Joe Lyons, 1873-1949- Not of Family, but Still Uncle Joe

Fritz & Joe Lyons

Earliest Photo of Joe Found

He must have been a sweet man. In retrospect it seems that in order for so many to welcome him into the McGinnis family suggests that he must have been a warm and gracious person. Based on this fact alone it is easy for me to imagine just what his personality was like for knowing the McGinnis family as I experienced them allows me to form a warm and respectful opinion of the man.

The story of Joe Lyons and his connection to the family beginning in Florence is best explained in the words of Molly McGinnis as related to her by her own parents. From Molly’s e-mails:

“They took pity on him” ………………….”Dad always said that Grandpa Tom and his brothers found Joe drunk in the gutter in Seattle and brought him home to the farm to dry out--nothing more specific than that.”
“ Mary Ellen, 'dried' him out and gave him a place to stay and got him back on his feet again. He thought the world and all of her for her kindness.”

“Because of her kindness, he idolized her.”

“He lived on the farm until he came to live with Tom and Marie, I believe, in the 40's. Marie's father died in 1933 while living with them, then her mother came to live with them after Alva Gore died in 1939. Her mother died in 1946. The obit states he had lived with them for four years so that would have been around 1945.”

“Dad always loved the stories Joe told about the sea and sailing around the horn in the Great Ships. Now that may be why we don't find many census records for him. Perhaps he had been a sailor in his younger days. Dad said that Joe and he made plans for the two of them to go sailing after he got back from the war, but Joe's age and the fact Dad had a family put that plan on the back burner.”
Just what year Joe was adopted by the family is only speculation. Joe looks quite young in the photo compared to later photos that have been saved over the years. It is difficult to estimate his age other than perhaps he is maybe in his mid 40’s. According to his obituary he was born January 1, 1873 and based on that the date of this photo is sometime around 1918 if the guess of his age here is correct. Uncle Tom was away from home working in the McAteer Shipyard in Port Blakely around this time as revealed in his draft registration. Just which brothers brought Joe home to Mom is but a guess. James McGinnis Sr. died in 1914 and due to the stress of probably watching her husband slowly waste away in his later years it is doubtful that Joe came into the family before that time. A good guess then is the 1918 period.

A copy of Joe’s WW-I draft registration document reveals that he is calling Florence home in September of 1918. Tom and his brother John were both in the Army in that month, John having left for Ft. Lewis two months before in August and Tom reported for induction, also at Ft. Lewis, in October of 1917. That would have left Brother James as the only one to help out with the dairy cows and perhaps that is when Joe took up residence in Florence as well. He may have been the only help which is a problematical assumption since his draft information also states he was employed in a timber mill in Pilchuck, some ten or fifteen miles distant from the McGinnis farm.

Uncle Jim’s whereabouts isn’t known but based on his employment information on his draft registration of June 1917 he was employed as a cabin boy on a snagboat stationed in the Mt. Vernon area suggesting that he was not near home much of the time. Snagboats had living accommodations for the crew which suggests that Uncle Jim may have been away from home for several days at a time thus the need for Joe Lyons to step in to help.

The possibility remains that Uncle Jim may have been un-employed in the fall of 1918 or even before and very well may have been living at home at the time. It’s all guess work at this point. James McGinnis Jr. is found two years later in the 1920 census in two different locations, both in Utsalady, on Camano Island, working as a waiter in a logging camp dining hall as well as on the farm in Florence living with his mother, sister and brothers. Joe Lyons is not included in the household.

Draft Registration, Joseph Adam Lyons

September 1918

Joe was in his mid forties in 1918 when draft registrations for older men commenced. All the younger men had been registered a year or more earlier. The form reveals his birth place and date of birth. The interesting fact that certainly was not passed on to our generation is the fact that Joe had a son, Theodore, living in Buffalo, New York. A search of census data fails to reveal any definite information about the son for any available census year.

Joe did have family in the Seattle area. That fact is also best left to an explanation from Molly:

“It's interesting that Joe stayed with the McGinnis family even though he did have a sister. This sister and her family obviously came to visit a lot as you have a photo of the two nieces (Martha and I'm not sure of the other girl's name) with Joe and Mary Ellen and I have several of Joe's family coming to visit in Newberg”

A photograph was found in the collection of our family photos that depicts a visit to the farm in Florence by these same two nieces sometime before the death of Mary Ellen in 1929. Judging by the age of Mary Ellen the photo may have been taken very near the time of her death in May of that year and very close to the time of the above photo judging from the age of the individuals.

Mary Ellen McGinnis & Joe LyonsWith Two of His Nieces and Their Children

It is believed Joe’s sister and her family lived in Seattle but her given name is yet to be found so for now she is only known as Mrs. John Sass. A search of census data in order to find more on the family has been unsuccessful. Joe as related by Molly McGinnis wrote on the back of a family photo shown below identifying his sister at front left with her husband standing on the far left behind her. A niece is standing next to Joe with her husband and another niece, Martha, in the front with her children. The given name of the other niece remains unknown.

Joe & His Family
about 1930

Fritz is even more of a mystery although the friendship between the two probably originated during their employment by the Corps of Engineers. The Corps operated shallow draft, paddle wheel driven, snag boats that worked all the rivers leading into Puget Sound to keep them clear of obstructions to navigation. Uncle Tom talked of this friendship quite often. Fritz wasn’t adopted into the family as Joe was.

