Mary was the daughter of Josef Smoley and Elizabeth Ebner born at #33 Gozd (Weild) Kranjska Gorje, Slovenia. Mary immigrated at age 17 on the steamship, Samaria ,which originated at Bremen, sailed to Liverpool, departed Liverpool to arrive at Castle Garden (the precursor of Ellis Island), NYC on 4 June 1873. She came with Thomas' brother, Mathias Ohman from next door in her village and his wife, Maria, and their two very young children, Johann & Andres. The story is that Thomas Oman saw her get off the stagecoach when she arrived in Stearns County and proposed immediately. They were next-farm neighbors in Gozd, Slovenia so he already knew her although she would have been a child when he left and probably he knew his brother was bringing her. The same ship carried Theresa Legat who became the wife of Thomas' other brother, Simon. Mary used to herd sheep in Slovenia. The Smoleys were German or possibly Swedish in origin as were the Ohmans. Mary spoke German and a little Slovenian. Thomas spoke Slovenian and a little German. (Mary's brother, Mike Smoley, only spoke German. He had the farm that Pete Schumer later had.) Mary was referred to as "Grossmutter" (grandmother in German) in the village of St. Stephen. Jake Justin who married Anna Oman bought the Oman farm after Thomas Sr. and Thomas Jr. died and then built a small house for Mary Oman where she lived until she died. A neighbor, Mrs. Kozel, would give her son, Frank, things to take over to Mary Oman and occasionally they would stay overnight. A story told by Frank was that late in the fall, Mary Oman had rounded up all the chickens from the summer and put them in the chicken coop for the winter. (Thomas was already deceased by then.) Frank Kozel, age 8, and another neighbor boy came over to see Grossmutter but nobody was home. While he was there, he noticed that she had forgotten to let the chickens out. He could see them poking their heads out of the slats in the door, so he released them. A couple of days later, he came to see Grossmutter again and she promptly gave him a licking for letting out the chickens after she had just spent the previous day catching them. Towards the end of her life, Mary had breast cancer. She had a salve to put on an open sore on her side. Grossmutter was a little childish then and would get mad at Annie, her daughter while she was putting on the salve, and that's when I had to take care of her. (Mrs. Joseph (Agnes) Peternel speaking)

Her marriage to Thomas was 25 Jan 1874 in St. Stephen. Marriage witnesses were Simon Oman and Elizabeth Reichenburger, officiating was Joseph Buh, a missionary. Mary died of breast cancer of 4 years duration.

St. Cloud Daily Times, St. Cloud, MN, 9-18-1944

MRS. MARY OMAN

Mrs. Mary Oman, 88, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. August Schunemann in St. Stephen at 8:30 a.m. today.

The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the church in st. Stephen with burial at St. Stephen cemetery. The body is at the Schuneman home.

Surviving Mrs. Oman are one son and six daughters: Anton, Mrs. August Schuneman, Mrs. James Justin, Mrs. Mary Kozel, Mrs. Anton Justin, all of St. Stephen; Mrs. William Huls, St. Wendel, and Mrs. John Bayuk, Willard WI.

There are 58 grandchildren, 99 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren.

Ten grandsons and four great-grandsons are in the armed services.