A Bit of Coleman Family History - compliments of Rita O'Donnell Fries

(The following piece was written by my mother, Rita Mary O'Donnell Fries - anything placed in parenthesis was added by me, Mary Beth Fries Buchner, Rita's oldest daughter.):

My mother ( Margaret Mary Coleman O'Donnell)  was born on her parents farm in Middletown township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. She was the oldest of ten children, two of whom died in infancy. Except for the time she taught school in different districts, she lived on the farm till her marriage. She attended school in a one room school house. The school house was a mile or two from her home near the Beaumonts, their closest neighbors. Her birthday was on the 16th of February 1887, and she was christened Margaret Mary which was the name of her paternal grandmother, Margaret Curley Coleman. Her parents were George Francis Coleman, called Frank, and Hannah Byrne Coleman. The next year on the 31st of March 1888 her brother Lawrence D. (Darius) was born. The two siblings shared a close and loving relationship. Mother told me she felt a closer bond to Lawrence than any of her other brothers and sisters. The third child Christopher called "Chris" was born on the 29th of July 1889. The other children arrived in rapid succession. Mary was born in 1891 and died in 1892. Martin M. was born the 9th of November 1892. Mae, christened Anna May, was born on the 2nd of May 1894. Next in line was Francis B. born 1895 (no exact date given). Norene E.'s Birthday is the 6th of October 1897. Aunt Norene told me another baby girl who died in infancy came between herself and Kathleen her younger sister. Kathleen, the youngest in the family, was born posthumously on the 18th of September 1901.

Sometime in February of 1901, Frank, mother's father, slipped on a huge boulder in the woods between his house and his father's house on Route 858.  He sustained a compound fracture of the leg.

About six weeks later on Good Friday evening he and baby Norene were in bed together. He had been given permission by the doctor to get up the next day and was in fine spirits. Grandma and mother were home with him, also. He put down the book which he had been reading, fell back on his pillow and died instantly from a blood clot which was called apoplexy in those days. The date was April 1901. Since the boys were out for the evening mother ( my grandmother, Margaret Coleman O'Donnell) had to go alone to get help - a nightmarish experience which she never forgot.

When Grandpa died, Grandma, a 35 year old widow, was left to raise seven children completely by herself. The eighth child, Aunt Kathleen, was born five and a half months after Grandpa's death.

( The photo at the top is my maternal grandparents, Margaret Mary and Thomas Joseph O'Donnell and my maternal great-grandmother, Hannah Byrne Coleman which was taken on my mother's wedding day - October 19, 1940).

(The photo below is  Hannah Byrne and G. (George) Frank Coleman 

which was taken on their wedding day, Tuesday, April 27, 1886. I was surprised to see that Hannah is spelled Hanna on the Wedding announcement - also posted below the photo.   Their first child, my grandmother, Margaret Mary Coleman was born a little more than 9 months later on February 16, 1887. )