Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

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Fay Brothers. sons of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Fay.
Lewis. age 4: Bill. age 8 and Edward. age 10. (Photo
submitted by Timothy Fay)
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Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Fay (Photo submitted by Tim
Fay)
muleskinner. As foreman of a railroad crew in northern
Nebraska. he traded for provisions with the Sioux
Chief. Sitting Bull.
Bill Fay eventually married and settled in Nebraska.
where he sold real estate. He died in 1947. No
children survived him.
Mary Fay was familiarly known as Sister Mary
Genevieve. and spent most of her career as a nurse and
administrator of the old Mercy Hosptial. in Anamosa.
Miss Agnes Fay. stern. stout and formidable. was well
known to the local citizens of Anamosa for the 50 years
she lived in town. She always made her home with her
younger brother. Maurice. She was a member of the
Women's Catholic Order of Foresters. the Near East
Relief Corps. the American Red Cross and the Anamosa
Business and Professional Woman's Club. She died at
the family home on North Williams street in May 1953.
Maurice Fay. the youngest of the second-generation
Fays. was the most well-known of the farnily. He was a
businessman. churchman. and community fixture in
Anamosa for over 60 years. and was highly respected.
Maurice moved into town from the Fay farm in 1903.
He brought his elderly father and his sister. Agnes. to
live with him. He worked one winter at the Iowa Men's
Reformatory. while preparing a Main Street grocery
venture. The family bought a house on Strawberry Hill
in east Anamosa. which is now occupied by the Dr.
Aaron Randolph family. Maurice worked in the grocery
store where the Remley Law Offices are now located.
Agnes was also a partner in this enterprise.
At this time he became one of the first shareholders in
the newly organized Citizens Savings Bank.
Maurice became involved in local Democratic
politics. Democrats. in those early years. were not
common commodities in small farm-belt towns. No
doubt. through these connections. Maurice was
appointed postmaster of Anamosa during the Wilson
years. During those years. trains brought mail to the
Anamosa depot nine times per day.
Maurice's mother died in 1897. and his father died in
1909. At some point in the early years of this century.
Maurice met Ann McNamara. She was one of six
daughters of an old Irish homesteader. Patrick
McNamara of Wyoming. Iowa. Ann taught school near
Wyoming and Amber. and later worked in Chicago. She
returned to Jones County to care for her elderly father.
The family sold the Wyoming farm and moved to
Anamosa.Here they purchased a large house on the
corner of East First and Davis streets. across from the
Goettsch Funeral Home. There Ann and her father
operated a rooming house.
Maurice and Ann man'ied in the summer of 1911.
Sheriff Will Hogan served as best man. Ann McNamara
Fay. by all accounts. was one of the most cheerful and
pleasant personalities ever to live in Anamosa.
Two children were bom to the Fays on Strawberry
Hill. They were Robert Edward. born in 1912. and Bill.
in 1914. Maurice. in 1918 or 1919. moved his family to
a nearly new house on "Irish Hill". on the town's north
edge. The two-story house. at 400 North Williams
Street. much of which is framed with native elm.
remains in the Fay farnily. The lot on which the house
was built originally extended one block to the east. The
family. for years. tended a large garden and grape
arbors. fed chickens and milked a cow. Lewis. the third
and last son. was born in 1918.
With the passing of the Wilson administration.
Maurice's tenure as postmaster became history.
Following a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia and