Prompt: “Should have been a movie”                                                               May 4, 2023

The Case of the “Hobby Horse” was a real whodunnit what should have been a movie.

https://www.heartofconeyisland.com/steeplechase-park-coney-island.html

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Coney Island, New York offered much fun and relaxation for the rich and poor alike.  The beaches, the delicious new Coney Island Hot Dog, and the Steeplechase ride! This ride was invented by George C. Tilyou who was looking for ways for people to have fun.  He had started with the Ferris Wheel and then built this magnificent structure in 1897.   The ride was gravity-powered, and the six horses made of steel, wood, and wheels could go up to 25 miles per hour on six parallel rails.

Each horse held 2 people.

 https://www.heartofconeyisland.com/steeplechase-park-coney-island.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steeplechase_Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRiwXzgCaVQ -video of the Steeplechase Ride at Coney Island

On a sunny day in August 1897¹ the amusement park was packed with people. George Huneke and his friend John Walters wanted to experience a thrill-seeking adventure on the Steeplechase. They probably stopped for a hot dog and maybe a beer and got on the ride.  John and George paid the 25 cents and John sat on the front of the horse and George on the back. On the horse next to John and George was a young woman.

 After being on the ride for about 30-40 feet, George says, “(I) experienced a sudden jar which threw (me) violently forward and to one side and then off the horse. The horse proceeded and (my) leg was mangled”.² George went right to the hospital and that night had his left leg³ amputated from above the knee. (The 12 Mar 1903 newspaper article “Mounted Horse in Court” says it was his right leg that was crushed-we cannot be sure which leg was injured,)

Having only one leg must have caused hardship for George, his wife Margaret (nee Rush) and their children: Marguerite, Helen, Bernadette, Ester (who died at 2 weeks of age) and their newest child, Vincent born 1901. As a Mercantile clerk, he couldn’t earn much to support his family. George likely used a prosthetic leg such as the one in the picture.

In March of 1902, George decided to sue the West Brighton Amusement Company, who owned Steeplechase, and George C. Tilyou, one of the directors, for $30,000 .  It became known as the “hobby horse case” because the steeplechase horse stood in the middle of the courtroom during the trial.   After a week and a half of testimony, Justice Betts awarded George $25,429.24. WOW!! This was one of the “heaviest verdicts ever rendered by a jury in Kings County”. That was a lot of money in 1902!! This much money could have offered the Huneke family a nicer home, clothing and maybe a better prosthetic leg!

By July 1902, the West Brighton Amusement Company still had not paid a cent and George started another judgement against the Company, In February 1903 the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court reversed the earlier judgement and the case was sent back for another trial. According to The Brooklyn Daily Times⁴, during the first trial, the jury was instructed to “Infer from the accident having occurred that the defendant (West Brighton Amusement Company) was negligent”. Justice Bartlett, who was now proceeding with the current judgement said,

“It seems quite clear to my mind that in a case like this, where there is a square issue upon the proof, as to which of two actors, the plaintiff or the defendant, caused the fall which injured the plaintiff, it is error to tell the jury that they many infer that the defendant is the party responsible therefor simply from the fact that the accident occurred.”

The defense, West Brighton Amusement Company, gave up interest in the steeplechase ride in April 1902 and  the property now belonged to George C. Tilyou.  Tilyou says that all the equipment on the Steeplechase was working well on that summer day in 1897 but George was “skylarking” (horsing around – no pun intended).  They say he was leaning over to interact with the woman on the next horse trying to grab her reins when his leg got caught under the hind leg of his horse and his leg was mangled. 

In trying to prove a point, Stephen C. Baldwin, George’s attorney, mounted one of the steeplechase horses that was in the courtroom and per the Brooklyn Daily Times and said:

“Gentlemen of the jury,….you notice that my legs are long. The defense set up is that Huneke was skylarking and leaning over to catch the bridle of another horse ridden by a young woman, and that his leg went under the body of the horse and was caught by the horse’s hind leg and a stanchion.  Gentlemen of the jury, I am now leaning over.  As I said, I have long legs, yet you see that it would be impossible for even my long legs to go under the horse and be broken and torn as was the leg of Huneke”.⁵

The jury could not agree on a verdict. There was talk of another trial, but I was unable to get any court documents regarding any of the trials .  One can only imagine what really happened on that day on the steeplechase ride. 

