Rooney Family Tree

Peter and his sister Margaret were with his grandparents, the William and Catherine Martin family, in the 1900 census in Bangor Township, Pope County. Their mother had died two years earlier. They are still with them in the 1910 census, but in Sedan, Pope County.

By World War I, Peter was a young man and a private first class in the Quartermaster Corps, stationed in Seattle, Washington. This began the allure of the Pacific Northwest that drew some of the next generation into that area as well. Peter is listed in the 1920 and 1930 censuses in Seattle. It says his father was born in England (incorrectly) that that his mother tongue was English. In the 1940 census he is single and a truck driver.

Peter's WWI draft registration says he was born on the 19th in Sauk Centre. His gravestone also says the 19th. His WWII draft registration says he was born on the 17th in St. Cloud. Person to contact: E. L. Martin, in Kirkland, Washington. That was probably his uncle Edward L. Martin (m. Mayme Wolfe), who died in Seattle in 1947. Peter was employed by the City of Seattle in the Kirkland Sanitarium, and prior to that he was a truck driver.

According to Roy Wirtzfeld, once Peter Brown was out of the service he eventually developed a quite prosperous business as the owner of a fleet of trucks that did contract hauling on construction projects. One project he worked on was the high school that was built in Kirkland, Washington in 1923. Peter contracted tuberculosis in the 1940s and died in 1950 with tuberculosis and later having developed cancer as well.

In a letter from Ed Martin to Julia Ellen Gaffaney on August 23, 1943: "Peter B is confined to the Sanotorium agin. It seems he still has a trace of T B on one lung. It is kind of hard luck after been released for more than a year. He was lucky in not leaving in the meantime. He staid on as a kind of janitor, still its kind of tough to be put back to bed."

Ed L. Martin is buried in the Kirkland Cemetery next to Peter J. Brown, a brother of his sister Mary's husband John J. Brown. Peter had bought 20 acres of land in Kirkland and John J. Brown lived there until he died; John J. Brown is also buried in this cemetery. John Henry Martin is also buried here.
Frank C. Martin and John Francis Martin are buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, Bend, Oregon.
Mayme Wolfe Martin and Elmer H. Jensen are buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, Washington.

There's a Bernard J. Shanks, age 22, in the 1930 census of Seattle with his 17-year-old wife Jenny M. (not Alice M?). It says his father was born in Minnesota and mother (incorrectly) in Wisconsin. Bernard was born in Washington and his wife in Oregon. Lodging in the same place, probably coincidently, is Peter J. Brown. Each of these would be a first cousin to Ambrose Gaffaney, one on his father's side, one on his mother's.