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- Source Bucklin Public Library Bucklin, Kansas Centenial, Page 114 with excerpts taken From Obituary in "The Melia Family" by Kay Melia, Great grandson of Patrick as well as other selected excerpts from Kay Melia's book.
Melia Family
Patrick Henry O'Melia was born in the city of Cork, Cork County Ireland, March 17, 1839(St.Patrick's Day.) His Father (it has been said that his name was John and wife's maiden name was said to be Johnson) died 3 months later.. Patrick died August 25, 1899 in Ford City, Ford County, Kansas. He is buried there with Catherine.
The record shows that in the 1840's, there were very troubled times in Ireland, a country that seemed to have lived in troubled times for centuries. From the time of the Gaelic Invasion in 350 B.C. until today's problems in Northern Ireland, the land and people have been involved in hundreds of wars and conflagrations, mostly due to religious differences with England and the many oppressors who saw fit to take over their little country.
There were huge population changes in Ireland from the early days, right on through modern times, due to wars and disease and even starvation. The greatest drop over a very small period of time came from 1841 to 1848 when total population dropped from more than eight million to less than six and an half million, largely due to an agricultural phenomenon that caused widespread starvation, and a strange malady known simply as "the plague" that wiped out the potato crop several years in succession. Many who survived emigrated to other countries, mostly to the United States.
And so it was that Patrick's mother packed up her family and somehow managed to find transportation to America. The Mother died at sea, or soon after arriving in Newberry,Canada,(according to an article written by Ellen, Patricks only daughter, late in her life) leaving the children (perhaps as many as 4) alone. (another story handed down has him coming with one brother after mother died in Ireland). They landed in Canada because of a storm. Patrick was taken in by a family named Parot, (who, it is told, already had 8 children.) and taught him the wagon making trade and he later served his full apprenticeship in a wagon factory at Preston, Ontario, not far from the American border..
He married Catherine Bergy, the oldest daughter of 13 children, who was born in Canada and lived near Preston, in 1865, at the age of 26, in Canada. Her family migrated to America from Switzerland in 1719, and from there to Preston some years later. She was a dressmaker by trade and she and Patrick were married on July 18,1865 in Preston. The couple lived there long enough for the birth of two of their children. The first one was Henry William, born on June 5, 1866. The "William" in his name was no doubt after Catherine's father's middle name of Isaac William Bergy. On January 25, 1868, their second son was born in Preston, and perhaps also named after Catherine's father. He was named Isaac Newton, who was my grandfather. .
The family moved to Freeport, Michigan, sometime Jan 1868, and Nov 1869, where John(could this have been for Patrick's father's name, who some said was John?) Alvin, E.V.(Emmerson Verne"Jim"), O.B.(Oretor Bergey), and Ellen Nancy were born. When Patrick applied for naturalization, he dropped the O' from his name which left the name Melia.(Family information has it that the Irish were most unpopular at that time in that part of the United States, which probably played a part in the change)
The large family thrived in Michigan and Patrick became a master wagon maker, for which there was great demand, what with all the western migration at that time. In fact, Patrick became restless, listening to all those stories about the promise of the West. And so, in 1880, bringing only suitcases and leaving all relatives behind, the family, now ranging from 14 to almost 2, boarded the train for Kansas.
They came to Bavaria Kansas, West of Salina in the Spring of 1880 and were able to locate a small farm near the then little town of Bavaria, near Brookvile, which at that time was a large railroad town. Patrick acquired 160 acres, either by lease or rent, along with the previous renter's equipment and some livestock. Still, Patrick and Catherine were not happy. The water on the farm was considered almost undrinkable, and Patrick said that even the livestock wouldn't drink it. But perhaps most of all, he had an insatiable appetite to homestead his own land. It was at this time that the family began to make plans to move on further west. According to the homestead Act of 1862, you could obtain as much as 160 acres of land free, simply by building some kind of a home on it, on much of the western lands of Kansas and Colorado. After home steading the land it was required that at least part of the land be broken up and farmed for a certain period of time. You could add to your holdings by virtue of a "tree claim," whereby you planted a large number of trees on adjoining or nearby quarter of land, and it would become yours within a certain period of time. The Homestead Act was the brainchild of the Abraham Lincoln administration and became law at that time in order to help the government encourage the rapidly expanding population to move west and settle the unpopulated areas. Patrick and his sons Newt and Henry, came to Ford by horse and wagon, loaded with a plow and a couple of extra horses, to break sod in the fall of 1884. They built a small dugout into the side of the slope, hauling most of the materials from the nearby Arkansas River, and broke out some of the sod and the claim to plant a few acres of wheat and rye. They then returned with family to live before the spring of 1885.
