My Great Uncle Jack: John Michael Hayes, Sr., 1898-1967

John Michael Hayes, Sr.

About 1929*

I loved my Uncle Jack. He was actually my father's aunt's husband, but he was Uncle Jack to me. I find it amazing to think that Jack was born not in the last century, but in the century before. I actually knew someone born in 1898!

I remember Uncle Jack from the 1950s, when our families used to visit back and forth between our home in San Francisco and theirs in southern California. We even took a family vacation together to a ranch in Arizona--see Road Trip; Old School Style for a description of our cowboying adventures.  Here is a photo from that trip. I wish Uncle Jack had posed for a photo on this trip but he was off branding cattle with my father.

Left to right: Jack's wife, my great aunt Nellie Ellis Hayes; little me; my mother, Elva; my sister, Jean; and the cowboy known to me as Jimmy and Jerry's Grandpa, who owned the ranch where we all had big adventures

Jack's paternal grandparents were both born in Ireland. The photo below is his grandfather, Michael Hayes, born about 1847. He worked as a stone mason. 

Here is Michael's wife, Bridget Kiley (born about 1850), shown in her later years with some of her grandchildren, I suppose. I love her dimples and her obvious delight with the children. Note the cat, "posing" for the family photo. 

Michael and Bridget came from Ireland to New York, where their first child, Abbie, was born in 1871. Poor Abbie died of "pulmonary tuberculosis and exhaustion" at the age of 35. 

The family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where the rest of their children were born: 

John, born in 1872, died at age 17, also of tuberculosis

Patrick Michael (my Uncle Jack's father), born in 1873

James, born in 1879

Ellen C., born in 1882

Margaret, born in 1888, died as an infant

There may be more children, I just haven't located records for them yet

Patrick Michael Hayes married Mary C. Burke who had been born in Waterford, Ireland in 1873. While Patrick worked as a mattress maker in Worcester, Mary gave birth to their nine children:

Michael, born in 1896. His death is particularly haunting, as he died at age 12 of diphtheria in the Worcester Isolation Hospital. His younger brother, Jack, was just 10 at the time and the loss must have been terrible for all in the family and especially for the brother closest to Michael in age. 

John Michael (my Uncle Jack) born in 1898

Margaret M. born 1899

Myles, born 1901

Mary, born 1903, lived to be 101

Augustine, born 1905

Anna, born 1908

William, born 1910

David, born 1915

Jack's parents, Mary Burke and Patrick Hayes, with some of their children
Some time after 1900

Jack married Ellen "Nellie" Ellis sometime around 1916. Nellie's father was Oscar, featured in the previous post on this blog (My Great Grandfather Oscar). While Jack worked as a machinist in Worcester's Wright Wire Mill, Nellie gave birth to: 

Ellen Mary, born in 1917

John Michael, Jr., born in 1919

Dorothea Patricia, born in 1922

Wright Wire Mill, 1910

Jack and Nellie Hayes with their children, Ellen, Dorothy, and John, Jr.
Probably around 1929

John Michael Hayes, Jr.
We knew him as Buddy

In his later years, Uncle Jack suffered terribly from arthritis, which made every move difficult. I used to go into another room and cry because I felt so badly for him.  I still have this wallet that he made in physical therapy and, knowing how difficult the lacing must have been for his poor hands, I cried again.

Uncle Jack died at age 70 in 1967 in Worcester. He is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire where his wife's sister and husband--my grandparents Eva Ellis and Albert Harris--are also buried. 

Pine Grove Cemetery, Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire

*****

My connection to Uncle Jack:

John Michael "Jack" Hayes Sr (1898 - 1967)
husband of great-aunt

Ellen Mabel "Nellie" Ellis (1898 - 1982)
wife of John Michael Hayes Sr

Oscar J Ellis (1852 - 1907)
father of Ellen Mabel "Nellie" Ellis

Eva Josephine Ellis (1888 - 1943)
daughter of Oscar J Ellis

Daniel Lawrence Harris (1907 - 1972)
son of Eva Josephine Ellis

Clair Marie "Duffy" Harris
I am the daughter of Daniel Lawrence Harris

*Some of the photos in this post are from our family collection; for the others I am indebted to my fellow family history researchers on Ancestry.com.