James Hugh and "Rose" Gross Ryan -- My Great-Grandparents - Part I

James "Hugh" Ryan was the 6th of eight children born to Hugh Ryan and Mary Ellen McInerney.  He was born on September 27, 1862.  He was known as "Hugh", which I find interesting because the 5th child was named "Hugh".  The first "Hugh" in the family was born in 1861 in Evansville.  I have a copy of his baptismal record, but I've yet to find out what happened to him.  I suspect he died at a very young age.

Hugh, as I will refer to him from here on out, was my g-grandfather.  Hugh is listed as living with his mother and siblings in Cincinnati from 1880 -1889.   During that time, the family moved from 13th St. to Cutter and Everett to Gest St. to W. 8th St. to 280 Baymiller.  (In 1886, Hugh and his sister Margaret briefly shared a separate address living on 9th Street).  Hugh married Mary "Rose" Agnes Pauline Gross on June 27, 1888 at St. Sylvester Catholic Church in Ottenheim, KY.  I've yet to figure out why their marriage took place in Kentucky.  Hugh's sister, Margaret, and Rose's brother, Julius Gross, were witnesses to the marriage.  When they initially got married, they lived with the rest of the family at 280 Baymiller in Cincinnati's West End.

Hugh's occupation is listed as "core maker" in the 1880 Cincinnati City Directory.  From 1882 through 1894, Hugh's occupation was listed as a "molder".  Hugh was promoted to "foreman" at the American Brass Works in 1895.  In 1897 the family relocated to 979 Clinton in the West End.  I was not able to find a City Directory for 1900, the year my grandfather Roy was born, but the family was living at 428 Plum in Elmwood Place (a suburb of Cincinnati) by 1901.

Hugh and Rose were the parents of nine children:   James Nickelos (1889), Mary Julia Cecilia (1890), Rose Mary Agnes (1892), Margaret Mary Agnes (1894), Florence Margaret (1895), Richard Matthew Hugh (1898), Royal (Roy) Joseph Francis (1900), Mary Beatrice (1902), and Raymond Matthew (1904).

The family was living at 404 Beech St. in Elmwood Place in November, 1913 when Hugh died of pneumonia. I visited the home today to take a picture and the two current residents graciously allowed me to do so.  They had just reseeded the front lawn and planted a garden full of spring flowers.  The home is a two-family, but I do not know if the Ryans occupied the whole house or not.

According to Aunt Evelyn, Hugh was out campaigning in early November 1913 for a candidate for Mayor of Elmwood Place. It was cold and rainy and Hugh became ill.  Hugh's Death Certificate says that he was first under the care of a doctor on November 7th.  He succumbed to pneumonia on November 16th, 1913. His Death Certificate listed him as "Superintendent of the Foundry".  He was only 51 years old.

Family life for the Ryans revolved around the parish Church in Elmwood Place.  St. Aloysius was the home of baptisms, funerals and family marriages.  Before Hugh's death in 1913, the family lost three of their nine children.  Richard died on February 21, 1902 at the age of four of scarlet fever and pneumonia.  Six days later, his seven year-old sister, Margaret, died of scarlet fever and measles.  Both children are buried at St. John's Cemetery in St. Bernard, Ohio.  I can't even imagine losing two children in a week.


The saddest death of all had to be the death of James Nickelos (various spellings).  He was born on April 28, 1889 and died on May 1st, 1911.  Just after his 22nd birthday, James died of diphtheria while aboard the U.S. Ship "Virginia" while it was docked in the Boston Navy Yards.  I recall hearing stories that James father, Hugh, insisted on opening the coffin when his son's body was returned to Cincinnati.  He just could not accept that James was actually dead without personally identifying the body.  All three children are buried at St. John's Cemetery in St. Bernard. They, like their parents, are in unmarked graves.

As this post is getting rather lengthy, I will continue with a focus on Rose in Part II.

Sometimes It's the Smallest Things . . .

Aunt Maggie, as Margaret Ryan was known to her great-niece Evelyn McCafferty, was the 7th of eight children born to Hugh Ryan and Mary Ellen McInerney.  Census records show that Margaret and her younger sister, Ellen, were born in Iowa.  From 1882 through 1903, Maggie is listed in the City Directories as living with her mother as they moved about the West End of Cincinnati.  As  teenagers, both Maggie and Ellen were listed as "knitters" when they were still too young to be employed in the workforce.

