We know from family lore that after John Keohane's death, Ma could not pay the mortgage and lost the new house that she and John Keohane had just bought in Arlington. How sad was that - they had both come from difficult circumstances in Ireland - they had worked hard and Ma especially put up with some trying circumstances - I'm remembering that harrowing ride to St. Elizabeth's when Hannie or Peggy was born! Ma and John Keohane eventually saved enough money for a new house, for a car, for a radio - look what they had accomplished! And suddenly John Keohane and their dream life was gone.
We saw that the family was on Park Ave. for the 1930 census - Rita had been born that January. But where would they go and how could they afford to pay rent for any kind of an apartment? Poor Ma - she must have been in anguish - perhaps she was afraid the kids would be taken from her because she couldn't support them. She must have been a wreck with worry.
This is when John Keohane's first cousin John Reardon stepped up to the plate. We have seen that John Reardon came out from Kinsale to John Keohane in 1926. We have seen that the single Irish guys and gals would come to the Keohanes on their days off - I'm sure John Reardon was one of them. By 1930 he was married, living in Watertown, and had a son. He was working for the Town of Watertown Water Department. He came to the rescue and found Ma an apartment in a triple decker on Waverley Avenue in Watertown and promised the landlord that he would cover the rent if Ma was unable to pay it!
What a relief this must have been for Ma - not knowing where to go or how she was going to pay for food never mind rent! She was likely thinking of the workhouses in Ireland where the destitute would go. We have already talked about how grim those conditions were. This was a problem that her mother also faced. It is no wonder that the Keohanes always held John Reardon in such high esteem. He was their savior. And what a huge step for John Reardon to take - he had his own family to support. He was fortunate to work for the town - especially when the Depression hit.
My mother and Hannie always talked about Ma being a good tenant because she received Mother's Aid - the landlord was sure she would pay the rent unlike some workers who lost their jobs and had no income. I wonder when she started receiving it - in Arlington, in Watertown? How did she know to apply for it? Who told her about it? Did someone help her apply? Ma was timid at times - always worried about the neighbors - what would they think. I can't imagine her looking into Mother's Aid on her own.
I wondered about this Mother's Aid - was it a local program, a state program, or a federal program. I know there used to be poor houses in each Massachusetts town or city - is this what Ma would have faced except for John Reardon getting her that apartment?
I did a little digging around for information - I didn't find anything specific for Massachusetts but did find some general information.
The website - https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/mothers-aid/ - reports that:
"beginning in the 1860’s and 1870’s, States launched vigorous efforts to remove children from mixed almshouses (poorhouses.) Foster care came in by 1900, that is the practice of putting children into foster homes – thereby replacing asylums. The movement against institutions was aided by the programs carried out by Children’s Aid Societies. These supported the idea of foster care and of differential child care ...the mother’s pension movement, which combined two closely related principles of progressive child care – individualization and the superiority of the home to the institution.
"This Mothers’ Pension Movement — cash payments to widows with young children to enable them to care for their children in their own homes, and sometimes called widow’s pensions, mother’s aid and mother’s allowances and in our own day aid to dependent children – was part of the Progressive era in its awareness of the environmental origin of poverty and the necessity for State intervention to insure social and economic justice. It also had roots in the organized social insurance movement, which embodied the principle of public income guarantees ... However, mother’s pensions coupled the old pauper laws with the principle of State control, which had been adopted for the care of the insane and of other special groups ...
Ellen in 4th grade
"Interest in the welfare of the many children left orphaned, abandoned, or taken from parents who could not support them, was crystallized and given direction by the first White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, called by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909. The conference gave momentum to a nationwide campaign on the part of social welfare groups and women’s organizations for mother’s pensions. Relatively little organized opposition was offered this campaign, for the still widely accepted association of poverty and dependency and moral delinquency was less easily applied to children. Besides, there was widespread interest in a more constructive (and less costly) solution than institutional or foster home care. The first Statewide mother’s pension law was enacted in Illinois in 1911, 18 States had enacted such laws by 1913, and 39 States by 1919 (including Massachusetts.) With few exceptions, assistance was limited to children up to 14 or 16 years of age. By 1934, a year after the New Deal began, there were Mother’s aid laws in 46 States, the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. Thus, dependent motherhood had come to be distinctly recognized as a problem of mass poverty which could not be relegated to voluntary charity ... The majority of the laws, however, were permissive rather than mandatory on the local units; in all but a few States the costs were borne entirely by the counties or towns, and in many areas grants were never made or were entirely inadequate."
