A yacht, a home owner, a visitor to the Lowell house, and a housekeeper

One of the benefits of blogging is you often hear from people who read your post and wanted to either leave a comment or write you personally to share some information. As shown below, I received emails from several people who offered bits of information about Mr. Fay, a person none of them is related to, because he didn't have children or family, nor did any know him because he died in 1944. There always seemed to be a lot of unknowns and mystery regarding the extremely wealthy Mr. Fay, and later members of the Donehue family, because for over 53 years, I'm still hearing stories, like the ones below. The messages to me are interesting and will give you an example of what you might receive from a reader of your own blog.

Within a four-month period in 2014, I heard from four different individuals all sharing information about a Mr. Auburt J. Fay. He was important to me, because he founded the company where I worked at for over 10 years. Everybody knew of the Father John's Medicine Co., Inc. and it continued manufacturing the medicine until about 1976. The old massive downtown brick building is now used for elderly housing.

One person told me she saw and is familiar with Mr. Fay's yacht (wait until you read who later owned it), one is a relative of the person living in Mr. Fay's old house, another person purchased a summer home belonging to Mr. Fay in Connecticut, and the last person told me her aunt was a housekeeper in Mr. Fay's home! After Mr. Fay's death, George H. Donehue Sr. become president and lived in the house with Mrs. Fay until she died in 1965. He died in 1967, then oldest son, Gerald Donehue, became president and moved into the large Fay house (or maybe he was living there all along because he didn't have children). At one time, all three Donehue men worked in the office at Father John's Medicine while I was employed as their secretary.

The Aubert J. Fay home, later home to two Donehue presidents.

#1  From Barbara in late May 2014

My name is Barbara ____ and my brother came across your blog and forwarded it to me as I am the family genealogist.
I enjoyed reading your blog and finding out that we have some things in common besides our name!
I also enjoy genealogy, gardening, and photography!
But besides that, it was very interesting to learn of your working for Father John's Medicine Company and knowing the Donehue Family and being in that beautiful White House (I believe was on Mansur St).

I was also in that house as a young teen in 1967 while my parents, sister and I visited George Sr., George Jr, and Gerald.  My sister and I stayed with George and Marion and my parents stayed overnight in the house with Gerald and his father.  My grandfather is Herbert Donehue and is George Sr.'s brother.  Herbert moved to Detroit in 1919 where he and his wife Rose Hannon (also of Lowell) had 2 sons Raymond and Francis. My father was Raymond and he stayed in touch with Gerald until his death.

Thank you for posting your experience with the Donehue family and memorializing them. It is heartwarming to hear about the way they treated you while working for them. Since we lived in Michigan we didn't get to know any of them very well.

I traveled to Lowell in 2005 to gather records on both sides of the family and went to St. Patricks Cemetery and visited gravesites. I have obtained quite a few records in my years of research and hope to put it all together for my family and future generations.

Thank you so much for taking the picture of George and Marion's house. I do vaguely remember it, but my Mother certainly did! She remembers sitting on the side porch and visiting with them. It was so nice of you to do that as I will certainly use it in my genealogy book I am putting together.

Your mention of George and Gerald doing a lot of golfing seems to directly relate to my own family who all golf.  My Father, Mother, my 9 siblings, and myself golf, (or did golf in the case of my Father.) My brothers have a golf tournament every year called "The Ireland Cup" and it is a tribute to the Donehue Family and includes all my Donehue cousins.  Thanks to you, now we know where the golf gene came from!

I took the photo of the youngest Donehue house the above writer was a guest in 1967.

#2  Good Morning-June 2014

I stumbled across your blog recently re The Fay's of Lowell...Father John's Medicine family. I live in what was a summer house for them in the Eastern Point section of Groton, CT. I would love to know more about them!

My husband purchased the house in 1964 from the Executor of Aubert's estate, Gerald Donehue. Evidently, Mr. Donehue then took over the company as well. I have a few black and white pictures of the house after the 1938 hurricane showing a fellow I would think is Mr. Fay inspecting the damage.

The Groton house is located in a section of town where many people came for Summer in the later 1800s and early 1900s....a number of the houses are still in good repair while a few have disappeared. There is a summer chapel very close by that served as the residents' place of worship, too.

I would love to connect with anyone who might know about the Fay's. Please keep me in mind. (Note: I was working at the company in 1964 and never knew about the Groton house. Apparently, it was either rented or used as a summer home from 1944-1964.)

#3  July 2014, from Mary (Facebook)

My aunt Kitty was the housekeeper in the Fay house for Mr. Donehue in the big white mansion at the top of Belmont and Mansur Streets.

