Grandpa Barrett + Wirehaired terrier Skippy about 1939

Grandpa John Robert Barrett and wire haired fox terrier Skippie & rose bushes 640 East. Seventh Street, South Boston p 14 #107 {G}

July l938 -John Robert Barrett letter followed by grandson's essay [notebook 1-p 60] 640 E 7 St. Dec. 21st l935 Well Folks i am at it again and as usual i Have Nothing to say Other than Wish You both a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year We Wluld Like to have You With us, but as the Weather will be cold and stormy at this time, it would take the pleasure out of the trip. But I will keep a pack of cards ready so you can beat me. Bill said he would be here for Christmas. I was at the beach yesterday with the Pup. i bought 4 chickens and I would be Better without Them as They Don'tLay and I don't think they will very soon. But if they have any in their Jeenes (genes) I will get them. I have ordered a nice fresh turkey so I will be ready. The two calendars from the Tow Boat Company came yesterday.If you come up, I will give you one.Joe Buckley called up asking for you both.i hope you have a good trip in your new boat and that you will like it.Ma is comfortable as can possibly be expected. My- OldJack Frost is here now and i Expect his chum Jimmie Snow will Call to see Him - Pa" "To Lt Commander John B. Barrett c/o Phila Navy Yard"37 }C3{}} John Robert Barrett's paternal grandparents were named Robert Barrett and Catherine Sullivan. They remained in Cork, Ireland, as did one daughter Mary, who married Cornelius Kerrigan in the Ballymartyle area near Kinsale.Tax censuses of Cork in 1827 and 1852 show a Robert Barrett on the east bank of the Bandon River, south of Bandon not far from Ballytmartle and Kinsale. The main source of early history is a September 1911 letter by Robert Joseph Mehegan, Boston Herald printer 1857-1925 to his son Robert junior working in land office Evanston Wymong, who was about to visit relative in San Francisco. It tells that a group of five children of the above couple came to Boston in 1841 - Robert, Kate, Ellen, Johanna, and Margaret. Of these Robert the eldest was probably born about 1815, worked as a milkman, married and moved late 1840s to near St. Peter and Paul Church on West Broadway, and had four children that grew up- records suggest a baby named Robert died, Michael may have been born 1850, Mary is definietely l852 while family was near A and West Third or Athens corner Second. The family was on Goddard Street Dochester when John Robert was born November 29, 1854, but the location near old wetlands and Lark Street and Saint Augustine Church was part of the 1855 Washington Village annexation to Boston and a few years later was renamed West Eighth Street. While living in downtown Boston in 1840s Robert Barrett appears to have placed an advertisment in the Irish newspaper "The Pilot" seeking to locate his maternal cousin surnamed Sulllivan, who had emigrated 1846 from Cork to St. John New Brunswick. Of the four sisters who accompanied him to Boston 1841, the older two Kate and Ellen married brothers Charles and John Mehegan from Ballyheedy, Ballinhassig, county Cork. These two families have numerous descendants whose surnames have included Hoarde, Maloney,Carty, Brennan,Soger, Craig, Sullivan. The two younger girls Johanna and Margaret crossed Panama by muleback to Panama 1854 and lived many years at 2023 and 2043 Polk St, -Johanna became Mrs. Hession marrying an engineer- one daughter married Emil Fahrbach, an executive of Dinkelspiel stores. The milkman Robert Barrett had a second daughter Kate in 1855 or 1856 and died December 18, 1859 of lung disease. Little is known of his wife Catherine Daly. Records conflict whether she was born in Masschusetts or Ireland. Daly is a strongly localized West Cork name, especially from around Skibbereen. The Dalys were bards and associated with the powerful O Mahony landowners of the area. Spelling of the name varies in records and often followed the preference of clerks and centsus takers. The Irish form properly should be O Daly or O Dailey. When her grandson John Berchmans Barrett was born August 28, 1888 his godfather was Andrew Dailey at the christening by Rev. Johnson at Gate of Heaven Church at I and East Fourth Streets - possibly some kin. It is not possible to identify him positively in Boston directories - a few years earlier an Andrew Dailey was listed as a cigar maker on West Seventh Street - he does not appear thereafter in boston directories, but John Robert Barrett kept plumbing shop account records 1890 to 1894, and in these D. Dailey of West Seventh Street appears several times as a customer, and another Dailey on Second street was also a customer. Mrs. Robert Barrett nee Catherine Daly died of tuberculosis in 1863. Jack Barrett stated that her sister-in-law Ellen Barrett Mehegan adopted the two daughters Mary and Kate while their mother was still living, but that his father John Robert Barrett preferred to live with a baker Michael Thompson "at City Point" in one of the oldest houses east of L Street, at 640 East Seventh Street. Jack Barrett apparently learned that his father had some resentment on his sisters being taken away while their mother was still alive, but quarantine for tuberculosis was probably the reason. Jack Barrett in later years did much probate and land court legal work and historical research also, and he may have found probate procedings concerning his aunts, with whom he corresponded regularly until their deaths in May and November1923. The trancontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and they went