Category Archives: Kilkenny Mahers

Matty Maher: A Legend

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Famous Irish Individual, In Memoriam, Kilkenny Mahers, Matty Maher, McSorley's

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“It’s not what you become in life but what you overcome.” (Matty Maher)

Bold in Danger, Cherished gift from a genealogy friend, ©2013 C.O’Donnell

The past year has been one of immense transition on levels beyond what any of us might have imagined. We continue to reel from the daily news in this ecological and political whirlwind. Many souls have left the planet before the fan regulating the health of humankind has been splattered beyond repair.

As my husband and I prepare to head north for the celebration of life for the passing of yet another dear longtime friend, I am grateful that my brother alerted me to the passing of one of the most legendary Mahers — Matty Maher (Matthew Dennis), owner of the 166 year old McSorley’s Old Ale House in New York City. New to Maher’s legend myself, articles immediately available from a quick search intrigued me, and Matty was easy to spot in photos via his undeniable Maher eyes! Learning about him has been a welcome distraction, and I cheer him from afar while his friends and family celebrate the great man at his funeral events today.

The story of Matty Maher brought back memories of the seventies and my first venture into New York City as a tentative adult with art peers on a field trip from college. In recommending places to visit, our teachers told us that by the end of the afternoon they could be found at a very cool Irish pub – McSorley’s – and we were welcome to stop by. Whether or not they knew that women were not yet (or only barely recently) welcome, at that point in time the mere thought was beyond possible for me. Shy as I was to even speak to my seemingly all powerful and quite intimidating male teachers in class, the odds of my showing up there were nil, bars not yet being part of my universe. The trip was wonderful, nonetheless, and through the years New York, and the world itself, became ever smaller and less terrifying to wander through as I have claimed various parts as homes along the way. The next time I’m in NYC I’ll be sure to have a pint in honor of this very important Maher at New York’s oldest bar (established in 1854). Maybe I’ll even get to meet and toast a Sláinte to one of his five daughters.

Several articles (linked here) round out the story of a man who was deeply loved over many decades and whose life was directed as if by the angels to immigrate from his Threecastles, Kilkenny, homeland and build a charmed life in America. (Of particular note is an essay from Kilkenny that includes a great photo of Matty Maher and a timeline history of McSorley’s.) Maher’s work from 1964 onward ultimately transformed a simple beer bar into a destination. His former employees shared loving memories of him, recalling his generosity of spirit. Michael Brannigan explained, “People’d always ask him, ‘You own the bar?’ ”…“He’d say, ‘No, you own the bar.’ The customers own it.”

My brother described McSorley’s as “a museum really…Every inch of the place is covered in pictures…and there’s only beer and only two choices—black or tan—and crackers and cheese and onions…that’s it…and shoes alleged of Joe Kennedy.” New York Times and New Yorker Magazine articles described a sawdusted floor and particulars among the treasure trove of memorabilia, including a collection of “holy relics” in the form of turkey wishbones left behind on an ancient chandelier by soldiers in World War I to safeguard their return before heading off to battle. According to Maher, the bones came to represent those who were lost in the war and thus treated reverentially. More were added in honor of individuals in relatively recent conflicts. For artists and writers in the fifties and sixties John McSorley’s “The Old House at Home” must have been akin to the Cedar Street Tavern, which was originally in Greenwich Village. John Sloan depicted a scene inside McSorley’s in a painting that had been exhibited in the Armory Show of 1913.

As the energy of this Matthew Maher, son of one other Patrick Maher, joins all that is good in the universe and those who knew him are filled with the joy of having shared his life, may the energy of our own friend, Noah Totten, find and join his like-energy, and may our world be strengthened by this powerful addition of spirit. “May it be its own force field / And dwell uniquely / Between the heart and the light.” (John O’Donohue)

[Update: 16 January 2020 — See @IrishTimesNews on Instagram for a great photograph by Lauren Crothers that captured the honor canopy of raised hurling sticks as pallbearers carried the great man’s coffin. The funeral of Matty Maher took place at Holy Trinity Church, Whitestone, New York.]

CITATIONS:

Dan Barry, The New York Times, “Dust Is Gone Above the Bar, But A Legend Still Dangles,” April 6, 2011

Chang, Sophia, Gothamist, “Longtime McSorley’s Owner Has Died, Bar Will Stay In the Family, ” January 13, 2020

Sean Keen, Kilkenny People, “Matty Maher Passed Away This Morning With His Family By His Side, Wonderful Kilkenny man who owned McSorleys in New York has passed away, Kilkenny and Irish People in New York Lose A Great Friend,” January 11, 2020

Joseph Mitchell, The New Yorker, ‘The Old House at Home,” April 14, 1940

McSorley’s Old Ale House, https://mcsorleysoldalehouse.nyc/

New York Historical Society Museum & Library, “The Armory Show at 100,” McSorley’s Bar, 1912

Elizabeth Nix, History Stories, “Why Were American Soldiers in WWI Called Doughboys?,” September 28, 2018

John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us, A Book of Blessings, Doubleday, 2008, pg. 18

Rikki Reyna and Clayton Guse, New York Daily News, “‘He was an absolute legend’: Owner of 166-year-old McSorley’s Old Ale House dies at 80,” January 12, 2020

Sam Roberts, The New York Times, “Matty Maher, an Institution at an Institution, McSorley’s, Dies at 80,” January 13, 2020

Lori Zimmer, Art Nerd New York | Los Angeles, “Cedar Tavern,” July 31, 2013

©2020 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

Home Is A Web of Connections

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by in Connecticut Irish, Ireland Pilgrimage, Kilkenny Mahers, Naugatuck

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My long hiatus in writing may be over, if only to share in stages some glimpses of my fifth pilgrimage/journey to Ireland. Although so much of my scholarship in relation to this place did not neatly fit into a conventional academic trajectory, it nonetheless led directly to teaching for one month in this most special and beautiful place. My science colleague/friend and I began a new study abroad program! Since life does not always wrap up chapters of our lives fluidly, I am especially grateful that my sense of true north that prevailed over the years transitioned me in this way to a point of great change.

Returning to Ballyvaughan, not as an artist-in-residence this time, but as a professor bringing students to share experiences and learn in a deeply meaningful way felt somewhat to me not like being in Ireland initially. We group of Americans doing a certain kind of work, albeit in a different place, seemed strangely familiar, as every new semester is accompanied by its own sets of uncertainties. Without benefit of a car or solitude I needed to be in this familiar area in a new way and dispel the transformative memories that continually arose seeking attention I could not afford to give them. It was necessary to pare down my expectations and become utterly patient. Perhaps after another very intense year of work this was what all of us needed. Extraordinary leaders of our field trips, however, revealed in their own ways aspects of the magic that wasn’t perceptible to me at first, and allowed my friend and me to share new and direct experiences along with our students. I so appreciated the time and poetic, eloquent sharing of information that many individuals, especially Patrick McCormack, Gordan D’Arcy and Eddie Lenihan offered us.

