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Family Background and Childhood

"Jim Tully was born near St. Mary’s, Ohio, June 3, ca. 1891. As a result of a lingering heart ailment, he died June 22, 1947, in Hollywood. His death made headlines in many metropolitan newspapers, and a fair evaluation of his life and work was printed in the New York Times. Today his name is forgotten by contemporary readers, and all of his books are out of print.
But the critical neglect of this important American writer is understandable. Tully was a paradox. Together with Dashiell Hammett, Tully was one of the founders of the hard-boiled school of writers in the U. S., but his earlier important work has been overshadowed by the personality features he wrote for national magazines during his later years in Hollywood. During twenty-one years as a full-time professional writer, Tully made two fortunes: one as a leader in the field of naturalist - "proletarian" - fiction and non-fiction, and the second by describing the shallow lives of Hollywood movie stars and other celebrities for mass circulation magazines."

Charles Willeford, Jim Tully: Holistic Barbarian, in Writing and Other Blood Sports, Dennis McMillan, 2000

Read the rest of the Willeford article

1824 Grandfather, Hugh Tully, born in County Donegal (the parish of Inverness), Ireland, to Andrew and Mary McGrorty Tully; Andrew Tully’s father was John Tully.

1847 Grandfather, Hugh Tully, marries Katherine Byrn (also born in County Donegal), the daughter of Charles and Anna Gaitens Byrn

1852 Grandfather Lawler, from County Kildare, immigrates from Ireland

1854 Hugh Tully immigrates to America, leaving three children, including James Dennis (Jim Tully’s father), in care of relatives

1856 Mother, Maria Bridget "Biddy" Lawler, born in Butler County. She has at least two older brothers, John and Dennis (other brothers are Tom, Jim and Pete -- also a younger sister, Maud "Moll"); Tom, married to Sade, became one of young Jim’s favorite uncles.

1857-60 Hugh Tully travels through Southern states, selling Irish linen

1864 Father, James Dennis Tully, joins his parents in America

1866 The Tullys move to St. Marys in Auglaize County, Ohio

1872 The Lawlers move to St. Marys

1875 Parents, James Dennis Tully and Maria Bridget "Biddy" Lawler, married on February 8

circa1878 Uncle, John Lawler, sentenced to 15 years in Ohio Penitentiary for stealing horses

1886 Jim Tully born June 3 near St. Marys in Auglaize County, Ohio

Baptized June 6 (godparents listed as William and Anna Tully Danaher)

1892 Uncle, John Lawler, released from Ohio Penitentiary after serving 13 years for stealing horses; he returns briefly to St. Marys, then leaves Ohio (his parents, separated for many years, each die within the month).

Grandfather Lawler dies in February

Grandmother Lawler dies in March

Mother, Maria Bridget "Biddy" Lawler Tully dies May 1 in Auglaize County at age 35 and 9 months (an infant child died April 30), buried in Glynwood Cemetery. Married, at 18, to James Dennis Tully, a ditchdigger, for about 16 years (according to Jim Sr. letter), she had given birth to eight children, six of whom survived infancy: Hugh, Margaret "Maggie" (later changed to Virginia, about seven years older than Jim), Tom (about five years older than Jim), Charlie, Jim and Anna (three years younger than Jim). Another child, Carolus, was born February 9, 1884 (could be Charles, who was between Tom and Jim in age). Childhood friend also recalled that twins, a boy and a girl, were born after Jim, but only the girl (Anna?) survived.             Read a piece published in 1941 that Tully wrote about Virginia, Gypsy Sister.

Taken in June with brothers Tom and Charlie to a St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum, a Catholic orphanage in Cincinnati

1892-1898 Lives at Oprhans Home for six years, where he reads the books of Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and Oliver Goldsmith. He also reads books about Napoleon and Alexander the Great. At seven, he reads to the nuns while they sew and knit.

1898 Takes the name Alexander as his confirmation name after friendly nun tells him there was no saint name Napoleon

The second Sunday after confirmation and first communion, his sister Virginia and brother Hugh take him from the orphanage

Father arranges for him to live and work with farmer Soloman "Sol" Boroff and his family; he arrives in December, six months after leaving the orphanage, and stays for a year and a half.

Click here to read the continuation of this chronology

Read a piece published in 1941 that Tully wrote about his sister, Virginia, titled Gypsy Sister

His formal education had stopped when he left a Cincinnati orphanage at the age of eleven. "I had none of the illusions of youth," he pointed out. "I knew that I would never become president of the United States. I came, on both sides, from drunken barbarians who groveled in superstition and were as illiterate as geese. All the vast realms of knowledge and beauty were closed to me. Nearly all of my mother’s brothers were half mad. Most of my father’s people were witty Irish morons. My mother had moods which lasted for days. . . I inherited her moods and silences along with the wild blood which flowed in two rivers of half insane Irish."

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