Ida Belle Barry was no stranger to the oil business or oil men. This is because she was born on the "oil trail," as her father, John H. Barry, was an oil driller and operator, and moved the family around as he sought places to drill successful oil wells. Pretty much every place Ida's siblings were born was a place that John was drilling for oil. Ida was born in Bradford, PA; her sister Nellie was born in Warsaw, New York; sister Pearl was born in Manistee, Michigan. Brother John Cornelius Barry was born in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. Sister Florence was born in West Virginia. Brother Charles (who passed away at 1) and brother George were born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and sister Marie was born in Smithfield, West Virginia. It seemed like the longest they were in any place was eventually in Wheeling, as my research found that Ida was attending a Catholic School for girls in Wheeling. John Barry was working the giant oil field south of Wheeling. And sadly, it's where he met his demise in 1899. No one in the family knew much at all about him, but I found a newspaper article mentioning him as an "oil operator" who suffered a stroke on an oil rig, and was brought back to Wheeling for medical care. Apparently he died a few days later, never recovering. There was no death notice in the local papers, but I reached out to the big cemetery in town where he was buried, and they had a death date in the burial record, and it was just a few days after the article reported his stroke. 

There's always plenty of myths about those oil drillers who struck it rich, but reading the old newspapers of the era and the region, I'm struck by the sheer number of accidents and deaths occuring, and clearly there were a LOT of dry holes drilled. Yes, a lucky driller could strike it rich, but they could just as easily and quickly sink it into a dry hole and lose all their money in the blink of an eye. Or pour money into buying up leases in a promising area, finding no oil, and then having all their leases become worthless and impossible to sell. But it held America's imagination, especially in the latter half of the 19th century, when it appears that a lot of people were oil-crazy. Apparently, my ancestors were among them. John Barry was born in America, as far as I can tell, but was Irish by descent. His father, Cornelius Barry, was born in Ireland and came to the US, became a farmer, and lived a long life on his farm in rural Pennsylvania. I actually found several articles about Cornelius, who lived in the tiny hamlet of Cussewago in Crawford County. The articles were all about Cornelius turning 100 and later dying at 108 years old, though frankly, I'm very skeptical. Because pretty much every census record gives a slightly different age, and so while the newspapers made it sound like he was born in the 1790s, I think he was likely born in the 1810s. What I think is his naturalization record says he was born in 1812 (we're looking at a range from 1794 to 1814 ... that's a bit of a wide range, I would say) Back in those days, birthdays weren't that important, and so folks were often not quite sure what day or what year they were born. It's not like there was a lot of paperwork back then. I do wish I had more info on Cornelius, because I'm curious about him. He appears to have come from somewhere in County Cork, and likely came over to the US in 1825, according to a census record, though his naturalization record (or what I believe to be his, since I can't look at the original document, but instead I'm working with a WPA-compiled list) said he came over in 1836. So before the Famine ... which is interesting because it appears all my Irish ancestors came before or after the Famine. None were here because of it. I'd love to know why Cornelius came over. My guess is that he was in search of land, and may have gotten displaced in Ireland from Scottish laborers brought over by English landlords, or may have sought out religious freedom. I dunno, but those are common reasons for those who came over before the Famine. Either way, it looks like he brought property for a farm in 1843, and filed for naturalization for 1844. So where did he get the money? But he did own a farm, and at least according to an 1896 newspaper article, "he is erect, hale and hearty,reads the papers, and takes a lively interest in the affairs of his native country, Ireland." His obituary from 1901 noted "he had retained his faculties in a wonderful degree ... and within the last week had been up and around the house. He was of medium height, rather sturdy built, a typical hearty Irishman, and a man of fine character." Which frankly, is not a bad obituary. Though I still don't think he was 108 ... though possibly he was 89, still quite an old age back in that day. But apparently farm living agreed with him. Though his advanced age meant that he outlived his son John, who died two years before him. 