I explained to my friend, who was visiting Ireland for the first time, that when in this place I tend to feel as if I am a character in a fairy tale. Practical difficulties must be dealt with at first as I search for my bearings. I must shed much of the drive and focus that brought me to the first leg of the journey. Once begun, it then takes on a life of its own. I must ask directions, follow instructions strangers provide and pass through one challenge after another, each seemingly more complex and unexpected. There is a learning or re-learning of even simple things—bus and train systems, denominations of money, making it through a shortcut path in the woods without getting lost and figuring out SIM cards and hotspots. With each challenge passed the reward seems greater, the emotional impact is stronger and eventually it becomes possible to feel present and comfortable. This time it was necessary to perform a role within the unanticipated restrictions and complexities that, thankfully, came to a truly satisfying and successful result. Four weeks went by very quickly and a new group of individuals were embraced by the resident community, experiencing more and different things than any of us might have imagined.

During one week more my friend and I became tourists and transitioned into the kind of free-form wandering that I love best to do. This is how I feel most spiritually at home in Ireland. My cells and soul had recognized a deep connection to the midlands from my first visit. My intellect finally caught up with emotions and sensations about all of Ireland and her history. All of myself now works together there. I have walked and driven over so many miles that I can envision a web created over years that a tracking device might have been able to illuminate. (Perhaps someday I will draw some version of this, like delicate crochet.)

Deep and wide research, digging, seeking multiple sources for every fact, acknowledging doors that might never wish to open was necessary in exploring my mysterious ancestral history with its many Irish surnames. Being in contact with living people has been utterly necessary in order to fully perceive what my quest has been about. With each detail of the possible stories that have come into focus a calm, settled feeling has taken hold in me—and even miracles have occurred! I have felt that the ancestors dropped sequential clues, made themselves slightly more clear in stages as if acknowledging my effort paid forward while trying to learn about them. With this visit my visible and invisible teachers provided a true treasure!

With only two days left, my friend and I found ourselves driving along a winding road in Kilkenny that led higher and higher up a mountain to what we expected would reveal the small townland in which one of my great-great grandmothers had lived pre-immigration. Before leaving America someone had already confirmed my research. The Internet had provided the location of the ancient cemetery associated with her parish. The road, however, led instead to a farm at the top of the world, looking out over the other counties between which my questions had continually been weaving back and forth. Suddenly we were being invited into my ancestor’s former home! The joy of the current owner’s family regarding an American relative’s return deepened this gift exponentially, and my friend’s presence allowed me to fully feel the profundity of our visit. She had the wherewithal to take notes and snap photos while I was overcome and could only concentrate upon conversing with these gracious individuals as best as I could manage. Feeling entirely blessed by them it appeared that this portion of my quest had come to an actual fairy tale ending. I am thrilled to know that I now have a new family of friends to add to the dear ones we also visited on this trip.

It is about the people with whom and within the places in which I’ve had soulful experiences that my interior world has been created. As with friends and relatives in America, the return to a person and a place is a constant. What we do together, combined with our solitary explorations, continues to build upon the truths we’ve shared. When apart a psychic web remains.

Ireland is no longer a foreign place to me. I continue to study her history and pose new questions about her with as much curiosity and excitement as ever. Actual friends are there, even if I do not see them often. One has visited me in America. I hope that others will. Through my immersion in the homeland of my ancestors my experience of the world has grown and deepened. The awareness of connections held in energetic space has made it more possible for me to trust that the Universe provides what I need, moment after moment. I feel that our last week in Ireland provided the firm grounding from which the rest of my life will proceed.

Having not mentioned “Maher” at all yet, I’ll share that when handing over my passport and answering the airline worker’s questions before our departure, I habitually spelled out my always mispronounced and unfamiliar last name, then my friend’s. The attendant smiled and pleasantly replied, “There’s no need to spell those names here!” Laughter and joy, we belonged!

©2019 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

Book Review, Connecticut Society of Genealogists!

13 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Book Review, Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Kilkenny Mahers, Naugatuck, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley

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Mary Sullivan Conran, from Janet Maher family photograph album, colorized ©2010 Janet Maher

Mary Sullivan Conran, from Maher family photograph album, colorized ©2010 Janet Maher

Although I was disappointed not to have won a literary award from the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, I very much appreciate the review they included in this issue of Connecticut Genealogy News! About my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut, they wrote:

A massive volume of Irish lore, this book will attract not only the beginning researcher but also those charter members of TIARA. The author, a native of Connecticut, has equipped this scholarly book with multi-colored and black and white photographs. The author uses larger print size than usual as she maps and transcribes the oldest Catholic cemetery in Naugatuck, where generations of people and their descendants who helped shape the character of southern Connecticut lay interred. An excellent set of researcher’s tools enable the user of this material to accurately navigate throughout its contents. Starting with a clearly defined table of contents and ending with a plethora of selected bibliographical works, broken into sections determined to be primary and secondary sources, this book’s organization is a reader’s delight. The concluding section entitled Recommended Organizations is a source not usually included, but is an added bonus for the researcher.

In the course of my research, photography was a partner to historical and genealogical study. Our family images provided questions and sometimes hinted at answers, helping to create ties between individuals. After years of puzzling over one large group photo, included in full in my book, I finally determined that the striking older woman in this detail, above, was Mary Sullivan Conran. Mary, the daughter of Mary Maher and Patrick Sullivan, of Ireland, had several siblings who also emigrated to Naugatuck, Connecticut. She was the wife of Edward Conran, one of the close partners of my great great grandfather, Patrick Maher, and godfather to Patrick’s youngest child, Josephine (future principal of Salem School).

In my study of birth records in Freshford, Kilkenny, I believe that I discovered Mary and three of her siblings. She was born in 1826, relatively close in age to Patrick Maher, who was born in 1811, from nearby Queen’s County/Laois. (In Naugatuck, four years were shaved from Mary’s age. This, however, was a slight amount compared to those subtracted in census and birth records throughout the decades by so many other historically young-looking Irish women.)

Mary Sullivan Conran died in June, 1910, at age eighty. My research of the first community of Irish Catholics in nineteenth century Naugatuck suggests that she would have been the last remaining elder of the original immigrant group. I discussed this revelation with a descendent of the Conrans, who thought she recognized a resemblance to another photo of Mary Conran that she remembered.

I find these kinds of discoveries to be quite thrilling. Having spent my entire life as an artist, little could I have known that the path of an historian might have been another possibility–albeit aided by art! It’s also delightful to have discovered through this work that our family was not as tiny as it had always seemed. I wish that we could have known our ancestors during their lifetimes, but am grateful for the journey they nonetheless provided.

