Harry Melville Thornally was born in San Francisco on
June 8, 1879. He was the third child of Mary and William Thornalley and the
second son. When Harry was 5 years old his family left San Francisco and relocated
to the East Bay taking up residence in Fruit Vale. Their home at that time was
at 1409 15th Avenue. They remained there until 1887 when they moved
to “Brey Avenue” near the “County Road.” Today Bray is 34th Avenue
and the County Road is Foothill Boulevard.  |
| Fruit Vale School in Oakland where Harry likely attended school |
Harry attended grammar school in Oakland and probably
attended Fruitvale Elementary School as his younger brother John had. After
finishing school Harry went into the trades as his father and older brother
William “Bill” had done. Harry’s first job was working as a machinist for F.I.
Matthews at Bay City Iron Works – a
foundry and machine shop located at Third and Washington Streets in downtown
Oakland. By 1906 he had been promoted to
foreman. City directories show Harry as continuing to work at Bay City Iron
Works until 1906. Then he went to work for United
Iron Works – the same place his younger brother John worked. In 1918 when
he completed his draft registration he was a machinery salesman at Berger Carter Machinery Company. Berger Carter was another machine shop located
at 400 Mission Street in San Francisco.
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| Harry & Blanche on their wedding day |
When Harry was 24 he married Blanche Wimble the daughter
of Thomas Wimble and Fannie Francis Edwards. Blanche was born on October 24,
1875 in Oakland. They were married June 17, 1903 at Blanche’s sister’s home on
Fruitvale Avenue. Harry’s best man was
George Taylor, which is somewhat surprising – I would have expected him to ask
one of his 3 brothers to fill that role. An article published in the Oakland Tribune on May 30, 1903
announced the pending wedding and noted that “Harry is the son of the Sanitary
Inspector and one of the most popular young men in Fruitvale”. According to another society page article Harry
and Blanche spent their honeymoon in Monterey, Santa Cruz and Catalina Island.
These are the same places that Harry’s niece Lottie and her new husband Ed went
on their honeymoon in 1939.
After the honeymoon, Harry and Blanche moved into their first home on Liese Avenue in the Allendale neighborhood of Brooklyn Township. I found a public notice in the San Francisco Call of Harry having purchased a lot on Liese Avenue for only $10. He bought the property from Josephine E. Bruguirre. The parcel was part of the Sather tract in Brooklyn. This purchase was made shortly after he and Blanche were married.
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| Blanche |
In 1870, Brooklyn annexed the adjacent town of Lynn. Then
in 1872 voters approved the annexation of Brooklyn into the City of Oakland. The
1909-1911 city directories show the couple living at 1315 38th Avenue
in the heart of the Fruitvale neighborhood. In 1918, the address shown on his
draft registration was 1233 38th Avenue. On the 1920 census, when
Harry was 40, they’d moved a whole block and were residing at 1427 39th
Avenue. They were still at this address ten years later for the 1930 census.
So, Harry and Blanche spent their entire married life living in the same
neighborhood of Oakland.
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| Harry Wimble Thornally |
In 1908, Harry and Blanche’s only child Harry Wimble
Thornally, Jr. was born on April 21st. He attended the University of California at
Berkeley at the same time as his cousins Ralph and George Thornally who were
sons of William Thornally Jr. Harry Jr.
was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He was also a member of the
Hammer and Coffin and Pi Delta Epsilon, journalistic honor societies and the
English Club. After graduation Harry Jr. married Gladys Pauline “Paula” Leach
(1910-1940) who was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Harry
Milton Leach and Pauline Hazel Dejarnatt. Harry and Paula were married on June
19, 1936 in Grace Cathedral in San Franciso and lived in Berkeley. From 1937 to
1939 Harry worked as a clerk at his father’s business. The 1941 Oakland
directory listed his occupation as “artist”, and in 1944 he was teaching. Harry
Jr. and Paula had two sons – Gilliat Leach born in 1942 and Frank in 1944. Harry Jr. died on June 7, 1944 shortly after
the birth of his son Frank. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
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| Bay City Iron Works machine shop |
Harry seniors’s mother died in 1912 when he was 32, and
his father died the following year on March 11, 1913.
On his draft form Harry was described as being of medium
height and build with brown hair and blue eyes. The paperwork also noted that
he was blind in his left eye. It did not give the cause of the blindness but
one can image an injury while at work in the machine shop.
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| Letterhead from Harry's business. Note H.M. Thornally at top right. This sketch of the building matches my photo above. |
The 1910 census noted that Harry was “working on own
account”. On the 1920 and 1930 censuses he was identified as the owner of an
iron works. The city directory listings note that he worked at Bay City Iron
Works during the early part of his career between 1899-1907. From 1908 to 1921
he was at the United Iron Works. But in 1922 he was back with Bay City Iron
Works and remained there until his death. Apparently he purchased the business sometime
prior to the 1920 census.
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| United Iron Works built by Harry's brother Will Thornally Jr. 3rd & Washington, Oakland |
During my research I was given a piece of letterhead for
Bay City Iron Works from Ed Thornally dated April 9, 1926. The letterhead shows
H.M. Thornally in the company logo. The letterhead includes a drawing of the
building and a lot of information about the company. It tells us they were
millrights, engineers and machinists. It even lists the equipment they owned
which included: Rockwood paper motor pulleys, Dodge wood and steel split
pulleys, complete line iron and pressed steel hangers, shaft bearings,
couplings, collars, etc. cold rolled steel shafting, etc. and they had leather
and rubber belting carried in stock. This particular receipt was for “picking
up a steel door at the library at 14th and Grove Street and making
adjustments”. The charge for the work was $4.50. This library was Oakland’s
second library built in 1900 – a recipient of a Carnegie grant. From 1902 –
1951 it was known as the Greene Library
and served as Oakland’s main library. It was heavily damaged in the 1989 Loma
Prieta earthquake and was closed for a few years prior to being rehabilitated.
The library reopened in 2001 as the African
American Museum and Library. My firm PGAdesign was the landscape architect
for the rehab.
A news article published December 9, 1905 reported that
Bay City Iron Works was destroyed in a fire. According to the article most of
the block between 2nd and 3rd Street, Washington and Clay
was destroyed. Accusations were made and charges demanding that Fire Chief
Engineer N.A. Ball be dismissed. A machine shop owned by Robert Brand at 621
Third Street was also destroyed as was a coal dealer at 620 Third. George E.
Randolph who owned the United Iron Works spoke in defense of the Fire Chief
claiming the chief “had arrived within seven minutes.” The primary witness was
John J. Conlan, battalion chief of San Francisco who testified that Chief Ball
had the fire “well stopped” by the time he arrived on the scene.
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| Snapshot of a Harry Thornally family camping trip from Lottie Pattillo's albums |
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| Harry's home on 35th Avenue as it looked when my sister Kathy and I visited in January 2016 |
The 1930 census shows that Harry and Blanche owned their
home on 39th Avenue which was valued at $6000. They also owned a
radio. It confirms that Harry was not a veteran. None of the Thornally sons
served in any branch of the military.
According to Lottie (Thornally) Pattillo, Harry was badly
injured on the job. His doctors advised him to have his leg amputated but Harry
could not agree to have the surgery. Regrettably his leg became infected. He
developed gangrene and that caused his death when he was only 57 years old.
Harry died on October 28, 1936 and is buried with his wife Blanche in the main
mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery, as are his brothers John, Sam and William
Jr. and their wives.
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| Harry Thornally's signature |
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| Harry & Blanche's tomb in the mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland |
