Rooney Family Tree

Baptismal sponsors: Hugh Rooney, Anna Egan.

James was working for the railroad in Wisconsin when he was 17. He learned to telegraph using the Morse code, and when the railroad was built through North Dakota he worked ahead of the crew. When the wires were first extended he got the orders from the dispatcher and delivered them to the workers. He stayed out west at least one year, about 1890, for which there is a record of him attending the Christian Brothers school in Seattle. He had a friend there, Maury Foley, with whom he considered going to the Alaskan goldfields. Maury Foley did go.

James had several stations throughout North Dakota, like Braddock and Nicholson, where the work of the Station agentû telegrapher did not consume all this time. He learned the trade of a barber and one village he had a barbershop in station. He had several inventions for which he obtained letters patents; he worked them out in those small villages where only two or three trains stopped daily.

After James return to Minnesota, he secured the position of station agent for the Soo Line Railroad at Kensington in Douglas County. His mother and father still lived there, as did younger brothers and sisters. James bought a house here and they lived here until 1919 after which they moved to Eden Valley, having secured the station agent position through a bid. He retired here in 1942.

James took a trip to North Dakota when his sister Margaret died in 1921, but no others very far until he retired. Then he and Jennie took the train to the west coast, down through California and across to Ft. Worth, visiting with sister and brothers, nieces and nephew and grandchildren.

The school, through eighth grade, was across the street from where they lived in Eden Valley.

James Martin and Jenny Anderson were married in Wilmer, August 20, 1904. Father O'Malloy, pastor at St. Mary's Church, officiated. At that time Father O'Malloy serving the mission church in Raymond Minnesota as well. Jenny had taught school at Raymond for the 1903-04 year. Previously she had taught at Kensington where James was stationed and where they went to live after their honeymoon.

In a letter shortly before their marriage, James Martin told Jennie Anderson that he had secured a traveling pass, a ticket from Kensington to "Detroit," so that as part of their honeymoon they could see Detroit where his life started.

James was the last of my (Pete Tintes) grandparents to die in May of 1953. He was a Junior in High School and was playing baseball in Brooten when the hearse brought his body from Fergus Falls State hospital where he had died.

James retired in 1940 at the age of 69 and wrote a couple of articles about his career as a Depot Agent for the Soo Line railroad, which were published in the Eden Valley Journal. Pete was only 4 at the time but can remember visiting him at the depot and especially being fascinated with the telegraph machine. The candy he gave Pete won a few points too.
He loved to read and Pete has a number of his books including a history set on the United States published around 1900. He invented a number of gadgets and being a terrible driver he built a roundtable to turn his car around near the garage so he could drive in and out. He made fly killers with a rubber band attached to a gun like stick, which worked well in the garage where he spent a lot of time and had pictures of his relatives on the walls. Many of these pictures were a bit damaged and few were labeled.
After Jenny died in 1945 he lived alone for a few years and would buy more ice cream than he would eat so when Edna went to clean house for him she often brought some home. Mr. and Mrs. Hubert, Pete's Agriculture teacher, lived with him and cared for him for some years. As dementia set in he would start little fires in the oil burner and paint trees white as far up as he could reach.
Living for a while in a rest home in South Haven didn't work as it was close to the tracks and when trains came by he knew he was on the wrong side of the track and would start walking for Eden Valley.
After he retired in 1940 most of the livestock shipping was done by truck so he dismantled the stock yards and hauled the 3"x12"s home two blocks on a wheel barrow and cut them up by hand to burn. At that time he had a wood burning stove.

Rights conducted for James E Martin
May 21, 1953, Eden Valley Journal

Funeral services were conducted Monday, May 18, by Father A. R. Filbin at the Church of St. Peter for James E. Martin, who died Thursday evening, May 14th.
Mr. Martin was born December 11th, 1871, at Detroit Lakes, to William and Catherine Rooney Martin. At the time of his retirement in 1941 he had worked almost 50 years for the railroad, serving station agent at Eden Valley for 22 years.
In August, 1904, he married Jenny Anderson of New London. She preceded him and death, as did one son and one daughter. Surviving him are a sister, Mrs. John Shaw, Ft. Worth, Tex.; and one brother, Thomas of St. Paul; three children: Mrs. Jack Sattler (Gervaise) of Minneapolis, Elmo of St. Cloud and Mrs. Tom Tintes of Eden Valley; also 18 grand children and two great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers were Leo Lorenz, Lloyd Bischof, Lawrence Rothstein, Richard and Joseph Bischof and George Rome.
Relatives from a distance to attend the funeral included Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Martin and Mabel Gaffney of Alexandria, Mrs. Joseph Wirtzfeld of Underwood, N. D.; Mr. and Mrs. James Gaffney of Glenwood; Robert Martin and Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Egan of Minneapolis.