Good neighhors: The Tierney family and St. John the Baptist Parish, Quincy, Mass.

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St. John the Baptist Church on a beautiful day in 2008
(Photo thanks to "Slim" at Quincy Daily Photo)

It was in 1909 that my great-great-grandmother Catherine Tierney and her family moved to Gay Street from another home in Quincy (pronounced Quin-zee), Massachusetts. They resided at 52 Gay Street for several years, then moved to 32 Gay Street in 1912: just one house down and across the street from the rectory of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. The church and the Tierney family would be good neighbors for many decades.

The location of St. John the Baptist Church and rectory in relation
to the Tierney family residences at 52 and 32 Gay Street, Quincy
(Click to enlarge)

The family had moved to Quincy from Boston's North End a few years before Catherine's husband Patrick's death in 1900. They were probably already well-acquainted with the parish around the time of this 1890s era photograph below.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in 1893

Over the years the Tierney family would form many connections to the church and many family milestones would be passed within its care. Catherine's daughter Margaret (my great-grandmother) married George William McCue within St. John's rectory on October 11, 1911.

This announcement appeared in the Quincy Patriot Ledger
after my great-grandparents' wedding in the parochial residence of
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on October 11, 1911

Catherine Tierney was able to purchase her home at 32 Gay Street in 1923. The matriarch of the family known as "Gran" to her family passed away in 1934.

The obituaries of two of her daughters, my great-grandmother Margaret (Tierney) McCue and her sister Elizabeth "Betty" Tierney, tell of their involvement within St. John's Blessed Virgin Mary Ladies' Sodality. A cousin who visited them often as a child (and enjoyed milk and cookies at their home while his father visited with his older sisters) remembers that "both ladies were very active in all facets of the church activities".  Each of their requiem funeral Masses, held in the early 1960s, had at least three priests in attendance. This may be a testament to their long involvement with the church.

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St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, its rectory and also the Tierney home at 32 Gay Street each have historical and architectural significance.

St. John the Baptist, built in 1853 to serve the many Catholic families who had arrived in the area to work in the granite quarries, was the second Catholic church in Quincy. The church was expanded in 1873.

The church backs up to the rectory,
but is located at 44 School Street

Its rectory is located just behind the church on Gay Street. According to the Quincy, Massachusetts Historical and Architectural Survey: "This large house has been the rectory for St. John's Church since at least 1876 and may have been originally built for that purpose." The survey continues:

"When this residence was built in the 1860s it was considered very modern for it imitated the latest French building fashions. It was concomitant with the Italianate and the Gothic Revival Styles which were part of the Picturesque movement. The distinctive roof (which could be convex, concave or straight as in this house) was named for a 17th century French architect, Francois Mansart. In the 1850s, the style was revived in France by Napoleon III, hence the term 'Second Empire' or 'mansardic' for modest structures." 

The porch and a series of additional rooms were added to the rectory during the 1920s. Unfortunately, during the siding of the building with aluminum most of the original exterior features of architectural significance were removed.

The priests' residence at 21 Gay Street

Unlike the priests' residence, the long-term residence of Catherine Tierney and her children at 32 Gay Street has kept its architectural integrity. According to the Quincy survey:

"This residence is one of the fine Greek Revival cottages in Quincy which has retained most of its architectural integrity. Built in the 1850s as gable-end-to-street one and one half story cottage with the typical cornice board around the house and under the eaves and a recessed side entrance, it had added to it during the Italianate period two one-story angular, bracketed bay windows. The windows have stylized pediments atop them; the entrance is framed with pilasters and on top is the same type of lintel as the windows; the door has sidelight to floor level. The house rests on a granite foundation. Unlike the other Greek Revival property listed in the South Quincy inventory list which has been resided with vinyl to its detriment, this cottage has retained its wood clapboards and its architectural integrity. It is a fine component of the Gay Street streetscape."

The Tierney family resided at 32 Gay Street from 1912
until the latter part of the 20th century

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This article is part of the "Doors of Faith" series on our ancestors' Catholic parishes. Visit The Catholic Gene to learn how you can share photos and stories of your family's "Doors of Faith" in honor of the upcoming Year of Faith 2012-2013.