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut was published by Apprentice House, Baltimore, MD. It is 400 pages and includes 336 images. It may be obtained at: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Naugatuck Historical Society, Naugatuck, CT; and Quinnipiac University Bookstore, Mount Carmel Branch, Hamden, CT. In Baltimore it may be purchased from Loyola University Bookstore and The Ivy Bookshop. Online it may be purchased from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, and from me via Paypal or by check (P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212).

Meagher/Maher Women, Some New Connections

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Carlow Mahers, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, Kilkenny Mahers

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Freshford Cemetery

Freshford Cemetery, Kilkenny, Ireland, ©July 2011

(Revised June 30, 2013)

After publishing an almost 400 page book summarizing more than six years of extensively detailed research, I still have many questions. However, I am thrilled to have recently discovered the names of three Maher-related women and, through them, to reveal here some important connections! One is related to Waterbury, Connecticut’s beloved parish priest, Reverend Thomas Francis Hendricken (Ann), one, to the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in America (Frances), and another, to the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in New Zealand (Ellen/Cecilia).

Bishop Thomas F. Hendricken

Bishop Thomas Francis Hendricken

Although the first Irish Catholic settlements in New Haven County, Connecticut began to take hold in the mid 1820s, it was not until 1847 that Waterbury received its first resident priest, Reverend Michael O’Neil. In 1855 he was replaced by Father Hendricken, a native of Dunmore, Kilkenny, Ireland. Thomas Francis Hendricken was the son of John Hendricken and Anna Maria Maher. He was leader of the Waterbury Catholic community through complex decades of history, including during the Civil War, until his consecration as bishop of Rhode Island in 1872. He was credited with the completion of Naugatuck’s Saint Anne’s Church (the first Catholic church there), the purchasing of land for Naugatuck’s first Catholic cemetery, Saint Francis, and the building of the first Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury’s downtown. Had Ann Maher Hendricken’s son been related to the Mahers of New Haven county, I wonder? Had he requested placement in New Haven county, Connecticut due to such possible familial connections that had already become interwoven there by the 1850s, after Ireland’s Great Famine?

Mother Frances Warde

Mother Mary Frances Warde, daughter of Jane Maher, courtesy of Mercyworld.org

In Ireland, Carlow’s Father James Maher, nephew of Cardinal Cullen (head of the Irish College in Rome) had mentioned that the nuns in Carlow were needed in America, thus serving as the catalyst for the entrance of the Sisters of Mercy order into areas across the sea. America’s part of this story began with the birth of Frances (Fanny) Warde, in 1810, youngest child of Jane Maher, wife of John Warde, in Mountrath, Queen’s County/Laois, Ireland, eight miles from the town of Abbeyleix. Jane died shortly after Fanny’s birth, leaving Fanny’s siblings Daniel, William, John, Helen, and Sarah.

The Warde family residence, Bellbrook House, had been “situated in the most beautiful part of the country.” Due to his willingness to voice his controversial political opinions, however, John Warde’s home and leases were taken by Lord de Vesci, Viscount of Abbeyleix, and transferred in trust for himself to Sir Robert Staples. With their father subsequently needing to relocate to Dublin in order to find work, the motherless children went to live with their uncle William Maher in Killeany, also in Laois.

Fanny Warde, later Reverend Mother Mary Francis Xavier, was the first Sister of Mercy professed by Foundress of the Irish order, Catherine McAuley, and she became Superior and Novice Mistress of Saint Leo’s Convent of Mercy in Carlow. Mother Frances’ sister, Sarah (Mother Mary Josephine Warde), also became a nun. In 1838 Mother Frances’ cousins, Ellen Maher (professed as Sr. Mary Cecelia) and Ellen’s half-sister Eliza, also joined the order in Carlow.

In 1843, Sister Cecelia succeeded Mother Frances Warde as Superior in Carlow when Mother Frances and six other sisters were chosen to emigrate to America to establish the Sisters of Mercy order in Philadelphia. Included in this first group were: Sr. M. Josephine Cullen, Sr. M. Elizabeth Strange, Sr. M. Aloysia Strange, Sr. M. Philomena Reid, Sr. Veronica McDarby, and Sr. Margaret O’Brien, under the direction of newly-ordained Bishop Michael O’Connor. Mother Frances and the other nuns worked as teachers, and eighteen more convents were established before her death in Manchester, NH, in 1884. [Note: Sisters Strange and Reid may have been relatives of the Stephen and Catherine Maher family of New Haven, as I understand Mother Cecilia to have been.]

Mother Cecelia Maher, courtesy of Mercyworld

Mother Cecilia Maher, daughter of John and Alicia Maher, courtesy of Mercyworld.org

In 1849 Mother Cecilia, along with six other members of the community in Carlow, one from Dublin, and one from Sydney, Australia, left Ireland to work in a New Zealand mission. Mother Cecelia established the Sisters of Mercy in Auckland, built convents and schools throughout the area, was the Superior General of her community and remained deeply involved in New Zealand as a teacher and social worker, caring for the sick and the orphaned until her death in 1878. Her grave is behind Saint Mary’s Convent, which she built in Poonsonby.

According to her Mercy International Association biography, Mother Cecilia (Ellen) had been the daughter of John and Alicia (or Adelaide) Maher, born September, 1799 in Freshford, Kilkenny. Her mother, like Mother Frances’, also died young, and her wealthy father was said to have remarried a woman named Ellen. Joseph Casimir O’Meagher’s data pertaining to the Mahers of Kilkenny aligned with this information in relation to one William Meagher, whose son, John, lived in Freshford (Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, 1890). O’Meagher, however, noted the name of John’s second wife to have been Jane Harold. Might one or the other, Jane or Ellen, have been a middle name that the woman was known by? Might O’Meagher or the biographer have made a mistake in this first name? Otherwise, the combined children’s information brings the story of Mother Cecilia into further focus. John’s daughter was said to have helped in the rearing of her five step-siblings to whom she was very close, and due to that choice, deferred her entry into the religious order until she was 39 years old.

According to O’Meagher, John Maher’s family was: John Maher (1769-1836), of Freshford, brother of William Maher of Killeany, married Alicia Murray, of Kilkenny, in 1792. Their children: William J. (1800-1875, married Anne Maher, no children); Emanuel Murray (born 1802, died unmarried); Mary, Ellen (a nun), Adelaide, and Michael (who died in America). John Maher married a second time to Jane Harold (Limerick). Their children were Kate, Margaret (a nun), Elizabeth (a nun), Jane (a nun), and Fanny (a nun). [See my posting of August 8, 2011, The Mahers of Kilkenny.]

Four of Mother Cecilia’s step-sisters also became Sisters of Mercy. Jane professed as Sr. Mary Pauline, and both she and Fanny emigrated to America. Eliza, as mentioned above, entered the Carlow convent under the direction of Mother Frances Warde.