With John Barry's passing, it now fell upon his widow, Mary Catherine Logue Barry, to raise a family that ranged from 17-year old Ida Belle to 1-year old Marie. She had to be tough, and she had to be resourceful. Fortunately, she also was Irish, though born in Pennsylvania, in Butler County. But her father, Charles Logue, had been born in Ireland and came over at some point before the Famine. His father, Dennis Logue, had filed for naturalization and been naturalized in the mid 1840s, so there's a good chance they came over in the late 1830s. Again, not sure exactly where from, though there are hints here and there that they came from Donegal. They were among the earliest residents of Murrinsville (named after another Irish family that owned much of the land), and were among the first parishoners at the Catholic church built there for all the Irish Catholic farmers. From various old histories of Butler County that were published in the late 1800s and early 1900s and are available online, I found out that many of the families that settled in the county were from Donegal. Though of course, none of these mentioned WHY these folks settled the area. I'm sure the availability of land is a key thing that drew settlers there, but how did they hear about that area? What specificially brought them to that spot? I have a feeling that's a question I may never be able to answer. I don't know exactly when Dennis and Charles Logue came there, though Dennis did get naturalized in 1847. I also wasn't sure where they came from in Ireland initially; I suspected Donegal, because so many other families in the area were from Donegal, and there were other Logues in the area who possibly could be relatives as well, and apparently they were from Donegal. One thing that helped greately was that Dennis had another son, Cornelius, who apparently became a sailor at some point, and died in New Orleans in New Orleans of unknown causes. While digging to find anything about his experience in New Orleans, I did find that someone had compiled patient lists from one of the hospitals in New Orleans, and in the late 1850s, there was a patient listed named "Cornelius Logue" from Pennsylvania who was listed as born in Donegal. I feel strongly that it's the right Cornelius Logue, too. Though what is interesting is that my mother had written a document in college listing her family history, and she had down as her grandfather a sea captain named "Cornelius Grace," which wasn't actually correct, as her grandfathers were Richard Grace and John Barry. But I wondered if as a child, she heard mention of a man named Cornelius (possibly Cornelius Barry or Cornelius Logue), and heard something about them being a sailor ... though Richard Grace was briefly a boatman in New Ross, Ireland, and possibly captained his small boat, or perhaps it was the seafaring Cornelius Logue. Unfortunately, I can't ask her, so I don't think I'll ever know. 

But getting back to Mary Catherine Logue, she now had to move on with life and provide for her family. She moved out of Wheeling and down south a bit to Wallace, West Virginia. The town was experiencing an oil boom, and her brother John Logue lived in Wallace and was an oil driller. She acquired a large house next to him (though I'm not sure it was with her own money or with the financial help from her brother), and commenced to operate it as a boarding house/hotel. I even found newspaper accounts mentioning The "Barry Hotel" in Wallace. Business was likely brisk, because the town was chockablock full of oil-drilling rigs and likely more than quite a few oil men who were seeking oil, but also places to sleep. I truly believe that's how her daughter Ida Belle met a young oilman named John William Grace, freshly returned from Japan. We have some pictures of Ida Belle Barry as a young woman, and she was quite a beauty, with black hair and an intelligent face. And the only photos of John William show him as a very handsome man, so she may have been taken with him as he was likely taken with her. They were married on February 17, 1905. He was 28 (the wedding license he filled out said he was 26), and she was 22.

And they quickly turned to making children. Their first child, Richard William Grace, likely named after his grandfather, was born in 1905, 10 months after his parents married. He was followed by John Bernard Grace (always called "Bernard" in the family) in 1907, Eugene Patrick Grace in 1910 (perhaps named after JW's older brother Patrick?), Raymond Edward Grace in 1911, George Michael Grace in 1913, James Berry Grace in 1916 (who sadly passed away due to the Influenza epidemic in 1918), and Paul Lawrence Grace. The running joke in the family was that John William was always traveling for his oil work, and his occasional visits home coincided with Ida's pregnancies. It appears that the family primarily lived in Wheeling early on, but that Ida returned to her mother for each of her childbirths, as most of her children were born in Wallace. But that would make sense if Ida was giving birth without John present, and preferred the help of her mother for the birth and helping to take care of her and the baby after birth. It appears that by the 1910s or the late 1910s, that she may have relocated the family entirely to Wallace, which would make sense if John was rarely there, then she could rely on her mother for help, and also perhaps from her youngest siblings, who were also still in Wallace.