The entire family spent the winter of 1884 and 1885 in Saline County, heading west in early spring of 1885. It took 2 weeks to travel from Salina by wagon. The family packed up their 2 wagons with all the furniture they would hold, and with as many household items and clothing as was possible. With the two teams of horses pulling the wagons, there were also several other horses broke to ride, a few head of cattle, and a couple of family dogs. Patrick would soon be 46; Catherine would soon be 47, Henry was 19, Newt was 17; Al was 16; O.B. was 13; Jim was 10 and Ellen was just 7 years old. They lived in the sod house in the pasture approximately one mile east of the present home place for 5 or 6 years The relatives who now own the homestead indicate that there is still a depression on that slope marking the site of the first dugout. Patrick paid $25.00 for the homestead rights to live on the quarter of land. Catherine picked up sacks of coal along the railroad tracks that they followed on the way to Ford, later to be used in an emergency. She used that coal during the blizzard of 1886 and said that was what saved the family from freezing to death. Kinsley was the nearest town and where they traveled for supplies. They had to ford the Arkansas River to get there. The first winter their main diet was cornbread and sorghum molasses from the cane raised on the farm. Catherine planted a garden with the seeds she had brought with her, and the family began to build a sod barn to house a few of the animals and many feet of sod fence to keep them at home. A storage cellar was hand dug and work began on a well that was badly needed. It was necessary to haul barrels of water from some neighbors to the west for cooking and drinking, and from the river to the north for the livestock. Since the homestead was only a mile or so from the river, the hand dug well only had to go down about 15 or 20 feet to find good supply of fresh sweet water. Water was retrieved by bucket and winch until a windmill could be built later.
Patrick and the boys broke out another portion of their prairie land in order to plant a crop of corn and grain sorghum that first spring and also more land to plant more wheat and rye that fall. By July, they were able to harvest their first crop of wheat and rye that had been planted the previous fall when Patrick and boys had opened out the new homestead. Some of that new crop was used for seeding the new crop, but most of it was hauled to the nearest town, Kinsley, located some 25 miles to the northeast. There, it was ground into several barrels of flour which the family would need for baking the following winter. They also picked up other supplies in Kinsley on trips there two or three times a year. In order to get to Kinsley, they of course had to ford the Arkansas River, which was not necessarily an easy task in those days. There would be no bridge across the river for many miles until 1901.
The Patrick Melia family settled in. It was a time of preparing for a new life that offered them unbelievable freedom to do what they had to do to survive. Many people who were attempting to settle the area could not cope with the quiet nothingness of the times, and would return to the settled areas to the east from whence they came. We should remember that Kinsley was really the only established town site in 1885, and that Dodge City was just 3 years old. There was no Ford at that time, nor was there a Bucklin until the following year of 1887. Dodge City was considered the end of the line, and very few pioneers ventured past what is now Ford County. The railroad ended at Dodge City, and new settlers seldom ventured past the end of the railroad line.
If the Melia family had known in advance that their first winter on their new homestead was going to be anything like it turned out to be, they might have had their doubts about their early enthusiasm to settle the area. The blizzard of 1886 struck a huge area of the midwest on January 1st and devastated homesteaders and fledgling city dwellers alike. It Seems certain that the events of that four or 5 day storm have not been repeated in the midwest since then. There were no official records of wind velocities or snowfall depths or sizes of drifts.....only information that was handed down from generation to generation. There have been a number of books written on the subject, and are certainly interesting to read. Those who had prepared for a tough winter that year, and that was probably all the homesteaders who simply knew that it was the thing to do, probably came through in decent shape. The only outside activity necessary would have been protection of the livestock. As much food and fuel as possible had been stored during the summer and fall months, so it was more a situation of "riding out" the storm than just about anything else. There was nowhere to go anyway, so all effort surely was simply to survive and do what possibly could be done to care for the livestock. Catherine felt that those sacks of coal gathered by the railroad tracts saved the family's lives during the blizzard, as they used it to supplement the buffalo chips, cornstalks and driftwood they used in their stove to survive.
Farming the sand hills of southwest Kansas in the late 188o's and 1890's took a supreme effort. There was almost no mechanization until the Mid-90s and everything was done with horses and hard gingival work. Patrick's family of five sturdy boys, a most beloved young daughter, and a devoted wife struggled through those early years very successfully. The ground was worked with what we now refer to as a "walking plow," a one-bladed moldboard type plow pulled by 2 horses. Many walking plows have been preserved by agricultural historians. Small disc plows were also developed, but used mainly as cultivators rather than plows since they could not penetrate the soil nearly so deep.
After the soil had been plowed, a "harrow" was usually pulled over the freshly plowed soil in order to break up some of the clods of dirt and therefore smooth the seedbed. In southwest Kansas, especially near the river, the soil was very sandy and therefore much more pliable and the harrowing of the clods was not always necessary
When the seedbed was ready for planting, the seeding process took place. When wheat, rye,oats or barley was planted, it was "broadcast" by the farmer who carried a large bag of seed around his neck and simply thrown on the ground with the wide sweeping movements of the arms. When the seeding was complete, the harrow was again drug through the field in order to cover up the seed. Thus the planting process was over. Harvesting of all crops was also all done by hand until the grain binder came into being in the 1990's. Until then, it was mostly a scythe and a hand flail for the smaller grains and a matter of feeding the ears of corn whole to the livestock on the farm.
It should be kept in mind that nearly everything grown on the farm was eaten or otherwise utilized right there on the farm. The only place to sell any of the production was to the neighbors, and there was plenty of that. Good clean seed was valuable to sell to neighbors. In 1890, butter could be sold for 10 cents a pound. Eggs went for 10 cents a dozen; dressed chickens 6 cents a pound; a side of beef, 4 cents a pound. You could buy a bushel of rye from a neighbor for 22 cents a bushel, or oats for your horses for just 25 cents and a bushel, or bushel wheat was going for about 75 cents. By 1892, the price of wheat had dropped to 45 cents. When the railroad was completed, farmers would pool their crops in order to fill a railroad car, and those occasions in the mid-90's marked the first true marketing of crops to metropolitan areas to the east.
About this time, Patrick and Catherine had the opportunity to buy the quarter of land that was located adjacent to their property on the west. Whoever owned the land had decided to move on. The quarter actually had a pretty nice frame two story house located on the west end of the property, and it didn't take the family long to move the approximately 2/3 of a mile to the new digs. (this house is still there in the year 2000, in very bad shape, but still intact.) Because of the size of the family, Patrick and the boys added on a room or two to give them a little more room. They moved to this present home location three and one half miles east of Ford in 1890, with the boys sleeping in the attic and parents and daughter downstairs. The younger children attended school in a sod school house about two miles south and one mile east from the home place. Catherine was an early day member of the Ford Congregational Church in Ford and always brought a buggy load of children with her. Entertainment consisted of community spelling bees and literary societies, held mostly at school houses. Baseball games between families or between neighborhoods became popular. Baseball diamonds would be marked off in some farmers pasture. The biggest problem was finding balls and bats to use, but it seemed that there was always somebody going back east to visit, and would return with the needed equipment.
Patrick began a period of ill health in the mid-90's, but continued to be the driving force behind the success of the farm. O.B.'s wife Helen wrote later that his problem was a long-running illness caused by being overheated while hoeing corn when the family was still in Michigan. Patrick died on August 25, 1899 at the age of 60. His obituary would read that he passed on "after a protracted sickness which resulted in nervous prostration and loss of vitality."Both he and Catherine lie at rest at the Ford City Cemetery. Patrick lived long enough to see his first grandchild, that being Jessie, oldest child of Newt, who was born on August 30 1898, almost a year before he died. It was said that Patrick doted on her as if she were his own.
Note in file, copies from Washington DC. Archives copy of 1880 census showing Catherine age 42, P.H. age 42, William H 13, Issac N. 11, JohnA., 9, Orator 7, Emmerson 4 and Nancy age 2. At that time, they were in Salina, Saline County, Ohio Township, Kansas, according to the census report.
Next census report available(1890 was lost or destroyed) was 1900 where we find I.N.Melia in Ford County, Pleasant Valley Township, Kansas, with I.N.(Newt) being 32, Grace age 25, Jessie Age 1 and Gordon, Age 11 months, at the location and house where Elmer Melia, and Crandall Melia were born, as well as a number of other assorted cousins, etc.
Again, thanks to Kay Melia, great grandson of Patrick Melia from whom much of this information was obtained from his "The Melia Family" book. [5]
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