Thomas John Poole

Thomas John Poole was born on August 20, 1914, the youngest child of William and Mary Poole. He was named after a previous child Thomas, who died at the age of two months in 1907.

At the time of his birth, the family was living in Brooklyn, most likely at 174 Hull Street. In any case, we do know they were at that address 10 months later when the 1915 New York State Census was taken. It was an apartment building, with four other families living there at the same address. I haven't found a picture from back then, but here is a present day view of the street.

William died in 1918. Thomas was then three and a half years old so he probably had only vague memories of his father. Shortly thereafter, his mother moved the family to 29 Euclid Street in Cyprus Hills, close to the border between Brooklyn and Queens. By January 1920, when the US Census was taken, they had moved again, this time a bit farther: to Holy Child Jesus parish in Queens.

Their first address in Queens, 257 128th Street, is a bit of a mystery, since it no longer exists today and is not even in the proper form of present-day Queens addresses. In fact, addresses were being reassigned right about that time. I believe that their next recorded address, 8479 127th Street, is actually the same house but so far I have no definitive evidence. Here is what that address looks like today.

Uncle Tom seems to have been a very bright child. According to the 1920 census, he was able to read but not yet write at age five. His mother or siblings must have taught him, since he didn't actually enter school until 1922, when he had just turned eight.

That school was the Holy Child Jesus School, the same school my sister and I attended as children. It had been constructed just a few years before, opening its doors in September 1917. Coincidentally, the 111th Street station of the BMT elevated line along Jamaica Avenue had just opened a few months earlier.

Thomas appears on the published Honor Roll in second grade, the only record of him I have been able to find. He would have graduated from eighth grade in 1926. He attended high school at Cathedral College, which was actually a minor seminary, so he may have thought about the priesthood. Cathedral had a four year high school and two year college program. Census data tells us that was he completed high school, which was pretty much normal for the period and for most Poole family members who did not enter religious orders.

At some point during the period from 1925 to 1930, Mary managed to purchase a home at 8782 115th Street, the first house owned by the family. That house is very familiar to me since I frequently visited my aunts there as a child. The location was much more central in the parish, only a few minutes walk from the church and school.

In August 1932, when he was 17 years old, Tom's sister Agnes died. She was 31 and her death made a big impression on the family, continuing through my own childhood and even later.

At the time of the 1940 census, Tom was 26 and working for the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Marine inspection as a stenographer. He was also active in the church and in January 1942 was elected Secretary of the Holy Child Jesus Men's club.

A month later, however, he was drafted and entered the army. He served in Fort Dix, New Jersey, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He wrote home regularly and his granddaughter Christine has managed to safeguard the letters. They are interesting reading and give a picture of everyday life at the time.

Tom was discharged from the army in October 1943. A few months later, in January 1944, his mother Mary died. Of course this was an enormous blow to the family. Brothers Jim and Jack, both priests, officiated at the requiem mass in Holy Child Jesus church.

Thomas became active again in the parish. In October 1944 he represented the Holy Child Jesus men's club in a debate against a team from another parish. The topic was raising the subway fare to five cents. His team drew the affirmative position, arguing that the fare should be raised. They lost.

On May 5, 1945, Thomas and Eileen Jane Byrnes were married in Holy Child Jesus church in a Solemn High Nuptial Mass sung by Father John Poole, Tom's brother. He was assisted by two other priests, one a friend of the Byrnes family and the other a classmate of Tom's from Cathedral College. Tom's brother Charlie (my father) was best man.

Eileen was the proverbial "girl next door" - her parents lived a few houses along the street from the Pooles. The couple honeymooned in the Poconos. It's not clear where they lived immediately after the marriage, but according to newspaper reports they intended to live in Richmond Hill. It could even have been with either family.

Shortly afterwards, newspaper records show Tom continuing to be very active in the Catholic Debating League, but associated with a different parish. In October of 1945 he chaired a debate at Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in South Ozone Park. In December,the Holy Name Society at OLPH named him chairman of their debating team. One article refers to him as a former member of the Holy Child Jesus team.

In July of 1946, Thomas was elected Secretary of the Catholic Debating League of the Diocese of Brooklyn. This was a pretty big deal. Today the diocese covers Brooklyn and Queens but before 1957 it included all of Long Island. Tom's experience as a stenographer probably made him a natural choice as secretary, but it clearly would not have happened unless he was seen as a strong and steady member of the community.

We don't know why Tom changed parishes around 1945-46. The most likely explanation is that he moved into the new parish but we don't yet have that information.

On March 8 1947 Tom and Eileen's daughter was born. She was named Eileen Jane, following the Irish tradition of naming the first-born daughter after the mother.

One hint about living arrangements shows up in a 1948 personal add in The Tablet:

At the moment, this is only an interesting clue, but if "Mrs. Poole" in the ad is actually Tom's wife, then it would mean they were looking for a place to live. The telephone exchange appears to be in the Shore Road area of Brooklyn, in case that may serve as an additional hint.

I have almost no information about the remainder of Tom's life up to his death in November 1964. Yet that period, starting around 1950, is where my own memories of Tom and his family live.

My sister Agnes and I are probably the only remaining family members who remember Tom and his family. He was a very kind man who always behaved in a caring way toward his wife and daughter. That made him exceptional in the Poole family, a pretty judgemental bunch overall. He was probably my father's closest friend.

His daughter Eileen was one of the few cousins we actually knew and spent time with. In the 1950s, Uncle Tom, aunt Eileen and cousin Eileen would come to see us. Tom owned a car and we would occasionally take trips "out to Long Island." Two places I remember visiting with them were Valley Stream State Park and a sort of roadhouse in Oyster Bay. The latter had nice grounds and play equipment and we were all able to play under our mothers' eyes while the two brothers drank beer inside.

But those occasions were completely separate from the rest of the family. Holiday celebrations at the family home didn't generally include Tom and his family. As children, we didn't really understand this but today I think it was due to a degree of antipathy between Tom's wife Eileen and "the girls" - the three sisters who still lived in the family home.

Doing this research and learning of his steady involvement with the church and his participation in groups like the Debating League has been a bit of a revelation for me. Clearly there was more to him than just a fun guy and drinking buddy to my father. The mystery is around whether and how he changed over time.

At the time of Uncle Tom's passing I was 22. I hadn't seen my young cousin Eileen for a number of years. We spoke at the funeral and I was struck with her loss, wondering how she would cope, what would become of her and whether the family would help. I didn't see her again for over 40 years. But that's a story for another post.