From "hard knocks" to Harvard

A station agent for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, George William McCue was only 37 years old when he passed away (cause yet unknown to me) in 1923. His wife Margaret, age 36, was left to support herself and her five young children. The children, two boys and three girls ages four to ten years old, must have found it hard to understand the sudden loss of their father.

The eldest, George Roger McCue, was now the "man of the family" at age ten. I grew up hearing stories of how he helped to support his family at a very young age. I don't remember too many of the details, but delivering newspapers may have been one of the jobs that he took on to help support his family in their time of need.

At the time of George W. McCue's death, the family was living in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Soon thereafter, Margaret moved herself and her children back home to live with her mother and sister in Quincy, where they remained for the rest of their childhoods. Census and other records show this family of women breadwinners working hard to make a living. Their resourcefulness and support for eachother surely got them through the trying years of the Great Depression. Margaret sometimes worked as a bookkeeper, a job that she had held before her marriage to George. Her sister Betty worked as a seamstress. Their mother, Catherine, may have performed many of the household tasks and also helped with the children.

When I asked George Roger McCue about his ancestors many years ago, he didn't remember the names of his grandfathers or his other grandmother, but his grandmother Catherine Tierney's name was still very much present in his memory. Growing up within the same household as their grandmother and Aunt Betty, the children must have felt like they had three mothers.

George, the young breadwinner helping to earn money for his family, went on to be the first of the McCues and Tierneys to attend college. The grandson of an Irish famine survivor who had immigrated to America, George went on to earn a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University, class of 1936. Over the course of many years, he had a successful career in marketing and management for the W.T. Grant Company, a retail department store chain, retiring from the company as regional manager.

George Roger McCue

(Photograph privately held by the author)

I often wonder how the loss of George's father at such as young age and the hard work he performed to help support his family might have helped to shape his character and work ethic. It is amazing how the childhoods of one generation of a family can be such a stark contrast to those of even the very next generation.

My hope is that the descendants of George William and Margaret McCue will take the time to look back and remember the struggles of their forebears, and be reminded of the true joy of the blessed essentials of our lives that we so often take for granted today.

"The hill remains..."

From the fields of Tipperary to the crowded streets of Boston's North End, Patrick Tierney's two worlds were different yet very much the same. The struggle for daily bread was a part of every day of his short 63-year life.

Probably looking toward a better life, he and his family moved around 1895 to the town of Quincy (along with many other Irish immigrant families).

Quincy, Massachusetts (pronounced Quin-zee, if you want to say it like a native) is seven miles southeast of downtown Boston. Known as the home of John & Abigail Adams (John was our nation's 2nd president) and their son John Quincy (our 6th president), the "city of presidents" gave way to the city of the Irish: Patrick and his family among them.

The Seal of City of Quincy includes these dates:

1625: Settlement at Mount Wollaston by Captain Wollaston.
1640: Separation from Boston "to be a town called Braintree."
1792: Incorporation of the North Precinct of Braintree as the Town of Quincy.
1888: Incorporation of the Town of Quincy as the City of Quincy.

The Manet on the seal is explained as follows:
"The hill remains, connecting the present with the past,
The city remains, continuous in its history and development,
The free spirit of it remains,
The fame of it remains, and will remain forever."

The move to Quincy was a good one for the Tierney family. Although they lost Patrick only about five years after their move to Quincy, the family resided there for many years, finding work in the famed Fore River Shipyard and in other local Quincy industries.

Patrick's two daughters, Margaret and Betty, both were still living in Quincy at the time of their deaths in 1963 and 1964, when the city of Quincy was thriving.

There may still be Tierney family descendants living in the area. If you are one or you know of one, please let me know.

As I mentioned here, the last of the homes of the Patrick & Catherine Tierney family in Quincy is still standing. Although no longer in possession of the family, it is good to know that a place where our family members spent so much of their lives is still there "...connecting the present with the past...".