 

1. “Verdict of $25,000 For Loss of a Leg”, The Brooklyn Citizen 14 Mar 1902 page 11

2.  “25,000 Verdict Set Aside” Brooklyn Times, Brooklyn, New York,  Friday February 13, 1903,  page 1, column 2.

3.  “Verdict for $25,000.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Friday March 14, 1902 page 12.

4. ”$25,000 Verdict Set Aside” The Brooklyn Daily Times: Brooklyn, New York, Friday, February 13, 1903 page 1.

5. “Mounted Horse in Court”, The Brooklyn Daily Times; Brooklyn, New York; Thursday, March 12, 1903 page 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Lucky”                                                                                                                                                  March 15, 2023

This week’s prompt is LUCKY! I’m guessing it’s because St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and everyone knows the saying, “The luck of the Irish”! So, let’s talk about those Irish!!

Picture it – Ireland, March 2020, just before the world shut down from a Covid-19 Pandemic. I’m sure that conjures up a great deal of words and memories for those of you reading this, the least of which “lucky” is NOT one of those words, but we were in Ireland looking for more ancestors of the Gallagher clan.  Our trip was planned for March 8- 20^th. Here we go!!

We arrived in Dublin early in the morning Monday March 9^th, 2020 – the red eye flights suck! We were tired but rented a stick shift car that drives on the left-hand side of the road and drove into Dublin during morning rush hour.  Getting to our hotel was like going through a maze making all left turns when our hotel was on the right.   Silly us, we thought we had to follow the rules of the road and continued making left turns, until we made a U-turn in the middle of the road and finally made it into the hotel.  The question was, would they let us in so early in the morning when check in was about 4pm? We got LUCKY – our room was ready, and we got some sleep.  

We were in Dublin for 2 days, went to the National Library of Ireland and did some research. LUCKILY, we were able to find the civil marriage record of Mark’s great grandfather, James Gallagher and his great grandmother, Margaret McGloin which had the names of their fathers!! This was a great find!

The saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” seems to hold true for Ireland.  It was cold and rainy and snowy.  We left Dublin for the town of Bundoran in the county of Donegal to find our B&B. Driving was a bit of a challenge when it was snowing and the roads were narrow.  Mark kept getting stuck in 1^st gear. After a while I just started laughing at the whole situation.  We safely made it to Bundoran.

By Wednesday, we started getting notifications from our daughters that this Covid thing was getting bad and we needed to be careful. Word was it was highly transmissible and caused death.  I felt we were pretty safe. Who in their right mind goes to Ireland in March when the weather is this bad!! We were the only ones in our B&B – we even got to pick out which room we wanted.

Thursday, March 12, we went to St. Patrick’s Church in Ballyshannon – the Gallagher’s hometown in Ireland.  The church is in Kilbarron Parish and it was beautiful! And right in the center of Ballyshannon, so walking around was easy.  The Parish office was on campus and we walked in and found a young man named Ray who was in charge of digitizing church records.  We explained to him that we are in search of Gallagher ancestors.  He was able to give us the baptismal records for Mark’s grandfather, Charles Francis Gallagher as well as his siblings and the church marriage record for James and Margaret!! How LUCKY is that!! Now off to the Abby Catholic Cemetery in Ballyshannon, we were sure to find some Gallagher’s there, right???

If I were Steven King, I would have the right words to describe the Abby Cemetery on March 12^th in the afternoon. So, instead I will say, “It was a dark and stormy” afternoon! The wind was whipping through us and the rain was cold and almost horizontal.  The cemetery was very old and the older graves were towards the back of the cemetery.  The graves were right next to each other all with rocky boarders wet with moss and dirt. Since Mark’s family would have been buried there in the late 1800’s we had to trudge over these graves and read each one to find a Gallagher or McGloin.  We did find some, but none of the names looked familiar.  Mark gave up quickly – it was not a pleasant experience.  I want to go back. He says he’ll never do that again.  We were LUCKY there were no ghosts!!