[Notable, in my opinion, was the existence of a school in Hartford, Connecticut, run by the Sisters of Mercy, where one Jane Maher was principal in 1860. Might she have been one of the above-mentioned sisters who went to America? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “In 1852 Mother Warde opened houses in Hartford and New Haven to which free schools were attached.” In the 1860 U.S. Census were Jane Maher, 35, and nine other Sisters of Mercy, teachers to 33 young girls in Hartford.]

O’Meaghers’ research noted John Maher as the brother of William, of Killeany. If Ann Maher Hendricken was also from this family it would mean that Bishop Hendricken, of Waterbury and Rhode Island, was related to both Mother Cecilia Maher and Mother Frances Warde and their families!

I believe ever more strongly that Adelaide Maher, wife of John Quigley, buried in the main section of Saint Francis Cemetery among the primary early Irish Catholic residents of Naugatuck, was a daughter from John Maher’s first marriage. She, among others, are discussed more fully in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County, Connecticut. If I am correct, she would have been Mother Cecilia’s sister! The existence in this small borough of someone related to her would have likely driven her choice to emigrate with her children to this fairly remote place in 1864, apparently after the death of her husband. That connection would likely have been my great great grandfather, Patrick Maher, born in 1811, from Queen’s County, head of the only Maher family in town at that time. He and my great great grandmother, Anne Butler, were said to have been the first Irish Catholics to settle there in 1842.

Since so much family history research has to do with studying surnames that are predominantly male-based, I find it especially satisfying to have found connections among women, who so often become “lost in the crowd” due to the changing of their original surnames through secular or spiritual marriages.

This post is dedicated to the memory of a contemporary Anne Butler, for whose kindness and project-related friendship I am forever grateful. I will never forget our serendipitous meeting one miraculous day at Saint Francis Cemetery during our separate routines of tending the graves. May her soul rest in peace.

Resources:

Carlow County – Ireland Genealogical Projects, Prof. Donal McCartney, Rev. James Maher P.P., 1793-1874; http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/Fr_James_Maher.htm

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Maher, Mary Cecelia, 1799-1878; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/tmplt-foundressstory.cfm?loadref=180

IrishHeritageTowns.com, Abbeleix, Rev. Mother Mary Frances Ward; http://abbeyleix.irishheritagetowns.com/rev-mother-mary-frances-ward/

Memoirs of the Sisters of Mercy, Pittsburgh, PA; http://archive.org/stream/memoirsofpittsbu00john#page/4/mode/2up

Mercy International Association, Mother Cecelia Maher; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/tmplt-foundressstory.cfm?loadref=180

Mercy International Association, Frances Warde, Joan Freney, RSM; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/tmplt-foundressstory.cfm?loadref=176

Mercy International Association, Heritage; http://www.mercyworld.org/heritage/landing.cfm?loadref=201

Mercy Parklands Hospital, Our Mercy Story; http://www.mercyparklands.co.nz/?page_id=10

The National Archives, U.S. Census, 1860, 1st District, Hartford, Connecticut, Roll M653_78, page 958, Image 435, Family History Library Film, 803078

New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia, Mary Frances Xavier Warde; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15553a.htm

Quigley Genealogy Page (Maher relatives of Cardinal Cullen); http://homepage.eircom.net/~johnbquigley/Maher040502.htm

Sisters of Mercy, New Zealand, Auckland 1850, A Voyage Made ‘Only For God;’ http://www.sistersofmercy.org.nz/who-we-are/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=6

Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, Joseph Casimir O’Meagher; http://archive.org/stream/somehistoricaln00meagoog/somehistoricaln00meagoog_djvu.txt

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut may be obtained at: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Naugatuck Historical Society, Naugatuck, CT; and Quinnipiac University Bookstore, Mount Carmel Branch, Hamden, CT. In Baltimore it may be purchased from Loyola University Bookstore and The Ivy Bookshop. Online it may be purchased from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, and from me via Paypal or by check (P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212).

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Using Griffiths Valuations, Irish Census and Tombstone Information to Locate Families (Transcriptions.3)

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Kilkenny Mahers, Origins, Tombstone Transcriptions

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Gowran Roman Catholic Church ©2011 Janet Maher

I continue to examine documents for possible links between my study in Connecticut and the areas of Ireland that I have pinpointed as places of origin for a select group of people. Certain families within a relatively close range from towns near the borders of Tipperary, Kilkenny and Laois, Ireland, settled in Naugatuck, New Haven County, Connecticut. In forms of wave migration, Thomastown, Kilkenny, was one place that became clear.

After the Great Famine (1845-1849) it can be assumed that many Mahers who had once lived in the Barony of Gowran, and other areas of Ireland, emigrated or did not survive. If they were not leaseholders, some may not have appeared in Griffiths Evaluations even if they might have lived and worked on the land. Thus, some continued to remain invisible. There is a strong likelihood, however, that Mahers in Ireland after the Famine had been related in some way to emigrated Mahers whose ancestries led back to the same areas. The following is an example of a way to gather indirect information that might help to locate families and form a bridge between emigrated individuals and those who continued the family lines in their homeland.

Roadsigns to Gowran or Carlow ©2011 Janet Maher

Through baptism records I have determined that one of the Maher families in my study originated in Kilfane, which was in the Union of Thomastown, Barony of Gowran. Ask About Ireland’s Griffiths Valuation index turned up 105 hits for the surname Maher in the Barony of Gowran, Kilkenny, almost thirty years after the first members of the family appeared in America. Mahers were living in the Gowran areas of Columbkille, Dungarvan, Gowran, Graiguenamanagh, Grangesilvia, Kilfane, Kilderry, Kilmacahill, Powerstown, Saint John, Shankill, Thomastown, Tullaherin, and Woolengrange.

In 1850 one Philip Maher remained as a leaseholder in the townland of Ballykeoghan. An Anne Maher leased a house in the townland of Newtown, Parish and Union of Thomastown. In Kilbline, Parish of Tullaherin, Union of Thomastown, was listed one Patrick Maher who leased fifty acres of land, with house, offices and garden, and one Martin Campbell, who leased, in turn, a small parcel of land from Patrick Maher. In Knockbrack, Woolengrange, Union of Thomastown, Margaret Maher lived on seventeen acres of land. By pulling each name up in this way, one at a time, it is possible to learn details about each person who appears in the online Griffiths Valuation index and attempt to match them to other information one might have. There is a large jump between Griffiths Valuations and the 1901 census, available (with the 1911 one) from the National Archives of Ireland, but information from Griffiths may help to link the earliest immigrant settlers that left Ireland around the time of the Famine. (In Ireland is the collection of the actual Griffiths returns.)

Mahers living in Gowran in 1901 included those in the townlands or streets of: Bodal (Patrick Maher, a tailor); Brickana (Margaret Maher, working as a servant); Commons (John and Catherine Maher and family); Gallowshill (John and Bridget Maher and family); Main Street Upper (Mary Maher and her sisters) and Lower (Mary Maher and her son); and Talbotshill (Margaret Maher, a farmer). In 1911 with some changes, the groups and most of the individuals were still there.

