Descendants of
PATRICK FINNERTY AND MARY LOGAN
By Mary M. Thacher & Albert T. Finnerty
August 19th 2000
Part 1: Leaving Ireland & Settling in
America.
1) Patrick Finnerty and Mary Finnerty (nee
Logan) were both born in County Galway - though the tombstone containing this information
(in the United States) gives no indication of which area. It is known that Mary Logan (whose father may have been named
Arthur) was born on April 10th 1812, and that she married Patrick in 1835. They were
probably poor tenant farmers tilling lands rented from the titled gentry. Most likely
they were Irish speaking and illiterate. At that time only 15% or so of the
population in Galway was literate.
2) The potato was their main source of
nutrition. For the most part, the crops Patrick grew
were very likely not consumed by the family, nor sold to
raise income, but were instead turned over to the landlord as rent. In 1847, Ireland was
in its third year of the potato famine. The family faced starvation and was probably
not able to continue to till their land and pay the landlord's rent. Compounding the human
tragedy, many but not all the landlords, for the reasons outlined below, instituted
policies to clear the tenants from their lands:
2a) London's public
policy was for landlords to pay a tax to house and feed the populous housed in public
shelters. Most landlords who had sustained their tenants could no longer afford the
cost without jeopardising their own financial survival;
2b) Irish landlords could earn greater
profits by raising cattle, which they sold on the English market. But first, they had
to somehow get rid of the Irish peasants from their small plots of land;
2c) The Irish population had increased from
3.5 million to 8 million from 1800. It could not be supported without the potato and under
the new agriculture scheme a large tenant population was not required.
3) Consequently, when the potatoes failed,
Patrick and Mary Finnerty, and their three children Mary Jr., John F., and Patrick H.,
were forced to leave Ireland: as were thousands of others like them. They also took with
them a fourth child named Bridget Finnerty.
4) At the present time, it is not clear who
Bridget Finnerty's parents were. One possibility is that Mary Logan may have had an
earlier relationship with someone else which went too far; and that Patrick fell in love
with her, and married her to help her out of an awkward social situation. According to Bridget's granddaughter ??? (Edith McGrath) Bridget Finnerty was the child of Michael Finnerty
(probably Patrick's brother) and a lady named Mary Fitzgerald. It is believed that Bridget
was born on November 9th 1835 - which was "the night of the big wind".
5) The port of exit from Ireland is not know.
Their journey to America was possibly via Liverpool (circa 1847), since many of the
emigrant ships sailed from there. There is reason to believe that the ship they
travelled on must have been blown off course: because they eventually landed in Halifax
(Nova Scotia) after a journey of some six weeks. New York is thought to have been the
intended port of destination.
6) Remaining in Nova Scotia for a period of
eighteen months, they moved to the United States taking up residence at Gardiner Maine on
the Kennebec River. This was four miles from the town of Augusta, the state capital and
the town of James G. Blaine - a famous politician who once ran for president. They
stayed in Maine for seven years where Patrick Sr. was employed as a general labourer.
Bridget Finnerty was employed as a domestic in the home of the first Episcopal Bishop of
Maine (George Burgess).
7) The "Know Nothing" movement
(which was anti-Catholic) was strong around the Maine area at the time. Prejudice in some
sections of the community against Irish Catholics eventually made life intolerable for
them. Bridget later commented: "we were driven out by
the rowdies."
8) After leaving Gardiner Maine, they made
their way north to Canada, then up the St. Lawrence through Lake Erie, and down to the
Ohio River to Madison.
9) The whole family stayed for a while in
Madison Indiana where "father had three brothers",
writes his son Patrick H. Finerty in an article published in The Gate newspaper circa
1890. Bridget was nineteen. She married Michael McGrath (who she possibly first
met in Maine) on March 18, 1855. Patrick H. Finerty wrote "Madison
was not a good town and we lived there for six months and spent what small wealth we had;
as father could not secure employment there he concluded to leave, and at that time there
was great excitement in the west and glowing accounts of the boom in Iowa."
When the Cooey Company (which packed tin pork for the Crimean War) decided to move their
meat packing plant form Indiana to Keokuk, the entire Finnerty-McGrath family group
followed.
10) Patrick H. Finerty's article continued
with: "We concluded to move to Iowa and landed in Keokuk
April 1, 1855 with a ten dollar gold piece as the amount of our funds. My first
impression of Keokuk was not good. I thought as I viewed it from the boat, that it
was not a very sightly place, as I imagined that the town or that part of it I saw from
the boat was all there was to the burg. We remained in a hotel on the levee for a
few hours and my first introduction to Main Street was made while riding up on a load of
furniture- all our belongs on a dray. As I viewed the town further up, I liked it
fairly well and our first home was on the corner of Twelfth and Concert
Streets."
