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Robert - known as "Cyril"
Maurice - known as "Claud"
Although they moved to the United States separately, Cyril and Claud’s lives were inextricably linked, especially given the story that unfolds here.
Cyril was born on 25 July 1888 in Derby, England, and died on 13 September 1907 in Kansas Missouri, USA, aged just 19.
Claud was born almost exactly a year later, on 29 July 1889 in Derby, England, and died in June 1970 in St Louis Missouri, USA, after a long and fulfilling life.
Cyril O'Neal Emigration
Cyril O'Neal Emigration
The turn of the 20th century was a very hard time with many people struggling to survive, and little or no state support. As a result many emigrated to other parts of the world. It is clear from letters between the family, that this was the main reason Cyril and Claud looked for a new life in the USA.
At the tender age of just 17, in 1905, Cyril chose to travel to the USA, via Canada.
Cyril went to be with the YMCA. The influential New York YMCA adopted a fourfold purpose: "The improvement of the spiritual, mental, social and physical condition of young men." Cyril was following his Father Bob’s dream of entering the Church, by proselytising the Christian faith to other young men. Coincidentally, this was the same year that the YMCA founder George Williams died, and was buried under the floor of St. Paul's Cathedral among England's heroes and statesmen. (Subsequently a large stained glass window in Westminster Abbey, complete with a red triangle, was dedicated to YMCAs, to Sir George and to YMCA work during the first World War).
Bob created a little booklet to remind Cyril of how to ‘live well’ while living away in Canada. In the light of the story that unfolds, I find this particularly poignant. Bob could not know at the time of writing that he would never see Cyril again. You can see Pater’s alphabet here.
Claud O'Neal Emigration
Claud O'Neal Emigration
Cyril was followed a year later, by Claud, who emigrated to the USA, also via Canada.
It is at this time that perhaps the most tragic part of this story unfolds. In search of a safe place to live, Cyril found accommodation with Dr George Washington Fraker. This would lead to Cyril's untimely and unnatural death at the tender age of just nineteen.
A sketch of Fraker that ran in a September 1895 edition of the "Richmond Conservator" newspaper.
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