In house #1 in Gallowshill [Gallows Hill] in 1901 were John and Bridget Maher, John’s father, Michael (a retired farmer), and John and Bridget’s children: Mary, [Jeramiah], Joseph, Bridget, Teresa, along with a farm servant named Michael Cunningham. This house had likely been Michael’s, as his name was first entered, then crossed out, by the census-taker in Form B1, the House and Building Return. John might have been Michael’s oldest son, heir to the family house and land.

By 1911 Michael had died and Joseph was gone from the house, which was now considered as house #2 by the census taker. Some time around 1904 John and Bridget’s daughter, Agnes had been born. The House and Building Return for 1901 listed Mary Hogan as the owner of house #2. (In 1911 the numbers for both families were reversed, although given the data, they did not exchange houses.) Mary’s structure had two more front windows than John and Bridget’s three, and in 1911 a few more changes could also be seen. Both houses were built from “stone, brick or concrete.” Mary’s roof was made of “slate, iron or tiles.” John’s was thatched or made of “wood or other perishable materials.” John had eight out-offices or farm-steadings; Mary had ten. For both, these included a barn, stable, cow house, calf house, fowl house, piggery, turf house and potato house. Mary also had a dairy. Nine people lived in four rooms in John’s house; two people lived in three in Mary’s. In 1911 they each seemed to have expanded the spaces inside the houses, such that there were now two rooms in the individual dwellings, and John had added another window. Both families were Catholic.

I photographed several of the tombstones on the grounds of Gowran Church, Kilkenny City, Kilkenny, last summer, with a focus upon surnames that also appeared in early Catholic Naugatuck, Connecticut. Here, among my images, was the stone for what appears to have been the same Jeremiah, above, and three of his sisters! This stone, which at one time may have had an image or carving attached to its face, was inscribed:

In Loving Memory Of  / JERMIAH MAHER / Gallows Hill Gowran / Died 1st Nov 1937 Aged 54 Yrs / His Sisters BRIGID MAHER / Died 23rd Jan 1970 Aged 85 Yrs / TERESA MAHER / Died 1st June 1982 Aged 83 Yrs / And AGNES MAHER / Died 16th  Feb 1987 Aged 83 Yrs. [The grave site extends forward about ten feet in an enclosed area covered with small white stones.]

From this information it might be surmised that neither Jeremiah nor his younger sisters had married. We do know that their parents’ names had been John and Bridget (or, the original spelling, Brigid) Maher and that their grandfather, a widower, had been Michael Maher, born about 1821, according to the 1901 census. We can also picture them in place as, perhaps, a typical Catholic farming family in rural Kilkenny. Did Jeremiah’s older sister, Mary, and younger brother, Joseph, marry and/or settle in another part of Ireland? What was Bridget’s maiden name? With further research, such as a study of baptism and marriage records, much more might be revealed about this family.

[Jermiah] Maher and sisters, Gowran ©2011 Janet Maher

Another Maher grave in Gowran Cemetery included this inscription:

Erected By His Widow / In Memory Of / JOHN MAHER, Gowran / Who Died 21st January 1881. / Aged 66 Years. / And Of Their Children / ALICE and CATHERINE / Also in Memory of  / ELIZA MAHER / Widow of the Above / Who Died 5th February 1885 / Aged 66 Years / And Their Daughter / MARY / Who Died 15th March 1907 / Aged 65 Years. / R. I. P.   [At the lower edge of the stone was also: ELIZABETH Died 28th Sep 1913 / BRIGID 7th Aug. 1919 / JANE 19th…(more)]

Some other surnames that I found in Gowran Cemetery which also exist in early Irish cemeteries of New Haven County included:

[One large Celtic stone in an enclosed plot; just outside the plot another large stone, family name Hanlon with inscriptions.] Cross / Jesus Mercy, Mary Help / This Cross Was Erected By DANIEL BLANCHFIELD BLANCHFIELD’S PARK / In Memory of His Mother / BRiDGET BLANCHFIELD / His Brothers RICHARD and PETER / And His Nephew JAMES BYRNE / Who Died 13th Jany 1885 In The 25th Year Of His Age / His Grandnephew, OWEN BLANCHFIELD KEHOE / Who Died 2nd Feb. 1993, In His 69th Year. / And His Nephew, JAMES RICHARD (JIM) KEHOE, / Who Died 17th Nov. 2000, In His 46th Year. / R. I. P.  [At base] His Mother, MAURA KEHOE [dates covered by plant, 2009] Aged 83 Yrs.

Pray For the Soul of / MICHAEL BOWE, Ballyquirk / Who Died Sept 15th 1879, Aged 81 Yrs. / Also His Wife ELLEN BOWE Nee WALSH / Died May 23rd 1891 Aged 69 Yrs. Also Their / Son THOMAS Died Sep. 9th 1910 Aged 70 Yrs. / Also Their Son JOHN Died Feb. 2nd 1912 / Aged 66 Yrs. and Their Son MARTIN / Died May 2nd, 1923, Aged 78 Yrs. / Also Their Daughter ELLEN / Died July 22nd 1930, Aged 75 Yrs.

Sacred Heart of Jesus / Have Mercy on the Souls of / JOSEPH BUTLER / CASTLE VIEW / died 19th June 1965 / His Wife MARY / Died 31st Jan. 1967 / Their Son, JAMES, / Died 6th July 1993 / R. I. P. / Erected By Their Loving Family

Cross / Erected By JAMES CAHILL / Of Gowran / In Memory Of His Children / ELLEN CAHILL / Who Died March 19th 1879 / Aged 7 Years / MARY CAHILL / Who Died August 20th 1882 / Aged 20 Years / MARGARET CAHILL / Who Died November 5th 1885 / Aged 19 Years / Also ELLEN and MARTIN CAHILL / Who Died Young / R. I. P.   [Side] Cross / Also / In Memory Of / ROBERT CAHILL / Who Died 14th August 1893 / Aged 28 Years / And / PATRICK CAHILL / Who Died 16th September 1894 / Aged 20 Years. / Also / In Memory Of The Above-Named JAMES CAHILL / Who Died 13th December 1896 / Aged 67 Years. / Also His Wife / BRIDGET CAHILL / Who Died 29th April 1920 / Aged 81 Years.

Sacred / To the Memory of / JOHN KELLY / of Dungarvan. / Who Died 15 December 1878 / Aged 62 Years / Also Three Of His / Children Who Died Young / And of His Wife / MARGARET KELLY / Who Died 16 March 1907 Aged 72 Years /  And of His Son JAMES J. KELLY / Who Died In Melbourne 19 Oct. 1913. / Aged 40 Years / And His Daughter / MARY FRANCES HAYDEN / Who Died Jan. 30th 1831 Aged 65 Years / Also His Son WILLIAM F. KELLY / Who Died Nov. 14th 1943. Aged 80 Years. / Requiescant In Pace.

