story for Jim's Birthday

 Email from Mary Farley - April 16, 2022

Jim loved the sea and boats. He joined the Navy hoping to see the world on great vessels.  He dreamed of sailing the seas and visiting faraway places. 

I think he was still in high school when he built a wooden dingy under the trees in Bothell following blueprint directions.  As I remember it was made of plywood.  It remained unfinished for a quite a while, and I don't think it ever got painted. But, maybe it was painted red.

The vessel was the object in the story of Kay and Jean rowing upriver on the Sammamish River against the current while the sides collapsed and it began to fill with water, "up to our thighs", according to Jean.  She said they turned it downstream and used the rope on the bow to tow it.  One person in the water doing the side stroke, usually Jean, and the other in the boat baling with a coffee can. I asked how they got it to the river, about 7 blocks from the house.  Jean tells me the boat was very light and they literally carried it through the streets of Bothell to the riverbank. She said they had asked Jim if they could use it and they had "dingy rights".   Jim never said no to his sisters, and I believe her, but he did regret the loss of the boat.  He told me once that "I worked hard on that boat!"

Dad bought a small speed boat that Jim helped him repair and maintain with epoxy coatings. They worked on it in the garage in Bothell. The process involved sticky, stinky material that required sanding after it dried.  The boat became the ski boat moored in Kenmore.  Jim was the spotter for siblings learning to water ski, and later the driver.

Jim had a small sailboat while he was married to Adele.  You have heard the story of his rescue of Kay at twilight while she learning to sail using his boat.  The sailboat got moved to the yard of the home that Jim and Adele purchased on Hood Canal.  It sat on sawhorses while it waited for the days of freedom with wind in your hair.  You have heard the story of Kay and I helping to clear the house for Jim after their divorce and me dropping my end of the boat onto my ring finger and Kay saving my finger with her letterman tool and moxie.

Jim and Marcia bought the sailboat of his dreams, the Bold Endeavour.  They decided to live on board and finish raising their children while they worked and waited for the day when he could sail it to the horizon, to Australia and in the Pacific, etc.  He told me it was a dream of his and it was heartbreaking when he said, "and now I know I will never get to do it".  But he loved living on the boat.  He told me he got to see and talk to the girls more than he did when they lived in their house.  They took the boat on trips to Canada and the San Juans where Marcia, Becky and Cristin learned to sail.  Their stories about those trips are awesome.  The clam shell middens, the virgin forests, the native artists they saw, and fun with Sara being with them.  The boat did not stop the trips for the soccer tournaments or Jim helping the drama club with sets for Cristin's plays. They had camping trips with their RV and the extended Farley family, but the boat was in his heart.

Candy sponsored a trip to Port Townsend every year to celebrate Father's Day.  Candy paid for the rental house at the officer's quarters, and everybody slept and cooked and ate in the house.  On other years, people camped on the beach and shared good food while watching the racoons come out at night and sailing kites in the daytime.

Jim always wanted to take his father for a sail on his boat.  One year, he brought the sailboat and his women to Port Townsend. He got all of us on the boat except for the Alaskans who were not present, and Cathy because Marvin did not swim and did not want to go, old poop. Cathy would have loved it.  Dad sat with MaryAnn in the stern of the boat, and we went into the harbor.  Jim and Becky raised the sails, and suddenly there was quiet and magic with the wind rushing in our face.  MaryAnn was thrilled and told me she wanted to sail again and again.  Jim put Jean in the Dory (don't ask me what the difference is between a dingy and a dory, but the dory seemed more solid) and shoved her out into the water with a camera and one paddle.  I don't know what happened with the idea of 2 paddles per boat.  I was frightened that Jean did not have a life jacket which was very unlike Jim, but she took a great photo of all of us standing together on the side of the boat .  Jean survived and took a great photo that I am looking for.  She did have to paddle back to the boat with one paddle.