Later Maggie worked in a tailor shop being listed at various times as a tailoress, vest maker, forelady, etc. Aunt Evelyn remembers that Maggie made the most beautiful button holes and had a great deal of skill.  Later in her life, Maggie lived alone in what Aunt Evelyn described as a very small second-floor apartment. The 1930 Census lists Margaret as a renter on Laurel. Her monthly rent was $12 per month.  Her Death Certificate lists her residence as 933 Laurel St.

There were a couple of recollections that "stuck" with Aunt Evelyn over the years. Evelyn remembers to this day that on her 10th birthday, Aunt Maggie gave her a dime as a birthday present.  Evelyn seemed to understand even at that young age that that was quite a gift from someone she knew was extremely poor.  She also recalls that anytime you visited Maggie, there was a votive candle lit in front of either a statue of the Blessed Virgin or the Sacred Heart -- she's not sure which.  The other recollection is that every Sunday, Maggie attended two Masses -- one for herself and one for her brother (probably John) who no longer attended Church.  As a young child, Evelyn could not imagine going to two Masses every Sunday.

In our conversation, Aunt Evelyn recalled that her Great-Aunt Maggie had come out to visit the family.  She seems to recall that there was some agreement that her mother and father would visit Maggie at her home the next day.  Instead the visit was delayed a day and they were quite upset to discover that Maggie was on the floor and had been there at least 24 hours.

Margaret died on August 2, 1937.  The Death Certificate says that she was being treated by her doctor from June 15th until her death.  It is hard to read the exact cause of death, but coronary sclerosis was a secondary cause of her death.  The informant on the Death Certificate was Mary McGinnis, Maggie's niece.  She is buried in an  unmarked grave on Lot 1 of St. Joseph New Cemetery.  As I type this on April 15, 2010 however, I can say that Maggie left an impression on a little 10-year old girl.  She obviously was very religious, a talented seamstress, and a caring sister and Aunt to her family members.  I wish I could have known her.

John and Johanna

Every now and then there is a mystery.  John Ryan is a great one.  I had always assumed that John had remained single. After all, in reviewing more than 20 years of City Directories, I could only identify a couple of years when John was not living with his mother.  For most years of John's adult life, he had worked as a house painter. In the 1900 Census, John was listed as "single".

The Death Notice for John published in the Cincinnati Times-Star listed John's age as 53 years and said that the funeral would take place "from the late residence of his nieces, Misses McGinnis".  No mention of a wife or children.  The Cause of Death was listed as "uraemia -- chronic nephritis".  He had suffered from this condition for four years.

Just when I though I had John figured out, I went to visit St. Joseph's Cemetery New (the Irish cemetery) to see if John had a grave marker.  I had been there once before, but this time I went to the office and asked them for a printout of everyone buried in Lot 1, Section 16.  Several family members are buried in Lot 1, but most, including John's mother, Mary Ellen, and his sister, Margaret, are not in marked graves.  Imagine my surprise when the printout included a listing for Johanna Ryan.  Who was Johanna? Both John and Johanna are in marked graves. I was able to track down Johanna's Death Certificate and it listed her as the widow of John Ryan.  WHAT????

Johanna died of influenza that developed into pneumonia in 1919 -- a year when this country suffered a severe flu pandemic. Census documents for Johanna list her as the head of the family and mother of three children.  Two were girls:  Johanna and Anna.  Eventually I found a marriage record for them.  They got married at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral on August 7, 1881.

The Death Certificate for John lists him as "married" -- yet no mention of a wife or children was included in the Death Notice, despite the fact that he died seven years before his "wife".  It made me wonder about the fact that divorce was just not an acceptable option in the early 1900s, especially in the Catholic Church.   I can only assume that there was not a lot of contact between John and his children if they weren't even listed in the Death Notice.  If you just go to the cemetery, a totally idyllic picture is painted as John and Johanna rest in peace next to each other.


If you click on the Census document posted above, you can clearly see that whoever provided the information for the census did not know whether or not to designate John as "single" or "married".  There is clearly an "S" and a "M" in the box -- you just can't tell which letter was entered first. Perhaps I'll eventually be able to find out what happened to the children of this union.

