member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church when they lived a little nearer to Norfolk. It must be remembered that St. Patrick's Congregation is the oldest Catholic Congregation in the county, and St. Patrick's Cemetery was for a number of years the only Catholic Cemetery. Some of the older Catholic families living between Battle Creek and Norfolk continued to come to St. Patrick's even after Sacred Heart Church was formed.
In 1883, there came from Iowa, a group of related Irish families. These included Wade, Flood, Brink, McCole and Connolley families.
Mr. and Mrs. Owen Wade were the head of the Wade clan. Their children were Thomas Wade who married Josephine Flood; Elene, who married Timothy D. Preece; Jane, who married Frank Flood; John, who married Jane O'Keefe; Elizabeth, who married Thos. Carrabine; and Dora, who married Dr. O'Keef and moved to Waterloo, Iowa, where the Wade family had lived before coming to Nebraska. Another son of the Wade's was Michael, who was a railroad man in Utah. He spent his last years in Norfolk and Omaha.
Frank Flood's sister Rose married Elmore J. Brink; Josephine married Thomas Wade, and Sarah married George Connolly. (Elmore Brink's ancestry traces back to Peter Stuyvesant in New York).
Thomas Wade took as his homestead, the SW 1/4 of Section 18, Battle Creek Precinct. His brother-in-law George Connolly acquired the NW 1/4 and the brother-in-law Elmore J. Brink took the SE 1/4 of the same section. Mr. Brink later also took the NE 1/4 of Section 19 as a timber-claim.
Owen Wade acquired land southwest of Norfolk. In his declining years, made his home in Battle Creek with his daughter, Mrs. T. D. Preece.
The story of an incident that happened to Grandpa Wade must be told. The old gentleman always wore a goatee. One day when he had well passed four score and ten years, he went to the barber shop of Ray Fickler for a shave. Ray was new in the community and was not personally acquainted with Mr. Wade. As he got into the chair, Mr. Wade with a flourish of his hand said, "Cut 'em off." Ray was not sure that he understood, nor was there anyone else in the shop to consult, so that he questioned the old gentleman again. "Do you want me to save it off?" The reply was, "Yes." Ray placed his customer in such a comfortable position that he immediately went to sleep. When the barber was finished and Mr. Wade was awakened, he found his beard shaved off. There was a very, very unhappy Irishman, and Ray was called several kinds of descriptive Irish epithets, including you 'omadon' (Gaelic for 'dummy').
Tom Wade, when he quit the farm, came into Battle Creek to enter the real estate and insurance business with T. D. Preece, his brother-in-law. Their office was in a small building to the rear of Billie Barnes' store where Doering Sundries is now located and his home was where the Arden Smiths now live.
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