Byrnesville, Barnesboro, Northern Cambria, Cambria County, Pennsylvania

Edward R. Byrnes was a wood worker and one of my earliest memories ever is tied to this fact. In the summer of 1950 while I was working on completing my first year of life I remember two huge black barns behind my grandparents house, the house being on James Street next to the Byrnesville Hotel.

Directly behind the house and a bit over to the east was my grandfather's woodworking shop affectionately known as the shanty. Behind that were two big old black barns. The back of the barns faced our backyard and a huge sliding door opened on the side nto a section of the barn which held a lathe and bundles and bundles of wooden dowels. I remember the doors opened at least three or four feet off the ground and I was allowed to sit in an open door in some of the sawdust.

Hey, it was cool I was young, like really young, less than a year old.

I remember wanting to run around in there, grab some of those dowels and look around but I was too small. My grandfather would use these dowels to build nativity créches. He would saw dowels in half and use them on the roof. I don't have one of the creches made by Edward R. Byrnes but I do have one made by my dad, Edward J. Byrnes (the créche he built is pictured above).

A bit more about that barn. My dad said they had horses, cows, and chickens over the years. He said he would find eggs. I will have to ask if he milked cows. There was another large barn across the alley which had been torn down before my time.

The picture right is of a watch holder Edward R. Byrnes built for his father Thomas J. Byrne(s). As you can see, he made it look like a grandfather clock. It is quite nice work with details including a split pediment, brass chain, brass pendulum bob, and brass weights.

Edward R. Byrnes also built whirly-gigs, advent wreaths, candlesticks, toyboxes, and wagons for his grandchildren. I was told he would split the bolts and bend them toward the nuts used to make toys for me so I could not take the toys apart. My family had a large toy box, 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet high which lasted till I was married and I made use of it for my boys.

In the 1910 US Census, Edward R. Byrnes is listed as having the occupation of a drayman. A dray, as listed in a wiki is 'a low horse-drawn cart, often without sides, and used especially for heavy loads'.

From the census too we learn that his father Thomas J. Byrne(s) is a hotel bartender, while Edward's older sister Emma was a hotel table waiter, another sister, Margaret was a milliner.

There was a shirt factory in Barnesboro but it didn't open until 1930 and a milliner is someone who manufactures hats, perhaps there was a hattery in Ebensburg?

Along with being a drayman, Edward R. Byrnes was also a survey man for one of the coal companies, his job was to mark (by drilling holes in the mine roof and inserting pegs) where the coal was to be mined.

He also surveyed above ground and during one of these surveys he found the fossil fern shown here. The fossil is about 5 inches long on the slate which is about 1.5 inches thick.

Edward R. painted one edge of the slate with gold paint and kept it in his living room behind the couch on the radiator. The radiator was in front of an east facing window, the window had shear curtains on it. It is a heavy keepsake.

The radiator was painted silver. There was carpeting and a dark shiny wooden desk in the corner of the room to the left if you were facing out the window.

You can see a picture of family members, the couch, window, and the living room of the Edward R. Byrnes household in the family photograph from 1961.

[Since writing this entry I have found Oberlindwiese & NiederLindwiese on the map. If I am right the area is in the Czech Republic, centered along the border with Poland. I believe the area was a part of Germany before WWII.The Schrot side of my family originated there and then came to Clearfield, Pennsylvania to farm land which from what I read was similar to land they were from in Germany.]

The farm and huge farm house in Curwensville really impressed me. There was an antique wagon in one of the barns. By the time I came around, the fields were rented out and planted by neighboring farmers. The Schrot's I knew from my visits to the Schrot homestead farm in Curwensville were Pauline's sisters Anna, Ruth, and Mary, the latter being a Catholic nun. I also knew one of the brothers, my great Uncle Rudy and his family. A son of Rudy, Rudy Joe always impressed me, he had degrees in the biological fields and had insect collections. On one of my visits they gave me a keepsake.