The Father of Labor Day buried in Manchester, New Hampshire

GEORGE McGUIRE

1857 - 1913

MINNIE L. CUMMINGS

HIS WIFE

167 - 1950

DEAR HUSBAND

FATHER OF LABOR DAY

FIRST OBSERVANCE HELD

MON. SEPT 6, 1886

George McGuire, the son of James McGuire and Jane Irving, was born about 1857 in Portland, Maine, and died 21 November 1913 in Manchester, New Hampshire.  He married Minnie Lucena Cummings on 26 October 1901 in Mancester.  She was the daughter of James Marshall Cummings and Sylvia M. Hardy, born 10 March 1867 in Manchester, and died there in 1950.

UPDATE Sept 3, 2018 4:28pm   Sandy Molloy Dahlfred left me a note on Facebook that Minnie McGuire is the person who left the money for the McGuire Pet Cemetery in Londonderry, near the airport runway.  See this blog post about the pet cemetery:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/wordless-wednesday-mcguire-pet-cemetery.html 

George McGuire, his wife Minnie, and his in-laws, James and Sylvia Cummings are all buried side-by-side at the Piscataog Cemetery in Manchester, New Hampshire, behind the Faithbridge Church on the corner of Main and Milford Streets. His grave is easy to find since it is the only Celtic cross in this cemetery, located right next to the small parking area behind the church.   Although I visited the day before Labor Day, his grave was quiet.  No one had left flowers or marked the occasion with any decorations.

From the National Labor Tribune
Thursday, Nov. 27, 1913, Pittsburgh, PA 

George McGuire was the head of the labor union for the local cigarmakers in Manchester.  He lead the Labor Day Parade in Boston, Massachusetts on more than one occasion.

SYLVIA M. HARDY

WIFE OF

JAMES M. CUMMINGS

JAN. 15, 1841

MAR. 9, 1921

DEAR FATHER

JAMES M. CUMMINGS

F.L.T.

MAY 20, 1841

APR. 26, 1881

MEMBER OF CO. E.

4TH REGT. N.H.V.

[F.L.T. is the logo for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows]

274 Manchester Street
Home of George McGuire

For the truly curious:

You can read much more about the three unrelated McGuire men (including some genealogy) who are all attributed to founding Labor Day at Janice Webster Brown's blog Cow Hampshire:

http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2015/09/05/the-father-of-labor-day-manchester-new-hampshires-george-mcguire-aka-maguire-1857-1913/ 


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To Cite/Link to this post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Father of Labor Day buried in Manchester, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 3, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-father-of-labor-day-buried-in.html: accessed [access date]).