It All Comes Down To Fate

     Sixty-six year old Patrick McCabe awoke on the first morning of 1887 in what would be his home for the next four years, the Cayuga County Almshouse in Sennett, New York where he had been admitted the day before.  The admissions form gave the reason for his dependence as old age, his habits as, "intemperate".  It further stated Patrick, a married man, was born in Ireland and had entered the United States thirty-four years earlier.  Though the form asked additional questions about Patrick's parents and grandparents, the word "unknown" was written across those spaces.  The final question on the form was, "What is the probable destiny of the Person as respects recovery from the cause of Dependence?"  The terse response was, "Future doubtful".  Indeed, New York State records show Patrick died on 20 October 1891 there at Sennett, though whoever wrote his obituary gave the place of death as his home in Auburn, New York.  Probably to avoid embarrassment to the family.

     Patrick arrived in America about 1851.  He was married to my third-great-aunt, Mary O'Hora, the sister of my great-great-grandfather, James O'Hora, in 1853 at Auburn.  Like her husband, Mary was born in Ireland and baptized in 1831 at Rathvilly in County Carlow, making her quite a bit younger than Patrick.  Mary was expecting their first child, Michael, at the time of her marriage and over the next twenty-five years she would give birth to fourteen more.  At least four of her children died during childhood and several more passed in their teens and early twenties.  When Mary O'Hora McCabe passed away, she had outlived eight of her children.

     Patrick was a laborer and the family struggled financially which may explain the two youngest daughter's light fingered tendencies.  Agnes, born in 1874 was jailed for stealing a pair of shoes while her sister Louise born in 1877, the youngest of the McCabe children, was arrested for grand larceny in 1891, at age fourteen.  The victim of her crime was my great-grandfather Edward O'Hora, the son of  her mother's brother James.  While visiting her O'Hora relatives in Littleville, New York, Louise stole a large sum of money from the bedroom of her cousin and headed back to Auburn where she was apprehended.  Newspaper articles of the time noted her tender age along with the remarkable fact this was not her first offence.  Louise was sentenced to two years in Auburn prison whose records describe her as tall, slender, and illiterate.  Her older brother Edward also had a checkered past.  Edward McCabe was the victim of a vicious murder in 1914, you can read the lurid details here.

     It occurs to me, poverty, frequent loss of siblings, coupled with the lack of an education and father figure could well have influenced the behavior of Agnes and Louise.  Patrick was absent from their lives beginning in 1887 and his designation as intemperate may have suggested a problem with the drink.

     Quite a few years have passed since I found Louise's story and I hadn't thought of her for awhile when I noticed a new database at Ancestry called, "New York Discharges of Convicts".  Louise had been sentenced in Ontario County where her crime occurred, a small place, so I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised to find her there.  Turns out she had four months shaved off her sentence.

     Not all the McCabe offspring had questionable pasts.  James, the fourth child, went on to become a member of the Auburn Board of Supervisors, Sarah Jane, the eighth child, was a weaver at one of the Auburn mills at the time of her death at twenty-three from typhoid fever.  Lydia, the tenth child, appears to have been a respectable married lady who suffered the loss of her husband at a young age, and three years later the loss of the daughter with whom she had been pregnant at her husband's demise.

     Patrick's widow, Mary, died in Auburn on 20 October 1897 at the home formerly shared by her late daughter Mary Ann and Mary Ann's husband James Burke.  Mary Ann had passed away in August of 1896 after the death of her four year old son Joseph that April and the birth in June of her daughter Clara.  The infant passed away a week after her mother from cholera infantum, undoubtedly caused by improper feeding of the eight week old child.  With three deaths in a matter of months, this family had more than it's share of tragedy, made all the sadder by the fact that had a simple antibiotic been available they probably could have been saved.