Frances and Mae Keohane and my mother in the back.
Peggy, Rita, and Hannie in front.
Rita, Ellen, and Peggy.
The website
https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/aid-dependent-children-adc
goes on to explain:
"Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), Title IV of the Social Security Act of 1935, provided federal matching grants to state programs for poor, "dependent" children. Although it was one of the least controversial provisions of the 1935 law, ADC paved the way for the single-parent family entitlement ("welfare") that has provoked so much opposition and public criticism since the Depression.
"ADC federalized the state mothers' aid programs that had been passed during the World War I era. These were state laws mandating that local governments assist mothers in homes where the "breadwinner" was incapacitated. A product of the Progressive-era reform crusade, mothers' aid programs were often justified as a way of keeping low-income families intact and keeping children out of institutional care. The caseloads were generally small, as authorities sought to restrict mothers' aid to a few "deserving" recipients who conformed to middle-class norms. Mothers' aid programs spread quickly and were implemented by nearly every state in the two decades that preceded the Great Depression ...
Peggy
"The overall impact of the new federal program was to liberalize the mothers' aid policies inherited from the Progressive era. To be eligible for federal aid, states were required to allocate funds for ADC and operate programs in all local areas. As a result, many states that had previously resisted appropriating funds for needy families were now forced to do so, and programs were established in many localities that had never implemented mothers' aid. State and local policies that restricted aid to a limited number of "worthy" widows were weakened, particularly by the influx of single parents who had worked their way onto the federal general relief rolls during the early years of the Depression.
Peggy, Hannie, and my mother Ellen
"Still, ADC incorporated many of the restrictive features of the old mothers' pension programs. No adequate standard of aid was established, and payments varied widely from state to state. States were allowed to keep traditional mothers' aid provisions requiring that aid be given only to those who maintained a "suitable home" for their children. While such language could be used to increase benefit payments to make the homes more "suitable" (the approach federal officials advocated), it was also used to deny aid to needy applicants who did not conform to white middle-class norms."Further expansion of Aid to Dependent Families was called for according to website https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/children-and-adolescents-impact-great-depression
"Child welfare advocates attending the U.S. Children's Bureau's Child Health Recovery Conference on October 6, 1933, called for emergency food relief, school lunch programs, funds to pay the salaries of public nurses, and reimbursement plans to pay private physicians to care for needy children. Government officials from the U.S. Children's Bureau and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) told attendees that more than six million children lived in families on federal and state relief. Responding to conference recommendations, the FERA and Children's Bureau quickly implemented the Child Health Recovery Program (CHRP). This two-year effort concentrated on providing emergency food and medical care to America's poorest children, especially those living in rural areas. In the end CHRP did not live up to advocates' ambitious expectations, but it marked the first New Deal relief program directed at children and the first established at the federal level to help the nation's youngest citizens.
Rita
"The Great Depression also focused attention on adolescents. In 1933, the Children's Bureau estimated that 23,000 adolescents traveled the country riding the rails and hitchhiking along highways in search of work. While some were females, most adolescent "hobos" were males. Many felt they were a burden on their already strapped families and hit the road to find work. The unemployment rate for American boys sixteen to twenty years of age was twice that of adults. Many people were sympathetic to the plight of unemployed youth, but some also charged that homeless boys were dangerous juvenile delinquents ... In March 1933 Congress established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). For the next nine years the CCC employed more than 2.5 million males aged seventeen through twenty-three. Enrollees built recreational facilities and engaged in land conservation work. Life in the CCC was regimented and many officials enforced Jim Crow rules within the camps. CCC participants sometimes served as scapegoats for local community problems, but overall, the CCC was one of the New Deal's most popular relief efforts, ending only after U.S. entrance into World War II.
