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Genealogy

Reinhardt Genealogy

A Reinhardt History
By Patricia Reinhardt

The Ancestors Of Bessie Gaffney Rotherham
Mother Of Margaret Rotherham Reinhardt
This narrative is prepared to help us follow the story of the parents and grandparents of Margaret Rotherham Reinhardt's mother, Elizabeth Bessie Gaffney. We will refer to her as Bessie.

Bessie's parents are Bartholomew Gaffney and Mary McNally. Bessie's grandparents are Thomas McNally and Jane Coulter. We will begin with the story of Thomas McNally and Jane Coulter.

Thomas McNally was born in County Mayo, Ireland around 1830. His wife, Jane Coulter, was probably born in County Mayo between 1828 and 1835. It is thought the couple was married in Ireland. Then, they went to England to earn enough money to come to America. While in England, their first child, Mary, was born on April 9, 1850. She was two years old when they traveled to this country. Another daughter, Margaret, was born to the McNallys shortly after their arrival in New York. In 1860, they lived in the town of Greenport, New York within Columbia County, where Thomas worked as a quarryman.

The McNallys had 5 children. All, except Mary, were born in New York State. They were:

The family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania between 1865 and 1868. The son, Michael, was killed at work, driving mules in the mine during his teen years. Margaret and the father, Thomas McNally, died in Scranton too. The mother, Jane Coulter McNally, and her son, Thomas J. McNally, moved to Holt County, Nebraska in 1879, where Thomas filed a homestead.

Mary, the eldest daughter, remained in Scranton. In 1868, she married Bartholomew Gaffney at St. Peter's Cathedral in Scranton. In 1883, Mary McNally and Bartholomew Gaffney moved to Holt County. They applied for a homestead in Emmet Township on March 19, 1883.

Mary and Bartholomew had 13 children. Eight were born in Scranton including:

Those five children born in Nebraska were:

When Mary and Bartholomew Gaffney arrived by train, a friend from Scranton, Thomas Malloy, met them and took them to Emmet. Mary was pregnant with Willie at the time. She was anxious to see her mother, Jane Coulter McNally, and have her help during the time of the birth. William was born in December of 1883.

In February of 1884, Jane Coulter McNally suddenly became ill. She was wrapped in blankets and fruit jars of hot water placed around her in a horse drawn sled. Her son, Thomas, and son-in-law, Bartholomew Gaffney accompanied her on the nine mile drive into O'Neill. A physician had a hospital in his home there. But on February 27, 1884, she died of pneumonia. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery in O'Neill. Her tombstone reads, "Jane Coulter, wife of Thomas McNally, 1817-1884".

When Mary McNally Gaffney first saw the vast prairie of Nebraska, she was sick at heart. They moved into a sod house with a wood floor. It was a meager contrast to the nice house in Scranton where delivery men brought fresh vegetables, milk and meat to the door.

They had sold everything in Scranton and spent most of their money on travel; Bartholomew had bought cattle with the rest of the money. Mary cried for months over the remoteness and desolation of their new location.

Both William Edward "Will" and Helen Veronica "Nell" were born in the sod house. After Nell was born in 1886, they built a frame house. Three children were born in Ewing--Rose, John and Genevieve.

Bartholomew was a railroad foreman from 1883 to 1893 at Ewing. Mary McNally Gaffney cooked for the section hands. The family lived in the section house for several years. They kept the homestead going with the help of the older daughters. The girls lived at the homestead and cared for the animals while the parents lived in Ewing.

The following is an account of the blizzard of 1888 as told by Aunt Mayme, Mary Ellen Gaffney Grady, to her sister-in-law, Marie Gaffney.

One balmy January day, Mayme and Bessie slept late. They did not get the cattle out to pasture. A sudden, fierce storm struck in the late morning. Bessie and Mayme were snowed in, alone, at the homestead. Mayme said their little cow pony was able to get to the window of the house and they fed him the straw from their mattresses.

James Rotherham related the following regarding the blizzard.

