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- DONALD WELLES MCFARLIN 1900 - 1967 by; Peter F McFarlin - 2008, 2009
HAPPY DAYS OF YOUTH
My father, Donald Welles McFarlin, was the second son of William Kirk and Margaret Welles (Wiltsie) McFarlin and was born Oct 18, 1900 in his parents home at Hawthorne Ave, East Orange, New Jersey (NJ). As to the spelling of the Scots last name; b y 1900, Donald's father William had begun using the shortened version; McFarlin, although when young he and his father had spelt it McFarland.
Donald's eyes were blue and hair quite blond and wavy when young, becoming brown and curly by his teens. As shown by photographs, Donald was wearing glasses by age twenty. He was slender and reached about six feet when mature. He enjoyed reading m ore than sports and had a strong interest in family history/genealogy (!).
Donald grew up in the early 1900's in an affluent family setting in the town of East Orange, New Jersey (NJ), first at 16 Hawthorne Ave and then at 170 Glenwood Ave. The residents there were mainly New York City train-commuters and the area was al most wholly residential. He and his brother Kirk, eight-years older, went to the local elementary schools and both eventually to the fine East Orange High School, located on Winans Street, a one mile walk away. During summers some of the young boy 's visits were to the Wiltsie relatives in Chicago and to the Welles' homestead in Lake Keuka, New York. They also went to Florida to the Deland area. There were no known visits to the grandparent's McFarland/McFarlin homestead in Coitsville, Ohio . As my uncle Kirk says (# 3); "...I didn't know one single person on that side. My father had brothers, I never knew any of them...he had a brother Frank who died before I was old enough to know him."
One photo, about 1903, shows a three-year old Donald being playfully chased by eleven-year-old brother Kirk. Another picture is of five-year-old Donald holding up a heavy woodchuck just shot by brother Kirk in a recently cleared field, full of stu mps. (These photos, among various others, were given to Donald's son Peter in 1974, when he visited his uncle Kirk in Short Hills, New Jersey (# 2).
In 1908, while Donald was eight and still in the elementary schools, his brother Kirk left for Williams College, in Massachusetts (MA). From then on Donald and Kirk had limited contact except for the summers when both might be at home at the sam e time. Kirk explains; "...we fell apart ... from 1909 until 1920, except for a small amount of time, I was totally away, and after that time, he was away."
The 1910 census, taken in April, listed young Donald's family household under the last name spelled MacFarland and that his father William (and Wms parents, too), were born in Scotland. Furthermore, that William had immigrated in 1885 and was natu ralized - both erroneous data, and not likely made up by the census taker. Someone (Donald's mother Margaret?) had given the enumerator mistaken information. His father William was (correctly) listed as a "railroad manager" who owned their home fr ee of mortgage. They employed a live-in cook; Ida Aramson age 22, who had arrived from Sweden in 1904. All of the families in their Glenwood Street area were also well-to-do professionals who had from one to three servants per household.
MCFARLINS MEET FOLSOMS
About 1912, when Donald McFarlin was twelve, he attended a summer camp in New Hampshire where he and some of the boys wore shirts with a large W on them (perhaps for Lake Winnepesaukee?). Also at this camp was PFM's uncle-to-be; Edmund Hoffman Fol som who was one year older than Donald. They became good friends, exchanging photos and vying for muscular bragging rights (stretching on tiptoes and pushing up the biceps in photos). During these times (of 1912-1914) Donald probably stopped in af ter summer camp to visit Edmund at his home in nearby Brookline, (MA). In this Brookline Folsom family, Edmund had an older sister, Mary born 1896 and younger sister Margaret, born in 1906. Donald's brother Kirk would court Mary Folsom; 1917 to 19 25, and he, Donald himself, would later date, and then marry, Margaret Folsom in 1932.
