Gullane

East Gullane - 2017

Gullane is located in Kilconly Parish.
 In 1841 there were 2210 residents in the parish.  In 1851 there were 1521.  Of those 728 were male and 793 were female.  There were 247 families with 37 % in 4th class houses.  There had been 370 families in 1841 with 55.7% in 4th class houses. In 1841 85% of heads of household were in agriculture.





  By 1851 the number had dwindled to 66.7%.  In 1841 only 16.1% of the male population were literate and 5.2% of females.  Those numbers increased to 40.3% for males and 14.4% for females in 1851.



 

Edmund English didn't emigrate until 1880, but some of his extended family members left much earlier.  His uncle, Jeremiah Lawler was in Minnesota by 1850 and many of his family as well as many neighbors from Kilconly Parish soon joined him.  Among those Edmund would have found when he stopped in Rochester were the Scanlons, the O'Connors, the McElligots, the Mulvihills, as well as numerous Lawler and English cousins.



Statistics from the Irish Famine Project led by Alan Fernihough of Queen's University Belfast

St. John's Cemetery (Calvary) Rochester

Calvary Cemetery was founded in December 1874 as Saint John's Cemetery through the purchase of 15 acres of land by Rt. Rev. Thomas L. Grace Bishop of St. Paul and given to J. B. Cotter Bishop of Winona in January 1895. 

The name was changed to Calvary Cemetery Association Rochester on November 1, 1940.

1999 Maura Madden Donovan, Mary Carney
and Norene Cajacob Moser 

Calvary is the home of nearly 100 Lawler and over a dozen each of English and Baier burials along with a few Delmores.  

Jean English Madden standing by stone of
Luke and Margaret (Somers) Delmore
1999

These pictures are from two visits, one in 1999 and the other in 2018.

 

Find a Grave - Calvary Cemetery

The Lawler Farm

Betty and Mary Louise Lawler and Jean English @1938

As a child, Mom (Jean English) spent many hours on the Lawler Farm.  This was the farm of  her Great Aunt and Uncle, Eva (Baier) and William Lawler.   On my visit in July, I was fortunate to not only see this farm where she had spent parts of her summers but to meet Steve Lawler and his wife Brenda who are still living on the farm as well as Martha Bowen, who lives on a farm just across the way and with her sister Margaret offers a B&E (as she says that is eggs, you get to cook them yourself.)  I toured the house and it looked like a wonderful place to stay.  Check it out  Irish Ridge B&E.

Evie Lawler and Jean English @1935

John English in the tree

The area is gorgeous, some of the most luscious farms I ever seen.  If it weren't a couple thousand miles away, I would be renting that house on a regular basis!

Grandpa English, who had spent many summers on the Baier Farm which was just minutes away, also loved to visit.  Although Eva was his Aunt, she was just a few years older than he.  Although I didn't know Grandpa well, my memories were all pretty much of a fun loving man who would definitely be climbing the trees!

The Original Building

Eva's Grotto

Steve and Martha

More Lawler Farm Pictures

1883 Plat Map.  Note Bowen Farm and Lawler Family Farm in lower right corner

Family Gatherings 2018: Minnesota

PART II

(Go to Part I)

We had a wonderful time with the Cajacob clan all week.  A Sunday brunch at Mary's included a walk along Lake Harriet where the younger kids left letters at the Elf house.  They were very excited when the found letters from him waiting when they got home!

Tuesday, Peter led us on a tour of downtown Minneapolis, the move to the Embassy Suites made it an easy ride on the Metro.  We saw crocodiles in Minnesota and crossed the river twice.  One little guy took advantage a got rides much of the way!

 Wednesday was play day at the lake for the younger crowd .... 

 And finding houses and tombstones for the more ancient crowd........

English Houses on Litchfield Ave

Thursday was the big Picnic......lots of Cajacobs to visit!  A short hike to Minnehaha Falls.....Rain, rain, rain....thunder, lightening, rain!  We were wet!

We never get those good storms at home!

Finally met Mike Carroll after 20 years of corresponding!!



Check out the rain!

Here and there everyone wandered their individual ways....

Visit with Aletha

Science Museum

And then Friday night it was dessert with the Walshes......Theresa Fink came from her farm in South Dakota joined by her sister Patti, who had also helped on our adventure in Calvary Cemetery on Wednesday.  Bill and Molly Walsh also came!!!!  We celebrated Nicholas' 4th birthday with a cake and a few presents

And then everyone went home........ well except me!!!  I spent two nights with Mary and Peter before heading out to Rochester (more on that later).  Saturday night we hit the Roots, Rock, Deep Blues Festival  on Saturday night.  Lots of great music including Cornbread Harris who was still going strong at 91.

