by Virginia Vallee Delaney, great-niece (1/15/2002)
In the village of Moretown, nestled in the hills of Vermont, Susie Kerin made
her entrance into the world in 1870. It was a world she grew to love with all
her heart. As a little girl, I listened to her stories hour after hour and
never had enough. Sitting in her wicker chair, she told me of an American epic
that was the making of her life. When I knew her, she was passionately kind
and joyfully Catholic.
The stories Susie told have now faded from my mind and I’m left with a few tantalizing pieces that only suggest the adventures she lived. Remembering her zest for life, I can imagine the dynamo she must have been when she was young. Her pictures show that she was beautiful. There is no arguing that point. My mother said Susie was once crowned queen of a big parade in Denver. I have no concrete confirmation of this event.
High drama was in her blood. Her father, Austin Kerin, was one of 10 passengers who survived the wreck of the brig St. John. The St John sailed from Galway, Ireland 1849. It struck Brush Island in Cohasset Bay in a violent storm on October 7, 1849. A young reporter, Henry David Thoreau, visited the scene and wrote several newspaper articles and included his thoughts on the shipwreck in his first book Cape Cod
Further, we saw one standing upon a rock, who, we were told, was one that was saved. He was a sober-looking man, dressed in a jacket and gray pantaloons, with his hands in the pockets. I asked him a few questions, which he answered; but he seemed unwilling to talk about it, and soon walked away. -- Henry David Thoreau
Austin Kerin was a handsome man and before long was settled in Moretown, Vermont married to Ellen Hassett–a good match. They had nine children, most of whom went west as adults. The first four to leave were girls: Mamie, Frances, Susie, and Nellie. (Nellie was my grandmother). Each of the four sisters laid claim to a 160 acre homestead in the territories (now South Dakota) and built a house where corners of the four homesteads met. They stayed on the homestead long enough to prove up on the land.
While homesteading, the girls were
often visited by Indians. Susie,
the most out going, found ways to help and, as a thanks, was adopted her into
an Indian tribe. If I remember right, they were Souix. [Click
Here for a Picture]. Our family lore holds that when my mother, Marie
Conway, was an infant, a band of warriors entered the house and threatened to
take the child! Nellie was baking a cake at the time, and offered the cake in
exchange for the my mother...which they accepted was a fair deal.
Eventually Mamie Kerin moved to Chamberlain, South Dakota and started a business making hats. According to my mother, they were the most gorgeous hats in the country.
Susie Kerin moved to Denver and opened a corset shop at 15th and California. She shared space with 2nd cousins, the Costello’s, who had a beauty shop.
When my grandmother died in 1904 Nov 16, the remaining sisters and an aunt (Aunt Frankie, my grandfather’s widowed sister) took turns tending to my mother (age 6) and her little sister, Esther, and brother, Bill. My mother dearly loved the sisters, especially Susie, who lived in Denver.
While in Denver, Susie was interested in literature, music and painting. She published two books, wrote her own music and painted pictures. She entertained and made many friends, but she never married. In later years she lived with Mamie in a big house near Denver’s City Park. That is where I knew her and visited her almost once a year until she died in 1952. In the last year of her life, she moved to Worland, Wyoming where my mother took car of her in her last illness. She is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery near Denver.
Colorado Poetry
©2002 Virginia Vallee