At the section house Bartholomew was relieved when all the crew returned safely. All trains were stopped by the blizzard. Twenty people died due to the storm. Many had taken advantage of the unusually warm morning to travel to town and were caught on the open prairie. Some of the bodies were not found for months, others not until spring. For years the local newspapers carried accounts of the blizzard every year on the January anniversary date.

Though they worked hard, the Gaffney young adults found time to play. The following account is from a book Candle Lights of History, Chapter 62, page 307.

In early and middle 90's the children of Bartley Gaffney took part in the life of our community although they were not regular residents there. The boys -- Bert, Tom, Willie -- and their sisters -- Bessie, Birdie, Annie -- visited at times with their sister, Mrs. Billy Malloy, and became well acquainted with Emmet folks of those years. The three boys were young but lively, full of vim. The three girls were at about the same age as our dramatic club girls and boys, and they added much pleasantness to life in Emmet society when they were with us.

A few of the occasions on which one or more of those girls contributed to the pleasure of living in our community were:

That farmers' picnic at Peter Meikels' ranch on Holt Creek, when leafy-top dance bowery and the beauty and the chivalry were fanned by a gently whispering night breeze from nearby sandhills and their grassy valleys.

A church fair in Atkinson and a long night dance in the town hall to music of the Sage-Nightingale violins, followed by a ten mile drive home in a carriage which was not sufficiently strong as to wheels and, therefore, broke down in a bad rut in that semi-civilized road to A give boys and girls the pleasure of a four-mile walk home in early dawning light of a new day.

A sing fest at home of the Grebes, where a moderately numerous company listened delightedly while Albert Cauble played the organ to best of his ability and two girls sang some popular songs,-- After the Ball, Two Little Girls in Blue, Where the Silvery Colorado Wends Its Way, and others.

A dance in the schoolhouse of the Cauble district of Holt Creek valley, on a moonlight night in August, Steve Lies and Charlie Lies making music, delightful music, on their two violins,-- and the dance followed by a long drive home while two musical birds of the company sang again.

Bartholomew Gaffney helped build the Catholic Church in Emmet in 1910. He donated a large statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It stands in the Church of the Epiphany in Emmet, Nebraska.

Marie Gaffney, daughter-in-law of Bartholomew Gaffney recorded this memory, "Grandpa Gaffney was always saying his rosary. The beads of his rosary were worn down to almost nothing. He would sit on a bench near the barn in the evening and pray the rosary. He was a very religious man."

Bartholomew died November 2, 1927. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery at O'Neill, Nebraska. He was 78 years old when he died.

Mary McNally Gaffney died at her home on June 14, 1980. She is also buried at Calvary Cemetery. She was 80 years old when she died. Bartholomew and Mary Gaffney were among the first pioneers of Holt County, Emmet Township

Many of Margaret Rotherham Reinhardt's children remember Bessie's sister, Mary Ellen, whom they called Aunt Mayme. An account of her arrival in Nebraska is given by two relatives, James B. Rotherham of La Feria, Texas and Rose Gaffney of Littleton, Colorado.

On the 1870 census, Jane and Thomas McNally, the grandparents, and married daughter, Mary McNally, and her husband, Bartholomew Gaffney, and their children were living in the same house in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Mary Ellen came to love her grandmother very much. In 1879, the grandmother left for Nebraska. The separation must have been very difficult. For, in 1881, little Mayme was allowed to travel to Nebraska by railroad with distant cousins, the parents of Tom Malloy to stay with her grandmother.

One can imagine how glad the child was to see her grandmother again after two years of separation. She had been in the third grade in Scranton. When she was settled into her grandmother's house in Holt County, she asked where she would go to school. "There are no schools here," her grandmother replied. Mayme was very, very disappointed. Through her life she only had a third grade education.

Mayme and her grandmother would walk about six miles to Mass. They walked across fields to the church in Atkinson.

In 1883, Mary McNally Gaffney and Bartholomew Gaffney arrived in Nebraska to be reunited with their daughter.

