The Last Word on John Cronin

Note:  This is the 4th post in a series of posts about John Cronin, the husband of my g-grandmother, Lucy.

The first place I traveled to in search of John Cronin was the town of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky based an a newspaper article I had discovered in the Kentuckiana Digital Library.  A visit to the Paris-Bourbon Co. library revealed a second article that gave several more clues as to the "real" John Cronin.
Here is a transcription:

True Kentuckian, Paris, Kentucky, April 5, 1882

John Cronin, who committed suicide at Mt. Sterling last Saturday night by morphine, was buried in the Catholic cemetery here on Monday.  His father owns a lot in the cemetery, but it being contrary to rules of that church to inter a suicide in consecrated ground, he was buried in the strangers' lot.  He was born and raised in Cynthiana, having been here three or four years ago exhibiting the two Elam children, or "Scaly Brothers," human curiosities from one of the mountain counties.  Three or four weeks ago, while acting as Marshal of Mt. Sterling, he shot and wounded a Mr. Conner, for which he was under bond.  He left a wife and 5 small children.  His widow is a daughter of Thomas Probert, deceased, formerly of this city, she being the offspring of Mr. Proberts first marriage,  Mr. P.'s second wife being a sister of Thomas Richardson, Sr., of this place.

Finally, the Mt. Sterling Sentinel Democrat, 4-14-1882, p. 2 reports the following:

"The body was buried and reburied until Father Barry told Mr. Cronin, the brother, that he could either take the body from the cemetery or leave it where it lay, in unconsecrated ground, or take all the bodies from the Cronin lot and the money that was paid for it would be refunded.  Cronin cursed the entire congregation, and defied any man to step from the crowd, numbering 80 or 90 men, to stand before him, which polite invitation was, as a matter of course, declined.  It was thought that the body will be brought here (Mt. Sterling)".

I've yet to find out where he is buried -- if moved again, it would mean four burials for poor John Cronin.

John Cronin was the husband of my great-grandmother, Lucy Probert Cronin.  Lucy later had one more child, my grandmother, with William Dailey of Mt. Sterling.  All six children were eventually raised in orphanages.  I can't even imagine the difficult life Lucy had, nor can I imagine having to give up all six children.  I wish Lucy could have been blessed with an easier life, but it is testimony to Roman Catholic nuns that all six children went on to lead productive lives.

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling . . .

In an earlier post, I discussed what I knew about Norine (Jan) in the early years. I'm told that she followed what was described as a "southern tradition" in not believing that it was anyone's business how old she was, when her anniversary was, etc.

As someone interested in my family's history, it is important to me to document every generation in my tree with as many sources as possible. It soon became apparent that this was not going to be easy when it came to Norine.

She was born on March 27, 1884 in Mt. Sterling, KY. My mother's notes say that her mother, Lucy, was not well and that Jan went to school in Lexington as a young girl. Her notes also say she had a "mammy" at some point. As fate would have it, Kentucky did not mandate birth records until 1911. The first census in which Norine would have appeared was the 1890 Census which was destroyed. Despite years of searching I have not been able to find a death record for either Lucy Probert Cronin or John Cronin. I have been able to substantiate through other records that John and Lucy were the parents of the first five children. I also know that a young, married black couple was living in the Cronin's home in the 1880 Census, and perhaps this young woman was the "mammy" referred to in my mother's notes.

The records to the right and below are part of the admission record for the first five children. They were brought to a Catholic orphanage in Covington, KY months before Jan is born. Boys and girls were placed in separate facilities at the time and in a record they found for Joseph and Charles Cronin (spelled three different ways) it notes that their "father dead." This lends credence to the idea that Norine had a father different from the father of the first five.



The family was of Irish descent. Mt. Sterling, at the time, had quite a bit of animosity toward "foreigners" including the Irish who made up 10% of the population. I have read through several of the local newspapers of the time and there are several articles that discuss limiting the political influence of the Irish and trying to deny them a vote.

Here is where the history gets cloudy, however. When I try to submit our family lines for recognition through the Hamilton County Genealogical Society, every generation must be fully-documented with reliable source documents. I recently submitted our Jones/Wainright family for recognition as one of the First Families of Cincinnati because I could prove that Britton was born here in 1819. I'm actually scheduled to get the award in a few weeks at a luncheon. When it comes to Jan, however, I am not without documentation. In fact, I have a fair amount of documentation. Unfortunately, there is no agreement.

Norine is the daughter of either Lucy Probert Cronin and John Cronin or Lucy Probert Cronin and William Dailey. Let me present the evidence for each, and you can be the judge.