TRIP ABROAD
In the late summer of 1913 Donald accompanied his mother Margaret and twenty-one year-old brother Kirk on a six week tour of Europe. They likely arrived in England first and then on into France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. A photograph of Dona ld and his mother Margaret was taken by brother Kirk on a hillside path in Switzerland. Thirteen-year-old Donald with backpack is leaning on his alpenstock just above a railroad track with the snow-capped Jungfrau in the background. Coincidentally , his son Peter later goes up that same railroad to the Jungfrau, during the winter of 1956, while on leave from his US Army station in Mainz, Germany.
The McFarlins returned to New York City from Naples, Italy on the SS Princess Irene arriving Sept 25th, 1913, just prior to WW I.
UNIVERSITIES
In the 1920 US Census, taken on January 3rd, nineteen-year-old Donald is enumerated in his parents house, still at 170 Glenwood Ave in East Orange (owned free of mortgage), and is attending school (college). In the garage at the rear of the McFarl in property live their chauffeur George Ader with his wife (cook), and daughter (nurse) as well as two household maids. The nurse likely was for Mrs McFarlin for her "nervous condition" (described below by her son Kirk). The family was still prosp ering with; William conducting railroad construction (with his partner, Frank Hyde), brother Kirk in import/export brokerage and Donald starting his higher education.
Donald was just a few months too young to register for the WW I draft in 1917. Upon graduating from East Orange High School in 1918, Donald attended William's College for two years, but then transferred to Cornell for one year. He was a member o f Psi Upsilon fraternity, as was his brother before him at Williams. However, Donald did not finish college, called back, I think, by the family troubles at home.
DONALD'S PARENTS SEPARATE
We pick up uncle Kirk's story (# 3) again about this time; ..."Now my father - it was in 1921 or 1922 that my father and mother separated. ...my mother had developed what I considered to be a nervous condition, which pursued her until eventually s he had a stroke. ... After the separation they lived apart for the rest of their lives."
Donald at first chose to go with his father to William's nearby apartment in East Orange while brother Kirk went to live with their mother in her new home in South Terrace, Millburn, NJ. "My father set up single living in an apartment down in Eas t Orange. My brother went with him". As soon as Donald left college he went into real estate business in the East Orange area while living at his father's apartment there.
DONALD'S CAREER
Regarding his brother Donald, uncle Kirk relates to PFM in 1974 that "He was in the real estate business here, and he actually sold this property next door to us (Delwick Lane) to a friend of ours who built a house there." Brother Kirk and Mary Fo lsom picked up Donald in the town of Boonton on Sunday Oct 26th, 1924 and they spent the day together at his mother Margaret's Millburn home. The three played tennis in the afternoon "at the club" until it got dark and after supper they all drov e Donald back to Boonton (his apartment there?).
Donald had started working for the General Motors Corporation in the winter of 1924 and in May of 1925 he "came into a better position" with them. This was apparently a temporary career change. When Kirk married in 1926, Donald moved back with hi s mother at South Terrace to be with her. "Then he went into building construction with an uncle on my mother's side (George Wiltsie) and they operated here for a couple of years." The 1930 US Census shows Donald living with his sixty-five year-ol d mother at 84 South Terrace in Millburn. He is listed there as a general manager in building construction.
"Then Donald joined some real estate organization in Hoboken." relates his brother Kirk. Donald applied for Social Security (# 151-09-0226) on Nov 30th 1936 giving his home address as 10 Park Ave, Maplewood, New Jersey and his employer as the Hobo ken Land and Improvement Co.
DONALD AND PEGGY FOLSOM
As mentioned before, Donald had first met Peggy Folsom through her brother Edmund's New Hampshire camp and Donald's early visit(s?) to their Brookline home. Donald was about thirteen and she about seven at that time. The Folsom/McFarlin family con nection continued in the teens and early twenties when Peggy's older sister Mary and Donald's older brother Kirk were dating. The two familys may have had a further connection through the Lake Placid Club in Essex County, New York where Kirk McFar lin, his mother Margaret and perhaps his brother Donald, took vacations during the summers. Mary Folsom had canoed there with Kirk and his mother in the summer of 1924.
