Catherine Uhlmyer

Catherine Uhlmyer Gallagher Connelly (April 4, 1893 – October 17, 2002) was the second-to-last and longest-living survivor of the "General Slocum" fire of June 15, 1904.

Birth

She was born as Catherine Uhlmyer in Manhattan, New York. Her father died before she was a year old, and her mother Veronica remarried a man called John Gallagher. cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Catherine Connelly, 109; Escaped Slocum Fire |url= |quote= Catherine Connelly, who as an 11-year-old in 1904 escaped the inferno that burned the General Slocum, an excursion boat in the East River, died on Thursday at a nursing home in Wilton, Connecticut. She was 109 and was one of the last two survivors of the disaster, according to a commemorative group. Maureen Enright, Mrs. Connelly's granddaughter, reported the death. Kenneth Leib, president of the General Slocum Memorial Association, said that only one General Slocum survivor remains alive: Adella Wotherspoon, 98, a retired teacher in Watchung, New Jersey |publisher=New York Times |date=October 19 2002 |accessdate=2007-06-21 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Survivor's Life In the Shadow Of a 1904 Disaster |url= |quote=Catherine Connelly does not hear very well and has cataracts. But she has known the large joys of 11 children, 26 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, with 2 more on the way. On Mother's Days, her East Side apartment blossoms like the botanic gardens. And small pleasures brighten her ... |publisher=New York Times |date=May 24 1989 |accessdate=2007-06-21 ]

General Slocum

On that tragic day, aged 11, she was one of the passengers aboard the "General Slocum" when it caught fire on the East River in New York. She remembered a boy shouting "fire" while a brass band was playing on the deck of the ship to entertain the travelers. She recounted the images of mothers and children with their clothing on fire drowning in the rough waters of Hell Gate. Others were killed as they were drawn into the blades of the paddlewheel. The total death count was 1,021 of the 1,331 passengers who were on a Sunday school outing, and among the victims were her mother, her nine-year-old brother Walter, and her 11-month-old sister Agnes. "Sometimes he is very cruel, the man upstairs," she said in her interview with "The New York Times" on May 24, 1989, when she was already 96. This remained the largest single disaster in New York until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Marriage

In 1913 she married Thomas Connelly, a truck driver. She had two living daughters by the time of her death: Jeanne Gallagher Meehan, who lived in Goshen, New York, and Elizabeth Gallagher Reilly, who lived in Greenwich, Connecticut. Uhlmyer had 27 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great-grandchildren at the time of her death. 10 of her own 11 children were born at home.

Nursing home

She lived in a Manhattan apartment by herself until she was 102, when she had to move to a nursing home in Connecticut to be near her daughter Elizabeth.

The "New York Times" wrote:

Her pleasures included cooking rich food, and her secret for longevity was a banana a day. But every year in the weeks leading up to June 15, the anniversary of the disaster -- New York City's most lethal fire until 11 September 2001 -- she would become sad. She grew up in what was known as Little Germany, an enclave between Houston and 14th Streets on the East Side. Pickles were a penny each, and stacks of rye bread with apple butter were the delicacy of the day. St. Mark's Lutheran Church on East Sixth Street was the place of worship for much of the community. The church chartered the General Slocum, a wooden side-wheel steamboat, for the outing. A grocer who belonged to the church gave the Gallaghers, who were Roman Catholics, three tickets. But they needed one more. Mr. Gallagher had to work. "I went over to the store crying and they gave me a ticket," Mrs. Connelly said. "I was never on a boat before." Nor did she ever set foot on one again. The passengers boarded at 9:40 a.m. for the trip to Long Island for a picnic. After catching fire at Hell Gate, the General Slocum put ashore on North Brother Island at 10:40 and burned. Catherine Gallagher was rescued by a tugboat. An investigation revealed that life jackets and fire hoses had fallen apart with age; lifeboats were wired in place; and the crew had never conducted a fire drill. Only the ship's captain went to prison. In the days after the disaster, Little Germany's doorways were draped in black, and on June 18 1904, the neighborhood saw 156 funerals. More than 600 households lost loved ones. Mrs. Connelly lost her mother, brother and sister. Mrs. Wotherspoon lost two sisters, two cousins and two aunts. Catherine Gallagher first lived with her grandparents, then with an aunt and uncle. In Mrs. Connelly's later years, she was interviewed for many articles and television documentaries on the General Slocum, but she never lost her perspective. "You know," she said in the interview with the "Times", "you don't fully grasp the meaning of everything."

Death

She died in a nursing home in Wilton, Connecticut at 109 years old. Her death left Adella Wotherspoon as the last person to die that had been aboard the ship during the fire.

References

External links

* [http://www.general-slocum.com/0society.htm#SlocumMemorial General Slocum Website]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=conn&GSmid=46580804&GRid=8083476&pt=Catherine%20Uhlmyer%20Gallagher%20Connelly& Findagrave: Catherine Uhlmyer]