Thomas Bales & Hannah Lynch

Thomas Bales, birth information unknown, and Johanna “Hannah” Lynch, born in 1863 and most likely in modern-day West Virginia, were married and started a family in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in about 1880. They had a total of six children between 1881 and 1900, before Thomas mysteriously disappears at the turn of the century.

Little is actually known about Thomas Bales. (NOTE: In the 1800's the surname is often spelled as "Bailes," but the "I" is generally dropped altogether by the early 1900's). I believe he was “Scotch-Irish,” an American term later used to describe the Irish Protestant immigrants to the United States who came from the province of Ulster in Northern Ireland. It is possible Thomas came to the United States with his parents in response to the Great Potato Famine of 1845-49, when a fungus devastated the Irish potato crop and caused rampant starvation. Our Bales’ probably entered this country at the port of Philadelphia, pushed westward across the Allegheny Mountains, and settled in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Hannah Lynch was the seventh child born to John and Johanna Lynch. Hannah’s parents were born in Ireland about 1825 and had three children there (possibly in Wales) before immigrating to the United States in about 1855. By 1860 they had made their way to Allegheny Township, Blair County, Pennsylvania, just south of Altoona. It seems they may have moved around a lot as John worked as a coal miner at various locations in southwestern Pennsylvania. Records are conflicting but it is possible that the family was living in northern Virginia (possibly in what is now West Virginia) when daughter Hannah was born in 1863. Records are conflicting but they generally reflect her place of birth as Virginia.

In 1870, the Lynch family was living in Carbon Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and ten years later they were residing in East Huntington Township in southern Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. I believe John and Johanna had a total of thirteen children and the last, a daughter named Bridget, was born in February 1880. In May of that year Hannah, who would have been seventeen years old, was still living at home.

It must have been about this time that Thomas and Hannah were married, as the first of their six children, James Jamar (“Jim”), was conceived in about July 1880 and born on April 11, 1881. More children followed: Margaret (“Maggie”) in 1887, John in 1889, Mike in 1893, and Luke in 1895. By the turn of the century things get curious. The 1900 U.S. Census reveals that in June of that year “Hannah Bailes” is living with her five children in downtown Uniontown in nearby Fayette County. Hannah is listed as the head of household and Thomas is not listed at all. I also know that she is pregnant as son Frank is born sometime in late 1900.

What exactly happened to Thomas is unknown. Did he die of illness? Did he run off and abandon his family? Were they amicably separated and living apart? The census reveals she is still going by the name “Bailes” so they are probably still married. For what’s it’s worth I found an interesting article that appeared in the Wednesday, September 26, 1906, edition of The Courier newspaper from Connellsville in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It tells the story of a particular Thomas Bailes, an old civil war veteran who lives in the nearby town of Trotter, being arrested in Connellsville for being drunk in public. He pleaded with a judge to release him due to serious heart trouble, while promising to pay his $2.60 fine in a few days. The judge refused his request and ordered him to spend forty-eight hours in jail.

I also found a Thomas Bales from Mount Pleasant who served as a private with Company I of the 74th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War (1861-1865). He was mustered into service on June 22, 1864, and probably saw service with this unit guarding the Baltimore & Ohio railway between Parkersburg and Clarksburg, West Virginia. He was discharged from service on August 29, 1865, and listed as being afflicted with hemorrhoids and gonorrhea. In 1890 he is receiving his military pension while residing in Mount Pleasant.

Is the Thomas Bales arrested in 1906 and the Thomas Bales who served in the Union Army in 1864-1865 the same person? I would say that it is. Could this person be our Thomas Bales? It’s very likely. I know Thomas (the one serving with the 74th Regiment) was not mustered into military service until late in the war in June 1864. Let’s say he had just come of age and was seventeen years of age at that time. (NOTE: Research reveals that over 800,000 Union soldiers - more than 25% of the total Union Army - enlisted at age seventeen or younger). That would make this Thomas sixteen years older than Hannah Lynch, who was born in 1863. The age difference really was not that unusual for that time. When the first child of Thomas and Hannah Bales was born in 1881, this Thomas (based on my theory above) would have been about thirty-five years old and Hannah would have been age eighteen. So it is quite possible age-wise. They also both lived near Mount Pleasant in 1880.

I still lack definitive proof and in fact finding any official records about our ancestor Thomas Bales has proved difficult. At one time I even questioned if his name was really Thomas, but several of his kids’ marriage or death certificates list their father as “Thomas Bales” and one even lists his birthplace as “Mount Pleasant, PA.” During my research I have discovered a few other men named Thomas Bales in the area around Westmoreland County, but their birth years (1804, 1807, 1827, 1871, 1877, and 1880) generally rule them out.

A few years after our Thomas Bales disappears his oldest son Jim was married to the former Lydia Travis in Uniontown in May 1903. At this same time Thomas and Hannah were apparently divorced (or he may have died) because Hannah was soon remarried to an Irish coal miner named James “Jim” Delaney. Records revealing when this marriage took place are conflicting and raise more questions than answers. Jim Delaney was the same age as Hannah and had immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1876. In 1910 they are residing in East Huntingdon Township in Westmoreland County. Jim Delaney and teenaged stepson Mike Bales, then apparently going by the name Mike Delaney, worked in the coal mines and/or coke works in the vicinity of Alverton and Donnelly.

Jim Delaney, at the age of about sixty, died in October 1923 and was buried in Alverton Cemetery. By 1930 the widowed Hannah was living with her daughter Maggie (and her husband William McDonough) in Alverton. Maggie and her husband, most likely a coal miner, later moved to Farmington, West Virginia, site of several large coal mines. This must have prompted Hannah to move in with her son John Bales, who also lived in Alverton.

Hannah spent the rest of her days in Alverton and passed away at home on Thursday, April 15, 1943, at the age of eighty. She must have been in relatively good health because her obituary states her death was unexpected. Family and friends were received at the home of her youngest son Frank Bales in Alverton and a memorial service was conducted at the Alverton United Methodist Church on Sunday at 2:30pm. The Reverend W. S. Harr, pastor of the First Evangelical Church in Scottdale, presided over the service. She was buried next to her second husband Jim Delaney in Alverton Cemetery later that day. Their gravesite is in Section E and is unfortunately unmarked. (NOTE: I plan to explore this issue further and have a headstone place over their gravesite in the future.)