     Now, as we wait for our magic bullet to stop this new virus on our doorsteps, it brings home in a real way the dread our ancestors felt when their children fell ill.  And there were so many illnesses to fear.  Tuberculosis, scarlet, typhoid and yellow fevers, pneumonia, meningitis; even measles and childhood diarrhea could prove fatal in that era.  They would have understood our current fears only too well. 

     

Patrick Hore Day 2020

     The fifth of April, Patrick Hore Day, has rolled around again.  The annual tribune to my ancestor whose life was cruelly snuffed out by the British occupiers of his native country.  You can read Patrick's story by following the link below:

http://elliesancestors.blogspot.com/2018/02/so-they-hung-patrick-after-all.html

     To add to the narrative, I've been able to uncover the person responsible for his murder by hanging, this is the man who condemned Patrick.  His mention here will be brief as befits him.

     A newspaper covering the  March Carlow Assizes, published an article in April of 1798 that spoke of  the executions of four prisoners, Patrick among them, on April fifth whose trials were presided over by Judge Toler, aka, "The Hanging Judge", later known as Lord Norbury.  
     Toler was born in 1745 to Daniel Toler, a man of comparable morals who among other abuses, used his position as High Sheriff to pack the jury during the trial of a Catholic Priest he wanted out of the way, resulting in the man's hanging.  
     Moira Lysaght, in the Dublin Historical Record, Vol. 30 of March 1977, described Judge Toler as, "a cold-blooded tyrant contemptuous of the little law he knew..." 
     By the time of this despicable little man's death in 1831, he had blithely ordered the executions of many hundreds of Irish men and women.  At his own burial, the ropes used for lowering his coffin were discovered to be too short for the job at hand.  As search was made for longer ropes, a voice from the crowd was heard to say, "Give him rope galore, boys; he was never sparing of it to others".

John McGarr and the Haymarket Riot

Women delegates to the 1886 Knights of Labor Convention, Richmond, Virginia

     It's hard to believe it's been less than two weeks since the governor here in New York ordered a shut down.  It feels like months, though that's probably because even before the order, my children insisted I remain secluded.  While the isolation is unpleasant, I've used the time revisiting ancestors I haven't looked at in a while, particularly those who spent time in Auburn, New York as the Seymour Library in that city recently put some Auburn newspapers online.  Which is nice because ever since the Old Fulton newspaper site has come back online it hasn't functioned properly for me.

     I did a broad search for John McGarr, (there were several), just to see what turned up.  One hit was for a John McGarr of St. Louis, Missouri.  That rang a bell!  I recalled that the John McGarr I believe was a brother of my third-great-grandfather Daniel McGarr, had a son also named John who was married in St Louis.  Opening the link dated February 26, 1888,  I saw that this John McGarr was the National Worthy Foreman of Shoe District 216 of the Knights of Labor.  That title is a mouthful, could it be my cousin John?  I also recalled that branch of the McGarr tree had shoe makers in it, so it was a possibility.

    John McGarr was born in Auburn, NY to John McGarr Sr. and his wife Mary Kelly, in 1854.  John Sr. died when John Jr. was twelve, and his wife Mary Kelly passed three years later, leaving John an orphan.  Along with his younger brothers Timothy E., who went on to become prominent in New York government, and William, John was given into the custody of his older brother Richard McGarr.  Looking through my records I saw this entry in the 1875/76 City Directory of Auburn, "McGarr Brothers, (John & Richard), boots & shoes 35 Genesee St.  Then there was the letter sent to me by a very distant relative that contained some reminiscences of an older McGarr family member recounting what she recalled of the children of John McGarr Sr.  She hadn't known John Jr. personally, but reported he was called Jack in the family and was a politician she believed.  Interesting, or a labor leader perhaps?

     Try as I may I have never been able to find John Jr. in the 1880 census, so it was telling that I found a reference to John McGarr of the Knights of Labor being a treasurer and secretary in Los Angeles.  I still can't find him in 1880, but it explains why he wasn't in Auburn that year.  John appears in the 1875 New York State census, living in Auburn with the Chapman family, the in-laws of his brother Richard.  His occupation is shoemaker.  It appears John became involved in the Knights of Labor which took him to LA and Missouri where in 1882 he married Mary Brennan.  

