MARGARET STACK (1883-1959)

The Cook

Margaret Stack worked as the Wickwire family’s cook from 1904 to 1911. She had emigrated from Athea, County Limerick, Ireland in 1904. Her aunt, Catherine Stack Quirke, already lived in Cortland, and may have arranged for her employment in the Wickwire mansion. Margaret was single and only 21 years old when she began working for the Wickwires.

Stack socialized with the substantial Irish population in Cortland. A March 19, 1910 article in the Cortland Standard describes a St. Patrick’s Day Banquet, hosted by Ladies Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hiberians (AOH). The AOH was an Irish Catholic fraternal organization who assisted Irish immigrants and protected Catholic churches from anti-Catholic discrimination. Margaret Stack danced at this event as one of a four-person Irish reel. A reel is a traditional Irish step dance.

Like many servants in America, Stack had limited free time. Generally, a servant had every Thursday afternoon off, as well as every other Sunday. On her Sundays, Stack may have attended St. Mary’s Church on North Main Street, which catered to Irish Catholics.

Despite servant norms back in the day, the Wickwires generously granted their servants significant vacation time. In 1910, Margaret Stack spent the entire summer in Ireland and the British Isles with her fiancée, John Lane. They secured tickets through local agent James Grant and sailed on the Baltic, a ship of the White Star Line (the same line as The Titanic). After their arrival in Athea, Margaret Stack married John Lane, and became Margaret Stack Lane.

John and Margaret spent the summer at her family home, and also sailed through the British Isles. She then returned to Cortland in autumn and resumed her position as the Wickwire cook, a job she held for another year. Afterward, she returned to her native Ireland, where she ran a grocery store with her husband, and started a family.