James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
I'm going to type all of this because it distresses me to see all the guessing that goes back and forth in some of these forums when basic information is so easy to come by.Save all the speculationand "misinformation" for the unrecoverable, the longed-for documents that cost a week's pay, etc.
James Aloysius Farley, Behind the Ballots: The Personal History of a Politician.NY:
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1938.
p. 4:"Because Grassy Point [NY] was ideally located for brick-making, I happened to be born there.I was born on May 30, 1888, the son of James Farley and Ellen Goldrick Farley, the latter's parents being John and Rose Goldrick, both of whom came to America from Ireland either in 1847 or 1848.Grandfather Goldrick worked as a laborer in the brickyards of near-by Haverstraw [NY] until his death.My father was the son of John and Margaret Farley who migrated from Castletown, County Meath, Ireland, in 1847."
. . ."..., I cherished after growing up a desire [p. 5] to visit the place where the family came from across the water.After the exciting presidential election of 1936, I found an opportunity to gratify that wish.So I set out for Ireland accompanied by Ambrose O'Connell, my personal assistant in the Post Office Department, and Edward L. Roddan, of the Democratic National Committee."
. .."..., we motored out to Castletown in County Meath where I enjoyed a visit with Peter McDonnell, a man of middle age who made a modest living as a truck farmer.When my grandfather left Ireland, he had left behind him two brothers James and Patrick; and Peter McDonnell was the grandson of one of these.I could recognize a distinct family resemblance in his features.With Peter acting as a guide, we drove out along the countryside until we came to a place where houses were scarce and vegetation was thick despite the raw cold of late November.We entered a field, and several rods back from the road he pointed out a depression which he identified as the site of the Farley homestead.. . .[My grandparents] set out on a long tramp to Dublin - the first lap of their journey to an unknown land."
. . ."....My Grandfather Farley located in Verplanck's Point in Westchester County [NY] where my father was born.Mother was born across the [Hudson] river in Haverstraw, located in Rockland County [NY].Throughout most of his adult life, Father was associated with the brick-making business, first as a laborer and later as part owner of three small schooners engaged in the brick-carrying trade; also as a manufacturer of common bricks, operating two small yards."
p. 10"The death of my father was the result of an unusual accident [kicked in the ribs by a horse he had taken to water and then hitch up to a carriage] which happened in January 1898, ...."
p. 10"My chief recollection [of my father] is that he was about six feet tall, wore a heavy black mustache, and smoked cigars almost continuously.I had an aunt, Mrs. Mary Gogarty, who died a few years ago [Recall that this autobiography was published in 1938.], and she told me that I resembled my father in many (p. 11) ways, ...."
p. 11: "Mother was left with five small children [1898].My oldest brother John was eleven years old; I was just under my tenth birthday; Phil [Index, p. 381: Philip R.] was just under nine; Tom [Index, p. 381: Thomas L.] was a year or two younger; and Bill [Index, p. 380: William] was less than two years old."
p. 13:"With her last $1,500, [Mother] purchased from a neighbor, a Mrs. Allison, a small grocery store and saloon located in a house about one hundred yards from where we lived."
p. 15:"I finished high school at Stony Point [NY], graduating in June, 1905.
p. 27:"I was married in the spring of 1920 to Elizabeth A. Finnegan who lived in Haverstraw, ....A few months after we were married, I took Bess to a reception in New York [City] ...."
. . .Other Farleys identified in this book:
p. 369: daughter Ann, 13 years old at the time of publication;
p. 369: daughter Betty (Elizabeth M.), 16 years old; and
p. 369: son Jimmy, age 10.
pp. 6 and 11: Uncle Tom Farley, captain of one of the schooners mentioned above.
Note: All bracketed material I have added to make locations and names clearer.
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
Cathlin Gordon 2/19/02
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
4/24/01
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
Leonard Hindsley 4/24/01
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
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Re: James A. Farley - Postmaster-General
3/07/01