[Two stones sharing the same enclosed plot filled with small white stones] Erected / In Loving Memory / Of / JAMES J. O’DONNELL [CLASHWILLIAM] / Died 18th May, 1962 Aged 80 Years. / His Wife ANGELA Nee DOWLING / Died 22nd Apr. 1983 Aged 87 Yrs. / Their Son ANDREW / Died 17th May 1995 Aged 78 Yrs. / Their Son MAURICE / Died 8th Nov. 1995 Aged 62 Yrs.   [Stone #2]  Most Sacred Heart of Jesus / Have Mercy / On the Souls of / NORA M/ O’DONNELL / Who Died 24th May 1963. / Infants of LOUISE and JOHN. / JAMES BRENDAN O’DONNELL / Died 25th Apr. 1997 / Aged 73 Yrs. / R. I. P.  [The stonecarver was Mullan, from Kilkenny.]

Cahill stone, Gowran; Blanchfiled to the right, behind ©2011 Janet Maher

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Purchasing My Book

26 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Origins

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Lynch’s Farm ©2010 Janet Maher, image from our family collection, digitized, restored and hand-colored by the author (pigmented ink on archival paper, 12 1/6″ x 18 3/4″, framed 18″ x 25″) included in From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut. 

After a bit of editing for unexpected typos that I found, I have reordered my book, From the Old Sod, Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County, Connecticut, which is now in its First Edition, revised, version. It is 399 pages and includes 336 images. It is now back in stock and available for sale. How to purchase my book:

1. From the author! The price is $65.95. I will pay for packing and shipping in the U.S. and will sign it if you’d like. I am offering a price break at three/four ($62) and five/six ($58) copies. You can order my book securely through this blog using PayPal (click below on correct number of copies to activate this feature) or send me a U.S. drawn check at this address: Janet Maher, Department of Fine Arts, Loyola University Maryland, 4501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210.

Purchase One Copy Here;  Purchase Two Copies Here;   Purchase Three Copies Here;   Purchase Four Copies Here;   Purchase Five Copies Here;   Purchase Six Copies Here.

2. From Amazon.com. If you have purchased it this way and would like for me to sign it, you can mail it to me at the above address and include a self addressed stamped padded envelope for its return.

3. If you live outside the United States, it is possible to purchase my book here: Amazon.com Canada; Amazon.com UK; Waterstones.com. If you would like for me to sign it, please mail it to me at the above address and include a self addressed stamped padded envelope for its return.

I welcome reviews of my book. You can include yours in comment sections on this blog, and/or on the spaces for reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble sites.

To see the Table of Contents, please refer to my May 24, 2012 post here.

I hope that everyone who reads my book will enjoy it and will have found it helpful in their own quest to learn more about the earliest Irish Catholics of New Haven County and the Catholic history of Ireland. Thank you for your interest in my labor of love and thank you in advance for purchasing it!

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

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From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics In New Haven County, Connecticut

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Connecticut Irish, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Origins, Pilgrimage, Thoughts

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©2012 Janet Maher, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, books at home; image: Katherine Maher Martin and Eliza Maher, ca 1850s

©2012 Janet Maher, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, books at home; image: Katherine Maher Martin and Eliza Maher, ca 1850s

First thing I did when I got the proof was to take pictures of it, then bring it into my department and show it to my colleagues, who then immediately got to hold it. Not exactly like having a baby, but pretty exciting, nonetheless.

The first mention in the press is out, on the Naugatuck Patch! The book is in the process of being offered on the Amazon website, and will also be available through Amazon.uk.

Hope to see some of you on June 21. Huge news is that Jane Lyons is flying all the way over from Ireland to be there! We’ll be going to the Irish Festival in New Haven that weekend too!

Wishing you all well,

Janet

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

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Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

17 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Connecticut Irish, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Origins, Pilgrimage

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Coming Soon!

Beginning from an interest in her own family’s history, with From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley Janet Maher shares a deeply textured journey through a fascinating corner of the Irish Catholic diaspora. She explores the history of Ireland through the perspective of Catholicism, bridging it to the origins of Catholicism in Connecticut generally, then to several Irish families whose personal stories extend to the present.

Mapping and thoroughly transcribing the oldest Catholic cemetery in Naugatuck, Saint Francis, Maher has made connections between generations of families and friends. The book includes selected marriage, baptism and death records throughout the nineteenth century and excerpts from rare letters between Irish immigrants and individuals still in Ireland. It is replete with photographs from Ireland and Connecticut, and restored personal photographs selected from families’ collections, including her own, from materials safeguarded in scrapbooks and albums for years. In many ways Maher has made the people whose graves she encountered in cemeteries come alive again.

Creatively overcoming the limited existence of early genealogical records, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley draws a colorful, intimate multi-layered vision of a generation of immigrants and their descendants who shaped the character of southern Connecticut. Its fusion with family histories brings to the foreground a captivating thread in the tapestry called America.

Janet Maher has been a professional artist for more than thirty years. Her drawings, prints, artist books, mixed media works and collaborative projects have been exhibited widely and are in numerous private and public collections. A native of Connecticut, she also lived and worked in New Mexico before settling in Baltimore, where she is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at Loyola University Maryland. This is her first scholarly book.

©2011 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

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Merry Christmas and Every Other Celebration!

20 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Connecticut Irish, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Origins

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My Book - Coming in January!

Well, the semester has ended, and we did not quite get the book completed. I will be doing much over the break to get it ready and we will have it out by the end of January! A very merry holiday season to you all and many blessings in the new year!

©2011 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

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New Haven County Irish in the Civil War

08 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by in Connecticut Irish, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Tombstone Transcriptions

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John and Catherine Maher Tombstone

John and Catherine Maher Tombstone, Parents of Major Patrick Maher, Saint Bernard Cemetery, West Haven, Connecticut

Robert Larkin tells me that there will be a commemoration of the Soldier’s Monument at Saint Bernard Cemetery in West Haven on October 23 at 1 p.m. He explained that this will mark the 125th anniversary of the dedication by the State of Connecticut of the 32 foot high monument (note photo in my previous post, Miscellaneous Thoughts, 8/22/11). It will include a wreath laying, bagpiper, taps, a short ceremony, a handout with soldier information and assistance in locating individual Civil War grave sites. Over the summer Ellen Bohan, Pat Heslin and Paul Keroac were able to find the location of 190 Civil War markers or tombstones, including some veterans who had been buried with their families. Their list includes more than 300 soldiers in total. Congratulations to them for this invaluable work!

