Richard Michael Aylward (1884 - 1947)

This is an email I received from a very dear family friend that I have not heard from in several years. We have now reconnected and gave me her permission to share this memory about my grandparents. Betty, thanks so much and talk to you soon.

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Hi Mary Pat, I just found your Grandmothers information on line once again and was so thrilled to see Mag and Rich's wedding picture. They were best friends with my parents Frances and Ezra Kruger. I believe they moved to the Pequot area in 1936. They were neighbors of my parents and met in an odd way. Maggies pigs got out and Mom herded them back to Mag's place and Mom said she told her please keep your pigs at home. From then on the couples became best friends and were until they died. They butchered together, picked potatoes together etc. I remember they had what they called a picnic of beer sittng at the end of the potato rows and I can imagine how warm that beer must have been. The two guys had fun together. Once they got picked up by the police for a burned out tail light. From then on they called themselves, "Partners in Crime". Bob and I were married on Feb. 4, 1947 and Rich was so excited to have a shiveree, he brought his wash tubs and all the noise makers he could think of. My Dad bought a keg of beer and didn't soak the spigots so when he opened the keg we all were running for pots and pans to put the beer in. The sad ending of their relationship or part of it was the next month your Grampa Rich past away if I remember right. Feel free to email me if you like. I just lost the love of my life on Aug. 23, 2013. He's happier now as he had been in the nursing home for nearly 7 years. I believe the last time I saw you was at Rol's funeral in the parking lot at the church in Nisswa. Please write as I love ding genealogy. Love, Betty Hanson

Story by Gerry Joyce, my cousin: Margaret, or Mag, as she was known was the seventh child of the ten children of Edward and Mary Kelly Joyce. She was born on 02 March 1884 a t Emmetsburg, Palo Alto County, Iowa. Margaret was baptized on 30 March 1884 a t the Assump tion Ca tholic Church in Emmetsburg, Iowa, the same place that several of her brothers and sisters were also baptized. She was part of a large growing family one of

five girls before the total family was complete. Mag was only nine years old when the untimely death of her father Edward occurred. Mag, like the rest of her brothers, grew up on the family farm in Emmetshurg Township northwest of the town of Emmetsburg, IA .

On 16 September 1907 she was united in marriage to Richard Michael Aylward, his legal name , but always went by Richard or Rich at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Emmetsburg. The Rev. Father McNerney officiated at the wedding and the groom was attended by his brother Edward Aylward and the bride by her younger sister Clara Joyce. Richa rd is the son of Michael and Anne McGonigle Aylward of Graettinger, Palo Alto County, Iowa, and were former residents of Freedom Township. A newspaper clipping from an Emmetsburg paper noted that a wedding breakfast was served at the home of the brides mother, Mrs .Mary Joyce of Emmetsburg Township, and tha t a number of rela tives and friends were in attendance. It is interesting to note that so many wedd ings in this era were in the morning and were generally followed by a wedding breakfast at the brides home.

The paper stated that the newly weds left for Sioux Ci ty, Iowa where they were to make their home . They later farmed at Graettinger, Iowa and then moved to Benson, Minnesota and later to DeGraff, Minnesota. For a short time Uncle Rich ran a meat market in Graettinger feeling this might provide more income than farming did at that time . But in those days so much food was in barrels like pickles, cookies, etc. , and people had a tendency to sample alot of things. Unlike today, where the meat markets sells almost all parts of the animal, you gave away hearts, livers, soup bones, etc. Prices were very low and running a meat market was hard work and long hours, so he decided to give farming a try again and moved back to Minnesota.

Uncle Rich lost his health early in life and Aunt Mag and their growing young family took care of the potato farm. Times were tough for all but a few in those depression years , however if you lived on a farm there was always plenty to eat . Most of us kids really didn t realize how tough it was, and the Aylwards like the rest of us had lots of fun and made do with what they had. I think it is always interesting in these family hi.stories to have some personal experiences and my Cousin Margaret was a big help in doing just that.