     The 1900 census shows John and Mary living in Chicago with three daughters.  John's occupation is the ambiguous, "clerk".  I would imagine being a labor boss would involve much travel, and in fact news articles placed him in negotiations all over the country, perhaps John gave up his union work to spend more time at home?  But in truth, the Knights days were numbered.   

     On the 4th day of May in 1886, a large labor rally was held near Chicago's Haymarket Square in protest of the killings of several striking workers by Chicago police the day before at the McCormick Reaper Works.  The rally turned violent when near it's end one of the protesters threw a bomb at police and shots rang out. There were numerous injuries and seven policemen died that day along with a member of the crowd. The Haymarket Riot, as it came to be known, was a major setback for the American labor movement and the Knights, being unfairly singled out for blame, were decimated.  By the year 1900 only 100,000 of their former one million members remained.

     The 1910 census describes John as a "saloon keeper" while the census of 1920 shows a widowed and retired John living with his daughters in Chicago.  Only his middle child, Kathleen, ever married, sadly enough passing away a year before her father from the effects of a brain tumor.  John died in Chicago in February of 1940.  I strongly feel I'm correct about John being the same John McGarr of the Knights of Labor.  Following in the steps of James Connolly, who incidentally once owned a cobblers shop?

The Answer Was In The Graveyard

   

     A large number of immigrants from that spot in Ireland where Counties Carlow, Wicklow and Kildare meet; from townlands like Rathvilly, Ricketstown, Castlerdermot, Ballyraggan and Baltinglass to name a few, arrived in Auburn, New York between the late 1830's and mid 1850's.  Initially drawn there by the promise of jobs and later driven there by famine, my McGarr and O'Hora families were among them.  Some of the McGarrs' were the earliest Irish arrivals in Auburn with the O'Horas' dropping anchor closer to the 1850's.  The McGarr surname is a relatively uncommon one, so would be easy to track if it were not for the astounding variety of different spellings, often bizarre, of their surname.  Perhaps even more confusing though, are the common surnames.  Like the multitudinous Burns/Byrns/Byrn families who also flocked to Auburn.
     
     In the fall of 1850, a tailor named William McGarr left his pregnant wife in Wicklow and with his fourteen year old son William Lannes McGarr in tow, made his way to Liverpool and then on to Auburn.  William's wife, Mary Doyle, followed the next year with their remaining six children ranging in age from thirteen to the newborn Eliza who was baptized a mere seventeen days before their voyage began in June.  Unlike the other McGarrs', and O'Horas' also, William's children were born at Delganey, Wicklow, near the coast.  I've spent quite awhile looking at this family trying to figure out how they relate to the other McGarrs' in Auburn without much success.

     Finding the baptisms of William's children in Irish church records was easily accomplished, all took place in Kilquade Parish.  When the clues among the older generation as to this family's ancestry ran out, I began researching those children.  Mary Ann, the oldest daughter, married  Patrick Byrne at Holy Family in Auburn in October of 1862.  Mary Ann gave birth to five children; John, Margaret, Mary, Michael and William who was born in 1874, just six years before Mary Ann's death in 1880.  The surname later changed to Burns, can you imagine how many John or Mary Burns were in Auburn?  A lot!  I almost gave up on tracing Mary Ann's children but I found a solution.

     Mary Ann's death was early enough that she was buried in the old Catholic cemetery, her stone, if she ever had one, no longer exists.  Her husband Patrick lived on however, at least until 1892 by which time the new St. Joseph's Cemetery was open in Auburn.  St. Joe's has a wonderful website with lists of interments.  I was dismayed however, to see how many Patrick Burns were entombed there.  After sorting out the Pats who could not be him due to age or date of death, I then wrote down the lot and section numbers for the remaining Pat Burns'.  Then I began looking for Burns' in those plots with forenames that matched Pat's children and it worked.  I found that Patrick and his son John had both died in 1897, his son Michael, his daughter Margaret and her husband Clayton Saxton were all there in Patrick's plot.  Mary wasn't there, she most likely rests in Rochester, New York where she lived with her husband Harry Hinde, (I kid you not).  

