WASHINGTON COUNTY PIONEER DIES

Timothy Daly, an old and respected citizen of Washington county, died at his home on east Washington street on Monday, Feb. 28.

Timothy Daly was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1853, and came to New Jersey in 1865, staying there until 1867 when he came to Omaha and worked for the Union Pacific railroad laying a track to Cheyenne. Later he moved to DeSoto and helped lay the Omaha road. He retired from the road in 1898 to his farm west of Calhoun where he farmed successfully until 1916 when he moved to this city to rest and enjoy the fruits of his labor.

His wife died in April, 1915. He leaves seven children to mourn his loss: J. P. Daly and Mrs. R. C. Patterson of Blair; Dan Daly and Mrs. Joe Dunegan of Omaha; Tom of Denver; Mrs. Joseph Fogarty and Dennis of Greely, Neb.

Funeral services were held Wednesday morning from the Catholic church, and interment made in the Catholic cemetery.

#2-10 Mar., 1921 - The Tribune

TIMOTHY DALY

Tim Daly is dead. And if you ever knew Tim as this writer did, you surely fell in love with one Irishman. About the time we came to Ft. Calhoun he was the first section boss at DeSoto, when he had to pump water by hand for the engineers. Later he was transferred to Ft. Calhoun where he built a house on the railroad right-of-way east of the Catholic church block that he sold to Mayor L. L. Wagers when he went to the farm near the Maney school house. One day he came to bid us goodbye as he was going back to Ireland, never to come back. Hard work and partly wrecked him physically and mentally while he lived here. If any of the old section hands are alive they will remember when we used to have so many night storms in those days and when the wind blew a hurricane and then the rain and hail came in sheets. They would hear him at their doors “Come, byes, there's the devil to pay the night.” And out would come his hand car and his whole line was traveled from DeSoto and back and then to Coffman. One night they found a culvert out and he said, “now you see, byes, how it is” and one stormy night at midnight he found a gate open and a lot of calves huddled on the high grade in a dangerous place, and we remember we wrote to the Blair paper that old Tim deserved a medal. How many wrecks he saved on the road no one will ever know.

His wife died on the farm in April, 1915.

How we laughed at him when he came back from Ireland and he said: “Mr. Woods, divil take the old country, America for me.” And here, fellows, is the story he told me in June, 1905 as we wrote it then: “Tim Daily says lots of changes in old Ireland in thirty years. Thirty years ago all land was rented at the same value to the poor peasant, but the government has stepped in and appraised the land and fixed the rentals so that a bit of bog or stoney croft that cost $20 an acre many now cost only $1, and the poor people are taking heart, ditching and draining and repairing roads. He says a man from America finds little favor with the landholder, who finds that every satisfied emigrant who goes back leads off the best young people to America, Canada or Australia, until farm hands are getting very scarce. But he found the worse feature yet in a town of about 3,500, about the size of Blair. He found forty two saloons, fifteen policemen and two officers over them. Probably the same feature exists in Ireland as in England, where a poor bog trotter, who can neither read nor write and can save a few pounds to start as an innkeeper finds himself a member of an aristocracy about like our American ward politicians and the only real elevation open to his class. Money is not so much the prime object as it is among American saloon keepers. They are willing to suffer the deepest poverty and hardships just to be what they call somebody. But better days are surely coming. The schoolmaster is invading England and Ireland and the next generation will show better spirit, and it may be the American enterprise will in time invade Ireland and show them how to farm and work to better advantage.”

We would be glad to help pay for a monument to our noble hearted friend in our Centennial city park; he was never a rich man on earth as riches count here, except in his family, but he may be rich in heaven where God counts riches as the heart is.

His family and friends have our sympathy.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #129649174