We also found a museum in a small section of a department store and met two men who were self-

proclaimed historians of Ballyshannon. They were a wealth of information.  We knew of a public house that Mark’s Uncle Pat McGloin had on Eastport called the Railway Hotel in the 1800’s. The day before we walked up and down the street looking for what might have been Pat McGloin’s public house to no avail.  The guys in the museum picked up the phone to find out who owned the Railway Hotel and who owns it now. That’s how we found the “Bullfrog” Bar – the current name! This bar was named for the “Bullfrog Blues” by famous rocker Rory Gallagher. No direct relation.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GvQ5gNKsQ4

Another LUCKY find!!

We were able to see a wee bit of Ireland but realized that the United States would be issuing a travel ban starting March 13.  We were not able to reach anyone to change our tickets despite Mark being on the phone on hold for hours, but we were able to purchase one-way tickets back to the US for Saturday, March 14, 2020.  We left before sunrise to drive across the country from Bundoran to Dublin.  We dropped off the car and got into the airport only to find the line to go through immigration and customs for the US (in Ireland you go through customs and immigration on their side when coming to the US) was about ½ mile long.  No masks, no distancing, just a lot of confusion and thousands of wayfarers trying to get home, all huddled in narrow security lanes.  We finally get to immigration and I passed through without any problems. Mark is pulled off into a closed room and I’m waiting outside that room unclear what was going on.  After about 30-45min he finally comes out and says that he was quizzed as to what other countries he was in this past week.  He let them know it was only Ireland, but they wanted him to PROVE it.  LUCKILY, he had pictures on his phone everyday we were in Ireland – including when we went to the Beleek factory which is a stone’s throw from the Republic of Ireland and is technically in Northern Ireland – supposedly a different country.  They finally let him out and we were able to catch the plane which was delayed due to the backlog at the airport. 

WHEW!! What a trip!! Although it was a whirlwind, we had a good time and were LUCKY to find the info we found and to get out safe and sound without covid!!

 

 

“Gone too Soon”                                                                                     February 27, 2023

 

I have given this so much thought. There are so many who I feel have gone too soon or gone too young.  Although my heart hurts when I think of ALL those that that have passed and I miss them terribly, there are those who I feel their lives were cut short and “gone too soon”.  I’d like to share with you those people.  

Nathanial Golden: died at the tender age of 10 in a vehicle accident. Nate was the son of my nephew Charles Victor Golden who is the son of my brother Charles Philip Golden. I never met Nate but was told by many that he was a wonderful, happy, loving young person. Seems like God got one of the good ones early!!

Gregory Golden: died at the age of 23. Gregory was the son of my brother Robert Richard Golden. Gregory was a loving, kind, helpful young man. He was there when you needed him, he was great at helping with conflict and having your back when you needed it.  Truly a great loss for the family.

Charles Philip Golden: died at age 67 from heart disease.  Charlie was my brother. Charlie was a talented musician and loved making people laugh. He was playing the accordion at age 5 and could pick up almost any instrument and play it. He had an adoring wife and 3 terrific kids. 

Charles Victor Golden: died at age 69 from heart disease and cancer. Charlie was my father. I was one of the lucky ones to have a terrific daddy.

Charles Edward Gallagher: died at age 66 of a very brief illness. Charlie was my father-in-law; Mark’s dad.  He was a very loving and kind man who adored his family.  He was so happy when he started having grandchildren. He would walk around town with the carriage (yes, carriage, not stroller) showing off the baby.

Charles Francis Gallagher: died at age 40. He was Charles Edwards’s father - Mark’s grandfather.  This man came to the United States when he was 22 from Donegal, Ireland.  He too died from a brief illness when his only child was just 2 years old. It’s no wonder that Charles Edward treasured his family.

Marie Eleanor Caddell nee Vampatella:  died at age 41 from cancer. Marie was my maternal aunt.  She was a beautiful woman who had a hard life with a mean husband.  She loved her nieces and nephews. She too had a knack for music.  One day she just started playing the piano and her siblings would gather round and sing with her. 