     William, the youngest child, isn't there either, locating him will be tricky, William was a popular name with the Burns clan.  I found this method useful, and I'll keep it in mind for the next time I get stuck with a common surname.

   

A Clue In A House Book

     

House Book Town of Errill 

     As things stand now, six of my Irish great-great-great-grandfathers have a county and parish.  Four of those have a definite townland and the other two a strongly suspected townland.  In three cases, I have found the actual plot of land upon which they once dwelt.  I've also found several fourth-great-grandparents; one set, Patrick Crotty and his wife Ellen Keily lived in Cullencastle, County Waterford. The other, Andrew Dwyer and his wife Anne lived in Tipperary's South Riding near Annacarty. 

     These progenitors of mine span the entire island from Waterford to Kerry and of these, the White family has proven one of  the most elusive members of the tribe.  It took me many years and the advent of DNA testing to find they hailed from Queens (Laois) County.  Irish church records for the relevant time period were unavailable but using older records and newer ones here in the USA I was able to determine they were from Rathdowney Parish.

     One of the DNA matches I found at Ancestry.com was from the kit of a gentleman living in Ireland.  His progenitor was John White who I very strongly believe is the brother of my James White Jr.  James White Jr's marriage to my great-great-grandmother Anna Ryan in New York provided the names of his parents, my third-greats, James White Sr. and Margaret Keyes.  Unfortunately, my cousin in Ireland does not have the names of John's parents. I was none too happy to see that John White had been a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, but you can't pick your relatives.  While looking around to see if anything new had turned up on the White family, I again looked at the Tithe Applotments for James White Sr.  There is only one in Rathdowney Parish and he is living in Errill with 2 acres of second class land and 3 acres of third class land.

     Griffith's Valuation shows several James Whites in Rathdowney Parish, but only one in Errill.  Looking at the House Books, this particular James White had a house and shop, several sheds, and a bakery oven.  Bakery oven?  I'd viewed this entry a few times before and thought it probably wasn't mine, however, the last time I looked I was not aware of  Officer John White with the matching DNA.  This time when I viewed the page, the entry at the top leaped out at me; it read, Police Barrick!(sic)

1844 House Book Errill, Rathdowney, Queens

     Was this a coincidence or something more?  There's really no way to tell, but it is interesting.  There was a notation in the House Book that a Quarto Book existed for Errill but a search at Find My Past produced no Quarto Book for anywhere in Rathdowney Parish so it may not survive.  You can see that the original holder of the lot appears to have been a William White.  I've actually speculated that James Sr.'s father may have been named William since James Sr. named a son William.  I'm hopeful that given enough time something will turn up, after all, when I first looked at the house book the presence of that police barracks meant nothing to me.  It's just a matter of  finding the puzzle pieces and assembling them.

The Stuff Of My Nightmares

     OK, that title may be a bit hyperbolic, but I've been anxious about this.  It's been so much fun using old and modern maps to find my ancestor's holdings, that I was lulled into a sense of rolling hills and green fields.  Surely the home of the Gunn family in Ballygologue County Kerry, in the far west of Ireland, would be the same?  It's not.

     This is what the place looked like in my ancestor's heyday, covered by an orchard and other trees.  The cabins are barely visible at the base of the triangle:

     Here it is today:

     Kind of disappointing.  Their home was along Upper Church Street, now a highway, about where the driveways through the trees can be seen.  Across the street where the fever hospital once stood is now St. Michael's College.  Of course I didn't expect the fever hospital would still be there, but I wasn't prepared for the complete transformation of the old orchard into a housing development.  My McGarr ancestor's home in Ballyraggan and the Ryan's in Goldengarden are still very rural; in that setting it's much easier to imagine what the area might have looked like a hundred and fifty or so years ago.  
     