Soldiers in the cemetery represent about 20 Connecticut regiments or artillery units, nine regiments from other states, 20 from the United States Infantry and Navy, a Medal of Honor recipient and one soldier who died in 1942. Each of the identified markers or stones will have a flag placed at its site. Among the many veterans from the Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers are: Colonel Thomas Cahill, Captain Lawrence O’Brien, Captain John G. Healy, 2nd Lieutenant William O’Keefe, Captain James Hennessey. Neil Hogan, author of Strong in Their Patriotic Devotion, has written a two-page flier and two pages of soldier information will also be available for those who attend the ceremony.

At the Naugatuck Historical Society will also be events in commemoration of the Civil War. Beginning at noon on October 23 will be concert, fellowship and cocktails, the annual meeting of the society, and at 2 pm a buffet dinner with a Civil War Music program.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend either of these events, but I will be there in spirit. I offer this “almost” chapter that I had considered including in my book, but am finding that it ranges too far outside my already complicated topic. This venue seems to be the right place for it.

I wish my friends in Connecticut and everyone who attends the commemoration events a glorious time honoring the heroes!

Colonel Cahill Tombstone

Colonel Thomas Cahill Family Stone, Saint Bernard Cemetery, West Haven, Connecticut

Company E, of the 2nd Regiment, the Washington-Erina Guards of New Haven was begun in July 1849 and officially recognized in March 1852. It was comprised of American citizens, either naturalized or American born. Among the 1850 petitioners to form the militia were: John Maher, Patrick Maher and Thomas W. Cahill (of Massachusetts). The group “purchased their own uniforms and received flint-lock muskets from the State.”[i] The Irish companies in New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, Derby, and Norwich included:

• Infantry Company E, 2nd Regiment, Washington-Erina Guards – Capt. Thomas W. Cahill, First Lieut. Patrick Maher

• Infantry Company D, 2nd Regiment, Jackson Guards – an offshoot of New Haven’s Company E (Murray noted that when the company was disbanded there was no captain and John Maher, Jr. commanded as First Lieutenant. John was likely the brother of Patrick Maher, whose parents’ tombstone is above. They require their own article.)

• Infantry Company F, Emmet Guards – Hartford

• Infantry Company C, Jackson Guards – Norwich

• Rifle Company B, 2nd Regiment, Derby Rifles – Derby

• Infantry Company B, 8th Regiment, Montgomery Guards – New Haven

Despite prejudice against them throughout the decades, when the American Civil War began in April 1861 many Irish in Connecticut were willing to enlist. Mahers fought in both sides of the Civil War, most on the side of the Union. The National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System includes information about 26 Mahers in the Union Army between 1861 and 1865. (Five Meaghers, five Mahars and twenty-six Maher listings occur for Connecticut regiments. Eighty-six men by the name of Butler were listed, as were 121 by the name of Martin.) Reverend Thomas Duggan noted 7,900 Irish soldiers, and that Irish priests, such as Reverend Thomas Francis Hendricken of Waterbury’s Immaculate Conception, raised flags above their churches. Captain Cahill was notified that his Emmet Guards would be quickly commissioned, to which he tersely replied:

“Six years ago I was captain of a company of volunteer militia and a native of New England. I was, with my comrades, thought to be unfit to shoulder a musket in time of peace, and the company was disbanded…under circumstances peculiarly aggravating to military pride. The law by which we were disbanded still stands on the Statute Book, and as long as it is there my fellow-soldiers and myself feel it to be an insult to us and to all our fellow-citizens of Irish birth and Catholic faith. If we were not fit to bear arms in time of peace, we might be dangerous in time of war.”[iii]

The 1855 law was repealed and the Irish Regiment, the Ninth Connecticut Volunteers, was begun at Camp English in New Haven. Neil Hogan and Right Reverend Thomas S. Duggan, D.D., wrote extensively about the Connecticut 9th, in particular about their mistreatment through lack of Hartford’s support during the war.[iv]

Their first tour of duty began in Massachusetts under General Benjamin Butler, who had requested Connecticut soldiers. When the Connecticut 9th, along with the 26th Massachusetts Regiment, arrived in the Gulf of Mexico on the desolate Ship Island, near Mississippi, Hogan noted “Nearly half of them were without shoes and as many more without shirts; several had no coats or blankets. Some drilled in primitive attire of blouse and cotton drawers…The tents were hardly capacious enough to cover them.” [v] By contrast, the Massachusetts company had been given “warm blankets, ample tents, and two uniform suits of clothing per man.” In 1862 a letter from one of the Connecticut 9th soldiers was printed in the New Haven Register, setting in perspective the loyalty of the Irish to their adopted American homeland despite the conditions in which they served. It stated “the Ninth will do their part, when they are led forth in defense of the country which gives more freedom to the stranger than any other on the face of the Earth. Irishmen have fought for France under Sarsfield, for Russia under Delacy and for Spain, in their shirt sleeves, under O’Donnell, at Bull Run under Corcoran; and the adopted sons of Connecticut will prove themselves as good as their ancestors either in France, Spain, Russia or America.”[vi]

According to Duggan the military pay that the Connecticut 9th sent back to their families amounted to almost $20,000 during their difficult time in the south. He noted the finding of a cache of canvas shoes that Cahill gave to his men against regulations to which he replied, “My men are bare-foot and necessity knows no law.”[vii] Cahill had been serving as Brigadier-General for the Connecticut 9th, and a New York Tribune article regarded the company as “one of the oldest and best disciplined regiments.” When Cahill retired after his notable service, however, he was only awarded his initial title, Colonel.[viii]

From rosters listed in Thomas Hamilton Murray’s study of this regiment I have compiled the following information:[ix]

• On September 27, 1861 the following men mustered into Connecticut Ninth, Company E from Derby: Thomas Healy (1st Sgt.), Michael Dolan (Cpl.), James McNally (Cpl.), John Crowley (Pvt.), Edward Heffernan (Pvt.), Cornelius Ryan (Pvt.), James Ryan (Pvt.); also on that day, John Maher, of East Windsor, mustered into Co. G.  From New Haven on that day the following mustered into Company E: Thomas Kennedy (1st Sgt.), Michael Mullins (2nd Lieut.), Daniel Heffernan (Sgt.), Thomas Ryan (Sgt.).

• Between October 4 and October 30, 1861 the following men from Derby mustered into Company E: James Dolan (Cpl.), James Shea (Pvt.), John Healey (Pvt.), John Lawler (Cpl.), Bernard Whelan (Pvt.), and from New Haven, James P. Hennessey (Capt.), Francis McKeon (1st Lieut.), and Terence Sheridan (Capt.).

• On November 25, 1861, from Derby, Michael Naylor (Cpl.), Timothy Crowley (Pvt.), John Maher (Pvt.) mustered into Company E.