in 1871 to San Francisco, where Kate lived with the Barrett immigrants on Polk Street, while Mary entered the teaching order of Presentation Nuns 1871 under the name Sister Mary Joseph. She was many years in San Francisco, at Sonoma 1890, where she sent newspaper articles and postcards and a photo in which she was standing in front of the convent with mountains in the background - then for many years she was Mother Superior of the Presentation Girls High School in Berkeley California, where Robert J. Mehegan juinior visited her in 1911. She selected Jack Barett's middle name Berchmans, honoring a Belgian child canonized as a saint 1887. When her sister Kate died May 1923, she wrote Jack Barrett explaining a complex will under which Kate Barrett in 1915 received half of the estate of her immmigrant aunt Johanna Hession, for whom she made a home many years - thye remained stayed in the Hession -Fahrbach family. Then Jack Barrett received a legacy from his aunt Kate Barrett in 1926, after a life estate to her cousin Kate Kerrigan, who came from Ballymartle Cork to San Francsico in 1897. This led to tracing several Kerrigan relations because Kate Kerrigan's sister Johanna Kerrigan had married John Ring from the Ballymartle-Ballinhassig area, and his nieces Mrs. Joan Finn and Peg Ring and their cousin Ella Collins of Moskeigh took an interest and were extremely helpful in 1971. They kept in touch with a Ring descendant Eva Kimbrough of Berkeley, whose daughter had attended the Presentation School there. Nano Nagle was the founder of the Presentation Order in Cork. Interest in this history was whetted because Robert Barrett's landlord 1855-1859 on Goddard Street-West Eighth Street was named Michael A. Ring, and he played an active role in charity and church affairs in the South Boston Irish community. He started out in junk and gunny cloth according to directories, and he had a number of children, including Thomas Ring, who became a trustee of Saint vincent de Paul, which look out for the needs of the poor, especially children. A will of Michael A.Ring some years later lists twenty-four grandchildren. He lived near Vinton Street, across south of Old Colony Boulevard, also in the 1855 Washington Village annexation.In the 1970s John Barrett junior had an extended telephone conversation regarding this history with retired United States House of Representatives Speaker John W. McCormack, who lived on Vinton Street as a child and was most interested in the local history.Directories indicated that one of the Goddard Street neighbors was a Mrs. Welch,who was a sister of the baker Michael A. Thompson who adopted John Robert Barrett 1862. Her photo and that of another sister Mrs. McGlinchy appeared in the oldest Barrett family photo album. John Robert Barrett was listed as a resident at 640 East Seventh Street the Thompson home in the 1870 United States census. For a year or so at some point John Robert went somewhere in the Middle West to live and work with his older brother Michael, but he returned to Boston and was apprenticed to the master plumber William S. Locke in the 1870s, and he later worked for Locke prior to establishing his own plumbing shop first on Atlantic Avenue and Federal Street near South Station and after 1908 to 1922 aT 112 HARRISON AVENUE near present day Tufts Dental and Medical School and Chinatown. JohnRobert Barrett's Boston poll tax payment records from 1875, l876, and 1877 were found in the South Boston home after the death of his daughter Mollie october 11, 1967. John Robert Barrett married Catherine Agnes Buckley April 19, l884 at Gate of Heaven Church - ceremony performed by Reverend Lee. They lived for a time a Thomas Park on dorchester Heights and also at P St City Point. Their son John Berchmans Barrett was born August 28, 1888 at 654 East Sixth Street, but his mother died of unknown causes June 8, 1889, when he was less than ten months old. John Robert Barrett went to live with the Buckley in-laws, who had moved to Park Street. Melrose in 1884. Aunts Minnie and Maggie Buckley and grandparents looked after young Jack while his father commuited by train to the plumbing shoip on Boston. Many of John Robert Barrett friends can be identified from old family photo albums. There were at least fine photos of his wife Catherine Buckley, and onew of her mother and one dated 1872 or her brother John - a separate locket of her youngest sister Minnie - a tintype of John robert Barrett's older brother Michael, and shots of his sisters Mary and Kate in San Frnacisco- photos of plumber William S. Locke and his brother Ned - photos of Mrs. Welsh and Mrs. McGlinchy - two Buckley cousins in Milford an older man an younger woman- of Civil War Veteran George Varnum in uniform -Jack Barrett recollected that he was in parades in 1890s- or Con Crowley, whom Jack believed a plumbing inspector and a friend Wally Sweeney.Also cousin [Robert Joseph] "Mehegan" and next to him "Kate" his sister Mrs. Craig who later lived near Blossom Street and Massachusetts General Hospital.bert Joseph] "Mehegan" and next to him "Kate" his sister Mrs. Craig who later lived near Blossom Street and Massachusetts General Hospital. After working many yeazrs for master plumber William S. Locke, John Robert Barrett started his own shop near South station October 1890 and continued until 1926. He was an authority on underground pipes in Boston, and even after his retirement he was often consulted when an emergency leak occurred affecting subways.He lived to age eighty-seven years and nearly nine months, and sometimes regretted retiring, saying "I didn't