SeanPaulMurphyVille: My Family: Mary Marshall Mirfin, Hero

Monday, September 16, 2019

My Family: Mary Marshall Mirfin, Hero

Mary Marshall Mirfin

The title of this blog is false advertising. Mary Marshall Mirfin is not technically my family. She is my wife Deborah's 2nd great-grandmother. I wanted to write about her because of her great heroism and her sacrificial love for her family.

Mary Marshall, who was known as Polly, was born in England on 7 May 1860. While still in native land, she married William S. Mirfin. Here's the interesting thing about Mr. Mirfin. His last name wasn't actually Mirfin. His legal surname at birth was Murphy. His family was Irish and Catholic, but they moved to the Yorkshire area of England for economic opportunity. However, since Irish Catholics faced such prejudice in that area at the time, his family converted to Protestantism and took the name Mirfin, which was associated with minor nobility in the area.

He fooled me. Although the old British census records are readily available online, I could never find him despite the fact that I knew the name of his parents and some of his siblings. It wasn't until I was contacted by a British cousin of my wife as a result of a Mirfin memorial I posted on findagrave did I learn the secret. Once I knew the name was Murphy, I was able to track the family easily. The irony is that, as a result of my great-grandfather Frank Murphy's mysterious past, I am more sure that my wife is a Murphy than I am.

Back to Mary. In all honesty, I know less about how she lived than how she died, but she died a hero, trying to rescue her grandchildren from an intense house fire in Youngstown in the middle of the night. Lots of people say they would rush into a burning houe to save a loved one, but very few do. And she was one of them.

I think the newspapers can tell the story better than I can:

Article from the Youngstown Telegram, Monday, April 16, 1928. The article featured four photographs. The headline of the caption reads: "FIRE RUINS HOME, THREE DIE." The caption itself reads: "Here are photographs of the W.S. Mirfin house, 662 Pine, after it had been swept by fire early Sunday and three victims who lost their lives in the blaze. The victims are Delores May Loveless, 3, shown in the picture to the left in her mother's arms; Mrs. Mary Mirfin, 68, right; and Florence Ray Loveless, 5 (below). Mrs. Mirfin died trying to rescue her two grandchildren. Mrs. Florence Loveless, mother of the two victims, was absent when the fire occurred."

FREE FIREMEN OF BLAME IN THREE DEATHS

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Report To Mayor Heffernan Declares None Guilty of Negligence

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GRANDMOTHER KILLED

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Dies In Futile Effort To Rescue Daughter To Children From Flames.

Fire Chief Callan was to file with Mayor Hellernan late today a written report absolving from blame fireman against whom complaints have been filed by relatives of Mrs. Mary Mirfin, 68, who was killed with her two children when the W.S. Mirfin home, 662 Pine, was destroyed by fire early Sunday.

Relatives had declared that negilgence by the fireman contributed to the deaths of the three victims.

Mrs. Mirfin was trying to rescue her grandchildren, Florence Ray Loveless, 5, and Delores May Loveless, 3, when, overcome by smoke, she fell from a second story window.

Fireman took the children down a ladder from the blazing room, but they died on their way to the hospital. They died of suffocation and burns.

Three other persons were driven from the house in their night attire. They are Miss Edna Mirfin, 24, and Mrs. Isabel Bock, daughters of Mrs. Mirfin, and Mrs. Bock's twelve-year-old son Harlow. Mrs. Bock was taken to Youngstown hospital later when it was learned she was suffering from the effects of smoke.

Mother Absent

Mrs. Florence Loveless, also a daughter of Mrs. Mirfin and mother of the dead children, was visiting a friend, Mrs. C.W. Stanyard, at 319 Cleveland when the fire occurred. Mrs. Loveless had her six-months-old baby with her.

Callan, who had been at Niles with two companies from here helping fighting a fire which destroyed the Western Reserve Lumber Co., plant and yard there Sunday night, reached the scene of Pine st. fire after the victims had been removed.

Miss Edna Mirfin, who discovered the fire and called firemen and police, said that she had begged a fireman in charge of a hose to save the two children in the upstairs room and that he had shoved her aside and told her he had to attend to the hose.