Also, during the summer of 1925, Peg's brother Edmund lived at his wife Esther Dann's parent's summer place in Camp Abenaki almost next to the Lake Placid Club. He helped run the large Placid Club's laundry facility for his father-in-law, James Da nn, who was in the professional laundry business. It is quite likely Eddie and the McFarlin's were in touch there in the Adirondacks. And then, in that fall of '25, he and wife Esther moved to 173 Park Ave in East Orange, less than ten miles awa y from his old camping friend, Donald McFarlin, who was living with his mother Margaret at South Terrace in Millburn (Short Hills) New Jersey.
No doubt Donald and his family occasionally visited together with Eddie and Esther Folsom. Then Ed became ill with Bright's disease, returned to Brookline in 1927 and died there in July, 1929 (on his sister Peggy's twenty-third birthday, which dev astated her, due to Peg's closeness to her brother). It is likely that Donald came to Brookline to pay his respects to Ed Folsom's family and became re-acquainted with Peg. For the next year, she continued at The School of the Museum of Fine Art s (Boston) graduating in June of 1930.
During that year Donald and Peg became closer and then, by spring of 1931, they announced their engagement. Some of the photos taken of them at her parents home at 200 Washington St in Wellesley Hills in this year, include Peg's 1930 Ford Mode l A Roadster which she used in Massachusetts and loved to drive. Donald was still living with his mother at her home at South Terrace in Millburn, New Jersey, and he would come to Wellesley by train. He remained in real estate and construction eve n though business times were difficult just after the Oct Crash of '29. Times became even more difficult during the ten year depression that followed.
WEDDING BELLS
Donald and Peggy were married in January of 1932 at the Church of our Savior in Longwood, Massachusetts, with a small gathering of relatives and close friends. They stayed at the Charlesgate Hotel in Boston for several days and then 'honeymooned ' in his mother's South Terrace home in New Jersey, for two weeks while she was in Florida. They were having their own little rental house at 222 Hillside Ave in nearby Chatham cleaned and painted. They moved in there by mid-February. This first h ome was about three miles away from his mother's house and four from brother Kirks and Pollys.
When Peg's parents Mollie and Franklin were first visiting them in Chatham in May of 1932, Mrs Folsom (Mollie) wrote a newsy letter to Peg's sister Mary Applegate in Wellesley. Part of which is; "Margaret was going to write you, but they at presen t, have a great deal to worry them and I do wish we could lend a helping hand, but we simply cannot. Donald is proud and doesn't want us to know, but Margaret has told us secretly..." This appears to be the start of some of Donald's (and Peg's) co ming monetary hard times.
The Kirk McFarlins had a nice family gathering at Delwick Lane for Christmas of 1932, with Kirk taking a 'cable' picture of the group at table. Then, some time in mid to late 1933, Peggy had a miscarraige of a baby, perhaps by a fall down some sta irs (Alison's recollection from her mother), and Peter recalls his mother telling him it was born a 'blue baby'. The boy would have been named David.
GOOD? TIMES
The speak-easy days ended in 1933 with the repeal of alcohol prohibition. At about the same time the newly-weds Donald and Peggy began to go into New York City fairly often, to the theater, dinner shows, and clubs. His mother later tells Peter tha t they became friendly with some of the better known musicians such as Tommy Dorsey. Donald began to drink more heavily and, she says, he gambled. Donald sometimes continued this trend, alone, and he began to stay out late, eventually inviting peo ple out to their home, unannounced, while Peggy was home alone.
But there were many good times too, there at their next home at 8 Everett Place in Maplewood. A 1934 photo of Donald, is captioned by Peggy on the reverse with; "Donald and Peggy on wedding trip - two years late - this 'trip' was a five day moto r trip much appreciated. Money is so scarce!" The photo shows just Donald with his suit jacket off and holding a cigarette. In all the other photos of him, Donald wore suits.
