Liberty Ships: Letter from Nana, September 16, 1994

This is the first part of a letter from Catherine St. Bonnet Shaffer Currier (1914-2009), my maternal grandmother 

Sept. 16, '94

Dear Erik,

It's been a long time since I've heard from you. What a nice surprise!

Where did you ever hear we were in flood stage? This is wet country and last week we had two showers, the first since spring. It is so dry we had forest fires all over Or[egon] and Wa[shington]. Today it is 95 and dry. 

I wrote a beautiful obit for Uncle Curt [Curtis St. Bonnet, September 5, 1911-July 29, 1994] but his former boss cancelled it. I called and had one put in the paper ten days later, not much.

We had a service in home and his body was taken to Willamette Cemetery in Portland (mil.[itary])  and his flag, with his name, in the parade of flags.

I asked his former boss for anything he had in his room but I haven't heard anything from her. Papers, etc.

Before and during the war, he was a crewman on Liberty Ships, big bonus for ammo and fuel!!

While in Egypt he got a bad fever so was put in a U.S.A. hospital and missed his ship so he walked his way west and the draft board caught up with him in Nebraska and he was sent to Korea. After the war, somewhere along the line, he was sent to Alaska and then Hawaii -- he always said it was a wonder they didn't die with the total temperature change. Ha ha! He was only in Italy and other places while on the Liberty Ships.

Margaret Therese Moriarty St. Bonnet (ca. 1864-1950)

Margaret Therese Moriarty (ca. 1864-1950) = my great-great-grandmother.
Born in Kansas, ca. May 1864
1870 Clear Creek Township, Nemaha, Kansas
1880 Not sure yet (Kansas)
1883 (January 25): Marries Nicholas C. Saint Bonnet (1856-1936). Spelling variations in documents include Barnett, St. Bonnett, St. Bonnet.
1883 (December): Mae L. St. Bonnet born in Kansas
1885 Warren Nicholas St. Bonnet born in Pennesylvania
1890 Not sure yet (Monroe County, Pennsylvania)
1890s Stroud Borough, Monroe County, PA
1894 (February) Marguerite E. St. Bonnet born
1900 Stroud, Monroe County, PA (Vineyard Cottage)
1910 Stroud, Monroe County, PA
1920 Stroud, Monroe County, PA
1930 Stroud, Monroe County, PA
1940 Stroud, Monroe County, PA
1950 Dies in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County, PA

Family background. Parents born in Ireland, moved to the USA. Settled in Kansas around the time of the American Civil War. One obituary says parents named Thomas Moriarty (or Moriarity) and Mary Whalen.

1870 Census. Clear Creek Township, Seneca Post office, Nemaha County, Kansas.

John Moriarty (sometimes misspelled Morierty) 55. Farmer. Born in Ireland. Male citizen of US. Real estate $2,500. Personal estate $600.
Catherine Moriarty 42. Born in Ireland. Housekeeper.
Elizabeth Moriarty 15. Born Wisconsin. Parents of foreign birth. At home.
John Moriarty 11. Born Wisconsin. Parents of foreign birth. At home.
Thomas Moriarty 9. Born Kansas. Parents of foreign birth. Attended school within last year.
Margaret Moriarty 6. Born Kansas. Parents of foreign birth. Attended school within last year.
Mary Ann Moriarty 4. Born Kansas. Parents of foreign birth. Attended school within last year.
Catherine Moriarty 2. Born Kansas. Parents of foreign birth.
Charles O’Neill 19. Farm laborer. Born in Ireland. Parents of foreign birth.
Michael Hughes 26. Farmer. Born in Ireland. Male citizen of US. Real estate $1200. Personal estate $450. Can’t read, can’t write.

1880 Census. Marion, Nemaha County, Kansas.
Note: Where’s Margaret Therese Moriarty? John Moriarty has died.

Catherine Moriarty 52. Born in Ireland. Keeping house. Widowed. Cannot write.
Micheal [Michael] Moriarty. 32. Son. Born in Ireland. Farmer. Single. Cannot write.
Elisabeth Moriarty 24. Daughter. Born in Connecticut. Parents of foreign birth. Keeping house. Single.
Mary Ann Moriarty 16. Daughter. Born in Kansas. School teacher. Parents of foreign birth. Attended school within last year. Single.
Catherine Moriarty 12. Daughter. Born in Kansas. Keeping house. Parents of foreign birth. Attended school within last year. Single.
Albert Berry[?] 10. Bound. Born in Illinois. Apprentice[?]. Parents born in Illinois.

Hoping to trace back to Ireland.  Erik D. France: efrance23@gmail.com

Warren Nicholas Saint Bonnet, 1885-1918

Here's my great grandfather Warren Nicholas St. Bonnet (September 8, 1885-December 2, 1918). The original of this picture (from which this image is cropped) is probably from before 1914.

This is a photocopy of a picture that probably dates to around 1900 or so. Looks like a shotgun he's holding, possibly of American Civil War era vintage. He married Mary Dailey in 1906, and died from the Great Spanish Influenza in 1918. He was a brakeman for the Erie Railroad and living in Moosic, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, at the time, though he was also apparently a postman, too, at one time or another.   

Transcript of a newspaper clipping from a family scrapbook: MOOSIC, P[A]., Dec. 3 -- Warren St. Bonnett, aged thirty-three years, of East Spring street, died at the State Hospital, Scranton, at 10 o'clock Monday morning from influenza. He is survived by his wife and six small children, also his parents and two sisters. The remains will be taken to the Vineyard Cottage, the home of his parents near Stroudsburg. The funeral will be held from there Friday afternoon. Burial will be made in Stroudsburg cemetery. [Note: by the 1918 calendar, date of death was December 2].  

Mary Dailey Saint Bonnet, 1887-1963

This is my great grandmother Mary Dailey St. Bonnet McGinnis (January 11, 1887-September 30, 1963) of Pennsylvania, around the turn of the twentieth century or thereabouts. She married Warren Nicholas St. Bonnet (September 8, 1885-December 2, 1918), my great grandfather, on August 16, 1906, at 590 E. 146th Street, New York, NY, apparently registered as "Bonnett."  Indeed, the name Saint Bonnet has all sorts of variations and mispellings in censuses and other records. In more recent times, I've always known the family name as St. Bonnet.

Once married, Mary and Warren lived mostly in and around Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania (and in Moosic, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania). Warren died in the Great Spanish Influenza Pandemic, and Mary later remarried. She died a McGinnis, residing at 84 Analomink Street in East Stroudsburg.