Evangeline Charity Moran Mooney - Part 2.

(Part 1 is here.)

Angie & Capt. Bill in Cleveland ...

• Capt. Bill and Angie first took up residence in a rental house at 9407 Detroit Ave., on Cleveland's west side. After a year or so, they moved to another rental, at 4908 Franklin Ave. Capt. Bill's maritime title appears to have confused the editors of the 1911 Cleveland City Directory, since they listed his occupation as "police."

This picture is marked "Angie in 1915", so it was probably taken outside the family home on Franklin Ave. (Her expression may suggest that she had just finished telling Cap not to take her picture.)

Angie's Uncle Mike McDevitt

• The two Cleveland houses were about 6 or 7 miles northeast of the farm in West Park (formerly Rockport) owned by Capt. Bill's father, the Civil War veteran and retired Great Lakes ship's master, Edward Mooney. About a mile south of the Mooney farm was the Beau Ideal Farm of eccentric steel executive and horse breeder Capt. David Shaw. Shaw's great friend and chief trainer was Angie's Uncle Mike McDevitt (Grandma Moran's brother, pictured to the right), who lived at and managed Beau Ideal. (When Shaw died in 1925, he left the farm and the horses to Uncle Mike, who became a widely renowned breeder in his own right, and who was eventually inducted as an "Immortal" in the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.)

• The Mooney farm was a regular gathering place for the extended Mooney family, and Angie is a smiling presence in several group photos with various Mooney brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts.


• Though no pictures survive, it seems likely that Angie and Capt. Bill (and the kids) also were frequent visitors with Mike McDevitt at Capt. Shaw's horse farm just down the road.

Angie (right) at the Mooney farm with her father-in-law, Captain Edward Mooney (back, second from left) and Ed's second wife (Capt. Bill's stepmother), Margaret Ellen Sharon Mooney (left). Also pictured (second from right): Ed and Margaret's daughter, Bridget Zita Mooney (universally known as Aunt Zita). It's not certain, but the young girl in front may be Laverne Mooney (daughter of Capt. Bill's brother James Leo Mooney)
.

Ed Mooney died in December 1910, so this picture must have been taken during Bill and Angie's courtship or not too long after they were married.

Angie (center) at the Mooney farm with Capt. Bill and Aunt Zita. The ladies' dresses suggest that the picture was taken on the same day as the picture of Angie and Zita with Capt. Ed Mooney and Margaret Sharon, above.

Angie (far right of the middle row) at the Mooney farm. Top row: Margaret Sharon Mooney, and Capt. Bill. Middle row: Capt. Bill's brother Frank Mooney with his daughter Zita on his lap, Frank's wife Marie, Aunt Zita, and Angie. Bottom row: Capt. Bill & Angie's son young Bill, and Laverne Mooney.  

So how about the question we asked in Part 1: How did Capt. Bill and Angie even meet? After all, she was from an oil-drilling family in rural New York, and he came from a family of mariners residing west of Cleveland.

• One clue to a plausible answer is our old pal Uncle Mike McDevitt. We know from the Bolivar Breeze that Angie regularly visited him, first while he lived in Pittsburgh and later when he moved to Cleveland. The Mooney farm and Uncle Mike's home at Capt. Shaw's horse farm were only a mile apart.

St. Patrick's Church, West Park

• The Breeze also noted that Angie was a regular volunteer in church work in Bolivar. As it happens, the Mooneys were active members of St. Patrick's parish in West Park (pictured right), which was a quarter mile up the road from their farm. And it appears that Uncle Mike was a St. Patrick's parishioner too. (His funeral was conducted there in 1947.)

• So here's the scenario: Angie comes to town to visit Uncle Mike. They attend an ice-cream social, or something like it, at St. Patrick's. Angie pitches in and is helping the regulars dish out the spumoni. Also in attendance is Capt. Bill, leaning against the wall, looking cool, and swapping stories with the other young bachelors.

• Their eyes meet across the room ... and the rest is history.

1918 ...

• In December 1917, Capt. Bill and Angie bought a home of their own. It was titled solely in Angie's name. (Who knows why? Maybe it was a Christmas present.) The house was a duplex, built in 1903 and located at 1180/1182 Warren Rd. in Lakewood, Ohio, west of Cleveland. The Mooneys moved into one side, and they rented the other side to Daniel and Mary Moore, an older married couple whose children were grown.

The Mooney house at 1180/1182 Warren Rd. in Lakewood, Ohio, as it looks today. (Courtesy of Google Maps streetview.)

• At the beginning of the new year, Angie and Capt. Bill were living in their own home, they had three children, and Angie was about three months pregnant with their fourth (Tom). Capt. Bill had completed his first year as master of the Grand Island in the fall, and he took same ship out again in the spring.

End of Evangeline - part 2. Click here for Part 3 ...