The River Running
"Immigrants: we get the job done" -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Mary Brennan and Christian Willy
Christian Roland Willy was born 04 Aug 1884 in West Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. (His specific place of birth comes from his WWII draft registration.) He was the youngest child of Mary Hess (or Helwig) and George Willy.
A surviving portion of the 1890 US Census, the "Special Schedule - Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc." lists George Willy as living in Chickies, Lancaster County. The settlement of Chickies no longer survives, although the name remains attached to Chickies Ridge and Chickies Rock. The settlement would have been near West Hempfield and Columbia, a small town on the Susquehanna River 4.0 km SW of West Hempfield
In 1891 George and his family finally seem to have settled down in Columbia. On 03 Mar 1891, "George Willy of West Hempfield Township" purchased a lot with a two-storey brick house on the west side of South Eighth Street, between Locust Street and Ridge Avenue. This was later to become known as 34 South Eighth Street.
The 1900 US census found 16-year-old Christian living with his parents and his older sister Elizabeth at this address. However, changes were coming. Elizabeth married William J Pfeffer in Columbia on 31 Oct 1905. Christian's father George died less than two years later, on 10 Jun 1907. Under the terms of George's will, #34 was not left to his wife Mary directly. Rather, she was given use of it for the rest of her life, including power to sell. If it still remained in George's estate at the time of her death, it was to go to their seven children. Thus the 1910 US Census describes Mary as "renting" the property rather than owning it. Christian was still living with her at that point, working as a folder in a lace mill.
As of 1910, Anna Schafer Willy and her husband John were living in Bristol, Bucks County, at 536 Swain Street. 558 Swain Street was the home of Mary A Brennan, who lived with her widowed stepmother and three younger half-siblings. Mary had been born in October 1880, probably in Warwick, Bucks County as that's where her parents were enumerated in the 1880 US Census. Her parents were Maria or Mary Brahan and William J Brennan, both of them the children of Irish immigrants. William was a wheelwright by trade.
Maria Brahan Brennan died in 1884. Three years later, William remarried, this time to Mary Hutchinson. By 1900, the family was living at 558 Swain Street: William, his wife Mary, his daughter Mary and the three children of his second marriage, Elizabeth, Charles and Annie. The younger Mary was working as a yarn reeler. William died in 1904. By 1910 Mary Hutchinson Brennan was head of the household. Her stepdaughter Mary was working as a burler (someone who removes loose threads, knots, and other imperfections from cloth) at a mill.
Mary A Brennan married Christian Willy in Bristol 30 Oct 1912.
Christian's mother Mary died 25 days later, on 24 Nov 1912. She and her husband George are buried together in the Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in Columbia.
After the older Mary's death, her oldest six children sold their interests in 34 South Eighth Street to Christian, in return for $1,000. Because many of the parties lived outside Lancaster County, the deed was signed in stages:
The deed then wended its way back to Columbia, where it was dated 13 Jun 1913.
At the time Christian registered for the WWI draft on 12 Jul 1918, he was working as a car repairman for the Pennsylvania Railroad. By 1920, however, he was back in a lace mill, working as a brass winder. The 1920 US Census records note that Christian and Mary had a mortgage on their house. Possibly Christian had borrowed money to pay his siblings in 1913, or possibly he'd borrowed it subsequently.
An odd pair of transactions took place 21 Jan 1926. Christian and Mary sold the property at 34 South Eighth Street to an attorney named Cleon N Berntheizel for $5. He then immediately sold it back to then. The deeds were recorded back-to-back. I'm not sure why this would have been done, but Cleon seems to have done it for a number of other people over a period of some years. It was apparently a routine transaction.
The 1930 US Census didn't note whether or not Christian and Mary still had a mortgage on the house. However, it did note that the house was worth $2,500 and that they had a radio set. Christian had gone back to working as a folder in a lace mill, the same job he'd held in 1910. Everything remainded the same in 1940, except that the house was now worth $3,500. Christian's WWII draft record in 1942 says specifically that he was working at the Columbia Lace Mill.
Christian died on 25 Nov 1949. Less than two years later, on 06 Jul 1951, Mary sold the property at 34 South Eight Street to Samuel J Maurer and his wife Catharine E Bittner Maurer for the token sum of $5. I don't know why she did this. I can't find a familial connection between Mary and either Samuel or Catharine. There may, of course, have been a personal friendship.
One factor was that may have played a role in Mary's willingness to let the house go for a token amount was that she had other funds available to her. Mary's mother Maria Brahan Brennan had an older sister named Annie or Anna, born in Ireland in 1847-1848. Annie married relatively late, at 39. Her husband was a widower 17 years her senior named Patrick Breen. The couple had one child who died at the age of four months. By the time Annie died in Lancaster County on 15 Jan 1930, she'd outlived her husband, her stepchildren and all of her younger siblings. Her niece Mary Brennan Willy was her only surviving kin. Under her will, her estate was used to create a trust for Mary's use.
Mary died 27 Mar 1962. She and Christian are buried together in the Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in Columbia. After her death, the Central National Bank of Columbia disbursed the funds remaining in Annie's estate to the Church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel in Doylestown, Bucks County, PA. (Annie had been living in Doylestown in 1920.) The church received the grand sum of $20.98.