Angelina Skrocki nee Vampatella: died at age 48 from cancer. Angelina was my maternal aunt. She was a very funny lady who will always have a very special place in my heart.

Antoinette Vampatella nee Rapuano: died at age 56 from cancer.  Antoinette was my maternal grandmother.  I was two years old when she passed and have no memory of her.  Everyone said she was a sweet loving lady. I took her name as my confirmation name to honor her. My oldest daughter was born on her birthday – April 27^th.

Carmen Rapuano: died at age 25 in 1946 from heart anomaly. He was going to the minor leagues!  Baseball was in his blood.

There are so many others. I think of the Vampatella twins that died in Sicily when they were two years old and their father was in the United States trying to make some money for his family, Salvatore Vampatella who died as child from tetanus in Sicily, and all the others that we will never know about, no matter how much research we do. 

Gone too soon….Gone too young…. Gone but hopefully not forgotten.

 

“I Can Identify”                                                                                        February 16, 2023

 As I embarked on my genealogical journey for both Mark and me, it was important to know who came to the United States and when.  Who was the FIRST to arrive?

For my side of the family I identified the following:

• ·       Andrea Titone arrived 1899 – Santa Margarita, Sicily, Italy
• ·       Carlo Beccherini arrived 1903 – Borghetto, Lodigiano, Italy
• ·       Angelina Maria Bianchi arrived 1904 – Treviglio, Italy
• ·       Philip Vampatella arrived 1913 – Vittoria, Sicily, Italy
• ·       Sebastiano Rapuano arrived 1889 – Benevento, Italy
• ·       Mariella Fazio arrived 1897 – San Valentino, Italy

For Mark’s side of the family I still struggle.  So far I have identified the following:

• ·       Charles Francis Gallagher arrived 1908 – Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland
• ·       Edward Duffy arrived about 1890 – somewhere in Ireland
• ·       Katherine McMahon arrived about 1895 – somewhere in Ireland
• ·       George Huneke unknown arrival but likely from Germany
• ·       George Huneke’s wife???
• ·       Anthony Rush arrived 1853 – ROSCOMMON, Ireland
• ·       Ellen McLaughlin arrived about 1860 – somewhere in Ireland
• ·       Leo Mendus arrived 1878 – probably from Lipiniak, Galicia, Poland
• ·       Pauline Kreher arrived 1897 – possibly from Austria or Poland Przemysl (pronounced Shemmish) in Galicia Poland

 

When doing any kind of genealogical research it is very important to find the country, the county and then the town the ancestor came from.  At this moment, Anthony Rush won the prize for being the first of our ancestors to arrive in the United States!! Yay, Anthony!! But Anthony does not say where he came from in Ireland. I know, you see Roscommon next to his name---read on.

 an Gorta Mór – The Great Hunger

Anthony was born 16 November 1835 or that’s what he always claimed.  Birth dates were not always accurate.  Nonetheless, he was probably a happy little boy playing on the farm with his parents and siblings (I do not know of any siblings at this time). The fields were lush, lots of rocks, and the sun shone through from time to time.  In 1845 a fungus caused the potatoes, a main staple of the Irish farmer, to turn black and inedible. They could not eat them nor sell them causing a great deal of starvation and homelessness.  This blight ended about 1852. What did he endure during those years? Did he lose his parents? Siblings? Did he have to stay in a workhouse? What we do know is that he came to the US in 1853. Did he go to England then to the US? Or just come to the US directly?

 Here is a wonderful article regarding the potato famine: https://tinyurl.com/d68ek76h

 

Civil War

Details about where Anthony was and what he was doing in the United States after he arrived is unclear, but we do know he entered the Civil war 31 March 1862.  He volunteered for the 78^th NY Infantry company C.  He was in the war until the end, mustering out on 21 July 1865.  Usually, military documents are a wealth of information, but Anthony was less than forthcoming regarding where he came from in Ireland.