Jim with a sailboat that he built in the 6th grade - Jim later was part of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
"Like the CCC, the National Youth Administration (NYA, 1935–1943) was also a popular New Deal program directed at American youth. As a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the NYA provided part-time work-relief for high school and college-aged students, as well as full-time jobs for unemployed young people no longer in school. The NYA was open to both males and females and had a Division of Negro Affairs headed by Mary McLeod Bethune. Like the CCC, it was a popular program that ended only after the United States entered World War II. Another WPA program, day nursery schools, actually expanded during World War II. Organized to provide jobs for unemployed teachers, these high quality preschools opened to children of all races and set the standard for preschool education throughout the United States." I wonder if Jim got a job though the WPA before he joined the CCC.My mother talked about someone coming to the house to check how they were doing - I presume it was a social welfare worker because they were on Mothers'Aid. I can't remember exactly when this happened. But as we talked about before, Aunts Nellie and Hannah came out on their days off - and brought groceries. Hannie talked about Ma going over to the old Grant School in Saltonstall Park for free food. Hannie said that Ma would go a round about way because she was embarrassed to be going for handouts. My mother would be home babysitting. Hannie said that they always hoped that there would be free apples or oranges which would be a treat for the kids.
The Grant School was on the top of the hill in Saltonstall Park.
Hannie told me that she also went with Ma to a bank in Newton Corner where Ma and John Keohane had a bank account - Hanne said this was after the start of the Depression and the money was gone. My mother was again babysitting for Peggy and Rita.
My mother started babysitting when she was old enough. Likewise, Jim went out and got a paper route as soon as he was able - he gave Ma the money he made. He functioned as the man of the house and one job was to take care of the furnace on Waverley Ave - it was probably coal, and he would have to empty the ashes and fill it. He later was part of the CCC - the Civilian Conservation Corps. Hannie said that when they were older, Jim used to keep some money in a sock in his drawer and told Hannie and my mother that if they ever needed money to take it from the sock. They always talked about how good Jim was to them and to Ma - how hard he worked. He gave up a possible job with Edwin Land who developed the Land Camera because it was too expensive to take the street car to Cambridge. Edwin Land went on to make a fortune - maybe Jim would have too. (I used to do private duty at night for Edwin Land's widow - they had a big house on Brattle Street. That job helped me pay for Danno to go to Boston College.)
My mother, Peggy, Hannie, I don't know who is behind Frances Burke - Rita is in front.
These pictures were taken 27 May 1936.
Peggy and Rita
Rita, Frances Burke, Peggy, and Hannie
The apartment that John Reardon found for Ma was at 69 Waverley Avenue - off Main Street up from St. Patrick's Church. She was listed there in the 1931 Watertown directory - actually John Keohane was also listed! "Keohane, John (Margaret) amp (E B) h 69 Waverley av."
I wondered how John Reardon found this apartment - it was in a triple decker beside Woodland Dairy. My mother said that there were horses stabled at the dairy to pull the wagons delivering the milk and dairy products. John Murphy was the landlord - I found him in the 1930 US Census. He was the 45 year old owner - the house was worth $15,000. He was born in the Irish Free State and immigrated in 1905 - he was a naturalized citizen. And here is the answer to my question!! John Murphy was a town employee so he likely knew John Reardon - that is probably how John Reardon found the apartment for the Keohanes.
John Murphy was married for 20 years - his wife Mary is 42 and was also born in the Irish Free State - she immigrated in 1907 and is an alien. Their daughter Mary was born in New York and is 17; she works as a stenographer for a Melting Company - whatever that is! Did she finish school?
Son Michael Murphy is 16 - he was born in Vermont - he attends school. Two more daughters - 14 year old Helen and 12 year old Josephine - were born in Vermont - they both attend school. The family does not have a radio.
John Murphy had 2 tenants in 1930. John G. Barrett and his family were paying $45/month rent. John is only 31 years old - he was born in Massachusetts but his parents were born in the Irish Free State. John Barrett is an insurance agent - anyone remember Barrett's Insurance Company in Watertown - is he part of that family?
John Barrett's wife Louise is also 31 - she was born in Massachusetts - her father was Irish, her mother born in Canada. The Barretts have 4 children - John E. is 11, Mary L. is 9, Irene E. is 8, and Henry G. is 4 - they all attend school except little Henry.
The other tenant is 35 year old Lawrence Fitzpatrick - he also is paying $45/month rent - he has a radio. He was born in Massachusetts - his father was from Canada; his mother from the Irish Free State. He is a mechanic in a garage.
His wife Anna is 33 - she was born in Massachusetts - her father was from England - her mother from Massachusetts. They have 2 young children - Virginia is 3 and 9/12 months; Florence is 2 and 6/12.