John's work in this timeframe is still pretty much unknown. In his World War One draft registration papers, he indicated he was working for Hope Natural Gas, which was a Standard Oil subsidiary that drilled for natural gas and supplied it to customers in Ohio through the East Ohio Gas Company. In the 1920 Census, he listed his occupation as working for South Penn Oil, which was also a Standard Oil subsidiary, and focused more on petroleum than natural gas. But there's no accounts in any newspapers that I've found that mention him. Until 1923, when he's mentioned as dying of a heart attack while working on an oil rig in Alma, Arkansas. There are several articles from local papers, and the story was he was working for another oil man, and was starting to swing a 16-pound sledgehammer to dress a tool bit (which was really an entry-level job on a rig, and something that he would have done in his late teens, not his mid-40s), and dropped dead right on the rig floor. Apparently he had just arrived in town, and it was suggested he was called in for a special job. And here the family stories kick in. As the story goes, the death was suspicious ... he was in Arkansas, he died under mysterious circumstances, and perhaps "his partner" absconded with John's oil leases (and of course, the insinuation is that he ended up getting fabulously wealthy from these). Apparently Richard William Grace, who was 18 at the time, was sent down from Wheeling to recover John's tools, and found them all missing and likely stolen. More evidence of something fishy. 

I'm sorry, but I call bullshit on all that. Granted, I think some of my cousins (and my mom) may have heard this very tale from Ida herself, as she lived until 1974, and was a very common presence in their lives. But I'm going on the evidence I can find, and while she was alive during all this, she wasn't in Arkansas; she may not have even known he was down there, until she was contacted about his death. The articles I found made it all seem pretty clear. No one aside from the guy who brought him in seemed to know him or anything about him. He wasn't a partner in any venture, he was a hired hand for someone else, who actually was a fellow Pennsylvanian (whose wife was from Warren) and likely knew John William Grace. And that partner was apparently quite respected in the local community, judging by stories in the local papers. And John died, and the body was sent back to Wheeling for burial. And even JW's brother James knew he died of a heart attack on the rig, as he recounted in both his 1933 and 1950 hospital interviews, so at least in the immediate family, there was no conspiracy theory about JW's death, it apparently came later among his grandchildren. As for the missing tools, it's unsure why Richard would have been sent for them in the first place, but it's unsure what sort of tools they could have been, because a lot of the drilling tools were used for a job, and then often weren't in any shape for the next rig job. Some were, but what was an 18 year old going to do? Take up the trade? Who was going to teach him? Even if he found all of John's things and brought them back, they might have been able to sell them. But I really highly doubt that John had much of value at the time. The fact that he was brought into this project in the first place suggests he was down on his luck as a wildcatter, and needing to get some sort of money because he kept drilling dry holes. That was also a longtime family story, sometimes he'd be successful and there would literally be piles of cash in the family house, and other times he'd be hitting a dry spell, and Ida would have to borrow money from her mother to keep the children fed and clothed. It sounds like he may have been in one of those dry spells. One of my cousins says he still has some of John's oil leases that he got from Ida herself, but what I've seen in my research is that most oil leases of that era were for a very finite and short period, and the driller had to start drilling by a certain time, or they'd lose the lease, so it's a very good chance that any of those leases are useless and expired probably by the mid to late 1920s. I keep bugging him to scan them and send them to me, but no such luck so far. I'm also not sure why Richard would have been sent, instead of Ida reaching out to John William's brother Thomas, who lived in Oklahoma, and was an oil driller. If anyone knew what the tools were and their value, it would be him, and he was also closer. But I suspect as I've researched along, that the Grace family wasn't that close at all, and the siblings likely didn't keep in touch much, if at all. And so Ida may not have known Thomas personally, just his name. 