Chief Callan learned that the man had been assigned to hose duty and that meanwhile other fireman had run a ladder up the side of the house and removed the children from the bedroom.

Charges Denied

Miss Mirfin further complained that her mother ran upstairs to save the children while the firemen were there putting lines of hose on the burning house. Police and vice squad officers who reached the scene of the fire before the fireman say that Mrs. Mirfin fell from the upstairs window before the fireman arrived. Police say that the fireman alleged to have been negligent in their duty did all that was possible under the circumstances.

The tragedy happened within a few minutes. Miss Mirfin was awakened about 2:45 a.m. when she heard Mrs. Bock coughing downstairs, where she was sleeping with her son. Thinking that the furnace was smoking, Miss Mirfin went downstairs, intending to adjust the drafts.

Smoke was pouring from the kitchen. Miss Mirfin aroused members of the family and tried to call for help but flames cut her off from the telephone. She ran to a neighbor's home in her night clothing and sent in an alarm to firemen and police.

Mrs. Mirfin, the grandmother, who was sleeping in the from upstairs room with the children, came downstairs, thinking the furnace was smoking. All but the children were out on the porch when Mrs. Mirfin suddenly started upstairs with the remark: "I must save the children."

Stairway Blocked

Fire Chief Callan learned from neighbors next door at the home of O. W. Tresler, 660 Pine, where the survivors of the fire were given shelter, that those down on the street shouted to Mrs. Mirfin to throw the children to them, as the stairway was thick with smoke and flames.

Meanwhile, Vice Squad Chief Metcalfe, Detective Morrison, and State Officer Eugene Callan and his brother John Callan, arrived at the scene of the fire ahead of the fire department, having been sent out on the report that there had been a shooting.

One of the men ran to the nearest fire alarm box. Firemen arrived, followed shortly by the police flying squad, composed of Sergeant Richmond and Officers Doyle, Collins and Leshnock.

Sergeant Richmond, inclined to believe Miss Mirfin was confused on the matter of time during the excitement in her charges of neglect on the part of the fire department, says Mrs. Mirfin fell from the window before the firemen arrived. Metcalfe says the same.

Richmond said flames extended six feet from nearly all the windows in the house. Mrs. Mirfin was picked up from the ground in the front yard and carried to the Tresler home next door. Members of the flying squad took Mrs. Mirfin to their car, and she was rushed to Youngstown hospital. She was dead on arrival.

Rescues Children

As soon as it was learned that the two children were in the upstairs room, Richmond said, Assistant Chief Steinfurth, wearing a smoke mask, went into the house in search of them. The smoke and flames were so thick that he could find only the youngest, Delores. Then Steinfurth went into the house again, going thru every room upstairs. At last, he found the older children Florence.

The children had been overcome by smoke and their night clothing was ablaze. Richmond had ordered ambulances when Mrs. Mirfin was sent to the hospital, and the children were rushed to the hospital in Handel's ambulance. They died on the way.

Meanwhile, it was reported that another woman and child were in the house, and Steinfurth went into the house again. Then it was recalled that Mrs. Loveless and the baby were away for the night.

Besides Miss Mirfin, and, Mrs. Bock and Loveless, two daughters, Mrs. Nellie Harvey, 19-1/2 Kenmore, and Mrs. Edward Bace, 722 W. Madison, survive Mrs. Mirfin. William Mirfin, 70, husband of Mrs. Mirfin, also survives. He has been ill in Youngstown hospital for the six weeks.

Four fire companies, Nos. 8 and 4 and two from No. 1 station, in charge of Assistant Chief Steinfurst, fought the blaze. Three lines of hoses were thrown on the fire.

Firemen place the loss at $4,000 on the building and $2,000 on the contents.

The origins of the fire are unknown, but it is thought it started from the furnace or from an electric iron, as Mrs. Mirfin had been ironing clothes around midnight.

"There was no delay in getting to the fire or in putting on lines of hose and running up ladders," said Callan today after conducting an inquiry.

"From what I have learned, fireman arrived two minutes after the alarm was recieved. The delay mentioned in the complaint, was in the sending in of the alarm, not in answering the call."

"Police recieved the call first and when the officers arrived, supposedly investigating a shooting and the saw the fire, one of the men sent in an alarm from box 132, at Wayne and (Elie).

