Cynthia (Leavitt) Newton Gormley
(1842-1929)
There is an instinct in a woman
to love most her own child — and an instinct to make any child who needs her
love, her own. — Robert
Brault -- Quotes by Robert Bault
Death touched the lives of our
ancestors often in the 19th century. Diseases and accidents wiped
out entire families and ravaged the ranks of many others. Few families escaped.
Women especially seem to die early, often in childbirth, leaving several young
children. The fathers then were faced with finding a wife — and quickly — to
care for the little ones, run the household and toil at the enormous,
never-ending chores necessary to feed, clean, clothe and nurse everyone while they
labored in the fields and ran the farm. There was not much time to grieve the
loss of a spouse or waste months in frivolous romantic pursuit.
Widows, especially those who lived in
the agricultural regions of America in this time period, needed a husband to
support them and their children for there were few alternatives for earning a
livelihood available to them. No doubt such harsh necessities are responsible
for the quick re-marriages of many of our ancestors and the frequent blending
of families. This blending often complicates the genealogical research as we
are confronted with numerous names to sort out and unclear relationships. Some
family histories contain sad tales about mean stepmothers, abusive stepfathers,
or uncaring foster parents. Among the family stories are sad chronicles of
being left an orphan and sent to relatives who were less than kind, farmed out to
neighbors, or put in orphanages and poor farms.
Any of these sad tales might have been
the fate of Claude Pierson had not his path crossed Cynthia Gormley’s. This stepmother
of three had no child of her own, but she had a heart as big as the Missouri
prairie farmland where they lived. She took this orphaned boy when he was about
two years old and gave him unconditional love for more than 40 years.
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| Caldwell County, Missouri |
Crossing Paths.
Matthew Gormley, the
son of Irish Catholic immigrants to Jefferson County, New York, was a
blacksmith who served during the Civil War. He wound up in Caldwell County, Missouri
and in 1871 married Catherine Benson, who died about six years later. Matthew
married secondly Jane Taft in 1877 in Caldwell County, Missouri. They had four
children in about seven years and she died, evidently in childbirth with a fourth
child who did not survive. Matthew was left with three young children. The family
story goes that Cynthia Leavitt Newton, a childless widow, who lived nearby, saw
that these children desperately needed a mother and even though she was of the
Baptist faith, she decided to marry Matthew Gormley, a Roman Catholic, and take
care of them. Matthew and Cynthia agreed to go their separate ways,
religiously. They married 1 March 1885 in Hamilton, Caldwell County, Missouri.
Meanwhile
not far away in that county, in July of 1887, another young mother in the tiny
hamlet of Hopewell near Polo, died of typhoid, leaving four little sons, the youngest of whom
was Claude V. Pierson.
Precisely how the lives of Claude
Pierson and Cynthia (Leavitt) Newton Gormley became entwined, is not known, but
it might have been via the Baptist Church. Cynthia, the eldest daughter of a Baptist minister, the
Rev. William Ashley Leavitt, was born in Saint Lawrence County, New York in
1842. She did not marry until she was 40 years old and the marriage only lasted
a few months. Married in October 1882, she became a widow in May 1883. Her
brother, the Rev. Franklin J. Leavitt, also was a Baptist minister and had a long record of
church, prison and welfare work. He served as chaplain of the federal prison at
Leavenworth, Kansas. Some of the Piersons of Caldwell County also were of the
Baptist faith. Regardless
of how it came to be, there was a strong beautiful bond between this orphaned
son and his loving foster mother. She was the only mother he ever knew and he
adored her.
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| Claude V. Gormley ca 1918 |
In
1917 Claude, who by now was using the surname of Gormley, was “out West”
working in Montana, and enlisted in the Army. His unit became part of the
American Expeditionary Force that saw action in France. An article in Missouri newspaper
(not identified or dated, but preserved in a scrapbook) tells the story:
Claude
Gormley is Over Seas
Landed
at Liverpool Christmas Day—
Ship
carried 8,000 Soldiers and
400
Red Cross Nurses
Claude Gormley has written his mother, Mrs. Mat. [Matthew] Gormley of Hamilton, regarding the trip across the Atlantic. Claude is a member of M Co., 163d inf. 41st Div., American Expeditionary Force. He volunteered while in Montana last summer. His letter, written on Y.M.C.A. paper Christmas Day, is as follows:
 |
| American troops landing in Liverpool, WWI |
“Well,
mother, I haven't seen much of England yet. We came to this camp, six miles
square, last night and it was dark when we left Liverpool and got in camp at
4:30 this morning. The weather is damp, but warm. We expect to cross to France
in about a week. We are living in barracks and have lots of bedding to keep us
warm. I hear there is a bunch of 700 men going over to France in the morning to
fix up barracks for us to live in.
“There
were 8,000 soldiers and 400 Red Cross nurses came over on the boat. I was on
kitchen detail all the way over and we fed 500 men to each mess hall. We had a
big turkey dinner last Sunday and all we can eat all the time. And we are going
to have Christmas dinner tomorrow, 160 pounds of turkey to each company. Uncle
Sam treats us fine, don’t you think?
“Mother,
those socks you sent are sure fine, good and warm. I have ten pairs now, which
will last me for a year. The English people are fine to talk to, but after we
get to France I don't know about the talking.
The
uniform of the English soldier is about the same color as ours, but is made
differently. You
cannot expect to hear from me now like you have been, but remember I am well
and feeling fine so don't worry about me."
1919.jpg) |
| USS Leviathan |
USS
Leviathan, a 58,000 ton (displacement) troop transport, was completed at
Hamburg, Germany, in 1914 as the German flag passenger liner Vaterland. Laid up at Hoboken, New
Jersey, when World War I began, she was seized when the United States joined
the conflict in April 1917. The Navy took custody of the ship soon afterwards,
placing her in commission as USS Vaterland in late July 1917, while she
was being refitted for service as a troop transport. In early September the
ship was renamed Leviathan, an appropriate name considering that she was
then the largest ship in the U.S. Navy, and in the world.
The Leviathan's
seagoing naval career commenced in November 1917, when she made a trial trip
from Hoboken to Cuba and back. In December she took troops to Liverpool,
England, but repairs delayed her return to the U.S. until mid-February 1918. A
second trip to Liverpool in March was followed by more repairs. At that time
she was repainted with the British-type "dazzle" camouflage scheme
that she carried for the rest of the war. With the completion of that work, Leviathan
began regular passages between the U.S. and Brest, France, delivering up to
14,000 persons on each trip. In all, she transported nearly 120,000 servicemen
to the combat zone before the November 1918 Armistice brought the fighting to
an end.
Claude
Gormley was discharged from the Army at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming 21 March
1919 and evidently headed back to Missouri soon thereafter. A
step-granddaughter of Cynthia relates,
“I remembered vividly when Claude came home after World War I. Grandma Gormley and
I were coming home from prayer meeting one Sunday night and as we neared the
house we saw a lamp burning, Grandma started to run calling "Claude, Claude!"
He heard her and came out to meet them. She was very partial to Claude."
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| Claude and Cynthia Gormley 1920s |
Sometime
after 1920, Cynthia went to Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington to live with
her youngest sister and probably to be near Claude, who was then working in a
saw mill in Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington.
Cynthia Gormley died in
Washington 31 May 1929 at the age of 87.
Her stepchildren and grandchildren called her “Saint Cynthia."
Her foster
son adored her. What a loving legacy this kind woman left to so many.
1919.jpg){kind=link}
What an amazingly loving woman. Thank you for sharing her story.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words. I would have loved to have known her.
ReplyDelete