Mary Gertrude Westerman was born on June 13, 1877 in Millerstown, Butler County, Pennsylvania. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Elizabeth Duffy Westerman and Frederick Jacob Westerman.

She was born the year her father and one of her brothers died. Her widowed mother moved back to Lockport, New York by 1880, if not before. The family lived with her recently widowed grandmother, Elizabeth Dillon Duffy. Mary’s only other brother, Willie Westerman, died when she was seven years old.

Mary’s mother remarried in 1888, to Charles Scheffer, and Mary also took his last name. She lived with the hotelkeeper and her mother at 277 Glenwood, as did her grandmother.

On May 31, 1896, she married an iron worker, George Nelson Blackley.  She was eighteen, he was twenty. George had lost his father and a sister in 1880, so they had that in common. He was the son of George Blackley and Ellen Wood Blackey. When his father died, George’s mother was without support for their family.  In March 1881, at the age of five, George  was admitted to the Niagara County Poor House, as were his brothers Charles, Robert, and then sent on to the “Home for the Friendless.” Set up by the president of highly successful liniment oil company in Lockport, the home initially served to support the widows and children of Civil War soldiers. I am not sure what became of Ellen Blackley; John, her oldest son, did not seem to end up in the Home for the Friendless.

George’s mother’s family, the Woods, had been neighbors of the Duffys for many years. It is possible that George met Mary through this association, or in school.

Mary and George had four children:

Mary E Blackley 1897–1956
Carl William Blackley 1899–1986
George Frederick Blackley 1902–1984
Olivia (Ollie) Salome Blackley 1906–1970

By 1918, George was working as a drill hand for Richmond Manufacturing. After Mary’s stepfather died in 1901, her mother, Elizabeth Duffy, moved in with the family, and lived with them until her death in 1922. Mary’s aunt, Mary Duffy Hogan, also moved in after her husband died in 1911, and lived with them until her death in 1920.

After Elizabeth’s death, the Blackley’s moved to nearby Niagara Falls, New York. Over the years, George worked in a variety of jobs. When he first moved to Niagara Falls, he worked as a furnace man, then by 1930 he was a laborer for a battery manufacturing company. He held this position for some time. In the last few years of his life, he worked as a janitor for a city department.

George died on August 25, 1945 at the age of 70.

Mary continued to live in Niagara Falls. She died on October 18, 1963, at the age of 86.

I have always been amazed by this couple, whose early lives were so filled with hardship and loss, whose chances of survival must at times have seemed unlikely. And yet they did survive, cared for others, and lived to see many grandchildren.

Patrick Duffy (b 1812) + Elizabeth Dillon (b 1818)
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Elizabeth Duffy (b 1844) + Frederick Jacob Westerman (1844)
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Mary Gertrude Westerman (b 1873)

Photograph from Library of Congress  http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994016378/PP/

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Information presented here is based on my interpretation of the sources I’ve found. As new sources are found or inaccuracies discovered, the site will be updated.

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