Jeremiah Shea - 1937 Obituary

The Daily Review · Saturday, 3 July 1937 · Page 3

Towanda, Bradford County, Pennsylvania

Jeremiah "Jerry" M. Shay died Friday morning at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre following an operation for a ruptured appendix. He was taken ill about 2 weeks before. Jerry was born in County Carey Ireland in 1857 and came to this country at the age of 16. He was superintendent of maintenance of way for the NY Central RR & S&NY RR before retiring 17 years ago. He was living with his daughter Mrs. Elmer McCracken (Lena) on Third St. Burial will be in the SS Peter & Paul Parish Cemetery on Monday.

Survivors include 11 children: P. H. Shay of Williamsport; James J. Shay, Mayme E. Shay, Mrs. Jane Wall, Mrs. Elmer McCracken, Mrs. Eugene Daley [sic], Arthur Shay, & Adrian Shay of Towanda; Mrs. William King of Chester, PA and Mrs. Richard Fahey of Waverly, NY.

Notes:

This obituary tells us several things:

• Born 1857 in County Kerry, Ireland
• Arrived in US at age 16, which would be about 1873
• Worked for New York Central RR
• Worked for Susquehanna & New York RR
• Retired from S&NY RR 17 years about, which would be about 1920
• Appendicitis occurred in mid-June
• Died 2 Jul 1937 (the previous day)
• Buried in the Catholic cemetery in Towanda 5 Jul 1937
• Wife did not survive him
• Many children names though not all the daughters are explicitly named

This obituary is fairly accurate but other sources indicate the following corrections should be noted:

• He actually arrived in 1874 when he was 17 years old