Pt 1: The Unexpected Life of Adaline Mary Geehan
A Woman Before Her Time
In the United States, the likelihood of dying of bronchopneumonia in 1959 was .02% and yet on September 20 at the age of 53, Adaline Mary (Geehan) Franks did just that. But her unexpected death was no match for her unexpected life: Born at the beginning of the twentieth century, fiercely independent and leading efforts to unionize office workers amidst violent labor organization challenges, this is the story of my first cousin, 3x removed.
Adaline's parents Michael Geehan and Susie Stratton were married in Granite Falls, Minnesota on 4 January 1905 and had immediate plans to move to Sherwood, North Dakota. Sherwood had just been founded the year before and was meant to be a mining town. Other than mining, this new town in a northern climate on the border between the United States and Canada could not have offered much in the way of employment. It's not clear what Michael's employment intention was or what type of success he was seeking. The truth was Michael hadn't had much success in any of his endeavors.
When he married Susie in 1905 he was 39 years old and although he was the first born son, Michael would not be inheriting the family farm, a fact he realized long before his father died, probably around 1894 when he was 29. This is when Michael started working away from the farm and family. He worked for a short time in a lumber camp in Hayward, Wisconsin. Over the next six years he moved between jobs and didn't stay in any one place very long. By age 35, he found himself in a boarding home in north western Minnesota, far from his home town in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. He was working as a farm laborer and this is likely where he met his wife Susan Stratton—the daughter of a well-to-do doctor. Susie was a single, 32-year- old teacher and despite Michael having no steady employment and no homestead, they married.
Adaline came along a little more than a year later on March 10, 1906 in Sherwood, North Dakota. Having failed at running a farm, failed at lumbering and potentially failed as a miner in Sherwood, the birth of Adaline may have been the point where he thought he needed to take employment much more seriously. As it happened, Michael's younger sister Bridget was living in Yakima, Washington with her husband Joe Koreski on the fruit farm they were building.They were growing apples, peaches, pears and cherries. They invited Michael, Susie and Adaline to join them and help cultivate the land. Joe graciously offered to build a small home for Michael and Susie on the same road he and Bridget lived. And so, Michael gathered up his family and headed west in late 1907/early 1908.
Presumably en route, Susie delivered a baby boy in Spokane, Washington who soon died. By 1909, they were living in Yakima when their third child, Robert, was born.
Sadly, Michael would not find success in Yakima either. He purportedly told his sister that he believed he'd never get the hang of growing and picking fruit. And so, sometime between 1912-1914, he relocated the family back to Minnesota in a town called Graceville. By this time in her short life Adaline had lived in at least four different towns spread over 1,400 miles. She had no roots. The day-to-day interactions with their extended family, including aunts, uncles and same-age cousins in Washington had been rendered down to a few letters in the post each year. In Graceville Michael was working in yet another career as a bus driver and drayline worker. The closest family was 80 miles away. Graceville is the home of the infamous Bishop John Ireland sponsored "Connemara Irish" colonization project that epically failed in 1878. By 1912, though, Graceville was a fair-sized town with schools, breweries, flour mills, shops, access to trains and more. There were still quite a few Irish Catholic's, which the Geehan's probably found comfortable and welcoming. And, as it turned out, Michael had spent time in this town while working as a farm laborer in nearby Moonshine, Minnesota in the late 1890's. In fact, he had helped to build the Holy Rosary Church that is still standing today. Maybe these are the reasons why Graceville is where the family stayed the longest.
Over the next ten or so years, between the ages of 9 and 19, Adaline and her brother Robert likely shifted from being schooled by their mother at home to the public or perhaps even Catholic school in town—St. Mary's Academy. By all accounts, Adaline and Robert were smart and excelled in school. Somewhere during this time, she was exposed to the idea of activism. We may never know how these seeds were planted, but they definitely were a significant part of Adaline's adult life.
Unexpectedly, in 1926, when Adaline was 19 years old her mother died of pneumonia at age 53. According to her death certificate, it was probably preceded by influenza that was asymptomatic. As Adaline was already enrolled in college at the University of Minnesota as a business administration student, it’s unlikely she was by her mother’s side when she died. She had moved from Graceville to the Minneapolis campus. No doubt her mother was proud because although access to higher education for women was increasing in the 1920s and certainly by the late ‘20s was not uncommon, a woman attending from "out state" was rare. In fact, the Hestian Club, of which Adaline was a member, had only 37 members. The club was established to provide community for female students from outstate areas.
She graduated in 1928 and took an apartment in Minneapolis. A single, working woman in 1928 living on her own: a true feminist forging her own path! After a short stint as a stenographer at Land O’Lakes during and right-out-of-college, Adaline took jobs that kept her closer to her passions and beliefs. In 1930 she was working at the League of Women Voters, probably a job that did not pay as much as advancing through a corporation may have paid. And now, her father (age 65) was living under her roof and she was caring for and supporting him while also working. In the course of her work, she met Morris C. Hursh, a June 1930 University of Minnesota law student graduate. The family story is that Morris was the love of Adaline's life. Maybe this is true for Adaline, but in fact, Morris was involved with another, younger woman who had become pregnant in early 1932. He and Adaline divorced and Morris married his mistress in May 1932. As an Irish Catholic, granting a divorce to Morris must have been viewed with much disappointment. Taking her maiden name back after the divorce was no doubt further scrutinized. Unexpected? Yes. Evidence of her fierce independence? Absolutely.
In part 2, Adaline begins working at the Minneapolis mayor’s office, begins advocating for women office workers and becomes known as a passionate and committed advocate, who stands by her mission, even in the midst of the murder of her cousin.
So amazing that she went to the college during that time. Great story can’t wait to read more!
I love her independence!