In the Beginning - Grandpa & Grandma Flaherty

Francis Patrick Flaherty & Norma May Grape were married April 10, 1907 in St Edward, Nebraska 

Frank as a young man.

Thanks to Bill Burrows for his research with History Nebraska. This photo is from the 1936 Nebraska Blue Book. Grandpa Flaherty was a Representative to the Nebraska Legislature from 1935-1937.

Francis Patrick Flaherty was born on Sept. 21, 1879. Nicknamed Frank, he descended from a long line of Irishmen whose ancestors came by steerage to America because of the 1885 potato famine in Ireland. His father’s name was Michael Flaherty and his mother’s name was Mary Genevieve Fitzgerald. The Flahertys came from County Kerry and the Fitzgeralds from the Isle of Wright in Ireland. He was one of eleven children of Michael and Mary and was raised on a farm somewhere in the vicinity of Illinois. After graduating from college, he moved with his parents and family from Ladd to a farm in Eastern Nebraska where he became an elementary school teacher. He married Norma Grape on April 10, 1907, in St. Edward’s Catholic Church. They moved to a farm his father had given him where they built a four bedroom home and raised eight children, six girls and two boys. In 1935, he ran for State Representative from Nance County, was elected and served one term at the state capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska. They eventually sold the farm and moved to Genoa, Nebraska. He died in July of 1949 from complications after a fall. (Information from Ancestry.com) 

 

Norma May Grape was the oldest of ten children born on May 3, 1885 in a sod house in the sandhills of Oakdale, Nebraska to Sara Ellen Lytle and Rudolph Grape. She graduated from St Edward High School and then went to college in Lincoln Nebraska to obtain a teaching certificate. She lived with a professor and his family and worked for her room and board. She taught elementary school, but only taught for three years because she married Frank, and it wasn’t the custom in those days for women to work after marriage. Norma died on November 15, 1979. (Information from Ancestry.com)