When Peg's parents came from Wellesley to stay for the birth of Alison during June and July of 1934, we find Donald; helping paint the newborn's 'carrying basket', going together with Peg to visit friends and joking about being kicked by the 'jump ing bean' inside Peggy. Mollie writes (to Mary A); "Donald is out hoeing and Peggy is holding her breath as she says he does not know a violet from a weed, but I told her never mind. ...She and Donald went to the the 4th of July comedy put on by t he town and later she, her father and Donald went out to see the fireworks."
Peggy wrote in July 1934 to her sister Mary about having had quite an adventure; "I'll bet mother didn't tell you about our ride out to Mendham in Washington Valley, last week, when Dan (Wright) came to dinner and we all had a beautiful drive thro ugh that hilly, quaint district and saw a splendid job, an estate Dan is doing out there. I'll bet she didn't tell about the night we were out in the Reservation and got stuck, and the miles Donald had to walk after monkey wrenches, and the teleph one for help, and how Kirk towed us to a garage in Springfield, dogs and all!" They also made various short trips to Mrs. McFarlins and Kirk and Polly's.
DONALD'S FAMILY GROWS
Finally the long-delayed (date was misjudged) birth-event happened and baby Margaret Alison McFarlin was born, August 1st, 1934 at the Orange Memorial Hospital. There were many visits from family and friends.
In the photo at left, Alison is standing in her carraige at nine months old. Donald and Peggy are visiting at his brother's Delwick Lane, Short Hills home. Polly looks on as Kirk takes the picture and their son Kirk jr hams it up lying on the wall .
In March of 1936, they moved to 10 Park Avenue, Maplewood and the Folsoms came to visit (via train, as they usually did) for a week or so at Thanksgiving time. Mollie writes; "Mr McFarlin is coming to dinner on Thanksgiving, Kirk and Polly going t o Mrs. McFarlins." Early in December Peggy writes that they went to see "The Great Zeigfield", a musical film that won three oscars. However, the 1936 letters from 10 Park Ave make little mention of Donald, and Peggy is now signing "Peggy and Alis on".
On a visit to Mary Applegate's Wareland Road home in July of 1936, Donald, Alison and Peg are on the lawn in front where Alison has just cooled off in a dishpan of water.
"Then Donald joined some real estate organization in Hoboken..." relates his brother Kirk. Donald applied for Social Security (#151-09-0226) on Nov 30th 1936 giving his home address as 10 Park Ave, Maplewood, New Jersey and his employer as the Hob oken Land and Improvement Co.
Donald and Peg's last child, Peter Folsom McFarlin, is born February 18, 1937 at Orange Memorial Hospital. Written in his baby book (by his mother) for his 'First Outing' was; "In his third month he made the trip to Wellesley Hills, Mass. Stayed t wo months. Then he and his sister were taken to the Jersey sea-shore. We took a sterno heater along, and heated the bottles which had been kept in an ice pail in the trunk compartment. He slept in a market basket. A crowded automobile, with three -year-old, three-month-old, cat, dog, and ourselves!"
In August of 1937, Peggy returned from her summer stay in Wellesley Hills, met Donald at the shore and they went to his mother's South Terrace home in Short Hills, while his mother was in New Hampshire. Peggy writes her sister on August 27th; "... After three days of doubt and fear of the waves, Alison studied other children going in, and made up her mind to go in, holding on to her mummy and daddy...". This is the last happy mention of Donald.
They then return to their next home at May Terrace in Maplewood. About this time, in 1937, Donald's mother Margaret had a massive stroke while she was visiting cousins in Florida. Conditions between Peggy and Donald worsened, and were heightened a nd made almost impossible by Mrs McFarlin's return and the requirements of her care, even though she had a full time nurse.