I wonder which family moved to free up the apartment? Well, www.ancestry.com had the answer in the 1931 Watertown Directory - Lawrence B Fitzpatrick (Anna) auto rpr h 2 Bromfield - so the Fitzpatricks may have bought a house up off Main Street.
But www.ancestry.com showed that the Barretts had also moved - the 1931 Watertown Directory shows John G. Barrett (Louise E.) ins agent (Newton) h 36 Waverley Ave. - just down the street from John Murphy. So perhaps John Murphy was looking for tenants and was glad to have Ma with her Mother's Aid - if she had started receiving it - and John Reardon's promise to pay the rent if Ma couldn't.
My computer crashed recently, and I lost a lot of the stories that I thought I would never forget. My mother said that she and Jim went to the Watertown public schools - the Marshall Spring was right across the street from 69 Waverley Ave - because when Ma took them to St. Patrick's School, the nuns wanted to keep Jim and maybe my mother back a grade. When Hannie started school, she went to St. Pat's - Ma had the 2 babies at home - Peggy and Rita - so she sent Hannie to school and told her to walk with Ida Pallone who lived nearby at 21 Waverley Ave - she later took care of St. Pat's Church. I think Hannie said that Ida would never wait for her.
My mother used to talk about the clip clop of the horses delivering milk for Woodland Farm next door.
"In 1919, Charles Woodland owned the Charles W. Pierce estate (now St. Patrick's Cemetery), and built his plant at 54 Waverly Ave. He started with a single route delivering 200 quarts a day and by 1956, he had over 40 routes to 16 communities with 55 trucks delivering 1,800 to 1,900 quarts a day. His trademark bottle features a bulb-necked to hold the rising cream. He also incorporated ice cream in to his business. By 1966, the business ceased operation, the land sold to the Town, the dairy buildings were razed and Woodland Towers Housing for the Elderly was built on the Waverly Street site. The Watertown Housing Authority now occupies the Woodlawn Dairy offices."
I checked on the Watertown Public Library website - there was no Watertown directory for 1932. In the 1933 Watertown Directory in the alphabetical street listing section, John Murphy had James Dowd as a tenant but the other apartment at 69 Waverley Ave. was vacant. Ma was not listed in the alphabetical name section as she was in the 1931 directory listing. The family must have been between moves when the Directory was compiled.
I did find Ma listed in the 1935 Watertown Street directory - there was no directory for 1934 per the library website. The family was now at 6 Green Street. Below are screen shots from the Watertown Library website.
The listing below states "Keohane, Margaret wid(ow) John h(ouse) 6 Green."
The google map below shows 6 Green St as the red icon - actually the red icon is on 222 Main Street where I used to live when we moved back from Ireland - on the corner of Green Street and Main Street. The house to the left of the red icon is the 2 family 8-10 Green Street. Behind that next to St Patrick's Church is the 2 family 4-6 Green Street - the end of the word "Patrick's" covers part of it. There is a driveway between the 2 two family houses and 222 Main St.
I marked the Grant School across Main St at Saltonstall Park where Ma would go for the free food. There were 2 cannons placed in the park near Main Street. Apparentlyly there was some controversy when they were first placed there because it seemed like they were aimed at St. Pat's. I remember climbing all over them when we were kids.
The Town Hall, the Library, and the Police station follow along on Main Street from Saltonstall Park.
Below is a current picture of 4-6 Green Street - it's the tan 2 family house in back. You can see St. Pat's Church in the background. 8-10 Green Street is in front. The white car is parked in the driveway shared by both houses. The new gray condo on the left is 222 Main Street where I lived long before it was renovated. The old garage is gone from my old driveway.
The thing is that there is no record of the Keohanes living in the house in front - 8-10 Green Street. But Hannie and my mother both talked of moving into that house before moving into the 2nd floor apartment at 6 Green Street. They said that 6 Green Street had more room and Ma was so happy that Jim, who slept in the dining room, finally had his own room. Ma said that Jim worked so hard - he never complained, but Waverley Ave. and the apartment out front on Green Street did not have enough space for him to have a room.
Frances Burke, Rita, and Hannie in the yard on Green Street - St. Patrick's Church is in the back - that wall is the old garage next door that belonged to the Courtneys and later Pauline Alarie.
June 1936 Rita and cousin John O'Connor from New York - his mother was Hannah O'Sullivan O'Connor who was Ma's half sister.