I decided to obtain his complete pension files and Compiled Military Records from National Archives and Record Administration (NARA). Hundreds of pages to read through and I found out where and when he was married and the name of the priest who married them, where he was living, who his wife and children were, how tall he was and how much money he was receiving from his pension, but still no location in Ireland, Listing only the country and not the county, as the Irish normally would.

Anthony was requesting an increase in pension for the gun shot wound he got to his left index finger during the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. (Mark and I visited the battle site and were able to track his unit’s moves on preserved and marked maps.)  He was deposed many times, but on the 3^rd of March 1905 in the state of Tennessee at the Mountain Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, he finally says he was born in Roscommon, Ireland!!  

After many years of searching, I finally was able to Identify the county in Ireland from which he came! Now to identify a town in Roscommon!! Sigh……

 

 

 

 

 

“The Outcast”                                                                                                                  February 12, 2023

It was a beautiful day in St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island and my husband Mark and I were paying respects to his grandmother, Estelle Huneke, and his grandfather, Vincent Joseph Huneke. We were walking slowly, taking in the peaceful atmosphere, and stopping to look at the headstones of those who had passed on and lo and behold there was a headstone “HUNEKE Alice J. 1909 – 1979 and George C. 1905 – 1992”. The name caught Mark’s eye, for he knew of an Uncle George Huneke, but he was unaware of any of his grandfather Vincent’s siblings.

 So, who were Vincent’s siblings and why did the grandchildren not know any of them?

Vincent Joseph Huneke was born 3 December 1901 in Brooklyn New York to George Huneke and Margaret Rush Huneke…..or was he?! No birth records could be found for Vincent Joseph Huneke. However, there is a birth record for a George Huneke born 3 December 1901 in Brooklyn to George Huneke and Margaret Rush Huneke. 

Margaret and George had 4 daughters prior to the birth of Vincent.  Ellen, “Margaret” was the name she went by, was born 20 Jul 1894, Helen was born 2 Feb 1896, Bernadette was born 30 Jul 1898, Esther was born 14 Apr 1900 but died after 2 weeks.

It was early December 1901 and Margaret was getting ready to give birth. They, of course, did not know if they were having another girl or a boy.  I suspect Margaret was a little stressed since she just lost her last child.  George decided to go out drinking – leaving Margaret to do all the hard work giving birth.  This did not please Margaret. Margaret gave birth to a beautiful baby boy – their first son.  . This child was likely to be named after his father, George.  . However, Margaret was so mad at George, she wanted to get back at him for his drinking and neglectful behavior.  She named her son Vincent. Not only would George not have a son named after him, Margaret knew naming their son Vincent would piss him off because it was an “Italian” name. Margaret gave birth to 2 more children – Lillian 19 Feb 1904 and George C. Huneke born 3 Oct 1905.

Vincent Joseph Huneke went by that name all his life. He was married with that name, signed up for military with that name, worked under that name and died with that name.  He had  a younger brother who carried the name of George and that is the man who was in the cemetery just a few headstones away from Vincent.

Vincent married Estelle Mendus 7 months before the first child was born.  He had a second child with Estelle in 1931 and a few years he had a “liaison” with another woman which resulted in Mark’s half first cousin.  I would have written about that during the “Oops” week prompt but was discouraged from doing so at the request of my husband.  Vincent died on the 12^th of August 1964 in the home of his daughter in Brooklyn.

Vincent was a wonderful grandfather, but he did have a drinking problem. Some of the grandchildren have memories of a nasty drunk.  Mark and Mark’s sister remember a very loving and fun grandfather. 

No one seems to know why there was a rift between Vincent and the rest of his family.  Mark’s oldest sibling did meet an Aunt Bernie but didn’t have a lot to say about her.  Diane remembers going to the bar with him the day before he died.  He would wake up in the morning and take a swig of booze.  Diane says that he had been a building inspector in his early years, but he was honest and didn’t take bribes and he was fired for that.  Yes, that was the story! He then started his own trucking company.  .

I can only surmise that the rift in the family was due to his drinking or maybe because his wife was expecting a child when they got married in 1927 or he had an affair in 1937.  The story lies with Vincent in his grave.