#4  July 2014, from Diana R.

Hello Barbara,

I came upon your blog while doing some research regarding a rather famous yacht “Freedom”, a 1926 104 foot Mathis-Trumpy that was restored after nearly sinking in the St. Johns River.  The reason for looking into this yacht was because my husband and I live aboard a sailboat and cruise throughout the Caribbean, and while living in the Florida Keys, this beautiful ship was tied at the end of our dock.  We later came upon her on several occasions while cruising through the Bahamas.  I knew she was a special boat but never took the time to really look into her history until I began writing my own articles about our cruise.

It turns out that “Freedom” was first purchased by your Mr. Aubert J. Fay – who, according to your blog was the owner of the Father John’s Medicine company.  Here’s where it gets interesting.  The second owner of this beautiful ship was Jessie May Woolworth Donahue, heiress of the Woolworths retail empire and the richest woman in 1930s America.

This Spring 2005 issue of Restoration Quarterly confirms that the boat "Freedom" was built for Mr. Fay of Lowell, Mass. http://www.woodenyachts.com/media/presslibrary/restorationquarterly_2005.pdf

My blog doesn’t reference Mr. Fay, but if you are interested, here is a link: http://www.remetau.com/bluebloodbansheesbritsbuccaneers.html or you can meet the couple and read about their life living at sea at: http://www.remetau.com/index.html

Thanks – it was a pleasure sharing information with you!

(I remember seeing a postcard of the "Freedom" while working at the company. It's nice knowing the rest of the story.)

Father John's Medicine Co., Inc. -- My First Job (for 10 years)

Father John's Medicine Co., Inc.
73 - 93 Market Street
Lowell, Massachusetts

The photo above was taken sometime in 1922, about 40 years before I began my job there. In 1962, the area above looked quite different. There was a private room (for the president) on the right, with a wall between the wall clock and beyond the post, the wall continued to the wall shown. A door was installed. From the new wall on the right, a new oak railing went right to left (to behind the lady in the foreground). This area is where the vice president and treasurer sat, and I was several feet away. My desk is shown below. So when I typed, I would face the front of the building and my bosses.

Photo by Barbara Poole

 My desk, shown above, was on the first floor.

One of my duties was to open all mail. I decided to keep this envelope from 1965 because I was a stamp collector.

The below employees were working on the second floor, doing assembly line work. Employees shown: Margaret Jones, Anna M. Maloney, Ray Wylie, Lila Shannon.

Missing are Frank Shannon, Theodore "Ted" Villandry, Lucien "Sonny" Villandry, Agnes Mellen, Winnie McKuen? and Tommy Fox. In the office were Helen "Mary" McNamara, Annette Tartre, and myself, plus the Donehue brothers, Gerald and George. Chemist, Thomas Casey, Eddie O'Hare, and several men in shipping; Paul Morin, Bill Cheetham, and Joe Carty. Does anybody know any of these people?

Photo by Barbara Poole
Margaret Jones and Lila Shannon

Photo by Barbara Poole

Frank Wylie

Photo by Barbara Poole

Anna Maroney?

Photo by Barbara Poole

Photo by Barbara Poole

The company was sold in 1977 and is now used for senior housing.

Photo by Barbara Poole

Photo by Barbara Poole

Photo by Barbara Poole

Back alley, where the trains would pull up to unload boxes, bottles, and other materials used for manufacturing. The tracks have been removed, and there is now an entrance to a new small park.

Over the years, I've come to realize how lucky I was to have had certain jobs, including this one. Of course at the time, I probably didn't think so.  Imagine these days, going to a building, ringing a doorbell, and asking for a job.

That is what I did, one cold October Friday afternoon. The vice president met with me and gave me an interview, of sorts, no resume or anything.  I was right out of high school. Then his father spoke with me, the elderly president and vice-president.  I began work the following Monday learning the job from Bessie Wallach who had given her notice hours earlier.  That would rarely happen these days.  No references, no experience, nothing. And, I stayed 10 years!

Father John's Medicine Company was in a huge building, with very few employees.  The office where I worked as a secretary had two much older, single women, the president, vice-president, and secretary/ treasurer (father and two sons).  Every day for all those years, the job was pretty much the same. It was like working in a museum, my 1943 manual typewriter was my pride and joy. I used carbon paper and learned to type perfectly very quickly. Regarding printing, Once a year I used the typesetter to compose Christmas letters to orphanages and there were many throughout the United States. I notivied them we were send ing a box of the medicine. By the way, I don't think anybody does typesetting any more. Each day, after lunch, my boss, the vp, dictated letters to me, which I really enjoyed (I took shorthand in school). Before I forget, this medicine company was established in 1855 and since the cough medicine was made in the building, I could smell the ingredients, such as cod liver oil, all the time. You got used to it.