I personally believe that Jan's father was a man named William Dailey. He lived in Mt. Sterling close to where the Cronin's lived. He, too, is of Irish descent. He is living with his sister, Ellen, in the 1880 Census. The Cronins and Daileys were friends. Evidence of this is the fact that I have a copy of the baptismal record for Jan's brother, Charles. Ellen Dailey is the Godmother.

On Norine's application for a Marriage License, she listed her name as Norine Dailey Cronin. She listed her father as William Dailey and her mother as Lucy Probert. The Church record posted earlier shows that the wedding was between a Jones and a Dailey.

I have a copy of both the Church Wedding Record for Edith Jones Breving and Edith's Baptismal Record. In both cases, the father is listed as Charles F. Jones and the mother as Norine Dailey.

It seems like it should be a "slam dunk" -- yet there are conflicting records. On Norine's Death Certificate, Pop was the "informant". He listed John Cronin as the father. He said the same when he published her Death Notice in the newspaper.

As I type this, I can't help but think that Jan is asking me why I didn't just leave well enough alone. She had five brothers and sisters. As mentioned earlier, she lived with a few of them when she arrived in Cincinnati. They were her family in every way and had the last name of Cronin. Every entry in the City Directory listed her name as Norine Cronin. I think it was just easier.

One of these years I may solve this mystery. It would be easy if I could prove John Cronin was, in fact, dead at least a year before her siblings were placed in an orphanage. I wish I could understand what her mother's illness was and whether or not Jan actually lived in an orphange-type setting as a young girl.

What I know for sure is that she "landed" in Cincinnati. She shared a 59 year marriage to Pop who never got over her loss. Jan was Irish through and through. (Hence I could not be anything but Kathleen as long as she was alive). She was the mother of my father and I wish I could have known her better.

I think both of them would be extremely proud of their descendants -- and I feel strengthened that they preceded me. The river (and their strength) definitely runs through us.

Where I've been . . .

August left me little time to blog. The first week of August I was involved in implementing a new course for teachers -- it was a great success. In addition to this, I didn't know what direction to take next. I'm to the generation of Joneses that includes my grandparents -- Jan and Pop as we knew them. I realized I just didn't know as much about them as I would have liked. I contacted Rosemary Kramer and Fred Breving and will post what I learn in a later post.

Meanwhile, I had the itch to get away and decided to go down to the Kentucky Archives in Frankfort, KY. I've been there before. It's an interesting place. You can pull up original documents, musty and moldy as they are, from Mt. Sterling, KY that were filed by T.H. Probert, Jan's grandfather (and our gg-grandfather). For years I've tried to research both William Dailey and John Cronin to determine who was Jan's father.





I was able to find some tax records from the 1880s, but no answers to my questions. I decided to drive over to Mt. Sterling and take some pictures. In an earlier visit to Mt. Sterling I had found the grave of T.H. (Thomas) Probert at the MacPhelah Cemetery on the outskirts of Mt. Sterling. I had a death record for him. He and his wife, Catherine Richardson, had lost three children as infants. The infants are buried on the same site.

There is one tall monument to the family. It is located in Section 9 and is near the top of a hillside that overlooks the entire town of Mt. Sterling. I always seem to be there just as the "golden hour" is upon us. I was touched by the quotation that was carved into the side of the marker.

My plan was to leave MacPhelah, take pictures in the heart of Mt. Sterling, photograph the grave of William Dailey in St. Thomas Cemetery and head back to Cincinnati. That's where things got really fun. I went to the center of town near the Court House and started taking pictures of the location where I know Thomas Probert had once served as the town jailer. In the 1870 Census, the Probert family is listed along with the names of the prisoners and a cook. Although I know the exact location of the jail, it is now the site of what is now the Historical Society for Mt. Sterling.

When I got there, there was a group of about 100 people attending a pot luck dinner. I found the door was open and went in to photograph a picture of the site when it was used as a fire station and then left. I was followed out by Miles Hoskins who is the president of the society and invited me in. They were having a speaker from the University of Kentucky, Becky Ryder, who was going to pick up originals of the Kentucky Sentinel, a weekly newspaper published in Mt. Sterling. She was going to take the originals, purchased by Miles in an estate sale, and have them digitized at the University of Kentucky. Once this process is completed, the papers will be posted on the web and be fully searchable. As someone who had just spent three hours at the library scanning microfilm of these historic papers, I can't imagine how helpful that will be.







Miles Hoskins is pictured with a copy of the Kentucky Sentinel, soon to be digitized and searchable online.

We all exchanged business cards and it was great fun sharing common history with Mt. Sterling residents. I know this will not be my last visit to Mt. Sterling. In fact I very much look forward to learning what I can and sharing what I have with the members of the Historical Society.