The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

many years,” says Betty. “When
we did finally have enough money
to move away, I went and spent
my summers there.”
During the war years,
Bernard’s son George rented a
house about ¾ of a mile down
Maple Drive from Bernard’s farm.
During the same period,
Bernard’s brother Albert bought a
house directly across the street
from Bernard. Patrica “Pat” and
Jerry Callan, the daughters of
Albert and Margaret Callan, were
raised there.
All six of George and
Albert’s children – Pat, Jerry,
George, Betty, Jack and Jimmy —
became best friends and played
like one big family as they all grew
up in the countryside of West
Webster.
There is a funny story told by
Margery Callan, who later married
George’s son John F. “Jack”
Callan. When Margery and Jack
were dating, she became irked that
he was always talking about a
woman named “Pat.” In fact, Jack
stood Margery up on their first real
“date,” when, due to some long
lost reason, he ended up going
down to Cayuga Lake and visiting
Pat at Bernard’s lake cottage.
A few weeks later, Jack talked
endlessly one evening about how
fun Pat had been that weekend,
and how he couldn’t wait to see
her again. Margery finally told Jack
that he was going to have to
choose between her and this Pat,
whomever she was. Jack says they
couldn’t stop laughing when he
told her it was just his cousin.
That Callan sense of humor
actually comes from the Carrolls,
says Betty McGlynn. “Gramma
was a very comical lady. You could
sit her down and talk with her for
hours and she would make you
laugh. Grampa was the quiet type.
He used to sit in this great big old
chair. He would hear everything,
and he knew what everyone was
saying. He would read a lot instead
of talk a lot. He was very sweet. I
don’t think I ever heard him fight
or yell with anyone. He never did.
And anybody that lived in there
house was not aloud to either.”
Lizzy and Bernard lived at
the farm for about twenty years,
right up until Bernard died in early
1954, just a few months before
Margery and Jack had their first
son, Bernard James Callan, whom
they named after him.
After Bernard died, Lizzy
sold the farm and bought a house
in Rochester on Arnett Boulevard.
Her daughter Mary, who had been
living on the farm at the time,
moved with her. Mary never
married, and the two lived together
on Arnett Boulevard until they
moved to Orlando in 1971.
They later moved to St.
Petersburgh, Florida.
Elizabeth died there of
congestive heart failure on Oct. 16,
1974. She was 93. After her death,
and according to her wishes, her
remains were returned to Seneca
Falls.
At St. Patrick’s Church,
where she was baptized in 1881
and married in 1903, she was
buried, in Columkills cemetery,
next to her husband Bernard,
whom she survived by just over
twenty years.
~ 39 ~
The Callans and McClarys
Bernard and Lizzy’s only
daughter, Mary, who was 64 at the
time, sold the St. Petersburgh
house and moved back to Rochester
following her mother’s death.
She spent her last years in an
assisted living residence, and was
lovingly cared for by the family of
her nephew George, the eldest son
of her brother George Callan.
She died in March 1978.