Early photos of Ferriter family in Ballyferriter

A look into the past, from Morgan Ferriter, Donegal, Ireland. These are two shots I scanned from a book called West Kerry Camera. I am not sure exactly who the Ferriter men in the shot below are, someone else may be better able to shed light on this.

All these men but one, are from the parish of Ballyferriter.

Front roW, from left: Tomas O Fearghusa, Séan Feiritéar, Tomas Óg Feiritéar.

Back row, from left: __?, Tomás Feiritéar, Séamus Feiritéar (with son Brendan), Johnny Ó Guithín (Dunquin)

Trif ghIdin Feirtarach Thforabhin i bPariste an Fheirtaraigh 1907. (Feirtear family in Ballyferriter parish taken 1907. Three generations of the Feirtear family in this photograph.)
Chun tosaigh // front row, from left: Seamas, Brid, Murchadh and Seosamh. LaIstiar // back row, from left: Maire, Brid (grandmother), Neil (mother), Siobhan (in Neil's arms), Seainin (grandfather), Eoghan and Muiris (father).My Grandfather, Morgan, is the child in the front with the white pinafore.

Ballyferriter, 1907.

In the photo are the Fitzgeralds pictured dipping sheep with the Ferriters. 4th from the left standing, is Eoghan Feirtear, and behind him is Seainin Feirtear with the hat. The girl wth the shawl is Marie Fitzgerald.

Ted Ferriter

I am a retired U.S. Navy Captain, naval aviator form the P-3 community. My final tour in the Navy was as the Naval Attache to Mexico. This tour was a superb way to end a 30 plus year career, very interesting and much fun. My dad, John, was also a career naval officer, destroyers, who retired in 1967. Both my mom and dad were born in Washington, DC, as were their three children. My older sister, Julie Morgan, lives in the DC area.

I am cousin (second or third, once or twice removed, or something) with other "bloggers" on this site, noteably George Ferriter, coordinator of the upcoming Ferriter Clan gathering in Wisconsin.

I have two sons: John, a 1st LT in the USMC, and Andrew, a 1st LT in the US Army. John is a lawyer who starts Naval Justice School in JAN 08 with follow-on orders to 29 Palms, Calif. Andrew is an aviator stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas, currently in Iraq.

My Navy career took me to many parts of the world, over thirty countries, and our family lived nine different places. (Counting my years growing up in a Navy family I have moved well over twenty times.) At least temporarily, my wife, Pat, and I have decided to settle in the DC area.

One of the highlights of my early travels was a visit to Ballyferriter with my mom, dad, and little sister, El. We stayed at Ferriter’s Inn, outside Ballyferriter, a bed and breakfast run by Ireen Ferriter. We visited the farm of yet another John Ferriter and my dad and I hiked out to see the remains of Pierce Ferriter’s "castle." I have a great picture of my dad leaning up against the remaining corner of the stone structure, high on a cliff over looking the ocean. I will take my son's there when we can work that visit out.

A friend who visited Ireland last year sent me a picture of “Ferriters” a pub somewhere near Dingle that advertises “Food till 8 PM” and “Live music”. I plan to visit there also.

Edward C. (Ted) Ferriter

Extreme Ferriters

My plan at the beginning of the year was to post something based upon my personal experiences. Meanwhile, my ongoing efforts to identify the locations of family members and to contact them in advance of the All Ferriter Family Gathering in 2009 has had a collateral effect: I am also discovering all sorts of interesting data about other Ferriters, no longer with us, but noteworthy none the less.

Over the past quarter century or so, a phenomena called “Extreme Sports” has swept the nation. We have hot-dog skiing, snowboarding, freestyle rock climbing, sky diving, motocross, bungee-jumping, skateboarding, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, and many other activities and events. Ferriters, throughout history often notable athletes, participate in many of these. The interesting thing seems to be that Extreme Sports are not a new thing, just variants. Read on.

We have an ancestral relation in Clyde Ferriter. Clyde seems to have been born in Missouri back in the very early 1890s – probably 1891 or 1892. I don’t know what branch of the family he was part of, but there is an indication that his father was a Railroad Boss, and we know that an Indianapolis Ferriter who was a railroad man moved that way as a career move, and this may have been his father. If so, Clyde was of the Seamus Lucas branch, with a grandfather who immigrated in the 1840/1850 time frame. Clyde grew up in Wichita Kansas, just at the time when the automobile was arriving on the scene and entering the public imagination in a big way. So Clyde became an automobile enthusiast.

At the same time that Clyde was beginning his driving career, a man by the name of Ralph Hankinson was inventing and promoting new sporting and entertainment activities involving automobiles. Mr. Hankinson is credited as being one of the grandfathers of modern motor sports. Curiously, Ralph Hankinson also lived in Wichita, Kansas. That he knew Clyde seems quite certain, and here’s how we know this:

In 1912, Ralph Hankinson invented a new sport – at least he gets credit for it – Automobile Polo. In all likelihood, some energetic young motor enthusiasts on the farm actually started Auto Polo, driving around the back 40 with a driver and a partner hanging out the passenger
side whacking a ball around. Hankinson took this to the next level, by organizing it and promoting it. Within a year, Auto Polo was something of a national craze.

FERRITER AT THE MALLET?

The Annuals of Kansas, (Kirke Mechem), states that on July 19, 1912, there was an Auto Polo game played at Wichita. Also, on December 12, 1913, "A series of auto polo games between American and British teams was played at Topeka. At that time, Auto Polo was said to be a Kansas game promoted by Ralph Hankinson (of) Topeka.

The game was played with two cars, with two people in each vehicle. The vehicles themselves seem to have been modified Model- T Fords, with the body metal stripped away, and rudimentary crass and roll bars installed. One person would operated the vehicle, (the driver), while the other would attempt to whack an over-sized softball towards the goal. This guy was the “mallet man”.

Well, Clyde Ferriter was a Mallet Man, and he must have been pretty good. By the end of 1912, the National Auto Polo Association was presenting matches for the public in New York City. Just before Christmas, 1912, exhibitions were put on inside, with Madison Square Gardens as the venue.



Sounds like fun, Huh? Good sport for Ferriters, by my reckoning!

And what do we know of Clyde? Perhaps his descendants know, and can enlighten us. We can trace his life in Wichita by his membership in the “Twentieth Century Club”, as listed on the 1921 Wichita Social Register, and by his 1965 obituary, recorded at Christmastime, 1965, some 53 years following his daredevil performances in Madison Square Garden.

I have a theory about our family: We produce men and women who live on the edge, sometimes falling off, and we produce men and women of propriety and respectability. Sometimes one type transforms into the other, sometimes not. In every case we are distinctive and interesting, not bland and boring. Way to go, Clyde!



Seoirse Feirtear
January 2008