A brief anecdote involving Fritz passed on to Molly from her parents follows:

“When Joe was still living in Stanwood, he would take my dad as a youngster out to visit the snagboats. Fritz would always welcome them for lunch. He always liked my dad (Dad thought probably because he was the only one shorter than Fritz!). Fritz would serve up big roast beef sandwiches on thick bread slices with lots of milk with huge strawberry shortcakes for dessert. Since Dad always liked to eat, he loved to visit Fritz on the snagboats!”
Some photos left behind by Joe and saved by Uncle Tom and Aunt Marie has been shared by their granddaughter, Molly. They follow here:

Snag Boat Crew
Joe Lyons, Far Fight, and His Small buddy, Fritz, the Boats Cook, in White on the Left. Probably Taken in the Mid-Thirties





Snag Boats at Work

Clearing a Snag

A discussion of the above photos with the present day Preston Museum in Anacortes, Washington is excerpted from some of Molly’s e-mails and included here:

From: Molly McG

Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 2:51 PM To: coa.museum

Subject: Photographs of the W.T. Preston

Dear Sirs,
While going through many of my grandparents old photographs I came upon several I believe may be of the W. T. Preston and I wondered if they would be of interest to your museum. One snapshot is of the crew. I have scanned these photographs and attached them to this email for your review.

My grandfather, Thomas McGinnis, was raised in Florence in Snohomish County and he had befriended several of the snagboat crew. One gentleman, Joseph Lyons, lived with my grandfather and grandmother in the final years of his life.

Another gentleman, known as "Fritz", was a cook on a snagboat. Both men were great favorites of the McGinnis family. In the photo of the crew, Fritz is the short gentleman in the white shirt and Joe is the gentleman on the far right.

I would appreciate anything you could tell me about these photos if they are not of the Preston. If you are able to identify any of the other crew, I would be interested to know that information as well. Please advise if you would like to have the original photos for your museum as I would be happy to send them to you.

Thank you for your interest.
Sincerely, Molly Wright


From: Adams, Evelyn

Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 1:05 PM
To: Lauridsen, Vernon

Subject: FW: Photographs of the W.T. Preston

Vernon, would you like to take a look at these pictures and see if you can identify anyone for her (Fritz is easy!) or pass on any other info, then let her know we'd love the photos. Thanks,

Evelyn

From: vernonl@cityofanacortes.org

To: mcgmolly

Subject: RE: Photographs of the W.T. Preston

Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:33:59 -0700

Thank you for the photo's. I believe the top two are of the Preston. I recognize the configuration of the pilot house and office. The photo the crew depicts another boat, perhaps one of the earlier snagboats. I am still working on the research. I will contact you again when I have more information.

Thanks again.
Vernon Lauridsen, Curator.

Joe apparently went to work on the Snag Boats sometime after 1920 based on his 1920 census entry. He was living and working in a lumber mill in Pilchuck in that year, the same place he was working as reflected on his draft registration two years earlier.

1920 Census,

Pilchuck, Snohomish Co, WAJoseph L. Lyons, boarder, 46, single, born NY, parents born NY, boom man in lumber millHe boards with a Fred Kaye, 69, single, who immigrated from England in 1873, along with two other gents.
Apparently Joe began living with the McGinnis family in Florence during or after 1920. This conflicts with the address he gave during his 1918 draft registration so it may have been a gradual event that was not completed until he began working for the Corps of Engineers, apparently sometime after the 1920 census. The Snag Boat he worked on over the years was stationed on northern Puget Sound and when not living on the boat he was living in Florence. This apparently continued even after Mary Ellen McGinnis died in 1929.

Joe apparently had a car from the earliest times; at least the photos left behind certainly suggest so. The following photo taken in Florence some where near the back porch of the house very well may be the vehicle Joe left behind in a lean to garage on the Florence farm. The car was there from my earliest memory and was eventually sold by Dad to a young teenager from Arlington after Uncle John died in 1952.

Joe and an Unknown Visitor to the Farm
Perhaps a member of his own FamilySometime in the 1920’s

Another description of Joe passed on to Molly from her parents is worthy of mention here:

“Joe couldn't read or write other than a few words and he hadn't a tooth in his head. Even without teeth, he could eat an apple as well as any other person. Mom said she remembered him biting right into an apple using just his gums. Marie referred to him as her 'human garbage disposal'. Every little scrap of food she had leftover he happily ate.”

“Mom always said that Joe was very highly regarded within the McGinnis family as if he really was "Uncle Joe".

The need for the Snag Boats working the rivers along the Sound eventually for some reason became less and less over the years. Eventually Joe, from my memory of the stories, was transferred to Seattle and was somehow employed in the Ballard Locks also operated by the Corps of Engineers. A Snag Boat, the Preston, was moored at the Locks, in my memory, well into the 1980’s. Joe may have performed a dual function during his late working years by working as a locks attendant as well as working on the Preston when it was in operation. That is but speculation but he was definitely working at the locks in the late 1940’s as I remember one visit he made to Bremerton from Seattle at that time. That visit is really my only memory of meeting Joe.

Joe eventually retired and was taken in by Uncle Tom and Aunt Marie to live out his final years. He died in Newberg, Oregon in October of 1949. His obituary as furnished by Molly follows:

“The remains of Joseph Adam Lyons, 75, who died October 17 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McGinnis, Wynooski Street, were shipped to Stanwood, WA, by the Hodson mortuary for the funeral. Lyons lived with the McGinnis family for the past four years. His relatives lived in Stanwood.”

The "relatives in Stanwood" is in error, at least not dirct relatives. But he was loved by many in Stanwood.

In the Back Yard in Newberg

Joe was buried in Anderson Cemetery in East Stanwood. A listing of his grave can be found on the internet but without a photo of the grave marker. John and James McGinnis are also buried there. Just how the decision was made to bring him back to the Stanwood area is not known but it seems more than appropriate and it very well may have been his last wishes. He must have loved the area and the people. Regardless, he was brought home to rest.