Ramcharan-Crowley

West Bluff Word May 1984 page 15

West Bluff Word
May 1984
Page 15

From County Cork to Peoria--104 Years and Six Generations
by Betty Fagan

"My grandmother was independent and when my grandfather died, she decided to come to America."

English law specified that only male heirs could inherit property. Houses were built on leased land. The leases were for 99 years but in the event of the lessee's death, they passed to the male heir. So, Julia Dinan Foley, mother of seven daughters and one son opted to leave it all behind in County Cork.

Apparently even then, group travel was a "deal" provided you could corral enough emigrees. And so when Jeremiah Crowley heard that Julia Dinan was headed for the States, he persuaded her to join with him and secure a "group rate" for boat passage. The year was 1880. Catherine Dinan, who was to become Jeremiah Crowley's wife three years later, was 19 years old. The entire group came directly to Peoria after landing in New York.

Crowley worked as a shipping clerk at Oakford & Fahnestock. "My father," Maria Crowley Bayer told us, "always thought he'd go back to Ireland. It was Mr. Oakford who persuaded him to become a citizen, which he did in 1901." She also credits her father's employer with convincing him to buy life insurance. "At the turn of the century Lutherans and Catholics didn't believe in insurance. Buying it was like selling their souls to the devil."

Maria Crowley Bayer was born in 1893 and spent her early years in the family home on Butler Street. She walked to the Academy of Our Lady through Fourth Street Park. After graduation she decided to pursue a teaching career and went to Normal for her training. Her mother, as progressive as her mother before her, believed only girls should be educated, because "boys could always make a living."

Maria Crowley Bayer is a delightful lady with sparkling blue eyes and a wonderful zest for living. It is hard to believe that she will be 91 this year. Her memory is incredible and her reminiscenses could fill a book. Obviously imbued with the same independent spirit as her maternal ancestors, she decided to get her bachelors in education after 17 years of teaching in Peoria public schools. She accomplished this at the University of Illinois and then returned to teaching.

Although she taught several levels, spending many years at Woodruff, she remembers her stay a the School for Special Children with particular affection. Quoting a renowned educator, William Hawley Smith, she agreed with his theory that every child progresses at his own level.

"We insisted on reading and arithmetic skills. Students who were sent to this school had failed two grades and had to finish 6th grade satisfactorily or attain the age of 16 before they could leave to get a job. These boys gave me a liberal education! They were street-wise and book poor." Happily, many went on to finish 7th and 8th grades after a year with "Miss Crowley."

For many years, Maria Crowley Bayer lived in the house at 109 N. Perry which was owned by her brother, William Crowley. The gracious old family home was sold at auction last fall (See "A Very Special House" WBW September 1983.) Three generations lived there, "in total harmony" until the house sold to Hunters and the family moved to Maplewood.

Around that time, Maria Crowley was teaching at Woodruff where the students were putting on a party, she met Michael Bayer, who was of German origin. Michael Bayer fought in Europe in World War I and after the armistice was hired by Rand McNally as a map maker. He was a skilled draftsman and eventually worked with the U.S. Corps of Engineers in Peoria. How interesting that two such different cultures should come together in Peoria! After they were married "Miss Crowley" had to resign from Peoria public schools. Married women were not permitted to teach in the system, so she became a teacher at the Home of the Good Shepherd. During World War II, the public schools invited her back and she continued until retirement.

Bayer has traveled extensively, taking her first trip to Europe in 1925. In the '30s she fulfilled a lifelong dream to see the Passion Play on Oberammegau. And in 1960, she went on a three month tour of Africa!

Today she lives on Heading Avenue just a few blocks from her great-nephew, Jamie Kenny. Not too many blocks away is another great-nephew, Timothy Kenny, on Summit Blvd. Their father James Kenny grew up in the Summit house and has lived on Maplewood where he and his wife, Bayer's niece Angela Crowley Kenny, have raised their family of five.

Six generations have lived in Peoria since Maria's grandmother decided that a widow from County Cork could make a life in the midwest! The entire clan gathered from all over for Maria Bayer's 90th birthday last December. What changes Maria Crowley Bayer has seen during her life of teaching and travel and how interesting she chooses to live where her roots were planted before the turn of the century!