Mrs. Delia Haley Is 100 Today

Corn husking bees, taffy pulls
and Saturday night dances at scat-
tered farmhouses are among the
girlhood memories of Mrs. Delia
Haley, 112 Clarence St. who celebrates
the 100th anniversary of her
birth today. A resident of McKean County
since the age of 15, she is spry and
in very good health and declared
that there was no difference between
20 and a 100 except maybe
the limbs are a little stiffer.
Settling in Sawyer City shortly
after the Civil War she recalls that
Main St., Bradford, was an old
plank road and other thoroughfares
were thick with mud, so
deep that it reached the hubs of
the wagon wheels.
Born [Hannah] Delia Keesler, in Cochecton
Centre, N. Y. she came to the
area as a young girl with a cousin
to look for domestic work. "I was
paid $2 a week when I first came",
she said and then added that her
wages were soon raised to $5.
Wed in 1880
In 1880, she was married to John
E. Haley at the Smethport Methodist
Church. The couple had five
children. Harry, John and Helena [Helen],
all now deceased; Mrs. Anna Gibson
who makes her home with her
mother and Mrs. Jessie Healy,
Jamestown. Mr. Haley died in 1937.
Mrs. Haley has seven grandchildren.
Living in Bradford are
John D. Healy and Gerald E. Beyler;
10 great-grandchildren including
Kathleen Healy, Jerry and Billie
Healy. John, Barbara and Shelly
Beyler, all of Bradford.
A framed picture of her as a
young, lovely girl still hangs in
her home and Mrs. Haley added
further proof that she was a sought
after belle when said "If I didn't
go to a dance with one boy, then
I went with another." And then added
"I'd rather dance than eat."
She recalled the excitement of
the oil boom that was taking place
in the area when she first arrived:
"Bradford was very rough at night
and it wasn't safe to go outside
but it soon quieted down."
One anecdote breaking ground
for other, Mrs. Haley smiled and
forgot others about her as she
reminisced, "I was a dar-y young
thing," and told of coming home
from a dance one night with a
young man. As they passed the tall
derricks she remarked that she
might climb one some day. When
her beau laughed, she took the
dare and climbed to the very top.
First Riders
As a girl, she and a Mrs. DeCamp
were also the first women to ride
a the old narrow-gauge railroad,
traveling from Sawyer City to Bradford
and back again.
Throughout her life she has lived
in Degolla, Smethport, Limestone
and Mt. Alton and has resided at
er present address for the past
30 years.
Knitting and crocheting took up
her time until a few years ago.
Now she spends the day alone while
her daughter works reading the
news-papers and watching the neighbor
children at play from her window.
Two years ago she painted
the front porch and still does some
cooking and dish washing.
An open house will be held for
friends from 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9
o'clock today. Two birthday greetings
have already been received.
One is on the stationery of the
United States and bears the greetings
and signature of Dwight Eisenhower.
Congratulations are extended
on a more feminine paper by
Mamie Doud Eisenhower.
Mrs. Haley, most of whose immediate
family lived to be over
eighty, still considers herself able
to tackle housework. When the
spring housecleaning chore came
up recently, her daughter was ailing,
but Mrs. Haley had the solution:
"I'll do the heavy work", she
said, "and you can do the dusting".

THE BRADFORD ERA, 5-6-1958