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Celebrating Uncle Buck

  There are few recent family events that I can recall that were as meaningful as the one I attended recently. My uncle Donald "Buck" Firestone, husband of my paternal aunt Margaret Gilbride, passed away in April. His daughters, my cousins Becky and Lisa, decided to have a celebration of life in May. I had never been to a celebration of life. I don't think anyone in our family has ever had one. I had no idea what to expect. But it turned out to be a mini-family reunion of sorts, full of photos, reminiscences, and lots of reconnecting to those of our family who remain.  I live in Texas, so the Hubs and I flew into Cleveland for a whirlwind two days with family. Though most of our family has remained in the Cleveland area, some of us are far-flung and it has been too many years since I've seen some of them. This was the chance to see folks, catch up, and share our memories. Uncle Buck's celebration was held at the Forest Hall at Penitentiary Glen—one of the beautifu...
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Fire in the Stables - Owen Kilbride Loses His Team

Leading a mule team along the Delaware & Hudson Canal.1

I am occasionally participating in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, a writing challenge encouraging genealogy researchers to write about their ancestors. The challenge is hosted by genealogist, blogger and podcaster Amy Johnson Crow.

 This week's prompt: Fire

 By Nancy Gilbride Casey


Owen Gilbride played a role in the coal industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but he was not a miner like many others. Instead, he ferried loads of coal and other cargo as a canal boat operator on the Delaware & Hudson Canal, from about 1870 through at least 1892.2

The D&H Canal, completed in 1829, stretched 108 miles from Honesdale, northeast of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to the Hudson River in Rondout, New York. It was part of an ingenious coal transport system.3 Two gravity railroads—one built in 1829, originating at the Carbondale mines and ending in Honesdale, and another built in 1850, starting near Scranton and ending in Hawley—used steam engines and gravitational force along a series of incline planes to send coal cars around bends and curves to canalside, where it was then loaded onto boats (see map). From there, the mule or horse teams pulled the long boats along the canal through a series of 108 locks in Pennsylvania and New York to their Hudson River destination, and from there to New York City and the wider world.4

The eastern portion of the Delaware & Hudson Canal system, showing the gravity railroads and the canal beginning at Honesdale. (Map: Wikipedia)5


 

Canal boat operators like Owen kept their boats in basins along the route. They also owned their own teams of mules or horses, housed in canal-side stables. 

Life on the canal was a family affair, with wives and children often working alongside their husbands and fathers. In the course of a day's work, a canal boat operator and his family may walk 12-15 miles, pump out the barges and tend to their animals. Their mule or horse teams were essential to their livelihoods.6


Owen Gilbride's family likely accompanied him during his canal trips. Above is a typical scene of a family, boat and team of mules. (Photo: National Park Service) 7

Owen was one of several unfortunate canal men to lose his mule team in an overnight stable fire, described in startling detail in an article published on 19 May, 1892 in The Wayne County Herald in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.8

McNally's Stables Burned—A Score of Fine Animals Perish—How the Poor Brutes Met their Fate

 Painting a terrifying picture or death and destruction, the article also delivers a sobering account of the losses sustained by the canal men, at the start of their season.




How could Owen and his family rebound from such a loss? Did he have enough money put by to purchase another team and maintain their family? Did he borrow a team from someone else? Or was he simply out of luck for that season? 

It appears that he did recover from this loss. As of 1900—eight short years later, and after the D&H Canal closed down operation—he is working as a day laborer, and owns his home in Hawley, free and clear.9
 

Until Next Time... 

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NOTES
1 National Park Service, The Delaware & Hudson Canal (https://bit.ly/2XjTycv : accessed 8 April 2020), "Canal Level" photograph.
2 1870 United State Census, Wayne, Pennsylvania, population schedule, p. 32 (penned), Palmyra Twp., dwelling 244, family 256, Owen Bride, age 33; image Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/3b3jbCA : accessed 9 April 2020); citing NARA Microfilm Publication M593, roll 1464, Washington, D.C.
The Gilbride surname was often spelled Kilbride, or in this case Killbride. Owen Gilbride is the author's 4x great uncle, an Irish immigrant who came to Pennsylvania in early 1850, with his parents James Gilbride and Mary Catherine Hart Gilbride, and siblings. The family settled in Hawley, Wayne County, Pennsylvania.
3 Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), "Delaware & Hudson Canal," rev. rev. 02:57, 6 March 2020.
4 Wikipedia, "Delaware & Hudson Canal," rev. 02:57, 6 March 2020.
5 Ibid.
6 National Park Service, D&H Canal (https://bit.ly/2UOz3mC : accessed 8 April 2020), "Life on the Canal."
7 National Park Service, The Delaware & Hudson Canal (https://bit.ly/2XgJRLY : accessed 8 April 2020), "D&H Canal" photograph.
8 "McNally's Stables Burned," The Wayne County Herald (Honesdale, Pennsylvania), 19 May 1892, p. 3, col. 4; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://bit.ly/2V6NP78 : accessed 7 April 2020). 
9 1900 Unites States Census, Wayne, Pennsylvania, population schedule, p 17 (penned), 192A (stamped), Enumeration District 125, Borough of Hawley, dwelling 346, family 381, Owen Gilbride, age 58; image Ancestry (https://ancstry.me/2JRJm2Z : accessed 9 April 2020); citing NARA Microfilm Publication T623, Washington, D.C.
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