Mary Scanlon McDermott (1892-1925)

S. S. Cymric

Mary Scanlon, daughter of Maurice and Catherine (Kate) (Griffin) Scanlon was born on April 25, 1892, at Scrag, Dingle, County Kerry, and baptized on April 26, 1892.    She immigrated to the U.S. in 1911 aboard the Cymric, leaving Queenstown on March 29 and arriving in Boston on April 6.  She was going to join her brother John and aunt, Margaret Deveney, at 5 River Court, West Lynn, Massachusetts. Margaret (Griffin) Deveney was her godmother.   The ship's manifest notes that Mary was 5 feet, 5 inches, with a fair complexion, dark hair and blue eyes.  
 

99 White Street, Westfield

The Cymric was a steamship of the White Star Line, built in Belfast in 1898. She sailed between Liverpool and New York from 1898 until 1903. From 1903 on, she sailed from Liverpool to Boston. From West Lynn, Mary moved on to Westfield, where she lived with her uncle, Pat Griffin and his family at 12 White Street. 

In 2009 my cousin, Mary McDermott and I visited Westfield.  The house at 12 White Street was no longer there, it is now a parking lot. Some time between 1920 and 1930, Pat Griffin built a house at 99 White Street, shown above right. This house is still there.  

St Mary's Church, Westfield

Mary married Richard Francis McDermott, the son of Peter and Ellen (Roche) McDermott of Castlewrixon, County Cork, at St. Mary's Church, Westfield in 1916.


Richard and Mary had five children, Richard, born July 18, 1917; David Peter, born May 8, 1919; John Joseph, born January 16, 1921; a stillborn son in 1922; and Mary Scanlon, born May 10, 1925.
   

Bates Street, Westfield

When they were first married, Richard and Mary lived in an apartment at the back of uncle Pat Griffin's house.  Later they lived on Bates Street, in the house at right.
Mary died on May 26, 1925, sixteen days after the birth of her youngest child, from acute mastoiditis.  Her daughter, Mary, was raised by her brother John Scanlon and his wife Nellie in West Lynn, Massachusetts.

Mary Scanlon McDermott

The gravestone, above, was erected by Mary's eldest son, Richard Thomas McDermott.  My cousin Mary and I visited our grandmother's grave in Westfield on our trip.  Mary also gave me the framed portrait of our grandmother, pictured at right.

Even though we never knew our grandmother, we were able to find out a lot about her life, and visit her relatives, Teresa and Michael Brosnan, and Pat and Jan Scanlon, who still live in the Dingle area today.

Copyright 2011 Kathleen Sullivan. All Rights Reserved