Cordelia Ann Reany & Samuel W. Crooks

Written by Susan Carey, December 2013

Cordelia Ann Reany is the older sister of Elizabeth Viola Reany who married Arthur Edward Kourian; they are the grandparents of Gary Lee Walker, my father.

Cordelia Ann Reany was born March 28, 1879 in Wagoner’s Riffle, Adams County, Ohio, the daughter of John Thomas Reany and Alice Loufanny Johnson.  Her maternal grandfather, Henry Johnson, “had several hundred acres of land there and always made his home and raised his family there”.[1]  She was the second child and she and her older brother, John Franklin, were both born there.  At a young age she had acquired her nickname, “Delia”, and was known by that throughout her life.  The family moved a little in her early life as in June 1880 they were living in Concord, Iroquois County, Illinois where her father was a laborer, [2] and by October 1881 the family had moved to Sheldon, a nearby town in Iroquois County, where the next child, Henry Clarence, was born. [3] By 1884 the family had settled in Fairbury, Livingston County, Illinois where most of them stayed for many years.[4]  Livingston County is one of the most productive farming areas of Illinois with rich black topsoil and very flat terrain.[5]  Fairbury schools had a high school before the family moved there, but Delia only finished through the sixth grade.[6]

Reany sisters: left-Delia, center-Elizabeth, right-Dora

In June 1900, Delia was 21 years old and living on her own.  She worked as a servant in the household of Carleton Starrett in Elgin City, Elgin Township, Kane County, Illinois.[7]  Elgin City was 109 miles from home in Fairbury, so it must have been difficult to go so far away.  She seems to be an independent woman, however, because by 1904 she had moved to the big city of Chicago and lived there without her family in a house at 30 Lexington.[8]  She was 27 years old when she first married a man who also lived in Chicago.  She married Henry McIvor, a 31-year-old cement finisher who had been born in Ireland and was the son of Daniel and Ellyn McIvor.  This was the first marriage for both of them.  They were married 126 miles away from Chicago in Kewanee, Henry County on November 29, 1905 by Rev. H.O. Hubbard.  One of the witnesses was his wife, so it seems that it was not a family wedding. [9]  They lived in Chicago and had a very short marriage because by 1908 Delia McIvor was listed in the city directory as the widow of Henry and living in a house at 4 Dekalb in Chicago, and her future husband, Samuel W. Crooks, was living there also.[10]  The next year she was living in the same home but Samuel was back in his former home.[11]

Aunt Delia on right

Samuel W. Crooks was born 15 June 1878 in Dunman, Londonderry, Ireland which is in Northern Ireland.  (His naturalization papers consistently give 15 June as his birthdate but variously list the year as 1876 and 1879). He was the son of Samuel and Esther Wilson Crooks.[12]  He left Londonderry on 22 September 1901 on the ship Mongolian traveling Second Class.  Samuel was a 23-year-old single farmer when he left Ireland accompanied by his sister, Annie, who was 25 and also single.  They arrived in New York on 4 October 1901.[13] They must have made their way fairly quickly to Chicago because in 1902 they were both living in a house at 854 W. Polk.  Samuel was working as a floorwalker at a business at 122 State and Anna was a clerk at 259 S. Clinton.[14]  In 1903 Samuel moved to 35 Flournoy and worked as a clerk while Annie lived with him and had a job as a telephone operator.  A motorman named John Crooks also lived with them in 1903 and 1904 but I haven’t made a family connection.[15]  Annie was not living with them in 1904 and 1905.  In 1904 Samuel was still living at 35 Flournoy but had a new job as a floorwalker at 299 State.[16]  He remained at the house at 35 Flournoy working as a floorwalker until 1909 when he lived in a house at 4 Dekalb for a short time and then was back at 35 Flournoy in 1909 with John Crooks, the motorman, again boarding there.[17]  In 1909 Samuel’s job was listed as a conductor.[18]

Samuel Crooks

On 26 April 1909 he filed his Declaration of Intent for citizenship in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois.  In it he claimed that he was aged 32, a conductor, had a fair complexion with blonde hair and blue eyes, was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds, was born in Cookstown, Ireland on 15 June 1876, resided at 35 Flournoy Street in Chicago, emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland on the Mongolian and arrived at the port of New York on 4 October 1901.[19]

Sometime in 1909 or 1910 both Delia and Samuel left Chicago and moved to Washington State.  He declared in his naturalization papers that he had been living in Washington since 1 July 1910.[20]  On 6 October 1910, Delia McIvor and Samuel W. Crooks, both of Napoleon, Washington applied for a marriage license in Stevens County, Washington, and Delia was married for a second time after she was made a widow so quickly.[21]

On 21 April 1916 he filed his Petition for Naturalization in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Washington.  He and Delia were living at 1916 Normandie St. in Spokane, Washington and he was working as a laundryman.  They have one child, Samuel, born 5 May 1908 in Chicago and lived with them in Spokane.[22]  There is a family photo of the three of them with writing that says Samuel and Delia are posing with their adopted son.

This card says “to Miss Evelyn Kourian from Samuel Henry Crooks”
Samuel W. & Delia standing, Samuel sitting with woman I think is Samuel W.’s sister Anna C. Eckley

In 1920 Samuel, Delia, and their eleven-year-old son, Samuel were renting a house at 740 Magnolia Street in Spokane, Washington where Samuel was a laborer in a railroad freight office.  Another family was renting the same home:  James Spence, a laborer in a sash mill, with his wife, Syrana, son, Clare, and daughter, Mar???.[23]

Ten years later, in 1930, they were done renting because Samuel now owned a home in Seattle at 309 Malden Ave., valued at $8000.  He was floor manager for a furniture company and lived with Delia A. and their son, Samuel H., who was now 20 and working as an automobile salesman.  The family had two roomers living with them, 29-year-old Norman Milton who was a merchant marine seaman from Australia who immigrated in 1919 and became naturalized, and 43-year-old Hiram H. Fitzpatrick who was an automobile salesman.  Hiram was married and 27 when he was first married; perhaps he worked with young Samuel.[24]

Samuel & Delia Crooks Wash 1934

Samuel Crooks
cover front says Lothrop Seattle

By 1 April 1935 the family had sold their home on Malden Ave. and bought a new home at 307 Eighteenth Ave N in Seattle worth $2000 and was renting parts of it to two other families for $26 and $35 per month, respectively.  Samuel and Delia were living in the home in 1940 and so was Samuel’s sister, Anna C. Eckley, who was 63 and widowed.  In April 1935 she had been living in Spokane, Washington.  In March of 1940 Delia was working 13 hours a week as a tailoress at clothing manufacturing and had worked 40 weeks in 1939, Samuel was the owner of a general contracting business and receiving income from it but not working at it, and Anna was doing housework.[25]

My father, Gary Lee Walker, remembers his great-aunt Delia visiting southern California many times when he was growing up and says “she was always a very kind person to me”.

Delia Crooks, Evelyn Walker, Gary Walker 1953

Elizabeth Viola Kourian, Delia Crooks, Evelyn Walker 1953