It was the kind of job where there was a lot of flexibility and tons of fun.  I met and dated two guys who worked there, one I am now married to. Yes, it was fun. It was also the kind of job that was impossible to leave. My regular hours were 8:30 to 4:30 with an hour for lunch. In the summer it was 9-4, an hour for lunch. Same pay, so I could never leave in the summer since I was only working 30 hours a week. Every Christmas, we received a week's pay as a bonus and received time off for Christmas shopping.  Every July we received a special bonus, depending on sales, it was usually three week's pay. I was happily stuck there, the benefits were too good, and we even had free health insurance. However, I did finally leave after ten years.

On March 15, 1995, we attended an exhibit of Father John's Medicine memorabilia. It was sponsored by The Archives of St. Patrick Parish between March - April 1995. Below is a large flyer for that event.

 

Mary, George, Gerald, Ted and Sonny...Where are the Others?

None of the individuals below were related to me, but we had a very strong bond. They were employees and bosses of where I worked for over ten years. When I began working at Father John's Medicine Co., Inc., in Lowell, Massachusetts, these people became my second family, and even after I left, I was in contact with several for many years. There are another eight I would like to locate. Once an employee began working at the company, they never left. Why? They weren't fired, the benefits and hours were great and it was a wonderful company. Several older employees died while I was there, and during my 10+ years there, I was always the youngest person. I decided to honor my former co-workers because I really liked these people and there is nobody else to do it.

Other names I am looking for are Thomas Fox, Eddie O'Hare, Lila Shannon, Frank Shannon, Joe Carty, Agnes Mellen, Annette Tatre, Anna M. Maloney.

Mary Helen McNamara

1917 - 2011

 George H. Donehue (father to sons Gerald and George)

1880 - 1967

Gerald F. Donehue

1910 - 1993
The above was buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Lowell, Massachusetts

George H. Donehue

1912 - 1987
The above was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Tewksbury, Massachusetts. His wife Marion was buried with him.

Lucian T. Villandry  1930  --  2005
His father is below.

Theodore Villandry died in May 1965
(He worked at Father John's Medicine while I was there, and lived at 29 Hanover Street).
(Locating this stone took four trips to the cemetery.)
The above two were buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Mr. Fay and Father John's Medicine Co., of Lowell, Massachusetts

Many years ago, one of my bosses lived in this beautiful old house.  It originally belonged to Mr. Aubert J. Fay, who owned Father John's Medicine Co., Inc., where I worked for over 10 years.

I never met Mr. Fay, because he died in 1944, nor his wife, who died in 1965. She continued to live in the house until her death. As a matter of fact, her wake was held in the house, and that was the only time I stepped foot inside it. Although I don't know the history or much about Mr. Fay, other than material obtained through Ancestry, I intend to go to the Lowell archives and try to find out more. I do know the house was built in 1904. I want to know when he began the company and how and why his house and reins of the company were passed into the hands of the Donehue family, the father,  then his two sons, Gerald F. and George H. As long as I knew the sons, Gerald lived alone in this house and he was also the president of the company at the time I left. Brother George lived a few blocks away with his wife.

Cemetery photos for the Donehue family may be seen HERE. Cemetery photos for the Fay family may be seen below.

FAY
Front view

From a distance, the tombstone looks larger because the one in the next plot is so large that you can't distinguish the two.

BORN		DIED
1820	JAMES L. FAY	1907
1827	MARY N. HIS WIFE	1907
1867	AGNES L. FAY	1904
1852	EDGAR L. FAY	1915
1848	FREDERICK T. FAY	1938
1847	ANNE D. HIS WIFE	1927
1860	THOMAS G. McGANNON	1927
1865	BLANCHE HIS WIFE	1919
1860	AUBERT J. FAY	1944
1877	GERTRUDE E. HIS WIFE    (Gertrude Elizabeth Knowles)	1965

Father John's Medicine building is 4 stories high (building is where the street lamp is) and is now used for senior housing.

Census information:

1900, Lowell, Massachusetts.  Albert J. Fay, born August 1861 in New Hampshire was age 38, and working as a carriage dealer. Actual birth record states he was born Aug. 29, 1860.

1930, Lowell, Massachusetts.  Hubert J. [sic]  Fay, age 67 and Gertrude E. age 53. He is listed as the president, Medicine Co.