Jim could turn that boat on a dime.  I had my camera in a hot pink polyester sack that had originally contained a hot pink wind jacket that I gave mother.  She wore it on trips with us to various places, including Vancouver, Canada.  Mother had a habit of stopping and talking to strangers and sometimes we were afraid we lost her.  Nothing to fear, just look for the lady in the hot pink jacket.  I gave the jacket to Candy after mother died, but I was very sentimental about that sack.  I traveled to various countries with my camera in that sack.  Unfortunately, a gust of wind picked it off the bench where I left it while Jean was taking the photo and I was taking a photo of her. and blew it into the water.  We were sailing with a nice wind and the sack, being buoyant and hot pink was visible but getting father away.  I was really distressed at the potential loss of one of my keepsake memories.  Jim who never said no, and I didn't ask him, swung the boat around sailed up to the spot where the bag was floating and hooked it with ??.  He caught it just as the ferry from Port Townsend was blowing it's horn on a collision course to run us down. He swung the sailboat out of danger and handed the sack to me with his big Jim grin. I don't have to wonder about the language the ferry captain might have been using. The sack is hanging on a door knob in the hall as I write this love letter to our brother, Jim.  Thanks for the memories, Jim.

* I think I already told the story that Jean told me about Jim using a surfboard, a beach towel and an oar for a mast as an improvised sailboat on Hood Canal during a family vacation when he was 16 or 17.  That was boat # 1, after the Sea Scout boat he learned to sale on.

Memories of Cathy

 Email from Mary Farley - September 24, 2022

Cathy died 22 years ago today (September 24, 2022).  I am remembering her laugh and the way her eyes sparkled when she was happy.  Cathy was my movie censor,  She recommended movies that she knew I would like: Happy endings, good times with friends and family, pretty places to visit.  

She held my hand when we teared up watching The Rose. We cuddled watching ET and she got tired of me saying "See you later navigator".  

She loved her dogs and they loved her.  Kay hid a black mute puppy upstairs in the north bedroom (stains from accidents are still visible on the floor),  She put a red bow around the puppy's neck and carried it downstairs as the last present on Christmas morning.  Cathy opened the box and Sammy jumped out and started licking Cathy's face.  They were inseparable for many years.

I will never be as brave as Cathy.  I hope I am as loyal.  I wish I could give her one more hug today.

Farley Immigration History

 Shared by Clea (Farley) Wilson on December 14, 2022

 

County Meath

Laurence Farley was born in County Meath, Ireland.  He married Mary Goff and they lived in County Meath, about 20 miles from Dublin, where the first four of their five children were born: Anna, Patrick, James, and Mary Ann.  Their youngest son, Lawrence, was born after they emigrated.

Known as the “Great Famine,” “Great Hunger,” and “Irish Potato Famine” –  a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1949

Historical accounts show that "The Great Famine" began as the indispensable potato crops of Ireland failed everywhere due to a blight. As typhus followed the famine, vast numbers died. It became worse and more generally spread in 1847, making emigration the only means of escape. Despite aid from other countries, numerous people continued to flee, causing the Irish population to drop by 1,950,000 between 1845 and 1851. According to an oral account passed down by Laurence's grandson, James P. Farley, Laurence's family slipped out of Ireland "in the middle of the night" because of this Irish potato famine.

Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one third of all immigrants to the United States. In the 1840s, they comprised nearly half of all immigrants to this nation.  Irish immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s settled mainly in coastal states such as New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but also in western states such as Illinois and Ohio.

On July 10, 1851, Mary and the children arrived in New York on the ship, Shannon. Records indicate that Laurence traveled separately through Canada. The family eventually reunited and made a home for themselves in Illinois.

Dakota Territory

The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to live on and “improve” their plot by cultivating the land.

Mary and Laurence’s son Lawrence “Larry" Farley arrived in the Beresford area in 1875. In 1880, his father, Laurence filed on land in Section 10 of Prairie Township.  In 1883, the younger Lawrence proved up on a homestead of his own in Prairie Township, three miles east of Beresford (now South Dakota).

Lawrence married Elizabeth O'Conner in 1887.  They had eleven children, out of which nine reached adulthood. Most, if not all, of the Farley descendants still living in Beresford, South Dakota, today are descended from Larry and Elizabeth Farley.

Lawrence Farley Jr, was 29 and his mother, Elizabeth B. O'Connor, was 25 had  Leonard Lawrence Farley (see picture above) on 20 February 1883, in Union, South Dakota, United States.