The day I went to the cemetery was a beautiful spring day in Cincinnati.  Despite no additional grave markers for the other five people buried in the plot, there is a stone that marks the section.  Who knew dandelions could look so beautiful.

A Word about the "West End" of Cincinnati at the End of the 19th Century

In my opinion, there is nothing more boring than reading a bunch of Family Group Sheets that list meaningless names and dates of the birthdays and deaths of those who came before us.  I want to know about the people behind the listing. What did they think of their circumstances? How did they stack up on the social ladder of their time? How were the lives of our ancestors different from our own?

When our Ryans came to Cincinnati, it seemed as if they were one step ahead of the landlord.  They moved to 10 different locations in a 20 year period.  It's hard for me to think that each move represented progress on the social ladder.  I'm guessing that some moves were moves "up" and others were not.  It made me wonder what the West End of Cincinnati was like in the 1880s.

Today I visited the Cincinnati Historical Society to see what kind of pictures they may have in their files from that era.  I knew that "film" was invented by George Eastman in the late 1880s.  Until then, all pictures were taken with glass plates.  It was an expensive proposition and not a technology that would have been readily applied to the poorer neighborhoods of the time.

Most of the pictures of the area were ones taken in the late 1920s, about 30 years after the time I was hoping to understand.  They did have one article on the "Laurel Homes" Public Housing Project that was one of the first attempts by the federal government to try to clean up the slums, provide better housing and sanitation, and improve the lives of the citizens.  Most of the addresses of our Ryans were in locations that were torn down in the 1930s to make way for this housing project.  The community was once very vibrant, but over time it deteriorated greatly.

You can see from the bottom picture that the housing was very dense and that the streets were filled with children and adults.  What is telling, however, is the description of the area.

It was an area with one of the highest rates of disease and crime in the entire city.  Old tenement structures, crowded together on the land allowed little or no back yard space fit for play and poor light and less sunshine in the rooms.  Five percent of the dwellings had no sanitary conveniences -- not even a sink; 75% had yard or hall toilets; 80% had no baths; few had satisfactory heating equipment; 60% were in poor structural condition and 13% were unfit for habitation.

As time when on, the family moved several blocks north settling in areas near Liberty Street.  Although this picture was taken in the 1920s, you can get a feel for how the neighborhood may once have looked.

This picture was taken at the corner of Liberty and Bremen in the 1920s. The next generation of Ryans would follow much of the population up and out from the city basin.

The First Two Generations -- Let's Review

The Irish have a custom, unfortunate for family historians, of naming the children of each new generation after the parents, grandparents, etc. of the preceding generations. Add to that the fact that just about every girl has "Mary" as part of her name and it can all be very difficult to keep straight. So let's take a couple of minutes to review. You can enlarge this table by clicking on it.

First Generation

• Hugh Matthew Ryan came to the United States on the heels of the potato famine. There is strong evidence that other family members came about the same time, especially a younger sister, Mary.
• Mary Ellen McInerney was born of Irish parents in England. The family then relocated to Pennsylvania and then to Evansville, IN. There were 11 children in this family.
• Hugh and Mary Ellen married in Evansville and had five or six children there. About 1865, the family moved to St. Louis and later to Iowa. Two of the girls were born in Iowa. Returning to St. Louis, Hugh died in 1870 of dysentery.
  

Second Generation

• Three of the eight children born to Hugh and Mary Ellen died before 1870: Matthew, Richard and Hugh (not to be confused with James Hugh).
• Mary Ellen moved the family to Cincinnati around 1875, possibly to find the support of other family members.
• The oldest girl, Mary, got married at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral to William C. McGinnis. They had at least two daughters. Mary died in 1889 at the age of 36 of meningitis.
• John is an interesting story all by himself -- and one I will deal with in the next post. He married Johanna Hartman at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in 1881. Census documents say they had three children.
• James Hugh (my g-grandfather) married Mary "Rose" Gross and will be discussed extensively in future posts. They had nine children.
• Margaret never married. She lived with her mother until her death in 1903. As a young girl, Margaret was a knitter. Later she was a seamstress and had her own tailor shop. She lived most of her life in the West End of Cincinnati.
• Ellen is still somewhat of a mystery. She lived with her mother until her mid-thirties. After that I've not been able to find a record of a marriage or a death. One more loose end.