Bessie Gaffney, Margaret Reinhardt's mother, was 10 years old when she arrived in Holt County in 1883. It is said her father, Bartholomew, helped establish the first rural school in the region, District 76. The first school in the town of Emmet was established in 1884.

School was in session only three months a year. Bessie went on to what was called Normal School in Fremont, Nebraska. She became a teacher and taught three or four times before she was married,

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Thomas McNally
    
    B. Film # 1,029,770 Family History Center Salt Lake City Utah.
       Columbia Co. Court House Columbia Co. NY Naturalization Record
       Vol. 1 1853-1864 Final Application to become a citizen.
       Birth year 1825 according to 1860 Columbia County NY Federal Census,
                                    1865 Columbia County NY State Census,
                                    1870 Scranton Luzerne Co. PA Federal Census
                                    (Lackawanna Co. Pa organized from Luzerne Co 1880)
    D. Approximately 1871. This told to me by Granddaughter Jane (O'Malley) O'Donnell
       Her Mother, Ellen (McNally) O'Malley was 10 years old when her father died.
       Citizenship papers show was 30 years old in 1860 was born in County Mayo
       Ireland and emigrated from Liverpool England to Greenport Columbia Co NY

       
Jane COULTER
    B. Tombstone says born 1817 this not true. Birth had to be 1830 according to
       census records. 1860 Columbia County NY Federal Census Page 336
                       1865 Columbia County NY State Census LDS Film 479,100
                       1870 Scranton Luzerne Co PA Federal Census
                       1880 Atkinson Prct Holt Co NE Federal Census
    D. From homestead application and final patent papers filed by daughter, Mary
       (McNally) GAFFNEY. Also from tombstone in Calvary Cemetery O'Neill NE.
       Have picture of tombstone.

       
Mary McNALLY
    B. From Bible records of GAFFNEY family bible.
    M. Have copy of certificate of marriage from St. Peter's Catholic Church
       Scranton PA.
    D. Have death certificate. Obituary, Picture of tombstone

    
Margaret McNally
    B. Census Records
    M.
    D. Undoubtedly Scranton PA as last place shown

    
Michael McNally
    B. Census Records
    D. Believed died as young boy in mines according to family legend

    
Thomas J MCNALLY
    B. Census Records, Homestead papers, Death certificate. Gaffney Family Bible Record
    M. Never Married
    D. Have Letter of Administration for settlement of estate. Death
       certificate Register #621 State of Nebraska. Holt Co. Obituary
       Atkinson Graphic Fri 20 June 1930 Pl Col 4. Mentions Nephews
       as pall bearers Bert, Tom, Will and John Gaffney also Will
       and Bartley Malloy. Survivors sisters Mrs. B. J. Gaffney and
       Mrs. W. G. O'Malley

       
Ellen Jane MCNALLY
    B. Census Records
    M. Information from daughter Jane O'Donnell to Rose Gaffney
    D. From daughter Jane that is place of death. She couldn't remember
       date or year.

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MARY McNALLY GAFFNEY
AT AGE 65 - TAKEN ABOUT 1915

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MARY MCNALLY GAFFNEY and BARTHOLOMEW GAFFNEY

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GENEVIVE GAFFNEY FLOOD AND MARY McNALLY GAFFNEY

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THE GAFFNEY HOMESTEAD - EMMET TOWNSHIP
HOME OF MARY McNALLY AND BARTHOLOMEW GAFFNEY AND THEIR 13 CHILDREN

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back row - LILLIAN ROGAN, GENEVIVE FLOOD, NELL GALLIGAN
middle row - AUNT MAYME GRADY, MAGGIE MALLOY, AUNT BESSIE, JOHN GAFFNEY
GRANDMA MARY McNALLY and BARTHOLOMEW "BARTLEY" GAFFNEY
TAKEN AUG. 13, 1920 AT HOME OF BILL AND MAGGIE MALLOY

OBITUARY OF MRS MARY GAFFNEY
IN THE ATKINSON GRAPHIC
JUNE 20, 1930 IN ATKINSON,
NEBR.
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