know I would live so long." We have his first account book covering the years 1890-1894, and a number of sections in his handwriting are bring posted on website http://ccilink.com/barrett.One shows Christmas presents Dec 1892 to his landlady and mothger in law Mrs. Buckley opf Melrose and his son John and nieces and nephews including Frances, Gertude and Catherine (Agnes) Buckley. Another tells of purchase of large photo of his son John Berchmans Barrett and frame March 1892 =Jack was three and a half years - photo was taken to West Roxbury 1968 and stolen 1993. Another page describes purchase of oranges, grapes, frequent railroad commuter tickets and the milk and board patyments to Mrs. Buckley, who gave free baord to your John the final week, before his father ramarried November 1894 and removed to South Boston. Mary Lane, who became Mrs. Barrett 1894 to l938 lived onGrove Street Melrose, one of eight children. Several of her brothers were plasterers who were working at 640 East Seventh Streeet South Boston when Sophie Barrett first visited there April 1932 returning with Jack from China.The history of the Lane family is recounted elsewhere in memoir, but their mother was a Lynch from Kenmare-Glengarriff area Kerry with Palmer and Sullivan-Christian ancestors.In the 1890s John Robert Barrett became trustee of baker Michael Thompson's house at 640 East Seventh Street, and on his marriage he moved next door at 634 East Seventh Street, where he rented until May 1902. A lost photo showed him holding his three youngest children Bill, Mollie and Kate, with Jack standing next to him aged twelve wearing a cap formally dressed in back yard at #634 East. Seventh.John Robert BaRRETT then bought the house at 640 East Seventh St. where he had grown up from the Thompson estate and lived there until August 21, l942, and his daughter Mollie lived there until she passed away October 11, l967 from bowel cancer. Her nephew William Joel Barrett in 1970 sold the property to Alphonsus and Catherine Roche downstairs tenants since 1942 natives of Ferryville, Newfoundland. John Robert Barrett employed a number of helpers at various times in his plumbing shop,but in later yearssd labor laws made this more difficult, and he reduced his operations. He was at 112 Harrison Avenue 1908-1922 and on Hudson and Tyler Streets in 1920s near present Tufts Medical-Dental Schools.One story tells when he ran into some tourists who were admiring and handling brightly colored autumn foliage, which he wanred them was poison ivy.He advised Jack to ride in the middle cars of subway trains, as the firsxt and last car were more vulnerable to accidents.In the 1920s Jack and Bill were concerned when their father develop a sizable grow near one eyebrow, and after some urging they persuaded him to see Dr. Boland of City Point, So8th Boston, who successfully removed it.John Robert Barrett and his son Jack both wore eyeglasses prescribed by Dr. Peter Hunter Thompson ophthalmologist on Commonwealth Avenue Back Bay.In the 1930s he took care of his wife, who was disabled for several years with diabetes, for which insulin treatment was not yet avilable - much worse prospect than today.Up to 1938 when he was 83 years of age John Robert Barrett frequently traveled to visit his sons Jack and Bill and their families. He was photographed with Sophie and John May 1936 Norfolkl Virgina when John was six weeks old, and with Jack and John and Sophie in Bala Cynwyd near Philadelphia 1937 and l938. He visited Bill Barrett l935 and other times at Ten Mitchell Place New York, and was photographed 1939 at Darien Connecticut with Bill and Virginia and newborn William Joel his grandson.He kept in good physical condition, as then-Lieutenant Warren McClain commented when he visited Jack's destroyer CLAXTON at Norfolk Virginia 1936.In August 1939 Sophie and John spent three weeks at the Barrett home 640 East Seventh Street, South Boston in extremely hot weather.John banged his head on the corner of old set-tubs in the kitchen, so grandfather Barrett cut off the corner, and it remained that way until Mollie replaced them 1938 with modern kitchen sink.The Barretts saw the old set tubs when they stayed with Mollie August 12 to Thanksgiving 1947.The Barretts visited grandpa June 1941 before leaving for Pearl Harbor and continued to send photos and letters to grandpa until he died fairly suddenly of circulatory causes August 21, l942. Bill, Virginia, and Billy arrived for one of their frequent weekend visits and learned from Mollie that Bill's father had passed away.Bill stayed to make funeral arrangements while Virginia and Billy aged not-quite-three went home to Darien.In the 1930s granpa and Mollie had a wired-haired fox terrier Skippy.There were old barns and garages in the small lot behind the house, where once horses were kept.There was a peach tree, and asparagus, tomatoes, and hollyhocks and lilacs were grown. Next door at 642 East Seventh Street a house was moved in 1912 from L and East Fifth Streets, moved to make room for the Lincoln School construction. The Kinnaly family lived there - Mr. Kinnaly had a plumbing business but not connected to the Barrett shop. His children Edward (merchant marine) Dan (post office) and Katherine were good friends of the Barretts though a few years younger.One of their Kinnaly cousins was an asssistant in Washington first to Congressman Gallivan 1920s and them many years to John W. McCormack. At 632 East Seventh Street Father Harkins grew up, who had a long missionary career in Buenos Aires,and his sister was in the conventy of the Good Shepherd, Springfield