Callan said the department is equipped with smoke masks, four of which are in use at every fire.

Victim Delores, in her mother's arms

Tells What Was Done

Assistant Chief Steinfurst said: "(????) has to be shielded in this matter. I don't think any criticism is due the department. The whole trouble was in the delay in sending in the alarm.

"When I arrived I ordered five ladders run up and four lines of hose laid. Ordinarily, at a residence fire, only two lines of hose are used.

"No human being could live in the flames inside the house. We turned the water on and then went in. I found the children lying on the bed, the older girl had bed clothes over her head.

Steinfurth said that Firemen Lewis and Forsythe also equipped with smoke masks went into the house with him when it was said there were other people trapped there.

"If anyone says the firemen laid down on the job, he is mistaken. We heard no criticism at the time of the fire," said Steinfurth.

Steinfurth exhibited his coat, the back of which had been badly burned.

Victim Florence

Funeral Wednesday

Triple Funeral services for Mrs. Mirfin and the children will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the home of Mrs. Alice Bace, 722 W. Madison, a daughter of Mrs. Mirfin. Burial will be in Belmont Park cemetery.

Mrs. MIrfin was born May 7, 1860, in England, and was married 43 years ago to William S. Mirfin, who has been in Youngstown hospital seven weeks with blood poisoning. She came to Youngstown from England 39 years ago. Mrs. Mirfin was a member of the Primitive Methodist Church.

Surviving are these daughters; Mrs. Nellie Harvey, Mrs. Alice Bace, Miss Edna Mirfin, Mrs. Isabel Bock and Mrs. Florence Loveless, Youngstown; seven grandchildren and two sisters, Mrs. Wallace Payne and Mrs. T. H. Wood, of Youngstown.

Florence Rae Loveless was born July 11, 1922, and Delores May Loveless was born Dec. 29, 1925 in Youngstown.

Article from the Youngstown Telegram, Tuesday, April 17, 1928:

FIREMEN FREED OF DEATH BLAME

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Triple Funeral Services For Victims Wednesday

City Firemen today stand officially absolved of negligence in the fire which destroyed the home of W.S. Mirfin of 662 Pine, early Sunday in which a woman and two children lost their lives.

After reading reports of Fire Chief Callan, Vice Squad Chief Metcalfe and other officials active in the fire, Mayor Heffernan made the statement clearing the fire department of negligence in the tragedy.

"Neighborhood neglect" was blamed by Vice Squad Chief Metcalfe for the death of the two children in the report made to the mayor by Metcalfe, Fire Chief Callan and Assistant Fire Chief Steinfurth.

"If the able-bodied men of the neighborhood who stood around, had attempted to rescue the children in the burning hose, they might have been saved from death," Metcalfe told the mayor.

Triple funeral services for the victims, Mrs. Mary Mirfin, 68, and her two grandchildren, Florence Rae, 5, and Delores May Loveless, 3, will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the home of Mrs. Alice Bace, 722 W. Madison, a daughter of Mrs. Mirfin. Burial will be in Belmont Park Cemetery.

Rest in peace, Mary Mirfin. You are the embodiment of John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

Click here for more of my genealogical blogs:

My Family: Christmas 1967

My Family: My Granddaughter Emma Renee Schwalm

My Family: The Diaries of Mary Elizabeth McLane, Part 1
My Family: The Back River Tragedy

My Family: My Three Nuns
My Family: The Murder of Adam G. Robertson
My Family: Uncle Buzzy and The Boys In Company B
My Family: 1st Lieutenant Charles Edward Farber, KIA
My Family: Cousin Tillie's Balcony
My Family: The Public Suicide of Carl "Ernie" Stark
My Family: The Public Suicide of Frank Kostohryz
My Family: Mary Marshall Mirfin, Hero
My Family: Rita Cecilia Rosenberger Protani Pollock
My Family: Vincent Klima and the Spanish Influenza
My Family: A Festival of Fathers
My Family: The Honorable George Farber
My Family: A Celebration of Mothers
My Family: The Mystery of Frank John Murphy
My Family: Kristina Bednar Kostohryz
My Family: Great-Grandmom Assunta's Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined.

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.

You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Watch the book trailer: