Mary Sheehan, the wife of Jeremiah Sullivan and mother of my great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan, was born in County Cork in Ireland. Her place of birth was consistently written as Ireland and her tombstone in Motley Cemetery in Todd County, Minnesota states County Cork.
Like many Irish-born illiterate immigrants, the date of birth is fuzzy. Records of her birth in records recorded in the United States range from 1822 to 1832.
- She was 38 in 1870, living with her 40-year-old mining husband, Jeremiah, in Franklin township in Houghton County, Michigan.[1] This suggests an 1832 birth.
- In 1880, the family lived on a farm they homesteaded in Todd County, Minnesota and she was 53 years old.[2] This suggests an 1827 birth. Her husband was 61, causing him to age 20 years.
- Five years later, she was 60 years old. She now has an 1825 birth. Now “Jerry” was 70, certainly more than five years older.[3]
- Her tombstone's death date of 24 Feb 1892 and age of 70 years calculates to a birth of 1822.[4]
These few records are all we have. She couldn’t read and write. She was a housekeeper, taking care of her family. She raised nine children, eight born in Ireland and one in Michigan.
She also settled on a homestead with her husband and three children in Todd County, Minnesota. Her husband built a log house 15 by 20 feet with a board roof, one door, three windows, and two floors. He also built a cellar, and a log stable with a straw roof, and dug a well. They raised grain and vegetables.[5] Their son, Eugene, and his wife, Catherine, lived on the next homestead. Likely they helped each other.
She may have had to deal with a husband who drank a bit too much. Jerry lost his life after falling on the railroad track just as a train came by. His family had “notified saloon keepers in Motley not to give him any liquor,” but he could not keep from it. He died at 75 on 6 December 1888.[6]
She suffered having stomach cancer for some time before her death. The obit said, “Her life was prolonged and made as pleasant as possible by every means which loving hands could employ.”[7]
She did leave a will, leaving the real estate of her husband to her son, Daniel, and her personal property to her sons Daniel and Jerry Jr. Daniel and Jerry were her executors. She signed with an X.[8]
Her children were:
- Mary married James R. Sullivan. They settled in Holt County, Nebraska.
- Julia married Patrick Murphy. Her whereabouts is unknown.
- Eugene married Catherine J Shea and they settled in Todd County, Minnesota with his parents.
- John H. married Anna Marie Gleeson. They settled first in Davison County, Dakota Territory on a homestead, and then later in Deer Lodge County, Montana.
- Johanna married John Sullivan. She ended up in Seattle, Washington.
- Jeremiah married Eunice Belle Sabin. They lived in Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington.
- Daniel never married. He lived in Todd County, Minnesota.
- Peter’s whereabouts is unknown after 1885.
- Michael J. married Sarah V. Ryan. They settled in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana.
Note: 21 is Mary Sheehan's Ahnentafel number, which is an ancestral number counting from me. I used a random number generator to get this number for this blog post theme of random number.
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- 1870 U.S. census, Houghton Co, Michigan, Franklin twp, p 22, dwl 152, fam 162, Jeremiah Sullivan.
- 1880 U.S. census, Todd Co, Minnesota, Moran Twp, ED 133, sht 15b, dwl 6, fam 6, Jerry Sulivan.
- 1885 Minnesota State Census, pop sched, Todd Co, Villard, p. 398, family 2, Jerry Sullivan.
- Find A Grave, database with images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74707944/mary-sullivan), memorial 74707944, Motley Public Cemetery, Todd County, Minnesota, Mary Sullivan, 1892.
- “Homestead Proof, Testimony of Claimant,” application 7874, 20 Feb 1879, Jerry Sullivan (Todd County, Minn) homestead file bearing final certificate no.4462, St. Cloud, Minn. Land Office; Land Entry Papers, 1800-1908; Record Group 49: Records of the Bureau of Land Management; National Archives, Washington, DC.
- “Killed by the Cars,” Motley Register, 8 Dec 1888, p. 5, col. 3.
- Staples World, Feb 27, 1892, p. 8.
- Todd Co, Minnesota, will book v. B, p. 42, will of Mary Sullivan.
#52Ancestors-Week 47: Random Number
This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe.
I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
Impressed that Mary had a will so property could be passed down. Even signed with X, she really understood the importance of documenting inheritance.
ReplyDeleteGreat that you're documenting your ancestrors, which may also help others out! Have you tried looking for a church record for her in County Cork? Have you used IrisheGenealogy.ie and RootsIreland.ie to help in your search? :)
ReplyDeleteI have and I should have stated that. Sometimes I forget to state the obvious. I paid a local researcher to check the church records in Co. Cork twenty years ago. The church book that would have had their marriage is missing! Too many Sullivan and Sheehan families in Cork to attempt to narrow down, especially with wide ranges of potential birth years.
DeleteI guess the family wasn't in Minnesota for the 1875 census, to give you another data point? And I guess church records wouldn't routinely record her age.
ReplyDelete