Leonard married Nora Gertrude Merrigan on 7 May 1913, in Spink Township, Union, South Dakota, United States. They were the parents of Delmar, Leonor, Phyllis, Earl and Gene. He lived in Prairie Township, Union, South Dakota, United States for about 45 years. He died on 4 November 1962, in Beresford, Union, South Dakota, United States, at the age of 79, and was buried in Emmet, Union, South Dakota, United States.

Where Did the Farleys Live?

Email from Mary Farley - December 16, 2022

#1

Sioux City, Iowa  1940-1943

Mom and Dad met while living in Sioux City, Iowa.  They were introduced by a mutual friend while taking the train from Sioux City to their home towns. Dad originally walked to Sioux City from Beresford (53 miles) on his way to making a fortune.  He quickly ran out of money so this was not a common travel mode. 

They married and lived in Sioux City, Iowa where Jim and I were born.  Dad got a job with Burroughs Office Machine company.  He had and exemption from being drafted because he was considered necessary for the war effort as the military was using the new computing machines and Rapid City was a big army base. Dad sold them to the units and taught them how to use them.

 

#2

Rapid City, South Dakota  1953-1946  

Jerry was born there. Mom got sick and needed hospitalization.  WWII ended in September 1945 and Burroughs asked Dad to transfer to Fort Dodge, Iowa.

#3

Fort Dodge, Iowa  1946- 1951

Dad continued to work for Burroughs.  Kay and Jean were born there.  He got recruited to work for LeFebure Office and Banking equipment and was asked to open a new territory in either San Francisco or Seattle.  He choose Seattle.

#4

Seattle, WA  1951-1953

We moved to Seattle in late summer of 1951 and went to school for one year; a catholic school for Jim, Jerry and me, and a local elementary school for Kay.

#5 

Bothell, WA  1953 -

Candy and Cathy were born while living here.

Delmar Farley's Work History

Email from Mary Farley - December 20, 2022

He (Delmar) graduated from high school in 1932 and farmed with his Dad and for another childless couple, the Bankes for two years.  They paid him for his work and probably shared in the profits.  Dad saved his money for college.  At the end of the 2nd harvest season, he bought his father a John Deere tractor and walked to Sioux City, Iowa, about 50 miles.

He went to business school and worked in a cafe in the low rent district washing dishes when his funds got low.  They paid him (?) very little. He got a free dinner for his work.  He said it was goulash, heavy on the macaroni.  He would never let mother make goulash and refused to eat spaghetti until he started dating Mary Ann.

When he finished school, he started selling insurance. Times were tough. He said he did not like that job because those farmers didn't have any money and he was selling them $100.00 policies.  He didn't make very much money which isn't surprising because salesmen have to be positive.

He started selling lumber for a lumberyard and told me that went better because farmers needed wood to build and repair their buildings. 

 Sometime during this period, he met mother and the man who got him his career.  I have no idea why mother's mother didn't have a heart attack when they decided to get married.  He was barely making a living.  Grandma gave them a bushel basket full of food for a wedding present.  Mother supported them working as a transcriptionist for the telephone company.  She had to quit when she got pregnant as women did not work when they were pregnant in those days.

Dad loved to dance and sing.  He had a nice baritone voice.  He sang for fun with the Sioux City Men's glee club.  One of the men in the group told Dad to apply for a job at Burroughs.  Dad got the job.  Dad never forgot how much he owed him, and they kept in touch until the gentleman died. The job turned out to be a great fit.   Dad was good with numbers, and the war meant lots of data to be entered and tracked.  He sold lots of business and office adding machines and early computing machines.

He worked for Burroughs in Sioux City, Rapid City and Fort Dodge, Iowa.  He made good money.  He did travel but I think most of the trips were day trips.   

I don't know how he got introduced to LeFebure corporation of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, probably because they were serving similar customers.  The company sold banking and office equipment, mostly filing, sorting, and storage.  They made steel safes and were early developers of the surveillance cameras in banks, and eventually drive through windows. Jim helped him install some of the cameras in banks in this area.  We had several calls during dinner time, " Hello this is the FBI, I need to speak to your father".   They were calling because there was a bank robbery and they needed Dad to unload the camera.  Jim would go with him if he was home to unload the camera as it was a chain of evidence issue.  

