Dairy of James Burke-Gaffney

.... detail to be added ...

I have heard my Mother say when she first met my father she was not much attracted to him, on the contrary, when they returned from a boat ride he had treated her to in the afternoon, on Lough Lynn, she actually hated him, she said, as he had laughed so heartily at her fright when he landed a big pike" in the boat from his fishing line,  the pike splashed some water over her, injuring her finery. Father always retorted that she was then wearing her first new silk dress, and it was the fear of having it ruined made her so nervous and anxious to get out of the boat end not fear of the fish.  This she used to indignantly deny. Father was considered a great catch at the time; he had risen rapidly in his profession in the eighteen years of his widowerhood. He was then in charge of the General Survey and Valuation of Ireland, in the four Provinces: Lenister, Ulster, Connaught and Munster. She must have gotten over her "hatred" of him very soon as she married him in six months after their first meeting.

Father was a noted horseman at this time and kept his hunters and hounds. He inherited his love for horses from his father who raised many thoroughbred horses, and kept his favorite son, Edward, always supplied with the best hunters he raised. Such was father's skill and daring he was called "Mad Gaffney" in his early days at hunts and races.  After his second marriage, however, he gave up racing and hunting for the more dignified taste of fine carriage horses and greyhounds.

His family in the meantime increased and multiplied in a manner to please our present President Theodore Roosevelt's heart. There was certainly no race suicide in his family life, as fourteen children were born to their union. He had two Marys -- one by his first wife, and the eldest-born of my mother was also called Mary. Then came Thomas, named after his grandfather - as well he might, as the old gentleman was very proud of his son Edward, and used always send him a check for one hundred pounds sterling ~ equal to about five hundred dollars of good American money, every time my father announced to him the birth of a new grandchild. I remember our old friend and pastor Father Duffy once saying that it was this premium inspired father and Mother to have so many children. I must digress here a little to make mention of this lovable old priest, a gentleman of the old school who loved horses and dogs as well as my father did. Often after dinner I heard him tell a story on my father when they used to go coursing their greyhounds after the hares. Both had especially fine dogs. each had one called "Belle", each believed his dog was the best in the county - finally they were matched on one occasion and much interest was centered on this event. "It was nip and tuck  a while, after they started the hare - at last Father Duffy's Belle began to draw ahead .. 'Go it Belle said I, and 'confound you Belle says Edward." He then would laugh so heartily, we would al1 join in, although we had heard the story many times before. This good Father had baptized my mother in her infancy, married her to my father and afterwards baptized I do not know how many of my brothers and sisters, all of us who were born in Mayo I know. When my father was appointed one of the Commissioners of the General Survey and Valuation he had to remove to Dublin where we resided until he retired from the service.

My next brother after Tom was John Burke called, after our maternal grandfather -- then Jarrerd Edward, called after an Englishman, Jarrerd Edward Strickland, who settled in the West of Ireland and a dear friend of my father, this Strickland was the brother of Agnes Strickland, the authoress of a history of the Queens of England, a good old Catholic family who kept the faith throughout persecutions of several generations. We always called this brother 'Edward' and he always signed his name as "Edward Jarrerd"

The next in order of seniority of birth was James, called after father's only brother;  this James died in infancy. It was the only death in the family until all of us had grown up. Then followed Helena named after Mother's sister. I followed after -- "James the Second" –  I do not know whether I was named after my uncle or dead brother, but I know mother always spoke of her lost baby with tears in her eyes as being the finest and sweetest of all her many babies; but this was of course because of her losing him, and this may have induced her to call her next boy after him.

After me came Josephine. I understood mother promised to call her next after a well-loved brother, Dr. Joseph Burke, well,  as it was a girl, she did the best she could. Then Walter, after our Uncle Walter Burke of the Navy; next Marguerite, called after fathers sister of that name - then Anastasia after our Aunt, our Mother's brother John's wife -- this Aunt was also the mother of fourteen children; next was born Charles - I cannot remember what relative he was named after; then Louise, after another of Mother's sisters; and finally Francis Burke after Mother's brother-in-law and first cousin, Dr. Frank Burke of Westfork. This Doctor was the father of Genl. Joe Burke of Alabama, and Dr. Noel Burke of Arkansas -- whom my family know so well that there is no necessity of my writing more of them now.

Chapter 4

Before going more fully into the details of my brothers and sisters biographies I wish to mention something of my aunts and unc1es and something of their fami1ies. I remarked previously my father had but one brother James. He was an easy going country gent1eman with none of the life and energy of my father. He succeeded to his fathers estate, married late in life a lovely but delicate young wife, who died early leaving one son and three daughters, Uncle James did not survive her long and left his children to the care of his sisters Margaret and Ann, and well did these ladies fulfill their guardianship -- their piety induced their nephew Thomas to study for the priesthood, and he died only last September as Pastor of St. Peters Church, Rutland, Vermont, universally regretted by all of every denomination of his neighbors. He was a man of big heart and whole souled. One of his sisters, Annie, married William F. Taaffe, and these are the parents of our good cousins, Thomas Gaffney Taaffe and Rev. James Taaffe, S.J. who are both well and favorably known to my children. There are three other Taaffes: William, Joe, and Frank. Ji11iarn is married and has one child, a girl, at the time write.

My aunts Margaret and Anne Gaffney were very pious women who never married, but devoted their lives to acts of charity. They with others re-estab1ished the order of St. Francis in Ireland, and whi1e living in the world, observed the rules as strictly as if they were cloistered nuns. On the death of Aunt Margaret, the order erected a beautiful monument in Glasneven Cemetery, Dublin, to her memory as the foundress of the order. Aunt Ann followed her some years later and is buried at her side. Near by also lies the remains of my father and mother in the same cemetery -- a photograph of that monument my children have often seen:  a white marble cross with a wreath of flowers thrown gracefully over it. Two of Father Tom Gaffney's sisters never married -- one, Margaret, lives in New York, and the other, Catherine, in Ireland. My father had another sister, Catherine, who married a Mr. Mooney and had one son, Bernard -- but all of these are dead for some years and left no offspring to perpetuate their name.

On my Mother's side we have many relatives. She had two brothers, John and Joseph, and three sisters, Helen, Maria and Louise. Uncle John married Anastatia Burke, we always called her Aunt "Anstice". She had fourteen children. I cannot now remember all the names of the children of this union – of those I recall, John, the oldest, came to this country and settled near St. Paul, Minnesota, I believe. I have not heard if he ever married. Minnie, the eldest daughter, married a Mr. Garvey and came to this country and settled near St. Paul, Minnesota, I believe. I have not heard anything about her since. Joseph was the third. He was a queer genius who wrote poetry, but never was practical in anything. He, too, came to this country and occasionally visited Cousin Joe Burke of Alabama. He would come unannounced and would leave as unexpectedly, never saying where he went, where he proposed going. I can remember only James, Anne, and Brigid, who was called after my mother. The latter I believe is a governess in a French family. Uncle Joe Burke was a Doctor who married a Miss Louise Lynch. He died leaving four or five daughters. Aunt Louise and the children came to America and settled in Chicago. I visited them in 1876, but have since lost all knowledge of them. I tried to find them when I visited the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 but could not learn anything about them. One of these girls married a German named Mohr. A second was married to an American whose name I cannot remember. All can recollect about her is that she was a strikingly handsome woman and lived some little distance from Chicago.