The Luck of the Irish

My Irish immigrant family brought the Luck of the Irish with them. Maybe 8 year old Mary McGill had a lucky penny in her shoe when she came from Ireland to Canada in the early 1800s. Her life was hard; her husband, Patrick, who was 30 years her senior, worked in the timbers or building the canal. But the records show that at least they had a house, as opposed to the neighbors who lived in wooden shanties. When Mary was widowed, with 3 young children, she was lucky to join a group who made their way west to the United States. In Iowa City, although she was ill, Mary was lucky again, to find a man who would help her write a will, making sure her children were cared for. My Gt Grandfather, Daniel Patrick McGill, was her youngest child, age 5, when she died. The Shafer family, who fostered Daniel, were childless but raised him as their own and even sent him to the University. The foster father and mother just "happened" to be related to Eva Frost, who was eventually married to Daniel Patrick. There was illness during those years in Iowa, but Daniel was lucky to survive. Sadly, his sister, Bridget, brother, John, John's wife, and one baby died. One of Daniel's nephews remained, and that lucky boy was fostered by Daniel and Eva. Years later, after the family moved to western Iowa, Daniel was lucky enough to see a flyer that told of land opening for homesteads in Oklahoma Territory. In 1889, he made his way to Arkansas City, Kansas, and boarded a train for the new frontier. Daniel, and 3 other pioneers, jumped from the train, and set off west across the prairie. As luck would have it, they came to a place where 4 quarter sections were marked with stakes. Since McGill was the only one who had a large family, he was the lucky one chosen to claim the land with the best source of water. His family, including my grandmother, age 8, came from Iowa by covered wagon to join him on the homestead. And here I am, one of the lucky descendants to come from this family, and lucky to have that story preserved for more than 200 years after little Mary McGill crossed the Atlantic. The picture above is of Daniel P. (seated) and Eva McGill (standing center) and their family on the homestead west of Edmond, Oklahoma. This land is still pasture land and the pond is still there.

Nepean Canada 1851 Census

1851 Canada West,   Ontario Province,   Carleton County, Nepean Twp.

McGill, Patrick   age at next bday 70 yrs.,   Farmer,   b.   Ireland,   Roman Catholic  
   "     , Mary     age 37, Farmer, B. Ireland, Roman Catholic  
   ",   John Sullivan, Laborer,   age   15   b.   Nepean
   ",   Bridget Jane, age 7   b. Nepean
   ", Patrick D., age 1 b. Nepean
 pg. 2
States that Patrick McGill (age 70) and Mary McGill ( age 37) were married.  They live in a one story "Log House".   Some others in the area live in "Log Shanty".     
[My note:    Since our gt grandpa Daniel Patrick was born that year, 1851, and listed as Patrick D. McGill,   I am going to accept Patrick McGill the elder as the father of this family.   He would have died in the next 3 - 4 yrs, as Mary and the children migrated to Iowa by 1855.   Many Irish Immigrant families came first to Ontario and to Iowa by 1855.]

Irish in Nepean Area, Canada

I have been reading about the Irish immigrants in that county, where Daniel Patrick McGill was born.   Nepean's first permanent settler came to the area in 1810. However, it was the building of the RIDEAU CANAL that boosted settlement in the township with many coming about 1825.  The first settlers farmed plots that were given them and worked on the lumber drives in the winter.  It was a heavily forested area but also swampy.  Among the many diseases that ravaged workers during the building of the Rideau Canal, three of the worst were dysentery, small pox and malaria.Not only the workers but their families suffered from these diseases. We do not know if one of these illnesses caused the deaths of Patrick and Mary McGill's two baby girls, or Patrick himself.  

 

Irish Roots - Mary McGill

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 4 - CURIOUS.      For the descendants of Daniel Patrick McGill... an anecdote about his mother, Mary. We know very little about her as he only remembered being held to view her at her funeral when he was four or five.

Mary was born in Ireland and crossed the Atlantic to Canada when she was about 8 yrs. old. The new land was very desolate in the 1820s. Logging and working on a new canal was the work of the men. The Catholic church was the heart of the little community of Nepean, near Ottawa. She married Patrick McGill, a man 30 years her senior, also an Irish immigrant, and bore at least 5 children, losing two little baby girls in infancy. When her husband died in his 70s, the 42 year old mother took her 3 children, ages from 2 to 15, joined a group of pioneers and traveled nearly 1000 miles to the state of Iowa. How did she get the idea to start such an undertaking? Did she travel with a large group?  Relatives?  What means of transportation?  We are curious. 

When she arrived in Iowa City, she may have known that with her poor health she could not raise her children. We have found her will which sees to the care of the children.    The oldest boy, John, at age 15, went to work on a farm even further west, for the family of a prominent farmer (whose daughter he later married.) He became a citizen of the United States. Mary’s daughter, Bridget Jane, and youngest son, Daniel Patrick, were assigned to the guardianship of Daniel Shafer and Amelia Frost Shafer, by the terms of the will of their mother, Mary, in 1856. The Shafers were a childless couple also of pioneer stock. They had been  educated as a civil engineer and a teacher-- a strong Presbyterian family, who saw to the higher education and loving care, as well as the religious training of the children. Through the perseverance and plans for the care of her children, made by Mary McGill, our family’s destiny was changed, as we descend from Mary’s youngest son, Daniel Patrick McGill.