Dad was a good salesman of the equipment, but he made a lot of money by designing checks and statements for various companies.  LeFebure was just introducing the concept of "cycle billing" which revolutionized the bookkeeping and revenue streams of companies.  He sold the system to Frederick and Nelson and Nordstrom companies among others. Large and small banks bought his products. The old system of getting your bills at the end of the month and paying them on the first of the month meant that many companies were short of cash for some time during the month and then had a rush of mailing and ledger entry over a short period of time.

'Cycle billing' divided accounts into groups by alphabetical order or account number or whatever.  Bills were sent out to each group on the same day of the month every month.  For instance, the M's would get their bill on the 12th every month and it would be due on the 27th.  As an 'M'  I would need to have money to pay my bill on the 27th and the company would have money coming in all month long.  The company benefitted because they could budget payroll but also take advantage of pricing that might change through the month or year. 

 LeFebure was known for quality stainless steel carts that held record files or cash trays that could be rolled in and out of a safe.  The system saved employees backs and records did not have to be resorted.  I have one of the stands and trays downstairs.  

Dad sold the record keeping equipment to banks and companies all over the state.  He often took day trips to visit local banks and other businesses and had one of us ride with him.  I went to Cashmere, WA with him many times and sat in the office of 'Applets and Cotlets".  Dad brought a box or two home.  Jean remembers riding with him and I am sure Kay and Candy went too.  He hired some salespeople and bought 2 houses on Dexter Avenue in Seattle and used one of them for an office.  He gave them territories and did not travel as much himself.  He received an award in 1969 as a LeFebure Tiger and in the  ____ as the first manager who sold $1,000,000.00 worth of product in a year.  A million dollars does not sound like much now but in the it was big money then.

His territory was a prime target for ambitious personal from Cedar Rapids and LeFebure had had a change of leadership as the owner retired.  Dad came home one day obviously shaken, sat down at the dining room table with me and mother and told us he had lost his job that day.  He had not disciplined some of his salespeople and his territory was prime real estate.  Needless to say, he and mother were terrified.  I told him I had saved $5,000.00 and gave it to him.  LeFebure had just started a retirement plan that he was denied by days and it was a grim time. He had to sell the houses and he cashed out a couple of life insurance policies.  I paid bills while he started taking classes and studying for the Real Estate exam.

Needless to say, he was very anxious, and he was not able to learn the way he was accustomed to.  Dad was used to being a good student and had a good memory for figures.  He could do all the calculations about square footage and cost per foot etc. but he kept trying to memorize the exact words that described various transactions.  He failed his first attempt to pass the exam for his license. He was really scared and felt like a failure.  We started having more study sessions at the dining room table where he explained to me how to calculate costs and footage etc.  Things he excelled at.  But his ability to recite the text of the instruction manual was bad.  I told him he was trying to be an old-style student where route memorization was the only way you could pass a test.  I explained to him that it was not the 'word for word' regurgitation that modern teachers wanted to see but demonstration of understanding the concepts.  He started to describe things in his own words and got more confident.  Finally, I told him my golden rules and advice for taking tests:  "TELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR".  Instructors teach what they believe is important and often their own work.  When you are taking the test tell them what they want to hear in as close to their own words as possible.  I was spared a lot of 'test anxiety' by reminding myself of that rule as a student.   He passed his second exam and opened his office.  Some years were good, and some were not.

Dad had long wanted to start his own business selling and buying Real Estate.  He had purchased the blueberry farm on Candy's recommendation.  She managed the pickers and the payroll for a couple of years while she was in her teens.  Candy would know what year he bought it.  He never made any money from selling blueberries, but he enjoyed being a farmer again.  Riding the tractor and being his own man on that piece of land with the view.   " You can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy".  I spent one New Years Day at the farm on a very cold day trying to fix the door on the outhouse that he and Fred had carved a moon window into.  Fred, as you will remember, lived in the trailer on the farm and could grow anything.  He came full circle from farmer to farmer.  

