Cambridge, Massachusetts

A doctor, son of a police chief, son of an immigrant street sweeper...

In the middle stands Police Chief Patrick Francis Ready, known as Buster. On his left sits his son, John Clement Ready, known to me as Great-Grandpa Ready. On his right sits his son, Reverend Francis Patrick Ready, known to me as Uncle Fran, my 2nd great uncle.

Irish Immigrants making it in Cambridge

I knew Grandpa Ready as an older father figure who sat in his recliner facing the ocean in his little house in Maine, finishing a New York Times crossword puzzle in record time and giving great medical advice as needed. What I often forget is that he had a whole life before I came around to hang out with his retired self up in Maine. Grandpa Ready’s story starts with his grandfather, my 3rd great-grandfather. Patrick Francis Ready was born in 1866 in Kerry, Castleisland, Ireland, a place I was fortunate enough to visit recently, before I knew I had ancestors from there. He was baptized Catholic on December 9th. (Ireland, Select Births and Baptisms) His parents brought him to America and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parents name had been spelled Reidy, but was changed at some point in the immigration process. In Cambridge, Patrick grew up to marry Johannah Guinee on December 31st, 1891. (Massachusetts Marriage Records) Johannah also happened to be from Kerry, Ireland. Patrick drove a street sweeper for a living. In 1893, Patrick and Johannah had a son, my 2nd great-grandfather Patrick Francis Ready II. Patrick II, the son of an immigrant street sweeper, grew up to become the chief of police in Cambridge on October 10th, 1951. (David J. Degou, Cambridge Police Department) We near the end of this short story as Patrick II and Rose Anne Rogan gave birth to John Clement Ready I, my great-grandfather, Grandpa Ready. Grandpa Ready grew up in Cambridge and attended St. John’s High School class of ’41 where he was a star baseball player. He went on to attend Harvard University class of ’45 as a baseball player, but after freshman year decided to focus on his studies. In June 1945, he married Rita Shae, his high school sweetheart who he met in the seventh grade. He attended Tufts Medical School and did a few residencies in Boston before serving in the United States Navy Medical Corps during the Korean War at the Naval Hospital in Beaufort, SC and at the United States Naval Hospital in St. Albans, NY. He laughed as he told the story of one day being rushed from Beaufort to New York for surgery and having to stop the Macy’s Day Parade to let him through. Finally, in 1955, Grandpa ready opened a private practice on Mass Ave in North Cambridge and became the town pediatrician right near the neighborhood where he grew up. He served on staff for several hospitals and taught at some medical schools simultaneously. It was only upon retirement that he moved to Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Even then, he took a quick break from retirement to be a doctor on a cruise line and travel the world with his love, Rita, Nana Ready.

On his father's side, Grandpa Ready’s story starts with an Irish immigrant street-sweeper, leads to a Chief of Police, and finally to a Harvard educated doctor. The rest of us look at his life with awe, but he lived it humbly, quietly.

On his mother's side, Grandpa Ready's story starts with an Irish immigrant motorman on the street railway. On August 22nd, 1886, my 3rd great-grandparents John Rogan and Anne Cassidy arrived in Cambridge from Leitrim and Donegal, Ireland. It makes sense that both sets of 3rd great-grandparents arrived from Ireland around the same time as the effects of the Great Famine were still driving people out of Ireland and the 1880s industrial center that was Cambridge was drawing people in. The Cambridge Roadway became the first street railway in Boston, connecting Harvard Square to Cambridge Street. It is for that railway that John worked. John and Anne had a daughter named Roseanne Rogan. Roseanne went on to marry a Cambridge cop named Buster, who also happened to the child of immigrants like her. The couple obviously made a name for themselves as Buster became the chief of police. Then their son, my great-grandfather John Ready became a Harvard educated doctor in Cambridge.

So the immigrant street-sweeper and motorman's children marry each other and have child of their own who becomes a doctor. An old school American Dream come true in Cambridge. Upon retiring to Maine, Grandpa Ready's story in Cambridge comes to a close.

Great-Grandpa Ready's brother, Reverend Francis Ready remained the priest for Saint John the Evangelist in North Cambridge for the rest of his life. The reverend, known to all as Uncle Fran, found himself years later having lunch at Frank's with a young couple. The young woman was his great-niece and Great-Grandpa Ready's granddaughter. Kristin and Michael were living in Cambridge just after being married, while Michael attended Harvard Business School and Kristin attended Tufts Medical School. How very full circle, right? The rest of the family was up in Maine, but Kristin and Michael found themselves once again in Cambridge. Uncle Fran lived long enough to perform the baptism of myself and my sister before passing away, a beloved priest.

Soon after, Kristin and Michael moved out of the city and it seemed that the last bits of Cambridge were falling away. An old Harvard rocking chair in Maine was a piece of Cambridge that stayed with Grandpa Ready into retirement. As the house in Maine was being cleaned out last year, a spreadsheet was made for its contents to be claimed by whichever child, grandchild, or great-grandchild wanted it. While mom and dad were too shy to ask, my Nana went up to Maine and picked up that one piece of Cambridge, the rocking chair. It now sits next to my dad's own rocking chair upstairs, as a reminder of the Irish immigrants who made their lives in Cambridge and how their story intertwined generations later with an Italian immigrant attending Harvard, too.