COMING APART
A separation was agreed on while Donald attempted to improve himself (alcohol, gambling and behavior). Aunt Elsie MacTaggart writes to Mary, on Nov 15th 1937, "...Margaret, the children and the furniture! are to arrive in Wellesley Hills soon af ter Thanksgiving. Their flat already let for Dec 1st." (prob. May Terrace - PFM) "He goes to his mother, who approves, and to spend holidays with his family."... (Peggy and children in Wellesley - PFM)... " All is amicable. Mary goes to take Aliso n temporarily during upheaval." Elsie continues; "Questions arise in my mind, naturally, and I wonder if funds for Mrs. McF have been stopped and it is deemed unsuitable to take her into the family of children. She is extremely difficult, screamin g when opposed, at times at the top of her lungs." Apparently, the Folsom family had been helping out with Mrs. McFarlin's expenses, too?
Peg and children did return to Wellesley Hills in 1937, first stopping with her sister Mary at Wareland Rd until taking a rental house at 48 Laurel Ave for a year until October of 1938. She and Donald attempted to reconcile during this period, bu t In July of '38, Peg writes a difficult and poignant letter to her Aunt Elsie.
"...Unfortunately, it has been proven that I cannot trust Donald, nor feel SAFE for the children or myself while he is my husband. The papers, filing suit for divorce on grounds of intoxification and mental cruelty, will be sent to Donald. ...Fina ncial promises have not come true: Donald has defaulted time after time and left me worried and frightened for the children. I have excused him, looking for rehabilitation of his great excesses.
"This last occurance, last week, was the end as far as I was concerned. An intoxification of a week, following a casual 'throwing up' of his position, and then daring to come to me and the children with no proper explanation of his conduct, was a n insult to my intelligence.
"After his mother left - a most difficult situation - I sent him away. ...Mary and Tertius, out of the goodness of their hearts, have offered me a place with them , free of rental, throughout the winter. ...The winter's arrangement will enable m e to start the long-needed 'rainy-day' fund that is compulsory when small children are concerned. ...I can 'pull my own weight', particularly when unhampered by never knowing what sad happening might turn up next by a weak, unstable character."
This powerful 1938 letter came into PFM's hands years after both Donald and Peggy had died. A strong, sad message from the past which shed some light on those difficult times. There are no other family photos of Donald or any further references t o him in our family letters.
Donald McFarlin declared bankruptcy in January of 1939 in the United States District Court of New Jersey. On October 20th 1939 Margaret Folsom McFarlin was granted a divorce from Donald on the grounds of abusive treatment and alcoholism. She was a warded custody of Alison and Peter and they remained in Wellesley Hills through 1955, when Peter went into the US Army and Alison married in 1956.
NEW BEGINNINGS -- THEN DONALD'S PASSING
Peter's uncle Kirk continues in their 1974 interview regarding his brother Donald; "...then he worked for my father for a time and eventually ended up with the Washington government in supply during the War. and while he was there he met his seco nd wife. She was in the Washington picture somewhere. She was Alice Miller and was very nice and unassuming. She had a daughter from a previous, unsuccessful marraige (Donald and Alice had no children). ...after his war bureau closed up...in 1945 , he moved to Florida and from there to Jamaica. (When Donald's son Peter visited cousin Kirk McFarlin (called Mac) in Rio Dulce, Guatemala in February of 2009, Mac said he had visited Donald in the 1950's while in the U.S. Marines. They had share d some Jamaican rum up in the hills above Kingston at Donald's hotel retreat which Donald and Alice owned and ran at the time.)
"They spent four or five years in Jamaica in motel work - managing. They tried to translate that into an enterprise...somewhere outside of Kingston - on the south shore. After four or five years, they found they could not combat the native strengt h without capital. This was very difficult - and they did not have the capital. So they finally withdrew from there and came back to Florida. They returned into the hotel/motel management operation and continued that until he became seriously ill.
