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Note: Seventh of nine sisters, she would grow up with only four of those sisters: Elizabeth, Evelyn, Catherine and Julia. Her 13-year-old sister Nellie would die when Martha was three; sister Theresa at five days old, before Martha was born; Lucy would die at age five months, three years before Martha was born; and Rosella (and her Mother, Julia) at birth when Martha was about to be eight years old.
Martha graduated from Shabbona, IL, High School in 1900, Valedictorian of her Class.
Her speech to the graduating class follows:
"The Women of Yesterday and Today”
by Martha McCormick
"At the early dawn of history, about four or five thousand years ago, we find civilization scattered along the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates rivers. But of the history of the people living along these rivers at this time very little is known.
In Egypt we find the majority of the people living in ignorance. The weaker classes being entirely without knowledge of what the word liberty meant. While of woman we have no authentic history, for she was regarded as of no importance.
But of the people living in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, we have more knowledge. We find them to be a migratory class of people, sometimes moving in large numbers with their families. The men exploring the country and leaving the work for the women, who were treated as slaves by everyone.
Simonides, an ancient Greek poet in speaking against women in general, compares the different classes of them to various despicable animals by saying, "Jews made this supreme evil - women; even though they seem to be of good, when one has got one, she becomes a plague." Another poet, Hipponax, says, "A woman gives two days of happiness to man - her bridal and her burial."
This was the manner in which women were regarded, in the early days of Greece; though she had as many noble qualities as man she was never allowed to make use of them. Her main duties were to cook and spin and oversee the domestic slaves of whom she herself was practically one. She was seldom allowed to appear in public or to meet even in her own house the male friends of her husband.
In Rome she was treated nearly the same. Until her marriage she was kept in seclusion, after which she might attend the races of the circus and arena.
We thus see that in two of the most important countries of the ancient world, women were regarded with little or no respect. And if we were to study the history of these nations, we would find them filled with some of the worst crime the world has ever witnessed. At one time, being the predominating nations on the earth, at the present day, they are among the weakest. If we would look into their history more carefully, we would undoubtedly find one of the causes of their downfall to rest mainly on the fact that women were regarded with no reverence.
During the early virtuous period of Roman history, divorce was unusual, but in later and more degenerated times it became very common. The husband had the right to divorce his wife for the slightest cause or for no cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity of the family relation may doubtless be found the cause of the degeneracy and failure of the Roman nation.
But about one hundred years before Christ, we find a new class of people migrating from the north of Europe into the south. These people were the Teutons. They were a very strong tribe and brought new manners and customs with them. Though the Teutons had neither arts nor sciences, they had something better than all of these; they had personal worth; capacity for civilization, love of personal freedom and reverence for womanhood! As they mingled with the inhabitants of the South of Europe, they gave new ideas to these people, and at the beginning of the eleventh century we find a form of society organized especially for the protection of the weak and the oppressed. This system, which was known as Chivalry and which was at its height during the fifteenth century, had a great influence over the people of its time. Though it was weak in some points, if we were to speak of the beneficial refining influence of chivalry, we should say that it undoubtedly contributed powerfully to lift that sentiment of respect for the gentler sex, that characterized all the northern nations of Europe of its time, into reverence for womanhood, which forms one of the distinguishing characteristics of the present age.
From the time of Chivalry up to the present time, women have gradually gained the respect of most nations. It is true that in several of the Oriental countries, women are kept in seclusion.
In Burma at the present day, the girls are seldom taught to read, for according to the Budahist belief, woman is naturally sinful and it scarcely pays to educate her. The Burmese woman has more rights than any women Asia. The Japanese wife is address as a slave by her own husband, and she seldom appears in the room when he has a guest. The Korean lady cannot go out into the street except in a closed chair, and the small footed Chinese wife is the slave of her mother-in-law and millions of the women of India and Turkey are not to be seen on the street.
In India, women are in fact the slaves of their husbands. They receive little education and have but few rights. The Hindu wife never eats until her husband has finished his meal, and then she takes what is left. Widows cannot marry again and are despised by the family and everyone else. A widow usually lives at the home of her mother-in-law, and the members of the family do all they can to make here life miserable, for it is supposed that the husband is happy in heaven just in proportion as his widow is miserable on earth.
We thus see that in several countries at the present day, women are still treated as slaves, but if we look at the advancement of these countries we find very little progress, and the countries themselves have little to do with the civilized world. While if we look at the women of Europe, England, and the United States, we find them occupying some of the highest and most responsible positions that can be offered to them.
In England, liberty is enjoyed by all women but they do not have as many rights as the American women have.
In our western states at the present day, the women take an active part in governmental affairs, and it is the hope of some ambitious women of the East that this field will soon be open to them. They also take part in business affairs which were formerly occupied only by men.
The American woman began this work of development in the business line, at the close of the Civil War. They were driven to it by want. Tens of thousands of the bread-winners in both the north and south lay dead upon the battle field or were unfitted to support their families.
The women were compelled to do it or starve. They came out of their quiet homes where they had been tenderly sheltered, while busied with their gentle duties as wives and mothers; they went into the market place and took up the fight for a living as promptly, as willingly and as bravely as their husbands and sons had gone into that easier fight five years before.
Hithertoo there had been but few lines of business open to them and now they argued, that if they as well as men must earn their bread, other opportunities should be given to them, and in a few years they demanded all the professions, which were open to men to be open to them.
You may see how foolish and how dangerous is her mistake. But you cannot refuse a cheer to her courage. No battle ever was fought more gallantly, than that which resulted in giving every woman the opportunity to earn her living.