11) Patrick Finnerty Sr. became a stone mason
and bricklayer. Both of his sons Patrick H. and John F. worked along with their
father for several years in the brickyards. There were in the early days seventeen
brickyards and as many as six hundred bricklayers. There was a construction boom
during this period during which much of the old town was built. Keokuk was a major
shipping point of farm produce on the Mississippi River.
12) The following excerpts from the city
directories give us an insight about the family and its life in Keokuk. They lived and
worked together. Their homes were all in the forth ward. They subsequently
purchased homes on Timea and Des Moines Streets, which were within one block of each
other. St. Peters Catholic Church is several blocks from their homes on 10th Street.
13) The City of Keokuk published city
directories to advertise the skills of its tradesmen. The 1857 directory, the oldest
in the city library, listed Patrick Finnerty as a stone mason living on Exchange Street
between 4th and 5th. Also living at the same address was Michael and Bridget McGrath
(nee Finnerty) with husband Michael listed as a labourer who worked on the locks on the
Mississippi River. The 1859 directory listed Mary Logan Finnerty as a dressmaker, and
Patrick (her husband) was listed again as a mason. They had moved their home to Des
Moines Street.
14) The civil war erupted in 1861. On
May 4, 1861 John F. Finnerty enlisted in Company A, 2d Infantry Iowa Volunteers. He
was mustered out at Louisville Kentucky on July 12, 1865. His company saw violent
service and suffered heavy losses during the war. It participated in the critical
siege and capture of Fort Donelson. In the official records the unit was described
the bravest of the brave. Subsequent to this engagement, the unit participated in
the bloody battles at Shiloh and Corinth and it occupied a post of honour. It ended
its fighting by participating in the battle of Atlanta and was in General Sherman's
infamous march to the sea.
15) Patrick H. Finerty enlisted in Company C,
45 Iowa Infantry in 1864. He caught typhoid in Tennessee, and was honourably
discharged eight months later.
16) On January 11, 1864, John F. Finnerty
married Mary Quinn a seamstress. Mary Quinn was born 1844 in Newcastle, Ireland, and grew
up in the town of Castelwellan. They made their home at 4th Street between Main and
Blondeau which also served as dressmaking and shoe shop.
17) On March 17, 1864 Michael McGrath died of
pneumonia leaving a wife, three boys and his wife pregnant with his fourth son. Wife
Bridget, if not already living with Patrick Sr. and Mary on Des Moines Street, would soon
move in with them to raise her family.
18) In the 1866 directory, Patrick Finnerty
Sr. is listed again. Also listed are John F. and Patrick H. (Jr.) as shoemakers, and
Mary Quinn Finnerty as a dressmaker. In 1871, John and Patrick had opened their own
shoemaker shop on the north side of Main Street near 3d Street and advertised as makers of
fine boots and shoes.
19) As reported in the 1870 census, Patrick
Sr. and wife Mary, Bridget McGrath and her four boys all lived at 1014 Des Moines Street
between Tenth and Eleventh Streets. They lived in the fourth ward of the
city. They owned their own home valued at $800.00. Their home was one block
from John F. Finnerty's home at 1002 Timea, and Patrick H. Finerty's home was next door.
At the time of the census, Patrick Sr. was 60 years of age and wife Mary was 58.
20) Patrick Finnerty Sr. died of pneumonia on
Thursday morning March 9th, 1876 at the age of 66. An Irish wake was held at his residence
on Friday at half past 9 AM. His obituary described him as: "…gentleman
possessing so many excellent traits of character that he will be greatly missed by his
friends. It has been but a few days since he was going about attending his business,
and the announcement of his death will no doubt surprise many of his acquaintances."
21) Mary Logan Finnerty lived in Keokuk until
her death at the age of 78. She died after a lingering illness at 5 o'clock, Sunday
evening at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. B???.
McGrath No. 723 Timea Street, Keokuk Iowa. She had been an invalid for a period of
over five years and about two months before her death she had a paralytic stroke - to
which her final demise is directly attributable. She is buried at St. Peters
Cemetery in Keokuk.
Epilogue
22) After writing this history, the main
question we would like answered is this: who were Bridget Finnerty's parents? Though
Mary Logan Finnerty's obituary describes Bridget as the "daughter" of Patrick
and Mary Logan, we suspect that she may in reality have been their "adapted
daughter"?
23) My cousin Mary McGrath Thacher and I
would like any further information that anyone reading this narrative may have on our
family that left Ireland in 1847. We know that Patrick was one of four brothers who
immigrated to America. The Michael Finnerty mentioned above, who may
have been a brother of Patrick's, is believed to have died in Ireland - a victim of the
famine.
24) If you can help, please contact:
Mary M. Thacher at Mthacher@snet.net and
Albert T. Finnerty at atrudfinn@aol.com.
To follow at a later date:
Part 2: The American born descendants of
Patrick Finnerty & Mary Logan.
Above draft history first written on:
August 6th 2000.
Most recent rewrite: August 19th 2000. |
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