     Even the home where great-great-grandmother Maria McGarr O'Hora from Ballyraggan finally settled in Littleville, New York still stands, surrounded by farm fields much as it did in 1869 when she and her husband and children arrived there. This Ballygologue was the picture of urban sprawl. 

     I had a romantic notion in my head that the west was the place  to encounter a trace of, "old Ireland", maybe hear some Gaelic spoken.  I should have kept in mind Ballygologue's proximity to much larger Listowel.  I don't begrudge the current residents their progress and hopefully prosperity, but I can't help thinking it would be nice to find just one ancestor's cabin still standing. The Ryan lot in Goldengarden today bears not a trace of their home.

      However, thanks to Dara at Black Raven Genealogy, to whom I am eternally grateful, I do have a picture of a small part of the McGarr cabin, a stone window sill and partial wall that was incorporated into a shed after the home fell down.  It's looking like that's the closest I will come to an intact cabin.  But that photo, which I look at all the time while contemplating their lives there, holds the promise that someday I may be able to touch part of their old home and to me, that's a really big deal!

A Little Porter Never Hurt Anyone

     

     A few weeks ago I subscribed to Find My Past for a month.  One of the most interesting databases available on that site is the one containing the records of the Court of Petty Sessions.  Petty sessions was what one would expect, petty crimes like letting your livestock wander, cursing your neighbor for letting his livestock wander, or stealing a loaf of bread.  It was also where cases of public intoxication were adjudicated.  I found my Connor Ryan of Goldengarden Tipperary in those records several years ago, this time I found my fourth-great-uncle David Crotty of Cullecastle in County Waterford.  Both were charged for imbibing, but the circumstances differed.

     Connor was arrested in Tipperary in 1852 for being "drunk" in the neighboring town of Grenane while David was taken into custody four years later in Waterford with a group of ten other men who were, "found in the unlicensed premises of Julia Quinlan in Tramore", which was a few miles south of Cullencastle.  David and his companions were accused of, "having the appearance of being recently drinking or tippling within".  They weren't charged with drunkenness, just tippling whatever that is.  A British legal term no doubt.  Their fine however, was double what Connor had to pay, two shillings and six pence in addition to another shilling for costs.  That seemed like a stiff penalty, Connor only gave one shilling plus one for costs.

     The image above is a list of those arrested with David.  You can see only James Gaule at the very bottom pled guilty, and next to the names of all but two of the men is written the word "paid".  Those two men were Uncle David Crotty and a man named Patrick Power, both residents of Cullencastle.  This was very interesting to me as David's sister Honora Crotty was my third-great-grandmother, her husband, my third-great-grandfather, was Edmond Power, and they lived in Cullencastle.  It seems quite possible Patrick Power was a relative of Edmond's.

     There was no mention on that page of an arrest of Julia Quinlan, but another search soon found two arrests for her, one related to the incident in which David was arrested:

For that you the defendant, not being a person duly authorized to sell porter or to have such for sale on her premises had a quantity of porter and did sell or cause to have sold a certain quantity of porter to several persons in her house situate at Tramore on the night of Sunday the 19th October 56. 

     That was when it struck me, Julia operated a shebeen.  In the court records Julia was described as a spinster, part of the social group that might have been expected to run such a place.  From the histories I've read, it was often the case that widows and single women kept shebeens to give them a much needed source of income.  In the countryside they were commonly the ones brewing the illegal spirits.  Julia's fine was more severe than David's, I can't quite make out the exact amount she was required to pay, it was either four or five shillings plus costs.  I wish I knew more about Julia, I don't even know her age or place of birth.  All I know for sure is she lived in Tramore in the late 1850's; and was harassed by the local constabulary.  Of course that doesn't mean I'm giving up...