I wonder about how they felt about their lives? From my perspective, the second generation was still extremely poor and living in the West End. At that time in Cincinnati the housing stock in that area was less than adequate. Many family's lived in tenement-type housing with very inadequate indoor plumbing. Were the opportunities for the Ryans in the United States better than those in Co. Limerick? I think they would agree that they were. At least they could be hopeful that the third generation would do even better. Let's find out if they did.

Why Cincinnati?

I've always wondered what brought the Ryans to Cincinnati.  I was able to trace Hugh Ryan from Co. Limerick, Ireland to Evansville, IN, to St. Louis, to Iowa and back to St. Louis by the time of his death in 1870.  His widowed wife, Mary Ellen, was left with 5 children at the time of his death (3 had died as children). In preparation for this entry, I focused on gaps I had in the Ryan record and tried to determine what it was that brought the Ryans to Cincinnati following Hugh's death. 

I went to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton Co. and just started reviewing one City Directory after the other.  Many are online.  The earliest I could find all of the Ryans (Mary Ellen, Mary, John, Margaret, Ellen and James Hugh) in Cincinnati was 1880.  By then, the oldest girl, Mary, had married William C. McGinnis. a Cincinnati fireman.  The 1880 Census lists one daughter, Mary.  I believe she had at least one additional daughter (based on the Death Notice for John Ryan). Unfortunately, Mary suffered an untimely death at the age of 36 of "brain fever".  This was the term for what we would currently call meningitis. 

A review of the City Directories shows that all members of "our" branch of the Ryans were living in Cincinnati by 1880.  They moved continuously, living initially on 13th St.  Over the next 20 years, the family moved from 13th  to Cutter and Everett, to Gest , to W. 8th, to Baymiller, back to Everett. to Western, to Liberty to 918 Wade.  Most of the time, John, James, Margaret and Ellen lived in the home with their mother, Mary Ellen.  James Hugh married Mary "Rose" Gross in Ottenheim, KY on June 27, 1888.  The newly-married couple lived with Mary Ellen and the rest of the family the first few years. 

In 1880 when the family came to Cincinnati, Mary Ellen was 50 years old.  Mary was 27 and married to William McGinnis.  John was 21 years old and employed as a carriage painter.  Seventeen year old James Hugh, my g-grandfather, is working as a brass worker.  Margaret is 15 and Ellen is 13 and not yet working outside of the home.

So why Cincinnati?  I've not yet been able to figure out how Mary met her husband, William McGinnis.  However, a member of William's family was a conductor on a railroad that linked Cincinnati to St. Louis.  A more likely theory is that they came to be with "family". There was another Ryan family living here headed by 52 year-old John.  The 1876 City Directory lists John Ryan living at 52 Rittenhouse.  His son, John Jr. is employed as a carriage painter (same occupation as "our" John when he came to Cincinnati).  A daughter, Annie, is a vest maker.  Eventually "our" Margaret was involved in the making of vests.  I think it is possible that John was a brother to Hugh -- an area that will require additional research.

Easter 2010

Yesterday was Easter.  It was a beautiful, unusually warm day for Cincinnati in early April.  This year we did something a little different.  Instead of a formal sit-down dinner, Tom and Linda graciously agreed to allow us to come to their home and we all contributed various hors d'oeuvres and deserts.  It was wonderful.  The second generation includes some quite creative cooks and their contributions must be "healthy".  We all benefited.

A couple of the kids could not attend at this time, but Savannah, Mae, Ian, and John represented the "grandchildren".  We all missed Will and Quentin -- but then there is always Christmas when we will have yet another boy added to the mix, thanks to Chip and Lisa.  How my parents would have loved it!

We had an appearance by the Easter Bunny -- aka Don. The younger kids differed in their reactions, ranging from delight to fear.

Despite what is a less than stellar economy, the whole family seems to be doing pretty well, and we are blessed with healthy, bright and joyful children and grandchildren.
(I can tell you as a parent that there is nothing more pleasurable than watching your children parent your grandchildren -- they seem to do such a great job)!

The day before the entire family got together, Roland, Liz and Ian came down from Columbus.  We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and try out the newly-opened playground at Lake Isabella.  Ian loved it, as did we, and Bill (Pa-ga) got to introduce Ian to fishing.  I don't know who was more impressed with the minnow being put on the hook -- Ian or Zippy.