• From New Orleans, on Nov. 30, musician John Burns also mustered into this Company. He was followed on May 27 and 29, 1862 by Hugh Lynch (Pvt.), Garrett O’Toole (Pvt.), John McTague (Pvt.), and William Grace (Pvt.), who mustered into Company E from New Orleans and Cape Parap’t.  (Might those who ended up in the south when they emigrated have intentionally decided to join friends in the Connecticut 9th when the opportunity arose?)

• In 1862 and 1863 the following of the aforementioned men died: William Grace, John McTague, John Maher (both), John Burns, John Crowley, Cornelius Ryan, James Ryan. Edward Heffernan was discharged. John Lawlor, Michael Dolan, Thomas Healy, and Michael Mullins transferred into Company K. On October 12, 1864 the following men transferred into Company B: Garrett O’Toole, Hugh Lynch, Timothy Crowley, John Healey, Terence Sheridan, Thomas Kennedy, Daniel Heffernan, Thomas Ryan. In addition, Hogan noted, “Timothy Maher was promoted to corporal in Company B, and served to the end of the war.”[x]

Joseph Casimir O’Meagher noted another Patrick Meagher, First Lieutenant 13th Infantry, Brevet Captain for gallant and meritorious services in 1863 during the siege of Vicksburg.[xi] Captain Daniel Maher, Lieutenant Patrick Maher, Sergeant Jeremiah Maher, and Private Patrick Maher served in the 63rd Regiment, New York Infantry, which was attached to Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher’s Irish Brigade. John Meagher, who enlisted at 19 in his home state of New York, according to O’Meagher, was promoted to corporal, sergeant, and second lieutenant. He fought in “Fredericksburg…Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristow Station, Rapidan, Mine run, The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Laurel Hill, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Deep Bottom [twice], Ream’s Station, Skinner’s Farm, Hatcher’s Run and Sutherland’s Station. [xii]

In the early 1900s many tributes were paid to the valiant Ninth Connecticut Volunteers, thoroughly documented by Thomas Hamilton Murray. On August 5, 1903 he included a notice from the Naugatuck Daily News that recounted the trip taken to New Haven by “the Hibernian Rifle Company, the Saint Francis T.A.B. (Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society) Drum Corps, members of Isbell Post, G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), the Young Men’s Catholic Institute and the Naugatuck Drum Corps” to participate in ceremonies for the unveiling of a New Haven monument in honor of the Ninth Regiment.[xiii] Included among the invited were members of the New Haven Society, Knights of Saint Patrick. Attending the formal dinner that evening were members and dignitaries from Connecticut cities as well as from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Delaware and Rhode Island, including:

• Hon. William Kennedy, Naugatuck

• Col. John G. Healy, New Haven (9th)

• Thomas Hamilton Murray, Boston

• Michael P. Coen, Naugatuck (9th)

• Joseph R. Hall, Naugatuck

• John F. Hayes, M.D., Waterbury

• Thomas M. Cahill, M.D., New Haven

• Stephen J. Maher, M.D., New Haven

• Major Patrick Maher, New Haven (24th)[xiv]

The graves of war veterans in Naugatuck are still decorated by the Veterans’ Association every year with flags, although there does not seem to be specific records about them. Among all the veterans buried in Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck are:

• Adamson, James, Co. B., 20th Regt. Conn. Vols., G. A.R., Post 13

• Brennan, John, Co. I., 5th Inf. Conn. Vols., G.A.R.

• Burke, John P.,  G.A.R., Post 16

• Carolen, Thomas, G.A.R.

• Campion, Wm., Sgt. Co. C., 1st Conn. Cav., G.A.R.

• Coen, John P., Corp. Co. F., 9th Reg. C.V., G.A.R.

• Coen, Michael, Co. K., 20th Reg. C.V., G.A.R.

• Conran, James, G.A.R., Post 7 (Co. F., 1st Conn. H.A.)

• Davy, John, G.A.R., Post 170

• Duffin, James, Co.D., 158 Inf., N.Y. Vols., G.A.R.

• Ford, Thomas, Co. H., 15 Regt. Conn. Vols., G.A.R., Post 10

• Fruin, Michael, Co. H., 15 Inf. Conn. Vols., G.A. R., Post 15

• Harper, Thomas P., 152D. Dep. Brig.

• Jones, Horace E., Co. H., 2 C.V.R.A., G.A.R.

• Keefe, Arthur, Co.E., 2 Reg. Mass. Vol. , G.A.R.

• Keogh, Michael, G.A.R., Post 165

• Maher, Thomas, Co. E, 3 U.S. Arty. G.A.R.

• Martin, John A., U.S.N., World War I

• Murphy, Patrick, Spanish American War

• O’Donnell, James

• O’Donnell, John, Co. E., 5th Conn. Vols. G.A.R., Post 6

• Ruth, Patrick K., Capt., Co. B., 8 C.V.I., G.A.R.

• Shields, David, Co. K., 23rd U.S. Inf., G.A.R., Post 4

• Young, Peter, G.A.R., Post 1

May they all rest in peace.

James Maher, Civil War, Saint Bernard Cemetery, West Haven, Connecticut

Note: In the course of posting this article I stumbled upon a chapter of the book Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States, which includes a chapter about Bishop Hendricken. Although I did research him and include some information in my book, I had not seen this until now and did not know that his mother’s name was Ann Maher! His connection to Kilkenny has already been interesting to me, as so much of my own research leads directly back there, but that his mother was a Maher may be significant.

©2011 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

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[i] Murray, Thomas Hamilton, History of the Ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, The Irish Regiment, In the War of the Rebellion, 1861-65; New Haven, CT: The Price, Lee and Adkins Co., 1903; pp. 12-14.

[iii] Duggan, Right Reverend Thomas S., D.D., The Catholic Church in Connecticut, New York City: The States History Company, 1930, pg.90.

[iv] Hogan, Neil, Strong In Their Patriotic Devotion: Connecticut’s Irish in the Civil War, Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society, 2003.

[v] Ibid., pp. 14-15.

[vi] Opcit., pg. 15.

[vii] Duggan, Right Reverend Thomas S., D.D., Vicar-General of the Diocese of Hartford, The Catholic Church in Connecticut, New York: The States History Company, 1930; pp. 91-92.

[viii] Ibid., pg. 92-93.

[ix] Opcit.

[x] Civil War Soldiers and Sailors web site notes this Timothy as 16th Regiment, Co. D. A second Timothy Maher (2nd Reg., Co. C) had an alternate spelling, Mayher.  He also appears as Corp. Timothy Meagher. (M535, Roll 11)

[xi] O’Meagher, Joseph Casimir, Some Historical Notices of the O’Meaghers of Ikerrin, American Edition, New York, 1890, pg. 182.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] Murray, Thomas Hamilton, History of the Ninth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, The Irish Regiment, In the War of the Rebellion, 1861-65; New Haven, CT: Price Lee and Adkins Co., 1903, pp.391, 392.

[xiv] Ibid., pp 394-396.