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.