Thanks to all our wonderful cousins for making this one of the best Madden Family Gatherings yet!!

Thanks everyone for the great pictures!!!

The Children of John Baier(l) and Mary Delmore

John and Mary had 13 children according to their own testimony.  Four of those have not been found in records at this point.  An educated clan, many taught school before their marriages.

Anna Marie (Nan) was born in 1867 in Wisconsin.  She married Edmund English.

The remaining known children were all born in Haverhill Township, Minnesota.  Frances Margaret (Fan) was born in  1872. She married Phillip Cassidy and they had ten children all in Olmsted County.

Catherine Agnes (Kate) was born in 1875.
"Called Home - Miss Katherine Byers Joined the Great Majority  This Morning.
Wednesday's Daily - The dark Angel Death cast his grim shadow over the home of John Byers this morning.  She who answered the dread summons was Mill Katherine Byers.  Miss Byers has been ill for a long time and a number of times her life has been dispaired [sic] of.  She had rallied so bravely several times that the anguished family began to take hope of her ultimate recovery.  Her disease was rheumatism and in spite of all that medical skill could do, it finally reached her heart.  The end came at an early hour this morning.  While death is always sad, this one is peculiarly so.  Miss Byers was twenty-two years of age, a bright, beautiful young woman, admired and beloved by all who knew her.  She had lived all her life in this county and her sweet disposition and charming womanly graces made everyone who came in contact with her, her friend.  Her untimely loss will be sincerely mourned by a host of friends.  The funeral will be held from St. John's church Friday morning, the Rev. Father Riordan officiating."  (Olmstead County Democrat, Friday Feb 23, 1900 p1 col 3.)

Elizabeth Cecelia (Liz), born 1878, married Maximillian Conrad om 1897.  They had seven known children.  One, Max Arthur Conrad was better known as the "Flying Grandpa".

John Matthew was born in 1880. He married Agnes Czapleske. John took over the Baier family farm. John and Agnes had four children, one of whom died in infancy.

Their only surviving son died in a hunting accident.  "Man Killed in Hunting Accident - John Baier Dies in Accidental Discharge of Gun - Shot through the chest when a shotgun on which he was manipulating the ejector accidentally discharged, Joseph John Baier, 23 years old, assistant to the farm superintendent at the State Hospital, was killed instantly this afternoon.  It was the area's first hunting fatality of the season." Rochester Post 28 Oct 1940

Eva Baier Lawler and John Matthew Baier
Lawler Farm Collection

John Matthew died in 1973 in Iowa.

Josephine Gertrude (Govie) was born in1881. She married George Timothy Joyce, MD in 1906. They had three children.














Sarah Veronica (Sadie) was born in 1883.  She married Michael P Macken in 1914 and died in 1922 of Bright's Disease and diabetes.  She is buried in the family plot in Calvary Cemetery

Evelyn Teresa (Eva) was born in 1886.  She married William Patrick Lawler in 1913. William is a grandson of Jeremiah Lawler and Margaret English.

Mark Anthony was born in 1893 and married Helen St. John. Close in age to John Edward English his nephew, they played together on the farm when John would visit during the summer.  They were the best of friends.  John was devestated when Mark died as the result of a gunshot wound in November of 1940.  He had been despondent  since the death of another nephew John Joseph Baier in a hunting accident.  The coroner's inquest ruled the death accidental.

Lawsuits

We can thank our litigious ancestors for the glimpses their often petty lawsuits gave into their lives.

So a complaint by Johanna Lawler, widow, against John English (farmer) on 9 Apr 1872, informs us that on the 26 and 28 of March he let five pigs trespass on her new fences.  They uprooted the quicks planted in said fences.

On 5 Sep 1870 John English (farmer)  filed a complaint against Margaret English (married) stating that on the 20th of August in Gullane she assaulted him by stricking him several blows on the face with her fist.  Thomas and Honorie English also both of Gullane spoke in her defense and the charges were dismissed on the merits and without costs.

John then accused Thomas English Sr. (farmer) of Gullane of assaulting his wife Margaret on the same day by taking from her by force and violence a tin can and cut her in the leg.  John asked that Thomas be bound to peace towards himself and his family.  Thomas English spoke for John.  These charges were also dismissed without merit.

The drama had just begun, John next accused Thomas English Jr. (laborer) of causing him a personal injury. He accused Honoria and May English of aiding and assisting Margaret English of assaulting his wife (Margaret English) and asked that they be bound to peace toward him and his family.  All the charges were dismissed on merit and without cost.

Thomas English then accused Margaret English (married) of wilful trespass for entering his land and taking water from his well, he went on to accuse John of trespass and using force and violence to assist his wife in taking water from his well.  These charges were also dismissed on merit and without cost.

