My Trails into the Past

My great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan’s oldest sister, Mary, married another Sullivan, James Sullivan. She was born on 1 November 1843 in County Cork to Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan. [1] She came to the United States with her family when twelve years old, first settling in Providence, Rhode Island, and then moving to Calumet, Michigan. [2] On 8 May 1870, she married James Sullivan at Hancock in Houghton County, Michigan. James was two years older, also born in Ireland, and worked as a miner. [3] Houghton County is in the upper peninsula where much copper and iron mining was done. This was the same work that Mary’s father had done in Ireland. In 1877, James and Mary moved to Holt County, Nebraska, where James acquired a homestead. [4] He was one of many from Michigan who settled in the area near O’Neill. In 1890, he cultivated ten acres of wheat, twenty acres of oats, thirty-five acres of corn, and five acres of potatoes. He had built a cottage the previous year. He was “n...