Marjorie Helen Orner Farley

Email from Mary Farley - December 29, 2022

Marjorie Helen Orner's family tree:

Great Grandfather - Simon Hughes born in Cavan County, Ireland in 1807

Great Grandmother - Margaret Boyle born in Sherburn Township, Cavan County, Ireland in ??

Grandfather - James Simon Hughes born in Cavan County, Ireland in 1844

Grandmother - Mary Ellen Keenan born in Altona, Pennsylvania in 1856

Mother - Agnes Elizabeth Hughes born January10, 1895 in LeMars, Iowa, and died July 16, 1964 in Seattle, WA

Father - LeRoy Orner born in ? in Iowa and died March 6, 1943 at the age of 51

Self - Marjorie Helen Orner Farley born March 22, 1916 in Parker, SD

Husband - Delmar Francis Farley born April 1914 in Beresford, SD

Notes and Timeline:

1847 - Potato Famine - 1 million people died in Ireland and 1 million people immigrated  

1848 - Family immigrated to USA.  James was 4 years old.  They landed in Cleavland, Ohio and stayed there until they migrated to Iowa.

1854 - Family migrated to Jackson County, It was to a rural Irish Settlement of Garry Owen where they farmed for several years.

1873 - moved to Plymouth Count, Iowa ( between Sioux City and LeMars, Iowa ).  Claimed their 160 acres and farmed.  

1876 - James married Mary Ellen Keenan.  They had 13 children.  Our Grandmother, Agnes Elizabeth Hughes, was #10 born Jan 10, 1895

They were successful farmers in spite of dust storms and grasshopper invasions.  Mr. Hughes acquired additional acres and worked them with his sons.   

James, besides doing farm work and laboring on  other farms, he taught school, having acquired more than an ordinary education in the days when young people did not have the facilities that are available to them now.  Most boys left school at a young age to help on the farm. Mr. Hughes was very active in the community and the church, Catholic of course, and organized farmers around various issues.  He was described in one obituary as big, brawny and brainy.

Mary Ellen Keenan, mother's grandmother was of Irish descent.  She was born February 18, 1856 near Altona, Pennsylvania.  Her father, Patrick Keenan came to the USA  in ? and located in Pennsylvania where he worked on the railroads.  A lot of Irish men and women worked building railroads in the eastern USA , with the Chinese laborers working from the western side of the USA.

In 1857 Ms. Keenan's family moved to Jackson County, Iowa. In 1873 they moved to Plymouth County, Iowa and bought 360 acres. The Keenans were good farmers and eventually owned 920 acres.

Mr. Orner was a barber and a very bad alcoholic.  Grandma (Agnes) made him leave.  She was running a small hotel and restaurant with her brother and a couple of employees.   His barber shop was right next door.   He died in Red Bluffs, California.  Dad (Delmar) said they found him dead in some woods.

Mother (Marjorie) says she only saw him once after he left.  He was supposed to come to her high school graduation but he did not come.  His father wrote mother a letter, (It is here (Bothell home) somewhere, telling her he was sorry that LeRoy didn't come but he knew that he loved her.)

None of us knew our grandfather, as I (Mary) was born in 1942 and Jim in 1941.  I have been hunting for the only photo I ever saw of him.  Mother looks a lot like him, same big eyes and small nose.

Ancestors of Marjorie Helen Orner Farley

 Email from Mary Farley - December 29, 2022

Nora Gertrude Farley (Delmar Farley's mother)

Email from Mary Farley - January 1, 2023

Nora Gertrude Farley's family tree:

Grandfather - Jim O'Connor born in County Cork, Irelan

Grandmother - Nora?? born in Ireland

Father - Edward Merrigan born in Ireland in 1833

• came to the USA at a young age
• Reportedly prospected for gold and came to SD with "his pocket lined with gold".    
• He is buried in St Joseph's cemetery, a church close to Grandmother and Grandfather Farley's  farm.

Mother - Catherine O'Connor born in 1860

Notes:

Edward and Catherine Merrigan moved to the farm in Garryowen, SD in 1892 where their granddaughter, Elizabeth Merrigan still lives.

Dad (Delmar) and I (Mary) went to the 100th anniversary celebration of the farm in1992 when we went to SD and Iowa after mother died to meet her cousins at their family reunion in Sioux City, Iowa.