One thing that made me wonder is that when John's obituaries were run in the local Wheeling newspapers (back in the golden days when a city like Wheeling would have several newspapers), the obituaries weren't even accurate as to the number of siblings John had; the Wheeling Intelligencer said he had three sisters and two brothers ... it listed Margaret, but then it also listed two of Ida's sisters! It did correctly mention Thomas and James (and noted that James was in England). The Wheeling Register did run a longer obituary of John a later day that actually had accurate information, though it also was interesting for its omission; it noted that he was "one of a family of seven brothers and sisters only two of whom could be located" ... located. Frankly, it appears that only three of siblings were still alive at that point, but as Ida likely contributed that obituary because of the details in it, it would seem clear that she didn't actually know if they all were alive, which indicated to me that he didn't talk about his siblings much. She probably never met any of them except for Margaret, who according to census records, lived with the family briefly. Thomas was out on the oil trail west, and James was in Burma and then England. And the others were likely already deceased. But as I said, I don't think Ida was in touch with Thomas, or else it seems most plausible he should have been contacted to go down to Arkansas and find out what happened and collect John's tools, since he would know what to look for, and what was valuable. But it's a moot point, as the tools were gone (likely split up and shared by workers there). 

There was also a weird postscript, because an obituary was also put in the Oil City Derrick, a newspaper in Oil City, PA. Oil City was once the literal center of the petroleum industry, a Wall Street of the oil business, so to speak. Those days were long gone, but the Derrick appears to have remained a newspaper that was more for the oil business than just local news. But it's a weird obituary, because it's a mixture of fact and fantasy. It starts by calling him the "nephew of the renowned Captain Peter Grace, the discoverer and pioneer of more new oil and gas developments than any man that ever made the oil industry a business." I'm not sure where that came from, because I looked into Peter Grace. He WAS a very notable oil producer, particularly in Pennsylvania and West Virginia (and a captain by virtue of his Civil War experience, where he also won a Congressional Medal of Honor). But if he was a relative of John William's, it was very distant. He came over many years before John William and settled in Massachusetts, and I've never seen anything before that connects the two of them. Certainly if he was a relative, it would be feasible that he was the reason that the Grace brothers entered the business, and he might have facilitated that. But I researched him, and I just didn't find any connections. If anything, I wondered if John played up the last name and suggested he was related to Peter, to help get him jobs and leases. The Derrick obit also said he "knew and had operated in every country - producing oil and gas." Well, if you count the US and Japan as "ever country," then that's correct, but as far as family stories and research go, he didn't operate anywhere else. He didn't even seem to roam the rest of the US, as it appears that he mostly stuck to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and had a foray into Texas after the big (and short-lasting) strike in the Desdemona field, which the Derrick obituary also noted (his Wheeling obituaries also note his presence in Texas, and also saying the family never moved because of educational opportunities for the children, which were few and far between in Texas). The Derrick obituary also said he "was persuaded to go in Alma, Arksansas, to clean out a very difficult fishing job. He arrived at the well and as he stapped on to the derrick floor, was stricken with heart trouble - fell to the floor and never spoke a word." Which doesn't actually match up with the stories in the Arksansas papers, which said he had taken a few swings with the hammer first, before dropping to the floor dead. And another odd point in the Derrick obituary was that it said he was 32 years old. He was actually 46! (the Wheeling obituaries said he was 45). So there's a lot to pick through, but I was astonished that I had found so much regarding his death. I'm not sure what I have is completely and entirely conclusive, but I'll go with what I found rather than family stories, given that I've been finding that not all of the family stories ring true, or even in a few cases, have a grain of truth to them. 

Though one family story that I have I find rather interesting, in that for the rest of her life, Ida always referred to John William as "Mr. Grace." All very formal. But then another interesting aspect of the story is that now she was in the same position as her mother had been in. A young widow with an oil driller husband who died in the line of work, leaving her to raise and provide for a large brood of children. And coincidentally, John William Grace was buried in the same Wheeling cemetery as her father, John Barry.