"It was cancer of the throat. It was terrible. We were on our way to Guatemala and we stopped there (in Florida, about 1965-66) and he had had one operation and then a second operation and I think we were there between the first and the second. I t was hopeless and progressive, and this person, whom he had married, had nursed him when they had exhausted their hospital means. She nursed him for almost a year, single-handed, under conditions that were very difficult. And it was for this tha t we had a great deal of respect for her."
In a Jan 27th 1967 letter to Peter, his uncle Kirk writes;
"My dear Peter;
"I wrote your father at once about your visit here, and of your request that I do so. I had heard from him shortly before that time, but he was apparently not able to write after receiving my letter. His condition became critical and in early Janu ary he was moved back to the hospital. I am sorry to have to tell you that he passed away on January 12th, after an illness extending a little more than a year. His wife advised me of his desire to be cremated, and to be buried in the family plo t here in Millburn. ...Very cordially yours - Kirk McFarlin"
Donald's widow returned to Washington DC and worked for Lord and Taylor's for at least seven years before eventually moving to Wisconsin to live with her daughter and family. At the age of ninety-six, Alice Miller McFarlin died November of 1996 i n Three Lakes, Oneida county, Wisconsin, near her daughter's family.
FSID LTKF-QXL
(Research):Family Tree DNA (www.familytree.com)
Family Tree for Mr. Peter Folsom McFarlin
REMAINDERS AND CLOSURE
Peter and Alison have talked over the lack of their father ever contacting them during the almost thirty years from 1938 until his death in 1967. It remains a mystery why he did not and is something that was missed by them. But, even more, look wh at he missed out on, with us.
We wonder if the McFarlin/Folsom families might have created such a binding constraint on Donald that, at first, he found it beyond himself to make the contact, even if he'd wanted to. And later, he might have just drifted completely apart from h is children, as he slowly rebuilt his life, away from all reminders of the arguments and stress generated from his mother and Peggy's conflicting demands and needs.
Alison has no recollections of her father. Peter has always had one dim scene he 'remembers'; sort of interacting with his father. Peter was lying in his crib (at about age one) and his father pushed a ball towards Peter, (hoping to play ball?), b ut Peter (the baby), didn't push it back and Donald turned away disappointed. A peculiar memory to have carried all these years.
In the early 1980's, Peter, by himself, conducted a process of contacting his father. Without the details of the methods, but through meditation, Peter asked for a 'healing' contact with his father. During this, Peter felt a sharp electric 'jolt ' on his right shoulder blade, strong, but not unpleasant, and received a 'message' of mutual forgiveness with his father from the 'other side'. I forgave him and, most importantly, he forgave himself.
GENERAL NOTE:
While growing up and living in Massachusetts, Peter had various short conversations with his mother and her family, regarding his father, Donald McFarlin and the McFarlin family of New Jersey. Peter never met or spoke with his father after the sep aration of Donald and his mother Peggy in 1938 (when Peter was one).
In 1966 Peter asked if his uncle Kirk would please communicate with Donald in Florida to let him know of how Peter and Alison were doing, and that Peter would like to contact him (see above).
NOTES AND REFERENCES
- (# 1) McFarlin; 1966 - In October, while living in Riverdale, NJ and working at Alpine Geophysical Associates in Norwood, NJ, PFM first ever looked up (and telephoned) his uncle Kirk and aunt Polly McFarlin. This was followed in November by a vi sit from PFM to the McFarlin's home on Delwick Lane in Short Hills, NJ. At that time, uncle Kirk gave PFM a small amount of data and information.
- (# 2) McFarlin; 1974 - Many of the McFarlin (McFarland) births, marriages, and deaths, with the names, are from the 1832 William McFarland bible, presented to his grandson, William Kirk McFarland by Wm K's mother, Sarah (Kirk) McFarland, March 9 , 1897 (1877?). Photocopies of the vital records pages in that bible, plus copies of other vital record notes and letters, were given to Peter F McFarlin in 1974, by his uncle, Charles Kirk McFarlin, in Short Hills, New Jersey, who had the bible a nd notes in his possession at that time. Various McFarlin family photos also were given to PFM at this time.
- (# 3) McFarlin; 9-10 October, 1974 - Personal conversations between PFM and Kirk and Polly McFarlin at their home in Short Hills NJ. These were willingly taped and later transcribed to text. Occasional phone conversations with and letters from U ncle Kirk to PFM followed between 1967 and March of 1977, one month before Kirk died.
- (# 4) Family letters and photos in PFM's possession in 2008.
OTHER SOURCES:
- 1900 census; East Orange, Essex co, NJ ED 180 p 201; William K McFarlin a 39 b Ohio Mar 1861, Margaret W a 35 b Illinois Sept 1864, Charles K a 8 b Kansas b June 1892(?) and J Mary W Wilsey a 67 b New York July 1832 - all living at their home a t 16 Hawthorne Ave.(no Donald listed - census was taken in June, four months before his birth).
- 1910 census; East Orange, Essex co, NJ ED 163 p 266; Donald MacFarland(sic) a 9 b New Jersey living with his parents and brother Charles K at their home at 180 (sic) Glenwood Ave.
- 1913 SS Princess Irene passenger list; from Naples, Italy Sept 12th, arriving NYC Sept 25th. Donald McFarlin, age 12 b Oct 18 1900 East Orange, NJ with his mother Margaret McF a 48 b Sept 24 1864 Elgin, IL and brother Kirk McF a 21 b June 17 189 2 Topeka, KA, all three giving home address as 170 Glenwood Ave, East Orange, NJ.
- 1920 census; East Orange, Essex co, NJ ED 31 p 70; Donald W McFarlin a 19 b New Jersey, attending school, living with his parents and brother Kirk at 170 Glenwood Ave. Also in household were a chauffeur, cook, nurse and two maids, all living i n the McFarlin's garage at the rear of the property. The property was owned by the McFarlin's free of mortgage.
- 1930 census; Millburn, Essex co, NJ ED 7-505 p 5b; Donald W McFarlin a 29 b New Jersey General Manager in Building Construction, with his mother Margaret a 65 b Illinois. Both living in her home at 84 South Terrace with it's value of $32,500.
- 1932 Certificate of marraige; The Church of Our Savior, Brookline Massachusetts on the 23rd of January, 1932 between Donald Welles McFarlin and Margaret Folsom.
- 1936 SS # 151-09-0226; application dated Nov 30 for Donald Welles McFarlin of 10 Park Ave, Maplewood, New Jersey, born Oct 18 1900 in East Orange New Jersey. His employer was the Hoboken Land and Improvement Co, 1 Newark St, Hoboken NJ.
- 1939 Notice of bankruptcy - for Donald McFarlin by the US District Court of New Jersey, dated January 24th.
- 1939 Decree of divorce NISI # 5176; Dedham Probate Court, Massachusetts, dated Oct 20 (effective in 6 months) - between Margaret Folsom McFarlin of Wellesley, Norfolk co, and Donald W McFarlin of Short Hills, New Jersey. Stated causes were; "... cruel and abusive treatment and gross and confirmed habits of intoxication caused by the voluntary and excessive use of intoxicating liquor...", and that; "...the care and custody of their minor children, to wit: Margaret Alison McFarlin and Pete r Folsom McFarlin be and it is hereby awarded to the said libellant." (Margaret Folsom McFarlin)
- 1967 Certificate of death, State of Florida. Donald W McFarlin died at the Victoria Hospital, Miami, Dade County, of carcinoma of the pharynx (onset was 12 months earlier), informant was Mrs Alice McFarlin of 8235 Northeast 1st Ave (rear), Miam i FL. Donald was cremated 1/14/67, and later interred in the McFarlin family plot in Millburn, NJ.
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