Perhaps at a later date I'll put together a photoshow of many of the pictures from that day and include a link on this post.  For now, I'll end with one last picture from the Lake Isabella playground.  I hope that all of my family and friends enjoyed their families as much as I did mine.

Today's My Birthday -- No Foolin'

I've always enjoyed the fact that I was born on the 1st of April.  April represents new beginnings after we're all tired of winter.  It usually coincides with Easter, as it does this year.  Everyone's on guard for "April Fools" jokes.

My mother was pregnant with me at the same time her sister, Evelyn, was pregnant with her first-born.  Aunt Evelyn was due April 18th.  My mother was due April 22nd.  This was going to be (to quote Joe Biden) a BIG DEAL!  I can tell you that being the oldest grandchild has its perks.  Although I was the 4th grandchild on my Dad's side, at least I had the good sense to be born female.  This picture shows me with Bill Hansen and Chuck McCafferty with our g-grandather, August Vonderheide.  We were all born between April and May.

The best story of all is that my mother feared she was infertile!  It took her six months to get pregnant -- and apparently, they were really trying!  Both parents, and Grandma Ryan, were absolutely convinced I was going to be a boy.  It had something to do with the way my mother was "carrying me".

So I "fooled" them on all counts.  Even the bus company newsletter where my Dad was employed at the time published my birth announcement noting that my Dad expected a boy.  I'm not sure if my Dad was at work when this happened, but the story I recall was that my mother called her mother to say she needed to get to the hospital.  Grandma was not about to fall for that April Fool's joke -- and told my mother that.  After all, Aunt Evelyn was due first!

I guess my mother was convincing, because she got to Bethesda Hospital and had me at 11:55 AM (if I recall correctly).  Chuck, Aunt Evelyn's first-born, was born on his due date.  I won!  There ended up being 25 grandchildren.  I was first and Kathy Ryan Busken was last.  Both Kathleens were bookends.

I can't end this post without saying that today I am 61 years old!  With my age comes the freedom to blog and do other things for my own entertainment and enjoyment.  I feel like this blog and my family history records will be my legacy.

I'm reminded every day what a blessing my life is.  About 12 years ago, I tried to buy some 10-year term life insurance.  My agent worked very hard trying to find a company, any company, that was willing to bet I would live to be 60!  That certainly got my attention.

So I write this with the joy that comes with having such a wonderful family.  My husband, Bill, has put up with me for 23 years.  I have THE BEST daughter in the world, Liz.  She has a wonderful husband, Roland.  They have given me the opportunity to be a grandparent to Ian, now 22 months old.  And best of all, I am relatively healthy -- it's all relative.




















Sunday will be Easter and I will get to spend it with my wonderful Jones family.  Due to facebook, I'm more in touch with cousins than I have been in years.  So I'm one happy Jones/Reed.

Thank you so much for reading along.  NO FOOLIN'!  And thanks, Mom, we did this together 61 years ago.

Dysentery and "Summer Complaint"

Thanks to the good people of the Special Collections Department of the St. Louis Public Library, I was able to document some of my speculation from yesterday.  When I was working on the Jones/Wainright history in Cincinnati, I became acutely aware of the problem of cholera in this and every other river city in the 1800s.  In one of the Wainright families, the father and the son were dead within days of each other due to cholera.

In researching this topic I learned what a significant problem this was because they didn't even understand what caused the illness at the time.  What was interesting is the fact that a black man had the answer, but was ignored.

Secondly, a Cincinnati black made a suggestion that, if followed, would have ended the cholera crisis. Charles Hammond, the Daily Gazette's editor, stated: It is an old saying that in every emergency "even the weak may give some help." Mr. Henry Boyd, a man of color, has suggested that the source of cholera is in the water, and that it may be removed by boiling all the water we use and letting it cool again before used. This is a very simple process which can produce evil to no one. Even our country friends of the market may boil and bottle their water, before they come to the city, and if the theory be well, bring it with them and incur no risk.

The above quote is from a great article that summarizes what was going on in Cincinnati and up and down the river during this period.  If you want to know more, you can "google" the Cincinnati Historical Society and search for the article by Carter, Ruth C.  It is called  "Cincinnatians and Cholera: Attitudes toward the Epidemics of 1832 and 1849." Queen City Heritage 50 (Fall 1992): 32-48.