Margaret mentions that their place was always the headquarters for all the neighborhood kids . They were always welcome there and they knew it and enjoyed being there. The popular games were "Last Couple Out", "Anti I Over", and "Pump Pump Pullaway" . Games that were lots of fun and the best part was that they didn t cost anything, and you just used your imagination if you wanted to expand on any game . The hay rope rides were also alot of fun, but probably a little dangerous. The Aylwards had the first radio in the neighborhood and that was an Atwater-Kent. Margaret remembers the full to overflowing with people that came to listen to the famous Dempsey/Tunney fight.

It seems that when the kids were young Uncle Rich bought a new Maxwell car, which I m sure he was very proud of. Purpose of buying the new car was to take daughter Margaret to the hospital for an unknown ailment, possibly appendix attacks. Af ter she recovered from this ailment, her Dad took the kids for a ride, but af ter hitting a bump brother Joseph flew out of the car, which was unknown to Uncle Rich. The kids didn t mention the incident to their Dad for fear that the ride would end. When the ride was completed he took a head count and found that one of the kids was missing. In turning around he found Joseph running towards the car trying to catch up. Big tears were running down his cheeks, he was very happy to be reuni ted, and very lucky to have been unhurt. Like most families the .Aylwards had many happy times and their share of sadness

too. yard over loss

On 21 Augus t 1924 their young son W. Eugene was run over by by a friend. He died from a result of his injuries and was a year old. This certainly must have been hard on the whole of a child is very difficult to get over.

a car in their just a Httle family as the

In those days the economy was very bad and the whole family had to help out and try to do their part. The older Aylward boys like many of their cousins lef t home early to work away from the home and many joined the C.C.C. Camps. These initials were for the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was an agency authorized by the government to provide employment for young men for public conservation work. The Corp was set up as part of President Franklin Roosevelt s New Deal program in 1933. In many of our public parks today you can still see evidence of many of these projects . The C.C.C conserved and developed natural resources by such activi tes as planting trees, building dams, and fighting forest fires. More than two million young men served in the Corp before i t was ended by Congress in 1942.

The Aylw rd's were always a fun place to visit as attested by some of my older brothers and Cousins . A trip to Minnesota in those days was q uite an event as people were not nearly as mobile as today. Being a younger member of our family my visits didn t come until much later. Cousin Mary was married in an airplane on July 4, 1932, which was a promotion by the merchants, and she received many gifts. Of course she was later married in St. Frances Church in Brainerd, MN. Again sadness was to come to the Aylward family as Uncle Rich died on 23 March 1947 at the age of 63. He is buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Brainerd , MN.

As mentioned before I don t remember visiting the Aylwards in my younger years, but perhaps we did. After I was married my wife Mary and our young family made it a point to visit Aunt Mag. She lived on a neat little acreage on the edge of Pequot Lakes, MN and she was so happy that we took the time to stop by and visit. She was typical Irish, good natured, very hospitable, and exceptionally sharp witted. She showed us around the area and certainly made us feel very welcome. Aunt Mag was actually one of the people that encouraged me to work on the Joyce family history, she was afraid that if someone didn t do it our early history would be lost. How true that was as I ve spent nearly ei ght years gathering information and putting bi ts and pieces together. Cousin Margaret did send me a copy of some information that Aunt Mag had gathered though the years and it has been very helpful in solving many of the questions abou t Joyce relationships . She helped to solve some of the q uestions on how the Patton s, the Cassidy s and others fit into the history of the Joyce family. Aunt Mag was a remarkable women who continued to live on her little place for many years and was a widow for about twenty four years. Like many of her sisters and brothers she lived a long productive life and on 20 May 1971 she passed away at the age of eighty seven abou t the same age as my father Thomas when he died. Funeral services were held at St. Alice Catholic Church, Pequot Lakes, MN with the Rev. Gerald LaPatka officiating. Internment was in Evergreen Cemetery, Brainerd , Crow Wing County, MN. At the time of her death her survi vors were her two sons Herschel and Richard and four daughters Mary, Margaret, Faye, and Lucille. Al so surviving were twenty-four grandchildren and fif teen great grandchildren.

NOTE: A special thanks to Cousin Margaret Aylward Bentley and any of her family that contribu ted information to help write up an interesting history of the Aylward family.