But in the stress of the fight and the heat of the victory, she has forgotten that the earning of bread and the public work, which she is wrenching out of the hands of men, are only duties to her when forced upon her by necessity. That the wifely and motherly duty which she left behind in the quiet home was the work appointed her by God, and that the support given to her man while she did it was her due.
Having thus looked at the woman of yesterday and today, if we would gaze into the future, we will hope to find her not only taking part in the social and political affairs, but fulfilling her place in the home, for it is through the influence of woman that is moulded the character of the future men and women of the world."
At age 29, in 1911, Martha would marry John Henry McMenamin age 32, giving birth to children in 1912, 1914, 1915, 1918 and 1923.
Three of her five children would participate in World War II;
Victor became a Tailgunner on a B-24D bomber over the Proeste oil fields, was shot down and held captive by the Germans at Stalag XVII from October 1943 until April 1945;
Robert, became an Army Captain and participated at D-Day, 1944.
Both sons returned safely.
Martha Claire, youngest daughter, was accepted into the Women's Air Corps (WACS) and served as a photographer in the U.S. Army Air Force from 1944-46 (Interstate Aircraft Industries).
JOHN AND JULIA MC CORMICK
A Partial History From Reminiscences of Martha McCormick McMenamin and Julia McCormick Griffin
As told to their granddaughter/grandniece, Jean Montgomery Bjorn
c. 1975
Our father, John McCormick was born on May 7, 1844, in County Tipperary, Ireland. He came to the United States at the age of 7, in 1851. One of his sisters died during the voyage and was buried at sea. The family travelled down the St. Lawrence River to Chicago where they settled. He roped cattle on a farm located near the present site of State and Madison Streets in Chicago. One sister married and moved to Texas.
Several years before the Civil War, the family moved to the country, buying a farm southwest of Shabbona, Illinois. His father asked John to go to Texas to find his sister, of whom the family had heard nothing for some time. The sister was never located. (There is a family story, unconfirmed, that the sister had died, and apparently her husband was either deceased or unable to care for their children who were put up for adoption and taken by adoptive parents to England.)
While on the trip to Texas, the Civil War broke out and John was drafted into the Confederate Army. He deserted and fled back North, where he joined the Grand Army of the Republic. He served with the 105th Regiment of Illinois Infantry Volunteers from September 2, 1862 until June 17, 1865.
Following his service in the Union Army he saved his army pay and worked approximately 5 years before marrying Julia Cargan in 1870. Julia had been born in County Meath, Ireland. They purchased a farm adjacent to his parents’ farm. There, Mary Elizabeth was born on February 16, 1871 (d Feb. 1964). During a visit of another of John's sisters and her son from Chicago, the boy set fire to a barn after playing with matches. Every building on the farm burned to the ground except the house.
At about this time (1871), word was received that the C.B. & Q Railroad was coming to Shabbona; so John built a hotel in Shabbona in 1872. The railroad men and travelers having to wait to catch other trains ate and slept there. There was a long, narrow porch across the front, and in the office, a counter behind which was a cabinet which held cigars and tobacco, and lamps for each room. A round table was used for card games, and in the sitting room (or parlor) was a bookcase, with glass doors and a drawer at the bottom, which held books the travelers could borrow during their stay. On March 21, 1877, the hotel was heavily damaged in a fire. Thanks to an insurance policy a second hotel was built, and the family lived in a house next door. (This house still stands, in excellent repair, on the main street in Shabbona as of 1996.) "Mother's fondest Wish had been to see the day when they would out of the hotel, because father always ate with the men at the hotel, and we ate when we could. She wanted us to be a family again."
John and Julia had eight children, all girls.
They were:
Mary Elizabeth b February 16, 1871 d March 16, 1964
Nellie F. b September 12, 1872 d August, 1885
Theresa b May 13, 1874 d May 18, 1874
Evelyn b February 9, 1876 d September 12, 1949
Lucy b March 10, 1879 d August 31, 1879
Catherine b May 10, 1880 d May 10, 1966
Martha Madeline b December 23, 1882 d May 13, 1976
Julia Cargan b February 3, 1884 d June 19, 1976
Rosella b September 13, 1889 d September 13, 1889
On September 13, 1889, when Martha was 6 1/2 years old and Julia 5 1/2 years old, their mother, Julia Cargan McCormick died after giving birth to Rosella, who had died at birth. On the 11th, someone sent for the priest in Leland, 18 miles away. He anointed her that evening. The children were awakened in the middle of the night and brought to their mother's room where they sat on the sofa and were summoned one at a time to say goodbye to their mother. Julia remembered her mother's farewell to her: "And here's little Julie. Remember to always be a good girl."
Upon her death, rather than going the 12 miles to the Catholic Church in Lee (St. James, served by the priest from Rochelle once a month), or the 18 miles to Leland, the minister at Shabbona's Congregational Church offered the priest the use of the Congregational Church for the funeral. During the Mass the Congregational choir sang, having been coached in the Catholic liturgical music the night before by the priest from Leland.
Note: The above was written down immediately after visiting with Martha and Julia at the Pine Acres Nursing Home in DeKalb, Illinois, where they shared a room for several years until their deaths in 1976. Having engaged them in a question and answer time, they became very active in their reminiscences, correcting each other gently over small details. How I wished I'd had a tape recorder with me. The verbal pictures they conjured up in my mind were very bright, and I immediately set out to record them. How completely accurate were their memories as far as dates and details, I couldn't know, but I wrote down as closely as possible what they had told me during that wonderful visit.
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