Unfortunately, the record they had for Richard Ryan listed his age as 5 years, 8 months.  "Our" Richard would have been 8 years old if he died in 1865 so I will have to continue to look for him elsewhere.  Several of the people listed on the Death Record for St. Louis in 1865 died of "summer complaint" -- the common name for what we now call cholera.

The Death Record did exist for Hugh Matthew, however. He died of "dysentery" in 1870.  Dysentery is defined in an online dictionary as "an inflammatory disorder of the lower intestinal tract, usually caused by a bacterial, parasitic, or protozoan infection and resulting in pain, fever, and severe diarrhea, often accompanied by the passage of blood and mucus".

My thoughts go to the people of Haiti who are trying to survive the recent earthquake and deal with the lack of safe drinking water -- a problem all too common around the globe.  A few years ago I was working on a project with the Greater Cincinnati Water Works.  They provided me with a graph of the number of illnesses and deaths in Cincinnati from typhoid before and after they started treating the water and eventually adding chlorine.

I realized that I have to look up words like "summer complaint", "dysentery" and "typhoid".  We take it for granted that we will not lose family members to something so preventable.  I need to remind myself to be aware of opportunities to make a difference for others dealing with this curse.

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Ryans in Evansville

The question still remains -- why Evansville?  At that time in our American history there was a lot of "chain migration".  One or two brave members of a family would "test the waters" in America.  If they were successful, they would encourage other family members to join them in the new land.  City neighborhoods were often filled with other immigrants having the same heritage, language and customs.

The 1850 U.S. Census lists 8 Ryans living in Evansville, IN.  Michel, age 55. lived with his wife Margarett, age 50, and daughter Margarett, age 20.  Another married couple, Thomas (40) and Dorothy (39) also lived in Pigeon Twp.  Patrick, age 22, lived in a boarding situation as did Hugh, age 24 and Mary, age 14.  I have not been able to determine any relationship among the Ryans but know that Patrick and Mary were witnesses to Hugh and Mary Ellen's wedding.  They are clues to family relationships that may prove helpful in the future.

When Julie Jones and I visited Evansville last fall to research the Ryans, we saw this artist's rendering of what Evansville would have looked like in the 1850s.  Like Cincinnati, Evansville is located on the Ohio River and was very dependent on the steamboat trade of the time.

Working as a "brickmaker" must have been grueling, back-breaking work.  While in Evansville, Julie and I searched the City Directories.  By the 1860s, Hugh was working as a clerk at the E & CRR Freight Office.  Additional Ryans can now be found living in Evansville. most within a few blocks of 6th & Sycamore.  Many were employed by the railroad as switchmen and baggage masters. Others are listed as draymen and laborers.

In the 1860 Census, Hugh and Mary Ellen are listed with three-year old, Richard, and one-year old, John.  (For some reason, Mary, age 7, is listed at the bottom of the page and not with the rest of her family).  When I wrote to the Diocese of Evansville for baptismal records, I found that Mary was born on March 26, 1853.  Their second child, Mathew, was born on August 12, 1854 and apparently died before the 1860 Census.  Hugh was born on May 6, 1861 and my g-grandfather, James Hugh, was born September 27, 1862.

By about 1864 the evidence shows that the family probably relocated to St. Louis, Missouri.  There is a Death Record for a Richard Ryan, age 8, buried in the Mount Holy Trinity Cemetery.  St. Louis, as well as all river cities, were suffering greatly from cholera epidemics at this time.  I wouldn't be surprised if this "plague" was responsible for the deaths of Richard, Mathew, and Hugh.

Here is a sad description of the cemetery:

Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery ([aka Poor Man’s Catholic Cemetery; New Breman Cemetery] N. Broadway and Taylor, adjoining O’Fallon Park, mostly poor, burials moved to Calvary; 1864-1908) (aka Mt. Holy Trinity)

Based on the 1880 Census, the family must have moved to Iowa following Richard's untimely death.  Both Margaret and Ellen are listed in the 1880 Census as being born in Iowa.  Their time in Iowa was short, as Hugh Matthew died in 1870 back in St. Louis.  He also was buried in the "Poor Man's Catholic Cemetery".

By the age of 40, Mary Ellen, was the young widow with five children ages 3 - 17.  The 1870 Census lists the value of Hugh's estate as $250. 

Life was hard.  I can't even imagine the suffering on so many levels.  It's got to get better.