Relations between these brothers and their families did not necessarily improve.  On 15 Apr 1872 Margaret (married) most likely the wife of Thomas complained that John had called her scandalous names without any cause.  Stating that she is afraid that he will do so again, she asks that he be bound for future good behavior towards her. John in turn complained that she had assaulted and beaten him and also accused her son Thomas Jr. of calling him a perjurer and of  encouraging his mother to assault and beat him.  He asked for Thomas Jr. to be bound in peace towards him.  All three complaints show there was no appearance in court.

On 8 Oct 1877 Thomas English accused John of allowing his pigs to trespass on his land cropped with potatoes. You can find these as well as many other "family" petty court sessions by clicking on the link below.

Adding to the confusion of the records is the fact that both brothers had married Margarets.  John married Margaret Carroll and Thomas married Margaret Costello.  And both Thomas and John had sons Thomas and John.  Thomas remained in East Gullane where he passed away in 1884, but at this point it is unknown whether John remained.  His name remains in the Valuation books, but no death has been found for him.  There is a census record in 1880 in Minneapolis that could be him.  Perhaps the digitization of the remaining death records for Gullane will give further clues.

Gullane Petty Sessions Court Records (English, Lawler, Carmody connections)

Irish Petty Sessions Court Records - Irish Genealogy Toolkit (more about the records)

Ireland, Petty Sessions Court Registers on Find My Past  index free

Thomas Lawler and Catharina Sweeney

Olmsted County Democrat
Friday 20 January 1898 p3 c7

Mary Lawler left no records that named her parents, however, her brother John's death gives us the name of his father. When she died in 1909 her age is listed as ninety, giving an approximate birth date of 1819.  This would most likely make her the oldest child of Thomas Lawlor.

John's  obituary names all of his living siblings and lists where they live. Mary is the only one still living in Ireland, two are living in New York and the rest are in Minnesota.

The Olmsted County Death Register (Book D Page 151 Line 16 Jan 18, 1898) 
names his father, Thomas but, unfortunately, not his mother.  So it was a wonderful surprise to find an entry in the Lawlor Mortuary Book Bk 6 page 256 that named his mother 

Kath Sweeney.  She is named in the christening records of three children, Bridget, Margaret and Catherine.  The information was provided by John's brother Thomas, so is likely to be correct.  No christening records have been found for the six older children or for the youngest, Hannah.   

One problem with trying to identify Kath as the mother of all the children lay in the mistakes in the contemporary records.  The first was the immigration record for the family in 1851 which gives her age as 25 and then lists all her children except Mary who already married stayed in Ireland.

It is unknown whether Thomas had died or perhaps had emigrated earlier and had now sent for his family.  Either way no record after 1850 has been found for Thomas. There is a burial listed on Find-A-Grave in Holy Cross Cemetery in Ellicottville, New York for a Thomas Lawler with no dates.  This is the cemetery where his son William and his family are buried.  Might it be our Thomas Lawler.

The search is on for Thomas emigrating prior to May of 1851. We know the family was in Buffalo for a time as that is where William married in 1854.  If Thomas is buried in Ellicottville, that might put his death before 1855.  It is possible that he had acquired land and actually died before or during the time the rest of the family was in Buffalo. 

The 1855 NY shows Catherine living with her newly married son William and the rest of her children.  Her age is shown as 70. 1860 Census record for Catharine Lawler shows her living with son John and daughter Hannah in Great Valley, Cattaraugus, New York. An age of seventy would make her old enough to be the mother of all the known children of Thomas Lawler.  There is no doubt that this is the correct Hannah and John, the ages are correct, both were born in Ireland and neither is found in New York in 1870. John's obituary states that he lived for a time in New York, and the eldest son William is also living in Cattaraugus County, New York.

Katharine died in 1867 but we are unsure whether she died in New York or Minnesota.  No record was found.  However, she is listed on the tombstone in St. Bridget's cemetery, Olmsted County MN with her daughter Honnorah (Hannah) who died in 1918. Adding to the age confusion, the had been indexed as  1887 in a book of St. Bridget burials.  The stone does say 1867 and age 74 which puts Catharine's birth about 1793.

The Children of Thomas and Catharina  

Note all birth years except Bridgit, Margaret and Catherine are in question.  Only those three were found in the christening records. No two records found for any child gave the same birth information.  

Mary 1819-1909

William 1820 -1911

Thomas 1828-1917

John 1833-1898

Julia 1835-1912

Johanna 1835-1927

Bridget 1836-1908

Margaret 1839-1898

Catherine 1843

Honnorah 1846