By: Warren B. Offutt, grandson of William Marion Offutt
My father's father was William Marian Offutt (or Marion, I've forgotten), and father's mother was Mary Grady (or, we think, originally O'Grady, although the papers are somewhat ambivalent on the point). She was an Irish immigrant working as a servant girl, whom he met (and married) in Lebanon, PA. We have a photo of the church in which they were married, and of the priest who married them! William M came from a well-to-do family in Maryland; in those days, Irish immigrants were not held in high regard in the better circles, and when William M married Mary Grady (or O'Grady), his family disowned him. The rift never healed, and to the day of my father's death, only a part of the old family would speak to my father.
As it turned out, Mary was a wonderful influence on William M, and it was she who brought stability to their family during some turbulent times when my grandfather's business efforts were unsuccessful. He apparently had a temper (and a red moustache, which I remember!), was a physically very strong man, and stubborn proud.
Several family stories about him are amusing, too. He bought the first motor car in their neighborhood ... in the days when there was no licensing or drivers' tests. He brought the new vehicle home, parked it in front of their home in Brooklyn (which I visited to photograph in the mid 1980's) and told my grandmother to "Get your bonnet, we're going for a ride." With her in the passenger seat and him in the driver's seat, and the entire neighborhood agape at this new motor car, he started the engine, engaged the gear, gave it the gas, released the clutch and, unknowingly in reverse, backed up over the curb, across the sidewalk, and knocked the neighbor's fence down. You can imagine my grandmother's embarrassment.
In later years, after my grandmother died in 1932, leaving him without her stabilizing influence, he had other motor car experiences. On principle, he refused to yield the right of way to New York City taxicabs. On one occasion, the resulting accident so infuriated him, he tore the steering column out of his car, and took off after the cabbie waving it in the air. I'll leave to your imagination what the scene looked like, and also whether this story has seen some embellishment with the passing years.