Mary B McCoy Hanrahan

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Birthday- Hanrahan, Mary 2

MARRIED AT THE SACRED HEART CATHOLIC CHURCH in Delia on May 24, 1911, were Mary B. McCoy and Patrick Hanrahan. Their attendants, standing, were Thomas Hanrahan and Nora Lane.
Happy Birthday, Mary
There will be 85 candles on Mrs. Mary B. Hanrahan’s birthday cake. A resident of Delia, she was born at Hoyt on May 18, 1893, the daughter of Dick and Birdie McCoy. Her parents moved to Rossville and, although she was only 10, Mary has vivid memories of the 1903 flood. “I remember it like yesterday,” she said. "The water drove everyone to the hills north of Rossville, with the teams pulling wagon loads of furniture. From that day on, I’ve been scared of water. I never had a desire to live where the river could move me out!”
The Rossville Centennial History in¬cludes a description of an even worse flood the following year. In U. G. Stewart’s “Shawnee County News” for July 8, 1904, details of a sudden devastating flood along Cross Creek are given. After a steady all-night downpour, the waters came up so quickly that families had no time to move furniture -- up or out. On south Main, near the railroad, the water was five feet deep, and “on many of the streets, it would swim a horse. The water reached 22 inches above the high water mark of last year’s flood,” the “News” reported. The racing, raging water tore out the railroad bed, and washed out track. The "News” reporter wrote oi * standing waist deep in water in Dick McCoy’s back yard, waiting to get a picture of the train inching its way across the bridge, after the flood receded. “The flood,” he continued, “dug a good portion of Dick McCoy’s potatoes. He gathered up two barrels full Thursday, washed and ready for the pot.” No wonder flood waters are still a frightening memory!
Dick McCoy, who had been a student at St. Marys College before his marriage, moved his blacksmith shop from Rossville to Delia. Mrs. Hanrahan described her mother, Birdie, as “a hard worker.” She was a midwife, and neighbors called on her to assist in times of illness, too. “Mother never refused, as long as she was able to help others,” Mary commented. Two of Mary’s sisters are still living, Helen Buckler and Vera Bunting, both in California.
Mary McCoy was living in Delia when she married Patrick Hanrahan on May 24, 1911, just six days after her 18th birthday. They were the third couple to be married in the Sacred Heart Church at Delia. After a few years on the farm, Pat started work with the railroad. As a laborer and relief foreman, he put in 10- hour days, at $1.44 a day. Pat and Mary Hanrahan’s children included Francis, Gertrude, Zita (Allen) and Helen (Dohrman). Gertrude died of pneumonia when she was just 12 1/2 years old, “the worst tragedy of my life; for no one can get over losing a child,” she said sadly. Mr. Hanrahan remained with the Union Pacific until 1945, when he suffered a stroke. After his death in 1954, Mary took her first job, as a cook in the Delia school system. Her two granddaughters, Mary Wolcott and Pat Teske, lived with her while they attended school in Delia. “They kept me young and active,
I suppose,” she said thoughtfully.
“Looking back, I can say I’ve lived a long, fulfilled life,” she reminisced. She thoroughly enjoyed the Delia history written by her grandnephew, Kevin Kerwin, since “I lived it all. I watched Delia grow into a wonderful town. Lots of good families came from this community, and they all had something to contribute.” Mrs. Mary Hanrahan will celebrate her 85th birthday in Newton with her daughter, Mrs. Ray Dohrman, and family, former residents of St. Marys. We wish her many, many more.

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