Great Uncle Mike

[Dave]

I'm searching among the newspaper clippings at FultonHistory for information on where the Ancient Order of Hibernians met at the time my great grandfather and Great Uncle Mike were members. So far, I've been unable to find any references, but the Internet is a big place.

They may not have had a separate building at that time (or ever.) According to the Daily Press in September of 1915, the AOH was in the process of moving their meetings from St. Patrick's Hall (evidently the church) to Huron Hall on Seneca Street, between Layfayette and Columbia. During that last meeting in September, "an able address was made by E. Charles McCarthy, who said that "Come Back To Erin" should be the sentiment of every young Irishman. His talk was liberally applauded." But I'll bet few wanted to leave their relative success, jobs and homes to go back to a nation that in the early 1900's may have had less amenities than Zimbabwe.

Other than pretty girls, of course.

At the time of Patrick’s funeral in 1907, a notice in the paper asked Hibernians to meet at the K of C. I assume by then the Knights were in their building on Genesee Street near the Public Library.

[Dave]

And so Great Uncle Mike married in a "brilliant ceremony in St. John's Church," to Miss Margaret Esther Barney, the sister of his business associate, William Barney.

One wonders what the new Mrs. Griffin thought of having her marriage announcement cluttered up with paragraphs about baseball.

Click to enlarge, Firefox users click twice.

[Dave]

And Mike certainly have used the $3500 for a short summer's work (by today's standards, when the World Series practically bumps into Thanksgiving.) As well as being newly married, Mike with his brother-in-law William Barney bought up the Consumer's Brewery.

Here in 1900 the elect officers.

[Dave]

Great Uncle Mike left baseball and went on to lead a successful but short life. At home, he and Margaret Barney raised three children, two daughters and a son. Mike partnered with his brother-in-law, William Barney in a brewery business in Watertown, but after a year on the road, Mike sold out his half and became associated with breweries in Utica. At his death in 1908, just eight years after leaving baseball, Mike was with Utica's Gulf Brewery.

[Dave]

Great Uncle Mike's father, Patrick, my great grandfather, died in 1907.

(Click to enlarge. Firefox users click twice.)

[Dave]

My Great Uncle Mike passed away in 1908. Out one evening, he took sick and within a few days died of pneumonia.








Syracuse Obit

[Dave]

Uncle Mike was finally recognized in 2004, largely due to the efforts of my cousin's son, Steven Griffin. It's quite amazing that a baseball player of Uncle Mike's caliber was not recognized sooner, but that probably was of his own making. When he retired, he completely dropped his baseball image, except as an occasional celebrity umpire for charity. Mostly he sought to build his image as a businessman and play down the baseball angle. Today we (some of us) think of sports professionals as accomplished experts. But in 1900 they were still the Boys of Summer. In 1900, Mike was 35 years old and wanted to be taken seriously. Unbeknownst to him, he would live only 8 more years.

Mike was inducted (with others) into Utica's Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. Click to enlarge each of the following. Firefox users should click twice. Also, at the bottom of this post is a link to a Utica OD article about the 5 who were inducted in 2004. I was going to run this stuff when I finished up the thread, but might as well put them up now.


















Here's the link to the OD article:

www.windsweptpress.com/images/5inducted.htm

[Dave]

The End

[keith]

Strangely, the AOH came up in conversation at a neighbor's tonight. Most of the group were former East Uticans of Italian descent in their 60's. My neighbor (who is 3/4 Italian) mentioned that he is now a member of AOH. Perhaps they have expanded their membership beyond Irish-Americans. I'll have to ask him if he knows of any historical records concerning meeting places.

[Dave]

I joined the Sons of Italy in 1961 or 62. It was necessary at the time to sign me up as Griffinelli, unless they were kidding. I don't remember if I had a membership card.

The band joined so that we could practice there. Three of us would have had to Italian-ize our names.