History of Phil – Grandparents Part 2

As I mentioned before my father and his extended family were from Fairmont Minnesota. My father was the third in a group of four sons of my grandparents Mark and Marie Gorman. All of my grandparents were first-generation Americans. My grandfather McNeal was all Scottish. My grandmother McNeal was Irish. My grandfather Gorman was Irish. My grandmother Gorman was French. It is her side of the family that I look like. All four of my grandparents came to this country in the late 1800s or early 1900s. None of my relatives were here during the Civil War but immigrated due to turmoil in Europe in the following decades. My grandfather Gorman was the son of a farm implement dealer in southern Minnesota. My grandmother Gorman was one of 13 children, many of whom were born in France. They immigrated and then traveled to Minnesota to settle. My grandmother's youngest sister was lost on the trip over to Minnesota. It was in Illinois and they thought she may have been taken by the Indians and sold or and wandered off and ended up with a different wagon train. They never really found out. Her father was a banker and she said he was the first millionaire in Minnesota. When he died each of the surviving 12 children received a farm. I asked her what happened to it and she said they promptly lost it in the Great Depression. So much for earthly wealth.

My grandma and grandpa Gorman were kind of the opposite of the McNeal's. We loved going to visit. We visited them at least two or more times a year. When we were there we often played with my cousins that were children of two of my dad's brothers. Two brothers, Jim and Pat, lived in Fairmont. The youngest Tom and moved out east after college and was a vice president of Gallup.

Pat had six children, two of which were near my age. John and Bob. I played with them a lot when we were there. Mostly though we look forward to visiting uncle Jim and aunt Betty. Their sons were all older than me and used to tease me mercilessly but I loved the warm environment that Betty gave out. The girl cousins, Susan, Nancy and Cindy were more my age and my sister Cathy's age. I found I could tease Cindy but Susan and Nancy were big enough to hurt me so I left them alone. Later on Amy came along and she was a cute little thing.

So we lived in Omaha and visited my grandparents in Fairmont quite often. We loved grandpa Gorman he was so gentle and quiet. Grandma Gorman raised four boys so she was a little tougher. We love both of them dearly and grandma Gorman was a fantastic cook. I always got pie when we visited. Years later she taught me how to make pie!

So for many years I had friends in Omaha near my age. We also add cousins who were like siblings. This went on and I would say I had an ideal childhood my mother passed away in the fall of when I was 10. I will cover more of the years in Omaha and the effect of my mother's passing in later posts.