Helen Cremins

James Diffley

Helen Mary Cremins
Born: July 11, 1884; Boola, County Cork, Ireland
Died: May 23, 1955; Inglewood, California

James J. Diffley
Born: November 18, 1881; Erra, County Roscommon, Ireland
Died: June 1, 1921; Los Angeles, California

 
Born Ellen Cremin in Boola, in the area known as Bweeng, County Cork, Ireland, she was the daughter of Jeremiah Cremin and Mary Buckley. We don’t know when she became known as Helen Cremins, she signed Helen Cremin on the marriage certificate and she is listed as Helen Diffley in the 1910 US census. She is listed as Ellen Cremins on the birth certificate of Walter Diffley. Ellen was one of 11 children and we presume that she was sent from Ireland into the care of a relative in San Francisco to work as a domestic (on her marriage certificate her occupation is listed as “householder”).

Helen immigrated through the port of New York and then took a ship around Cape Horn, to finally arrive in San Francisco. She is not listed with her family on the 1901 Irish census.  The passenger records from Ellis Island show Ellen Cremin arriving there on April 24, 1904, at age 19. She came on the Cunard Line on the “Etruria” and she was listed on the ships manifest as #4. She was going to a cousin’s home, Nora Buckey Regan, at 3872 24th St. in San Francisco. It is reported in the 1910 census that she immigrated in 1903 while the 1920 census reports it was 1904.

We think that James immigrated to America into the care of his brothers Patrick and Peter who worked in the steel mills in Pittsburg. His death certificate (1921) states that he was 38 years old, and that he was in the US for 15 years. If this is accurate, we can calculate that he might have immigrated in 1906 at the age of 22-23. He reported on the 1910 census that he immigrated in 1902, and, on the 1920 census that it was 1904. He eventually made his way across the country to San Francisco around 1906.

Helen met James J. Diffley in San Francisco around 1906, just after the earthquake. They married on August 12, 1908, at her stated age of 23, and she lived with James until his untimely death on June 1, 1921. James was employed as a salesman at the time of his marriage to Helen Mary Cremin, and his age was stated as 25 on the marriage certificate.

After leaving San Francisco, James and Helen had a large yard at the family home at 894 Austin St. in Los Angeles, where James continued his farming skills with vegetable gardening for the family use. He worked as a foreman for Los Angeles Gas and Electric Co. supervising the installation of pipelines throughout the city. Over the next decade Helen gave birth to four children: Walter (12/28/1910), May (9/25/1913), Helen (10/10/1915), and Joseph (8/10/1917). James worked for the gas company as a “foreman of a pipe gang” in Los Angeles at the time of Walter’s birth.  His age is listed as 27, indicating that he would have been born in 1883. Helen and James were naturalized as citizens in 1914 according to the census reports. The family was very social and they had many visitors and parties during their time in this location. James was a talented musician playing the fiddle, the accordion and the flute.

In 1916 James and Helen purchased a ranch in Imperial Valley, California, where James raised dairy cattle, horses and turkeys. He also grew alfalfa for feed in addition to the family vegetables. After three or four years James’s health began to fail, and around 1919 they sold the ranch and moved to Lennox, California. They bought a house with 2 acres of land and James immediately planted all of it with fruit trees and berries. He had his vegetable garden and also raised rabbits and chickens and had one dairy cow. I believe that he also returned to work with the gas company during this time as his death certificate states his occupation as “Foreman” with “LA Gas Co.” The 1920 census states that he was unemployed.

James died on June 1, 1921, shortly after moving to Lennox. He is buried in Calvery Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA. The gravestone records his lifespan as 1883-1921.

Left alone with four children, the times were difficult for Helen for lack of money.  Helen wrote and asked for help from some of James’s relatives on the east coast who reportedly sent money to help with her situation but somehow the money never arrived. Helen continued to live in the Lennox home with her four children, where she continued the raising of chickens and rabbits, and the tending of the vegetable garden. They used a space under the house for a food cooler in the summertime. She found work with the Inglewood school district and managed to support her children.

Helen met Will Trenkle, a widower with four children of his own, and they married on Sept 5, 1932. Will and Helen lived in Inglewood in a wonderful, large home that had once served as a mortuary, a fact that was always fun for the grandchildren to use to frighten one another. The home was large enough that several of her children’s families also lived there from time to time. Helen was very gracious and her home was always open to family. Helen had many family dinners at her home as it was the focus of all of the relatives. She died on May 23, 1955 and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, CA.

Helen’s and James’s four children provided them with 16 grandchildren.