Hannie, Peggy, and Ellen with Jim in the back on Green St. - you can see the stained glass window at St. Patrick's Church in the background.
My mother's note on the back of the picture says "I made my dress in sewing class West Jr. School - Ellen - material came from Ireland.
Rita and Peggy in front of the garage wall. The back of the picture states "Peg. I won't take any more pictures by that old wall. What do you think?'
At some point in the late 1930s Ma developed tuberculosis. This was not unusual but was another blow for the Keohanes. I believe Aunt Nellie Keohane took a break from working to stay with the kids while Ma was hospitalized.
Tuberculosis/consumption/phthisis is a contagious infection that usually affects the lungs. It is passed from person to person by coughing, sneezing, talking, laughing, singing - sounds like Covid doesn't it? Transmission is more likely between family members than strangers. Symptoms include coughing for several weeks, coughing up blood, pain with breathing or coughing, fever, weight loss due to loss of appetite, fatigue, chills, night sweats. Back when Ma had TB, there were no meds to take for it. People who could afford it went to dry climates. Others like Ma went to sanatoriums for rest, a well balanced diet, no stress or strain, and fresh air. It was believed that fresh air helped clear the lungs - patients spent hours "taking the air" - even in the winter unless it was so cold that the patient would be harmed.
While doing family history, I have often seen death certificates listing phthisis as the cause of death - I had to look up what it was years ago. Johnny Murphy had a great great uncle Tim Burns who was a developer and a butcher in Cambridge - all but one of his 9 children died of tuberculosis! It must have been so terribly sad for their mother Ellen Burns who outlived all but one child. And I haven't found a death certificate yet for that last child.
When we lived in Sneem, the cows had to be checked for TB - they would be slaughtered if they were positive. But cows can pass Bovine TB to humans. I've always wondered if the many immigrants to the US from the farmlands in Ireland developed TB from cattle on their farms.
My mother and Hannie talked about walking up to the the sanatorium on Trapelo Road in Waltham to visit Ma on Sundays - they would try to bring her some yarn or some money to buy yarn - she used to knit to keep busy.
There was a story about Ma missing Jim's High School graduation - I think it was because Aunt Nellie didn't tell her about it or wouldn't let her come home for it - Ma felt terrible that she missed it. Maybe my sisters or cousins remember that story.
Rita
Rita and friend
My mother and Hannie also talked about walking to the old house on Belmont Hill to visit Mrs. Gardiner - she had been good to Ma, and I'm sure Ma made them go visit her.
Rita is on the left - I don't know who the next 2 girls are - then there is Peggy, my mother, and Hannie.
Rita
Rita's 1st Communion
Hannie, Peggy, and Rita had an easy walk to school at St. Pat's. Hannie said that she got a double promotion one year.
Rita and Hannie on Green Street.
Peggy's Confirmation
Ellen, Ma, Hannie, and Peggy - Rita in front. This was on Green Street in Watertown - the wall is the side of Mary Courtney's garage.
Peggy and Rita went to Camp Merriland during the summer. I imagine it was probably part of the Mothers' Aid program. I never thought to ask my mother where it was but everyone seems quite dressed up as they visit.
Peggy, my mother, Rita and Ma at Camp Merriland.
Hannie and my mother visiting Peggy and Rita at Camp Merriland.
Jim visiting Rita at camp. I like Jim's 2 tone shoes.
Peggy and a friend
Jim graduated from Watertown High School in 1938. I was surprised when www.ancestry.com came up with a picture of Jim in the high school Aero club in 1937. The purpose of the Aero Club is to promote interest in aeronautics. And Jim is the Vice President!! He is seated in the front row - 5th from the left.
Then I found a picture from the 1936 Aero Club on the Watertown Free Public Library website - Jim is on the bottom right. The purpose of the club is to discuss and promote interest in all branches of aviation.
So I browsed through the Watertown Library website and found a yearbook for 1938 - the year Jim graduated. I took a screen shot of the entry about Jim. The website for any of the Keohanes who might want to check it out is - https://www.watertownlib.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/293.
Jim was President of the Aero Club in 1938. The purpose of the club is to promote the pupils' interest in aeronautics.
Rita is on the left - I don't know who the next 2 girls are - then there is Peggy, my mother, and Hannie.
Peggy and a friend 
